Julie Coble 1 Julie Coble Mr Neuburger Eng Comp 101-137 9 September 2011 Narrative Essay How One Day

Changed My Family It was just a normal, mildly, cool February morning for Central Florida. It started out just like any other Tuesday morning. I got up at five am and took Kevin to work and returned home to get Tyler and Amber up at 7:30 am and ready for school. We left the house at 8:10 and walked down the three-quarters of a mile road to the bus stop. The walk was uneventful and as usual trying to get down the road without getting sand in your shoes or really dirty from walking in the wet grass and then in the sand until you reached the blacktopped road that cuts through the apartment building sitting between Eiland Boulevard and Greenbrook Avenue. The walk with the kids only takes fifteen minutes and that is with the kids being slow pokes and goofing around on the way. The wait for the bus is the same with some of the kids sitting on the side walk all huddled up for warmth, some sitting in the cars and trucks with the heaters on with their parents to keep warm. Then you have the really hyper kids keeping warm by playing a game of chase in the dewy wet grass between Eiland and the apartments. At 8:30 you start hearing all the kids start yelling BUS! This is yelled repeatedly as they are running to get in line to climb the stairs as soon as the bus comes to the complete stop and gets all traffic to stop before opening the doors to let the children on. As the bus pulls away with children waving good bye, I breathe a sigh of relief that, this part of my day is done. I take my time walking back to the house. I am just

Julie Coble 2 absorbing all the quiet and beauty around me this morning, getting my thoughts together and planning what all needs to be done today. As I walk in the house, I can smell the freshly brewed coffee in the kitchen, so I know that either Dad or Mom is now up. No one is in the kitchen as I walk through. When I get to the dining room and look to my left as I walk through, I see Mom standing at her closet in her wine colored silky pajamas going in to get her clothes for the day. I continue on to the living room and sit down in the brown chair by the sliding glass door and look into the computer room to see Dad on the computer playing his game where he is learning to fly a plane. So, I settle down and light a cigarette. I figure that Mom will be out by the time I am done to get her first cup of coffee. I planned to go over the grocery list with her of what we needed and to plan what we would have for dinner tonight. As I finished my cigarette, I had a feeling something wasnt right. Mom is usually out by now. I got up and walked back to the dining room and peaked into her room. I expected her to be standing at the mirror in her bathroom brushing her hair or teeth. I never expected to find her sprawled back on her bed with her socks in her left hand and arms spread straight out beside her. I rushed to her side to see what was wrong. I remember asking, Mom are you alright? Her response was, My neck hurts and it feels like I have a pinched nerve in my neck. I asked, Do you want me to go get Dad, he is in on the computer? She replied, Yes. I ran all the way through the house to get Dad even though the house rule has always been No Running in The House. As I got to the computer room, I told Dad everything I had seen, what all Mom had told me, and that she wanted me to get him. I wasnt the only one ignoring the house rules today because he ran with me on his heals back into where Mom was. As we got to Mom, Dad asked her where she hurt. She told him the same thing she told me. I

Julie Coble 3 remembered asking Dad if he wanted me to wake up Scott. I flew across the dining room to Scotts door, knocked, waited for him to tell me to come in and entered. I told him Dad asked me to wake him up and filled him in on what was going with Mom. I will be right there. Let me get dressed,. he told me. I flew back across the room to Mom, and as she was talking to Dad her speech started slurring, and I told Dad what would cause her speech to slur and grabbed the phone to call 911 because we all knew that we couldn't get her to the hospital in time. As I was connected with the 911 operator Scott showed up in the room, and just as he was talking to Mom she quit breathing on him. I was in the dining room when the scream came out, She quit breathing! I repeated what Dad and Scott were telling me to the operator and relayed the operators instructions back to Scott and Dad. Thank God, for Scotts military training and that he knew CPR. It seemed like time was slowly creeping by as we waited for the paramedics to show up. But in truth it was about ten minutes and the whole time Scott and Dad were doing CPR. Even though I was on the phone with the 911 operator, on the house phone I used my cell phone to call Jody in Tampa to let her know about what was going on and that the paramedics were on their way and would call her back and fill her in on where they are taking Mom. I then placed the call to Lowes to let Kevin know what was going on. By the time the paramedics arrived, took over with the CPR and got all their information they needed, Kevin showed up at the house as one of his supervisors brought him home and told him to keep them informed on what was going on. By this time the paramedics had loaded Mom on a stretcher and were wheeling her out of the house. After they loaded her into the ambulance, we all had to restrain my Dad from crawling into the ambulance with her. I have never seen him break down and fall apart like that. He kept insisting on going with her. It was not until the ambulance driver told him they were going to air flight her to Tampa that he started to calm

