The WISH Workbook ~ Born from a very personal story
– By Suzanne Soto-Davies
Founder & Publisher, Silver and Gold Magazine
Creator of the WISH Workbook
As we prepared for our usual family Christmas get-together, I shopped for last-minute items on Christmas eve. I'll never forget that frightful phone call from my Uncle, telling me there had been an accident. It was my mother. She had suffered an aneurysm – and it burst. Our world suddenly crashed, nothing seemed as important. This was nothing any of us expected or foresaw coming... And the worst was yet to come.
Once we arrived at Sunnybrook, we scrambled once again to try and find where mom was, where the CCU was, what her status was... Finally, a doctor came out to meet us (myself, my 2 sisters, and our husbands) and updated us: Mom had an aneurysm. It had burst. (She apparently fell on the shower floor and suffered greatly from a headache. They called an ambulance and then she passed out).
She had a slim chance (2%) of surviving the next 12 hours. After that, she had a 50% chance of surviving the next 24 hours after an operation, which was urgently needed.
The operation (aneurysm coiling ) is fascinating, yet very very scary for us who didn't know if she would survive it...
As she lay on a bed, in the Critical Care ward, one specialized nurse watching over her every breath, pulse and heartbeat, we realized how little we should've known about her. Sure, we knew she adored her family above anything else, liked gardening, took the most amazing photographs… We knew her favourite foods, that she hoped to one day have the money to travel to Egypt, we knew she often felt lonely living four hours away from her kids and grandkids. But did we know enough to help the nurses and doctors make decisions that could possibly affect her care, her future?
Lots and lots of rehab
While in the CCU at Sunnybrook, the head doctor mentioned my mother was very underweight. Apparently, as people age, this is a "no-no", as an emergency circumstance such as this one can cause a whole slew of issues such as kidney and heart failure when the body is struggling to heal.
At that time my mother weighed 55 kilos, at 5'8 tall.
Thankfully, and after much prayer and amazing care from the doctors and nurses, my mother came out of the coma and was transferred to the ICU, where she was constantly monitored and cared for. We visited daily. The hour-and-a-bit drive to and from the hospital seemed like nothing, just to have her alive and around for us to care for and love.
It was touch and go from here on forward. Every day brought on another issue Her blood pressure was too low, then too high. Her heart struggled. Intense fevers meant she'd have to lay on ice blankets for hours at a time. Her memory came and went, she did not recall much of the incident she had gone through, and spoke very little. This would be a slow healing process...
Then there came another 6 to 8 weeks at the Rehabilitation Unit...
Baby steps
Lessons learned
The WISH Workbook is available in both printed and PDF (electronic version) copies. To learn more:
Aneurysm at Sunnybrook
Mom was being flown to Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. She would arrive at the Emergency, then be moved to the Critical Care Unit. We began receiving calls from random doctors, who wondered if she had allergies, had taken any medication lately, or if she took any at all. We didn't know. And the hospital waited for a reply from her doctor up north.
My mother is a special person who does everything for everyone. Strong, quiet, loving. Always seems to have a ton of energy, it never runs out! The Energizer Bunny of the family. Fit and agile, we often joked about how she was the "deer prancing in the woods."
She was never sick, rarely even caught a cold. She had quit smoking eons ago, and although she likes her wine, her lifestyle was the epiphany of health.
Now, all we knew is that she was somewhere being flown by helicopter to Toronto, and at that crazy emergency moment, we didn't even know where! All we knew is that she was in a coma, and her local hospital couldn't help her more than they already had done.
Scrambling and upset on this Christmas eve, we planned what to do with our children (whom to leave them with) and as soon as we heard some news, we headed toward Toronto.
As she lay on a bed, in the Critical Care ward, one specialized nurse watching over her every breath, pulse and heartbeat, we realized how little we should've known about her. Sure, we knew she adored her family above anything else, liked gardening, took the most amazing photographs… We knew her favourite foods, that she hoped to one day have the money to travel to Egypt, we knew she often felt lonely living four hours away from her kids and grandkids. But did we know enough to help the nurses and doctors make decisions that could possibly affect her care, her future?
At the end of January 2013, my mother was receiving great care at St. John's Rehab Hospital in Toronto. We were constantly concerned at the thought of her time at rehab "running out" because of the way our medical system works here in Canada: After 6-8 weeks, you're outta there.
She had to be monitored to sit on a wheelchair to eat, they wouldn't even let her get up to use the bathroom unattended - which gave us great comfort. We began to bring her in meals (home-cooked is best, and most healing to the body) and her special "treats" of fresh fruit, stinky cheeses, and Spanish olives. We had to bring everything for her to wear, her own toiletries, special shoes, additional pillows, bags, colouring books, and so on.
By mid-February, we were allowed to take mom home with us, just for one night. I think she was the only one who slept that night! I gave her a hair-cut and my sister painted her nails... It was fantastic to pamper her again!
By the beginning of March, my mother was "released" and allowed to go home. We felt she was a little "pushed out" and the release was perhaps premature, but we had no choice of the matter. So off she went, back to her home up north, three hours away from us where others would come in and care for her.
We are thankful for all the care mom received; all the support, thoughtful prayers, and well wishes from family and friends. We believe all this love helped her heal. It takes a village to raise a child, but it also takes a village (and a heck of a lot of love!) to heal a person back to life!
These circumstances taught us many valuable lessons: Life is beautiful but it's also unpredictable. Life can be harsh. And none of us were well prepared for any unforeseen circumstances.
This is why I was determined to create the WISH workbook: To help people realize that they have to get their affairs in order, their wishes for care and home jotted down somewhere safe, and known to the family. Because you just never know what life will bring...