We moved into our new house in Oxford, GA back in May of 2006. In June, something happened that would change my mom's life forever. Mom had been rushing around getting the new house and yard looking perfect before my Dad's family came over the 4th of July. The two of us were home alone one day. I was sitting at the kitchen bar on my computer and Mom was outside gardening.
All of the sudden I heard something I had never heard...my mom curse. She walked inside grasping her wrist and very calmly said, "Amanda, I think I'm going to need you to take me to the hospital." She removed her hand to inspect her injury and blood began gushing from her arm. She quickly grasped it again and reiterated, "Yes. Yes. I need to get to the ER." We had just moved to the area! I had no idea where the nearest hospital was! I begged her to let me call 911, but she insisted I not do that and go get a neighbor instead. The neighbor's house was 2 acres away...not that far, but when you're panicked, it seemed like forever. I was screaming as I ran to the house. "Help me! My mom is going to bleed out! Help!!" No one was at home. I was delirious! Hearing all the commotion, three women ran out from the house across the street. I rushed them to the house.
When I opened the door and saw our 2 dogs, they refused to come in. "Put the dogs away! Put the dogs away!" I kept saying "Please! My mom is going to die! Help her! They won't hurt you!" I shoed the dogs out the closest door into the backyard and let the ladies in. Little did I know, however, that when Mom had come into the house, through another door, she had left it opened. Our sweet, concerned, intelligent dogs made one big circle back into the house. Now I had 0 help, 1 mom bleeding on the floor, 2 dogs running through the house, and 3 women standing on our kitchen counters. I shoed them out again and made sure they couldn't finagle their way back. All that commotion, and running around and what did the 3 ladies do?...they dialed 911.
I found out what had happened outside. Mom was trying to pry the plug out of the bottom of a pot so it could drain. She got a pair of Fishers scissors, wrapped her other arm around the pot, and began jabbing at the plug trying to loosen it. She slipped and the scissors shot straight into her wrist.
She was rushed by ambulance to the hospital where they interrogated me as to my mom's happiness and will to live. It took a lot to convince them that my mom was not suicidal. They said she was lucky that the scissors were dull enough to push past her major artery without severing it. She left with a couple stitches and a clean bill of health. Over the next couple days, however, Mom realized that something was terribly wrong. Her hand began to burn and curl up to where she couldn't open it. We dealt with moronic doctors who told her it was all in her head and that she needed to "suck it up and manipulate her hand." They sent her to physical therapy, which only made things worse.
The pain began to spread up her left arm, then down her right arm, her legs, and even her vocal chords. Most days she couldn't walk at all and was confined to bed or a wheelchair. She couldn't drive. She couldn't be touched. Even the light touch of a sheet was excruciating. Some days she couldn't speak. She said it felt like her body had been doused in oil and set on fire while her bones were being crushed. She was on so many different medications and none of them touched the pain.
She finally found a doctor who diagnosed her with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), also known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). They tried everything relieve her bone-crushing pain: Nerve blocks, ketamine treatments, she even went to a doctor in St Louis who cut along the major nerves in her legs to try to release some of the pressure on them. A family friend did some research and contacted Mom one day. They were running a controversial study through a doctor in Tampa, where they were sending the most severe RSD cases to Mexico to be induced into a coma using a really high dose of ketamine. This would, hopefully, reboot her brain (much like you would reboot a computer) and reset her nervous system. We travelled to and from Tampa over the course of the next few months for Dr Kirkpatrick to test Mom's pain threshold, video her, ask her questions, etc.
When the time finally came for the coma I was scared. We knew there was a chance that she could die, be a vegetable, or worse...that it might not work and she would still be alive and in excruciating pain. She was willing to try anything though. A life in as much pain as she was in, is no life at all. I couldn't talk to her while she was in Mexico (none of the people who went with her were very tech savvy). That was difficult to say the least. I just sat and waited for a whole month. Not knowing what was going on. If she was okay or not.
When she came back it didn't seem as if the treatment had worked. She was in even worse shape than before, but as the weeks progressed she got better, and better. We had gotten our mom back! The next 8 years were spent thouroughly enjoying life. There is nothing like RSD to make you grab life by the balls and scream "Carpe Diem!!!" We went to Peru for a month. We hiked through the Amazon, walked around Machu Picchu, rode dune buggies and went sand boarding, swam with sea lions, played with monkeys. We went out dancing and to concerts! It was the best 8 years of both of our lives.
This past January (2016) mom was out doing yard work again. She came inside and felt fine. That night when her boyfriend stopped by, he noticed that her knuckle was red and swollen with 2 puncture wounds in the middle. "It looks like you got bit by a spider." No one thought anything of it. On January 20, Mom and I went to a wine and cheese pairing class at Vino Venue, where I work. When we got back to my apartment, she complained that her arm was hurting. "Must have developed wine-drinkers' elbow," I joked. Two days later she called me...it was the call I had been dreading for 8 years. "It's back," she said. "I had 8 wonderful years that I am so grateful to God for, but it's back." Retriggered by a nonvenomous, non painful spider bite.
Not only was it back, but it was worse than before. The pain had migrated into her head. She said head RSD is worse than any other kind she had experienced thus far. Dr Rollins and his team worked tirelessly to stop it from spreading. They managed to get it out of her head, but she was still right back where she was before the coma.
So here we are again. In Monterrey, Mexico for another ketamine coma....I'm scared and hopeful and emotional and trying to be strong for my mom and sister, all at the same time. I feel as if the world is spinning around me too fast for me to process how I should act or what I should do. The only thing I can do is try to hold on until it stops.
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