Today I want to share a bit (OK, so maybe more like a lot) with you guys about my boss. I've been debating a bit about whether or not it's my place to tell the whole internet about it, but her family has been very open about it on facebook so far so I don't think they would mind me posting here.
So anyways, back to my boss. Technically she is my boss, but I have known her long before I worked for her as we go to the same church. Her name is Tiffany and she's been going through some very serious medical issues the past few weeks. It all started about a year ago when her and her husband made the decision for Tiffany to be a surrogate mother. They made a connection with a couple that had been trying for over 9 years to have children of their own, and everything was finalized for Tiffany to have a child for them.
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| Tiffany and her husband. |
Fast forward several months and they found out that Tiffany was carrying twins. Happiness all around, especially when they found out it was a boy and a girl. The real parents were thrilled and everything was going great.
In January Tiffany started having some issues with bleeding and her doctor put her on full time bed rest. That's the reason that I went from working 1 day a week to 6 days. So for most of January and all of February, she was on bed rest while I worked at the store. At the end of February, Tiffany was still having some issues with bleeding and they decided to induce labor and have her deliver the babies. On February 28th, she had both of the babies, who were both healthy and a good size considering that they were about a month and a half early. Tiffany, however, wasn't doing so great and they couldn't control her bleeding, so she had to be taken in for emergency surgery right after giving birth.
The doctors realized that the only way they would be able to save Tiffany's life and stop the bleeding was to do a hysterectomy (for the younger crowd reading this, that's where they take out a woman's uterus). Tiffany already has two younger boys (I don't their exact ages, but I think it's something like 8 and 6?), but it was still hard for her and her family to realize she would never be able to have another child.
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| Tiffany and her mom a few days after having the twins. |
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| Feeding one of the babies. |
Tiffany's doctor told her to stay at home and rest for several weeks, and she was tentatively scheduled to come back to work the last week of March (this week, actually). She was feeling a lot better and even came into the store one day to check up on things and make sure I hadn't burned the whole place down or anything. She was still in a lot of pain in her abdominal area from giving birth and the surgery that followed, but she was doing much better and was able to get around on her own.
Then things went downhill again very quickly. On the 15th of March, Tiffany wasn't feeling well, laid down on the floor in her house, and had a seizure. Praise God, her husband Jeff was home. He is an EMT and did what he could to help her while they waited for the ambulance to come. They took her straight to the hospital, at which point she coded and her heart completely stopped for a full 2 minutes before they were able to revive her. They determined that the cause of her heart stopping was an acute pulmonary embolism (which in plain English is basically a blood clot). She had to be put on a ventilator with tubes down her throat while she was sedated.
After about 2 days in the hospital recovering from the embolism, Tiffany had another scare when her blood pressure started dropping rapidly. They realized that she was bleeding internally in her stomach so she was taken in for exploratory surgery to find out what was causing the bleeding. They didn't actually find the main source, but they managed to stop the bleeding and things began to get better again. She was able to sit up and talk to her family, and had even started walking a little bit again.
Though she was still in the hospital, Tiffany was doing great up until Monday morning (the 21st). At that time, they were going to move her from the ICU to a different floor because she was doing so much better. In order to move her, though, they needed to remove her central IV line. As they were removing the IV, and air bubble got into her vein and caused her to have an air embolism. The air bubble traveled to her brain and she had a stroke. She was put on life support and had to be life-flighted (yup, in a helicopter) to Portland, where the nearest hyperbaric chamber is. Hyperbaric chambers are commonly used to treat divers who suffer from decompression sickness, but they also use them to treat air embolisms to try to burst the air bubble.
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| Not Tiffany, but this is the chamber at the hospital where Tiffany is. |
After her first treatment in the hyperbaric chamber they did an MRI on Tiffany's brain. Unfortunately the MRI showed damage to both sides of her brain. She was pretty sedated through the process, but they could tell that she had no control over the right side of her body. Her left side had normal reflexes and she could follow some basic commands with it, but nothing on the right side
As of today, Tiffany is no longer sedated. Apparently she was making some small movements on the right side of her body last night (gently squeezing her dad's hand, wiggling toes, etc.) so that is a huge improvement. She is unable to talk at the moment, though. Her husband has asked her if she wants to talk but just doesn't know how to form the words, and she nodded yes. Imagine wanting to talk and say words but not being able to force your mouth to open and speak! The doctors and her family are all hoping that the damage to her brain will heal itself and that she will make a full recovery, but as of now all we can do is wait and see how much control she regains on her own.
She will have two more treatments in the hyperbaric chamber (they do 2-3 hour treatments), and from there it will still just be a waiting game to see how much damage there really is and if it will heal on its own or if she will require rehabilitation.
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While Tiffany's situation is far more pressing and serious, I've been having somewhat of a rough time myself during all of this. While I have been working here alone for more than 2 months now, I always was able to call Tiffany and ask her questions if I ever needed any help, and she still would come in and help me take care of online orders even though she was on bed rest. Obviously, during the past 2 weeks, she has been completely unable to contact so I've pretty much been on my own. There have been a few issues with angry customers, emails to answer, and tasks that I have no clue how to do. I've been trying my hardest to figure everything out and to keep people happy, but I have to admit I feel like I'm not doing a very good job.
During all of this, though, I am amazed at how good God has been to us all. Through facebook, Tiffany's husband, mother, and sister have been sharing constant updates and people all over the country have heard of this situation and are lifting Tiffany up in prayer - even some people in other countries have heard and are praying as well! Her family has never doubted that God is in control of this situation. And even amidst my bumbling around and trying to make sense of all these orders and things I don't understand, I can see where God is helping and guiding me through it.
So, I don't know how everyone here feels about God and prayer, but if you are the praying sort of person, feel free to add Tiffany to your prayer list. She has gone through
so much the past month... it's almost unreal how much her body has gone through. Please pray that her brain will heal and that she will have no lasting or permanent damage. To think that all of this started with the selfless decision to give up her own time and comfort to help out a couple who couldn't have their own children is truly amazing to me. She is a wonderful woman. I wish you could all meet her.
Sorry for the text-heavy post, but I really wanted to share with you guys and I hope you will join me in praying for her.
