I drove about an hour south today from Los Angeles to visit my dear friend Erika and her beautiful little girl Izzy who has been hospitalized for over two weeks. Izzy has Angelman Syndrome and was in status (seizures not stopping) so had to be put into a chemical-induced coma to allow her brain to rest. As if that's not enough to deal with, when they weaned her from the coma, she got into a little trouble with her breathing and adjusting to life outside of intubation, so she's still in the PICU, struggling. The amazing thing about Erika is that despite a hellish few weeks, she not only looks adorable but continues to laugh uproariously at all the absurdities of this life -- like the sign above that welcomes one to Fountain Valley, a city basically off a huge Southland highway that's one of the plainest and most nondescript places you could ever imagine. That motto A Nice Place to Live was written for the likes of Erika and me who survive this bizarre world we live in by reveling in the absurdity quite literally. When Phil, Erika's very adorable husband arrived, I took Erika away from the little hospital to a nearby strip mall where we enjoyed delicious Greek food and exchanged horror stories. Erika shared a bit of her reading with me (dark tales of dissociation and split personality), I told her about my own dissociation during a visit to a brain surgeon years earlier, and we agreed that hard-core brain surgery for our girls was a line we'd probably never cross. We were actually shrieking together at one point, over the voices of the Vietnamese who have evidently settled in vast numbers in Fountain Valley because fountains are blessed? While my own horror stories pale in comparison to Erika's, the camaraderie between us is something that I just feel profoundly blessed by and another reason why these internets are just a powerful place to connect to others.
I'm sending all my love and healing thoughts to little Miss Izzy, who, while currently hospitalized in a nice place to live, must get better soon and go back to her little house by the sea. As for Erika, I'm hoping she'll get to wash and style her hair at some point soon.
She did say she was going to try my tip of using baby powder so something tells me, your wish for the hair, might come sooner than you think!
ReplyDeleteI am sending sweet Izzy a blanket from Zoey's Blanket Project tomorrow and I am hoping that the love and healing thoughts and prayers that will be woven within, will help propel that darling girl home.
And you my friend, I am certain, having spent months in the hospital myself, that you were the best possible thing that could have happened to Erika today.
These ties that bind, are gift beyond measure.
So glad Erika and Izzy have you, and so glad I know all about dry shampoo. I will try to make it to FV this weekend with my secret weapon for hair!
ReplyDeleteoh how I would love a visit from you if Maggie was in the PICU.
ReplyDeleteMy best to Erika and Izzy.
Prayers for Ms. Izzy and for friends like you.
ReplyDeleteGod bless Izzy and her family. Something tells me that your presence with them is part of that blessing, already. I'm so glad that you were able to visit them in hospital; there aren't a lot of people who can visit that environment, and do it naturally, with calm & humor - as I am sure you did. Bless you, too, Elizabeth. You are a good friend indeed.
ReplyDeleteWhat people go through and what must of us have no idea about- it's humbling.
ReplyDeleteOh, Elizabeth.
I love you for being who you are.
I can only second Maggie and Ms. Moon--what a gift a visit from you would be, and how humbling to remember what some people go through. Sending love and light of my own to you and Sophie and Oliver and Henry and your husband, and to Izzy and Erika as well.
ReplyDeleteOur thoughts and prayers to Izzy and Erika. So nice for you to have each other for love and support. Ironically, Angleman's and Prader Willi are "sister syndromes" sharing a similar type of deletion located on the 15th chromosome. We have always felt very connected to families with this diagnosis. Our best to this beautiful family.
ReplyDeleteI am so pleased that you were able to share this time with this family and I suspect that the community you feel with them is as soothing to you as it is to them. I'm breathing in pain and sending out love and light to all of you and thanking the Heavens above for the gift of laughter - especially when it comes with a tinge of darkness and at the expense of absurdity.
ReplyDeleteSending good thoughts to Erika and Izzy.
ReplyDelete