The last few weeks have been quite the roller coaster of emotions… We
arrived home from our vacation on August 16th… it was an amazing
trip with so many great memories… On August 17th, I uploaded my
pictures to Facebook and on one of those pictures our friend Cory Giffey
commented, “Beautiful! Back yet? I am in
Silverdale hospital with Covid.” I was
still at my sister’s house with my family when I saw this post, so I let
Matthew know and he immediately started trying to contact Cory to find out what
was going on. He we was finally able to
contact his nurse, who got permission from Cory to talk to Matthew. We found out Cory was admitted to the hospital
on August 14th and was not doing well. They were doing everything they could to keep
him off the ventilator… he was already getting as much oxygen as possible using
forced air and was having AFIB issues. I
have no doubts that Cory waited to tell us until we were home because he didn’t
want to ruin our vacation… I am so glad we got home when we did so we could
find out and talk to him (through messages) when we did… for the next day he
was put on the ventilator and sedated.
My last message to Cory was to let him know that we loved him and were
praying for him.
During this time… we prayed a lot for Cory… it was so hard… I went many
nights without sleeping. Matthew and I
cried a lot… we prayed a lot… we saw God work miracles in helping him make it
through the day when the doctor called us one morning frantically trying to
reach his daughter’s because they didn’t think he would survive the day… we had
virtual prayer gatherings with friends and family members of Cory… I had my friends
praying for Cory… and finally on Sept 30th… the first day of school,
I found out that Cory had passed away… it was an heart-wrenching emotional
rollercoaster… especially since he spent every weekend with us… it was like
loosing a father/brother.
On August 18th, Matthew had an appointment to finally get his
prosthetic… which he had been waiting for over a year. When we picked it up they made sure the
connections worked and everything fit right… we then set up an appointment for
the next week and he took it home to play around with it… it didn’t take him
long to figure out that it wasn’t made correctly… the hand was put on straight
instead of slightly angled like before… he was kind of bummed about this and
decided to talk to them about it at his next appointment… but still used it as
much as possible during that week. When
he went back the following week, they told him they needed to keep the prosthetic
and see what they could do to fix it.
So, once again he was without his prosthetic and has no clue when he
would get it back. Another emotional roller
coaster.
On August 19th, Matthew had an appointment with his pain
doctor… while we were there, they talked about a new medication that they
wanted to try with Matthew that worked really well with nerve pain. Matthew was really excited about the possibility
since most of his pains is nerve pain and he lives in extreme pain every
day. Unfortunately, my insurance company
does not cover the medication so it was denied and there is still no generic
for it so we can’t afford to cover it on our own… another roller coast…
Work finally started on August 23rd, which was pretty cool… since
we were finally going back in person. Then
we found out how understaffed we were going to be and how many students were
going to be in the ASC… Sean and I had the largest caseloads we have ever had
and some of students were going to be very tough. We were really excited about our new staff
members, but then one of them decided to go back to her old job… just to give
you an idea of how things are right now… we currently have 4 unfilled jobs in
our school + 2 staff out on medical leave… plus 2 incoming students who we
requested 1:1’s last Spring that still have not been approved… plus 2-4 more
students who need 1:1’s that we need to still complete paperwork for… and NO
ONE is applying for the jobs… so we are down about 8 para-educators (and 1 cert
teacher)… and this is before the vaccine mandate which goes into effect in October
where we may lose even more para-educators.
So… needless to say while I was excited to be back in-person… I was also
a bit anxious.
The first day of school for students was probably one of the hardest days
I had in a long time… it was on this day that not only did I find out that I
need to go back in for more testing (since one of my tests can back suspicious and
they need more studies) but it was also the day we found out that Cory had
passed away. This is not the first time
I had a loss at the beginning of the school year… it seems that the beginning
and end of school seem to be times of attack by the enemy.
That first week was exhausting… between not sleeping well (for two weeks straight)… to working my butt off trying to get two classrooms up and running… training new paras/subs… learning new students… and managing the chaos. I was so ready for the three-day weekend to finally arrive. Here is to hoping we can get off the emotional roller coaster and have smoother sailing in the weeks to come.
2 comments:
My heart goes out to you two, praying. Love you sweetie, even though I haven't seen you for many years, you will always be in my heart. Cathy
Kristin and Matthew, I will be praying for you both for personal strength (in God's grace) and for God's ministering to you both. Praying for restful nights, and renewal and power to face each new day.
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