Texas tragedy and then back to work
Leaving Cali for my Christmas break I had tons of great photo plans in Texas. Due to unfortunate events I didn’t photograph at all. I had a wonderful amazing Christmas, it was one of my favorite. Not because of all the amazing gifts I received but because of the love that was shared those couple of days. We left Saturday after Christmas and thought about the great memories we shared. Early Monday morning my mom received a phone all from my cousin Tascha that my aunt Janice was being care flighted from Abilene to Lubbock because she was having a spell they took a CT scan and she was bleeding in the brain. Mom and I went up to LBK and stayed with Tascha, Tia and Harley.
Tuesday we went to the hospital and she seemed in good spirits, she had a bit of an episode where she didn’t know where we were because we left her to take a little nap while we went down and got something to drink during that time the nurse turned her light out and she woke up not knowing where she was so she kind of freaked out cause she was looking for my mom. Mom and I were going to leave Tuesday night to go back to my hometown because they way my aunt was acting we thought she was going to be released the next day or so. But my aunt didn’t take that well and asked if we would stay one more night. We agreed, during that time my aunt made sure she told each and everyone of us how much she loved us and how much we meant to her. She also had her occasional jokes and agravation that she used against us. We left with such laughter and excitement that she was on the up and up but we would arrive early Wednesday morning to a completely different Janice. She had another one of her episodes early Wednesday; she couldn’t talk or communicate with us and she’d jut stare at you and not really understand or know who you were. We found out later her episodes were bleed strokes. What they found was that she suffered from a VERY rare condition called Cerebral Amyloidosis, which is basically deterioration of the blood vessels in your brain. This condition is hereditary and now we are most certain this is what my grandmother had. Any-who the ct scan confirmed with all these little dots on her brain that showed she was having bleed strokes for several years.
Wednesday early evening Tascha, Michael, Harley, Tia, and my mom decided to go on down to the cafeteria for some dinner real quick and I just decided to stay in the ICU waiting room (she was in her own room but with her episode about early Wednesday morning they moved her back down). During this time the Neurosurgeon’s PA came up and asked if anyone from the Sadler family was present, Oh wait let me back up. After they told us it was Cerebral Amyloidosis, I googled it on my blackberry and found out some stuff anways back in July my Aunt had open heart surgery and had a mechanical valve put in, with that being done she had to be put on Cumadin.. which is a blood thinner, through my research I found that Cumadin accelerates this disease because its a blood thinner so it makes it easier for the blood to go through and deteriorate the blood vessels. SO anyways the PA is talking to me, while the rest of the family is coming up from dinner because I called them frantically since I’m only the niece, and he’s telling me how they are going to bring her in for brain surgery and open up her brain and take the dead parts out that the disease has already affected then he asks me a little bit about her medical history. When I told him about the heart surgery and the cumadin and my research I could tell the difference in his face, I knew that this was going to not be a good talk. So he told me that this was a whole different ball game since he just learned about the heart surgery. By that time the crew arrived. He basically retold everything to them but then had to edit and refigure out what to do because of the cumadin. If he took her off the cumadin we would be back in this place cause basically the heart and brain got in a fight. Her heart couldn’t live without the cumadin but the cumadin was deteriorating her brain. They went ahead and put her on life support so they could by more time and figure out what to do. They told us to go home and get some sleep because there would not be anymore surgery because they had to reconfigure her situation and see what we the outcome could be.
We got a call early Thursday morning around 6 or 7 am we got a call from the hospital, she had another bleed stroke and unfortunately we had to send her to heaven. We rushed and got to Covenant and said our goodbyes, cried and reminisced all the amazing times we had with her. She died and joined my meme and Uncle Billy around 10:30. That was New Years Day. Words can’t express the love I had for my aunt, for 24 years of my life she was my second mother. If I couldn’t find or get ahold of my mom she’d be the next one to call to see if she knew where my mom was. I can’t believe that this type of situation would happen during my break. I still think I’m in some sort of dream and I’ll wake up soon. Her funeral was on Sunday the 4th. On Monday the 5th I had my wisdom teeth taken out, when they put me on oxygen and put the heart rate monitor and blood pressure monitor on me I had a breakdown because that was the last scene I saw my aunt in. The surgery went fine and I’m finally healing now, just dealing with some left over headaches. So this is the first part of my blog and I want to leave with one of the last pictures I took of my mom and aunt together…. “To Live in Hearts We Leave Behind Is Not To Die”…
Now as for a quick picture here is one I just did today for school, Hope you like it and I’ll hopefully have something positive to write about next week until then: love it, live it, capture it!
~ Jalys