Julie Coble 4 down because he knew that there was no room in the helicopter for him. The paramedics had already taken off to the apartments behind us to meet the helicopter. The fireman that was there said, That as soon as they know what hospital that they are taking her to that he would come back and let us know. Time seem to crawl by at this point. From the back window of the house we could see the helicopter and kept wondering why it hadnt taken off yet. Finally, twenty minutes from the time the ambulance left the fireman was back to tell us, They are taking her to Saint Josephs Hospital in Tampa. I guess he could tell by the dumbfounded looks on our faces that we did not know how to get there. We appreciated him for giving us directions on how to get to the hospital that was clear across Tampa, over by the Buccaneers Stadium and MacDill Air Force Base. Scott drove because we all knew that Dad was in no condition to drive. Kevin stayed at the house to make sure someone was home when the kids got home. On the drive to the hospital I called Jody back and told her what hospital they took Mom to. I honestly do not remember the drive to the hospital except that on Highway 54 leading into Westley Chapel there is a flea market that is open on Tuesday and Thursday and backing up traffic for miles there at the turn off. I remember Scott veering his Jeep into the ditch and passing all the cars that were backing up traffic. From there it was a blur because I know that all traffic laws were broken to get to the hospital and the time was spent calming Dad down so he could be strong for Mom. When we arrived at the hospital Dad was the only one that was allowed back with Mom at first. While he was in with Mom, the three of us kids went outside to have a cigarette and to calm each other down, so we could be strong for Dad. As we were outside, my brother started blaming himself for all of this. He said I have wasted eleven years in the Army and been overseas three times where I could have been here with Mom and Dad. It took a while to calm

Julie Coble 5 him down and make him see it was not his fault and he was here now is what was important now. As we were outside Dad came out with his uncle and aunt to let us know. They just took Mom for an MRI, and she should be back in twenty minutes or so. As we waited in the waiting room for them to come and get us when Mom got back from MRI, we knew something was not good when they had everyone that was there go into her room and there was a priest there to do the anointing of the sick for her. As we were there praying the neurosurgeon came in and told us, Mary has had an aneurysm and we can do surgery to stop it but there is a less than a forty percent chance that she will make it through surgery. We all shocked the nurses and the doctor that day because we never looked at each other or even discussed it and all stated at the same time, Its Mom, and we have to take that chance. She would do the same if it was for any of us. They rushed Mom straight to surgery, and we were told that it would be an eight hour surgery. Well it lasted more like ten, but we were all so relieved to hear that she had made it through surgery. Now only time would tell if she would pull threw. The first month was the worst for all of us, with Mom being in a coma and not knowing if she would ever wake up. They ended up putting in a trach to help her breathe and a shunt in her brain that goes to her stomach to equalize the pressure in her brain. It was after this procedure that we were informed the coma she was in had been all medically induced and tomorrow they were going to start bringing her out of the coma. It was trips to the hospital every day to sit with Mom in hopes that she would wake up and going home every night in very low spirits because she had not woken up. It took three days for her to wake up once she was taken off the medicine keeping her asleep. When she awoke she recognized everyone but could not talk. From here only time

Julie Coble 6 would tell how much of Mom we got back. We were told that she had a massive stroke that caused the brain aneurysm. She remained in the hospital for another two months before she was released to go home. The hospital wanted us to release her to a rehab facility but we all knew that if we put Mom in one she would never come home, and that it would kill her. So as a family, we made the decision to bring Mom home and for us to take care of her. We do not ever regret our decision. Because she has made progress in leaps and bounds since then and keeps making progress. We had a lot to get done and in place before we could bring Mom home from the hospital. We made a list of what needed to be done, and each of us took an item to do. Jody made the calls to find the medical equipment we needed and passed on the information to Dad. Kevin priced the lumber needed to build the ramp needed to get Mom in and out of the house. Kevin and Scott bought the lumber and brought it home, and then they and Dad built the ramp. The day before Mom came home Jody and I had to take Mom and Dads bed apart to fit the hospital bed in there for Mom. Dad refused to get a twin bed to put next to her and slept on a cot saying, She wont be in it long. The hospital kept trying to talk us out of bringing her home, but the more they talked the more my Dad bowed his back and stuck to his guns about bringing her home. They finally realized they would not change his mind and got him signed up for a visiting nurse to come in and teach us what needed to be done for Mom. Little did they know that both Jody and I had worked at assisted living facilities at one time or another and already knew what they were teaching us except how to give Mom an insulin shot. The nurse they sent out to the house seemed very leery about letting Mom come home until she found out about Jodys and my past

Julie Coble 7 experience, and that I lived there with Mom and Dad. We passed the home inspection and were now able to bring Mom home. Life seemed to almost return to normal, the only exception was that Mom was confined to a wheel chair and had no strength to help you transport her from the chair to the bed or the chair to the bathroom. She would stay in her night gown most of the day and either in bed or on the couch when she was not in her wheel chair. I finally got Dad alone one day and told him how at the assisted living center we would get the residents up and dressed and take them to breakfast and set up a routine for them that was as close to normal as they had before. After, that life really started picking up. We got Mom up and dressed every morning and brought her to the kitchen for her morning coffee and kept her in the hub of all the activities going on in the house. The visiting nurse returned a month after Mom came home for an evaluation of how Mom was progressing. She was amazed that Mom was now talking and could remember almost everything and that she could still read. The only drawback we had was she had lost motor control of her right hand and her right leg. Mom was now gaining strength so she could help transport herself from place to place. When the visiting nurse returned a month later, we got the okay to put her back in her regular bed. Dad was so relieved to be back in his own bed after months of going to bed without her by his side as he slept beside her like he had for the past thirty-six years. Life is now returning to normal. It has now been six years since this life changing day. Mom is still in a wheel chair and slowly gaining the muscle strength in her legs to be able to walk again with the assistance of a walker. Do not get me wrong this has changed my mother in a lot of ways. She is no longer able to sew and she cannot stand in the kitchen to cook. But, it has in no way changed

Julie Coble 8 the closeness of this family and how we pull together when life throws us curve balls. The only thing that has changed is that we wait on Mom hand and foot now instead of her waiting on us.