The First Anniversary to My Daughetr's Shock

Day 331 –   exactly a year ago my daughter was in the middle of her hair dye ordeal. We just landed few hours before, and she was already checked out of the first hospital and on the way to the second, the one where I work. They kept her overnight just to make sure that the allergic reaction is under control and not escalating. We thought it’s the end of the story – little did we know, it only just begun. The next evening she ended up in yet another hospital, now with full blown allergic reaction falling rapidly in to an anaphylactic shock. The scary thing is to see it escalating and not being able to stop what’s coming next. It passed the point of no return. Only the miracles of modern medicine and the fact that it all happened in the hospital are to thank for the fact that she is still with us today. Even in the hospital it was scary, she was definitely the most serious patient in the ER and everyone was around her, fighting for her life, as she collapsed again an hour later. The nightmare is still fresh in our mind and it still has the power to bring so much pain and tears, to wish it never happened. But we are here a year later and she is in such a wonderful place in her life, that it also brings something very positive and optimistic with it. She not only survived, she is thriving and it is still only the dawn of her life. She will be here to tell this story and to commemorate the date so many times. It is here to tell a story of hope instead of telling a story of loss. I know it is too painful for her to look at it this way, but I am celebrating the fact that a year later I can hug my daughter when she cries remembering the horrific events of that night, that she is here among us.

      

I am thankful for the fact we are here together today to commemorate that event; I hope it will always be a guide but never a hindrance. I am thankful beyond words to everyone who took part in making sure she will survive that night, for all the friends who came to the hospital to be with us. My heart is full of thanks for her life; and this is what I celebrate this weekend.