She attempted to sleep in her bed last night and said she might need to sleep in the recliner for a while until her chest heals a little more. But she’s comfortable getting up and going to the bathroom and walking around the house, carefully dodging the puppy between her feet. 😉 (and just so nobody worries, that was a joke... we’re extra careful to keep him occupied while she moves around the house.)

We’ve got her on a medication schedule and she’s not complaining of pain too bad as of now. I know that as time goes on, she’ll grow more comfortable and her pain will lessen, so the little bit of discomfort and pain she’s feeling now was to be expected.

My mom’s nurse she had the last few days, Chelsea, texted me this morning to “do her morning rounds” and say she “missed my mom’s smiling face this morning”. I think the thing that surprised me the most through all of this was how amazing all of the staff at Tacoma General was. Each and every nurse and doctor and staff member was fun, respectful, honest, hopeful and smart about each decision they made for her. Ultimately, I owe it all to them. They made every single correct decision— everything down to not giving up on CPR for over a half an hour, waiting an extra day to take out the ECMO, giving her a smaller feeding tube for her smaller-than-normal body to gain protein, and even inviting us into her room when things weren’t looking so good, just so we could believe that our presence was helping her heal. Everything they did was absolutely perfect and I can’t believe that today marks two weeks since that horrifying Friday when our worlds got turned upside down.

I want to thank each of you for everything you’ve done, collectively and individually. This being the most traumatic thing we’ve ever been through, I honestly don’t think we could’ve done it without you. Thank you for every hug, every prayer, every good thought, every bouquet of flowers, every comment, every photo shared, every bit of love that you’ve shown us— from the bottom of my heart, I believe those things helped her heal the way she did. 

Somehow these past two weeks have felt simultaneously like the longest and shortest two weeks of my life. I can’t believe I’m sitting here in my living room with my mom again, watching the Today Show just like we did before. Life is good. And it’ll keep getting better.

This is beginning to feel a little bit like my high school senior sign-off, so I’m going to end it with a few things I wasn’t allowed to say in my yearbook—

#TEAMDORI is bad ass as hell, determined as sh*t, and strong as f**k. 

I love you, Momma. ❤️❤️❤️