An Excerpt from Chapter One of Flashes of Light: How to reboot your life, your business or both when chaos strikes by Ann M. Babiarz, as told to Michael A. Babiarz
Creative Consultant: K. Lee — Editor: Annamaria Farbizio
©2015 by Ann M. Babiarz and Michael A. Babiarz, J.D., all rights reserved (see notice below)
Chapter 1: In the Beginning (part 6)
The impact of my illness on my husband appeared almost disorienting. He suspected the worst with my first symptoms. Despite this, when he heard the words stroke and showers of clots, the look on his face revealed his shock.
Michael spent virtually every waking hour at the hospital, acting as my liaison with medical staff. He patiently listened to my speech, understanding my needs, and then relaying them. His presence comforted and calmed me.
In his decades of practice as an elder law and estate planning attorney, he counseled many families in similar situations, drafted many documents including medical powers of attorney for his clients, and experienced a lot vicariously through their eyes. But I don’t think anything adequately prepared him for the emotional maelstrom and technical juggernaut that enveloped us. Deciphering medical-speak, trying to understand the coordination of care, and going over test results with me started him on the most challenging journey that either he or I had ever taken.
Both Michael and I were blessed with an angel — my sister Deb. As fate would have it, Deb is an RN, with a specialty that was later to prove extremely valuable.
From the early morning hours of that first awful day and throughout the events that followed, Michael burned through all of Deb’s cell minutes and text message units with updates, questions and concerns. She was a godsend. Not only could she translate what the doctor said, she gave my husband a list of questions to ask, incredible words of encouragement, and served as a go-between to many members of my large, extended family, all of whom were rightfully concerned over my situation.
I’m not sure how Deb survived this experience. I hope that faith, God, the universe, or others around her supported her as well as she supported Michael and me. The labyrinth of sustenance necessary for someone undergoing a dramatic illness and the others intimately connected with her, must be long and strong, or the road will be a treacherous one.
Many months after this trip to the hospital, Michael remarked, “I could not have walked that road beside you without Deb.”
Read more of Chapter One in our next posting — blog posts entered Mondays and Thursdays. For information on the book, please visit: Flashes of Light.
©2015 by Ann M. Babiarz and Michael A. Babiarz, J.D., all rights reserved
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