SICU Day #21. Today signifies the three-week time point from Abbey’s injury, and what an incredible day it was. After a full week of successfully having her interventional cares slowly discontinued, Abbey was finally cleared for discharge to HOME. Her cognition has returned to her baseline, as has her personality and wit (still cursing a lot, which we love). She is still exhausted from her continued recovery, but we can all see as clear as ever that Abbey is back and with us. In talking with many of the SICU staff, residents and nurses, they cannot recall another instance at HCMC where someone has walked out of the SICU on their own two feet and discharged to home with their family. This speaks volumes to the distance that Abbey has travelled during the past three weeks, and to the support that she has received along the way.

In Abbey’s darkest hour, there were many individuals that rose to the occasion, answered the call and took action to save her life. To Andy Schmidt, Tom Varecka and David Templeman of the Orthopedics team at HCMC, thank you for stepping up and facilitating her transfer to Hennepin County Medical Center. Many cannot appreciate the significance of this, but her transfer to HCMC would not have taken place without the direct intervention and advocation from these individuals. Hennepin is where we knew that Abbey needed to be, and she would not have been airlifted here without these individuals. Words cannot possibly express our gratitude; thank you.

To Abbey’s surgeons on the neurosurgery and interventional radiology team, thank you for being the absolute best at what you do. Our entire family deeply appreciates the years of training, the nights, weekends and holidays that you’ve spent away from your own family, and the compassion that you display in taking care of your patients. Thank you for everything that you have given of yourselves to be able to take care of Abbey when she needed you the most.

To the nurses in the SICU… all that we can say is wow. 24 hours-per-day for three straight weeks, you were the pillar of Abbey’s care. To Mindee, Sarah, Jake, Brandy, Randi (and many, many more), thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We know that when the time is right, Abbey will probably want to take you all out for margaritas and buckets of beers, because we all observed the relationship that she formed with each one of you. Thank you for guiding us as a family through the most stressful time of our lives and thank you for taking care of Abbey and bringing her back to us. You are the true unsung heroes of the past three weeks.

Finally, to Abbey:

Thank you. Thank you for being the person that you are. Confident, loving, persistent, selfless, stubborn, FEISTY. You are a person that gives from yourself everything, but never asks for a thing in return. Even though you would never ask for it or expect it, the overwhelming love for you has been self-evident in the *thousands* of messages, well-wishes, offerings that have been made on your behalf over the past three weeks. We are so happy to see you finally at home. Your family needs you. Your two (soon to be three) boys need you. The world needs you. We are so happy and grateful that you are on the mend – welcome back!

With Gratitude,

The Godlewski & Lawrence Family