My Journey’s Time Capsule

I was going through files on my I was going through files on my computer and I found something that I just had to share. Most of what I’ve written has been written this year and through writing I have found it to be therapeutic. My story is the same today as it was 7 years ago, but I found a paper I wrote a year after my life changing surgery and thought I would share what I thought then vs what I think now. I was only 16 when I wrote this.

Jesus Garcia

Ms. Benton

Narrative

1 November, 2016

Faith Can Move Mountains

“Faith Is Taking The First Step, Even When You Don’t See The Whole Staircase” (MartinLuther King Jr.). It all started on January 19, 2015 as the doctors wheeled me into the operating room. As I breathed in the last bit of anesthesia gas, I prayed to God that the surgery would be successful. Outside in the waiting room, sat my family praying to God, waiting and waiting. The The waiting continued for the rest of the day without any response from the doctor. Late that evening, The doctor came out and told them that my surgery was successful. The next day, after asking the doctor when I would wake up, he finally had something to say.

My parents thought it would be good news, but instead the doctor said that I needed an immediate brain surgery due to a blood clot that had formed in my brain. After the brain surgery was over,the doctors had all the bad news about my health. They had me on life support, I was paralyzed and I had “Locked in Syndrome”. My family was devastated. Not one of them could believe it. All you could hear was my parents and my other 5 siblings asking ‘Why?’

Late that evening after the doctors allowed visitors, the only one that could come in and see me was my mother. The rest of my family could not bear seeing me hooked up to life support, with a feeding tube up my nose and so many wounds and tubes all over my body. My mother was the only one who could see me in that situation. ‘”God gave me the strength to handle this,” she said. My mother was by my side for several days after my surgery until one by one the rest of my family members were able to handle seeing me in my state of health.

After a couple of days, more bad news hit us like a pile of bricks. My doctor walked in with a frown on his face. He looked at my parents and told them the horrible news that I would be a quadriplegic the rest of my life. Not only that, I would never be able to move a single muscle in my body. Although I could not show any reaction, I could hear the news as well. The words stung as though millions of bees were stinging me at the same time. Even though the news was painful to me, I never lost faith and I knew God was with me every step of the way.

As the days passed and I showed no response, my parents and doctors had a meeting and in that meeting, the neurologist offered the most inhumane decision. He asked my parents if they wanted to disconnect me from life support. My parents looked at him in disbelief and left the room immediately. They could not believe the offer that the doctor made to them. They went to the hospital director and told him that they did not want that doctor to treat me ever again!

After that horrible experience, the road seemed to clear up. Day by day, I was gaining strength and the ability to do something different. Meanwhile, my family and I were in the hospital. My family outside, church members, friends, and even people I did not know, were out there praying or my family and me. As they were praying, I was gaining the possibility of living a normal life.

After four painful months of being hospitalized, I was finally discharged on May 28, 2015. I left the hospital with a breathing machine. I spent 3 ½ months at home recovering and enjoying being with my family despite the fact that I could not breathe on my own or eat solid foods. After 3 ½ months later, on September 23, 2015, I was brought into Levine Children’s Rehabilitation Center in Charlotte, NC. At Levine, all kinds of therapist treated me and helped me day by day to reach my goals. Levine was not only a hospital for me, it was like a home. All the staff members made me feel motivated to do more and more. 

Three months after being there I was finally discharged and I was a whole different person. I was able to do more on my own, I gained a great deal of my mobility back, and took home an abundance of great memories. Later, when I was back at home, I was welcomed with a new therapist, nurses and a great teacher that supported me every day to keep improving on my health and education. Thanks to everyone that prayed for me, I am now a regular 16 year old teenager that is able to talk, eat anything I want, breathe on my own, and am semi-mobile. Now, I am more motivated than ever to keep improving because my goal is to one day walk. I know that with the help of God, my family, and everyone around me, I will walk again!