Thursday, March 18, 2010

What Inspired Jamie to Begin Angels4Epilepsy

I was going through my photos and found the one's of Jamie and her sister.  The significance of the addition of her sister's photo is she has chronic medical conditions too.  A few week's prior to Jamie's hospitalization, her sister was transported to the children's hospital in Savannah and was quickly intubated.  Due to a medical mistake, she was given too much IV fluid to bring down her heart rate after getting too much albuterol.  Her heart and lungs became saturated and subsequently, her lungs started to collapse and she contracted pneumonia.  Needless to say, it was a scary nine days of not knowing if she would pull out of it as the doctors weren't sure she would survive.

Our time in Savannah was spent in a city we knew nothing about, knew no one and didn't dare leave her side.  Having a pack of snacks or anything would have been nice thus where I come in encouraging Jamie and her mission.

Jamie was hospitalized prior to Christmas for a sleep study to monitor her seizures.  As you can see in the photos, she was visited by some wonderful people.  The first was by a group that brought love in the form of dogs.  She absolutely loved that and the gifts!  We played countless hours with the checkers and then coloring in the books.

We were fortunate enough to have yet another set of visitors and I wished I could remember the local church.  The pastor dealt with the same issue with his child and wanted to pay it forward.  The kindness shown was very inspirational and meant so much to the children.  We spent our time coloring, playing, taking pictures and videos. It was like a "mommy and me" night at a hotel even with all the head plugs!  We bonded even more during that time and Jamie became an even bigger mommy's girl.

I'm really glad she is seeing the value and need in paying it forward and I hope she will inspire other children to do the same.

Thank you for reading!



6 comments :

  1. I'm so glad you shared this story, your journey really. My eyes welled up as I read your post. It's never an easy thing sitting on the sidelines feeling helpless as you watch your children go through the toughest time of their lives. Your strength is truly remarkable & I commend you for turning the experience into a beautiful gift to others, literally. Paying it forward is what life is about. Your family is exemplary of such grace. e

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  2. You are as well! Your love and support is beyond words and you are an example as well with your goals, your dreams and aspirations with your own beautiful daughter, Gem! The world is hopeful with people such as yourself :)

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  3. Hello!

    Beautiful and touching post. Thank you so much for sharing this with us! :)

    We are already followers of your blog but wanted to stop by to check out what was new and to say hi! Hope everything is going well for you. Have a fabulous day! <3

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  4. Thank you for stopping by Freely Living Life! :) Have a great day!

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  5. Following you from Friday Follow. I'm trying to start a weekly blog hop raising awareness for our kids medical conditions. If you'd like to join you can link up here.

    http://erinamundsen.blogspot.com/2010/03/e-coli-part-2-and-medical-blog-hop.html

    It can be a post about any part of the condition. Happy, sad a rant or a rave it's just there to get the word out!

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  6. Oh my, that's a bit scary. It's great to meet people who cares!

    Hi, visiting and following from Follow Me Friday.

    Please come by and follow me back when you get a chance. Have a wonderful weekend!

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