What are you going to be for Halloween?? A sick girl in a hospital bed… what a great costume idea, or not!!

Thursday… Halloween, my costume had been the best up until Thursday morning, no one recognized me!  Then came a breakthrough.  A change in my behavior and personality.  It was as if the doctors were now dealing with a child.  When ever they would ask me questions the answer was always wrong and always very interesting.  Where are you?… New York.  What year is it?… 1980 something.  What is your name?… Sontana Cumberworth, oh… wait a minute… that one is correct, if I was still in the 80's anyway.  What day is today?  Jay helped me cheat on that one… he told me it was Halloween and I should make a Halloween face.  Apparently I thought that was a fantastic idea and so I made a very crazy face every time the doctors asked me what day it was.  As the day progressed I was actually getting some of the questions correct.  Or at least partially correct.  How many children do you have and what are their names?… 4 children, Nicholas, Parker, Nicholas and uuuhhh… see… partially correct.  Thank goodness I really only have 2 kids, but they are great kids and I am blessed.

Day turns to evening and the butterfly emerges from her crysalis.  Once again I defied the odds, amazed the doctors and returned from the brink.  I was now closer to myself then I had been since Tuesday morning.  What is your name?… Sonnie Hoots.  What year is it?… 2013.  What day is it?… Halloween, but don't ask me the date because I don't know.  Count backwards from 100 in increments of seven… 100…93… oh man, that is so not fair.  I am a math atheist, I do not believe in the existence of math.

Needless to say, the atmosphere that surrounded me changed for the better during that day.  The doctors and nurses were finally getting a glimpse of who I really am, not the crazy, violent or vacant girl, but the real me.  I think that everyone was just glad to hear me be myself again.  The amazing thing to everyone was that I was actually me, the same crazy, funny girl I have always been, no real neurological change.  What a day, a day to celebrate, a truly joyful day.  I got to talk to my sons and all my visitors, friends and family alike.

What happened that evening as I came to myself and actually became coherent is simply amazing to me.  See… when I finally was able to comprehend what was going on around me I wasn't upset that I couldn't move my legs or feel anything below my bellybutton.  I was paralyzed, and it didn't bother me.  Apparently as I was changing throughout the day and the drugs were going out of my system the doctors asked me several times if I could feel anything in my legs or if I could move them.  Suzanne said at one point the recognition of what happened and why the doctors were asking me that spread across my face.  I understood… really understood what the outcome of my condition meant.  When I "woke" so to speak, I already knew that I had become a paraplegic and for some reason I had already come to terms with it in my mind.  Hmmmm… that is a story for another day friends,

Until then, Friday is coming…

With Much Love,

Sonnie