As many of you know, 2022 has taken our family on a wild ride. We’re grateful for every one of you who has reached out to check in on Mom and Dad, as well as lifted them in thought and prayer from afar. As their medical journeys continue—and our text, call and email threads continue to grow—we created this site to help keep everyone up to speed!
For those just catching up, here’s a quick summary of January:
Despite having been (a) largely homebound and (b) vaccinated, both Tom and Moe contracted COVID-19 sometime around Christmas. (Notably, our family had postponed celebrating until January to ‘play it safe’ as the omicron variant waged on…)
Mom conquered it without much fanfare. Dad’s symptoms grew steadily worse the first week of January. After visiting an Urgent Care on Sunday, Jan. 9, he was emergently taken via ambulance to the closest ER at Kennestone Hospital with dangerously low oxygen saturation. As I write this, almost a month later, he’s still there as an inpatient. He’s had a turbulent ride, but we are hopeful the worst is behind him and he’s barreling toward discharge to a rehab facility soon. After 3+ weeks of no in-person contact, hospital restrictions lessened to allow for visitors in late January; since then, we’ve been able to spend the better part of most days at his bedside, doing us all a wealth of good!
The stress induced by Dad’s rapid deterioration coupled with communication issues took a severe toll on Mom. As Mom worked to reply to well-wishers checking in on Dad, she was concurrently navigating COVID-driven protocols that made getting clinical updates on his condition challenging. We experienced firsthand what we’d all been seeing on the news: as hospitals struggle to care for a high volume of critical patients (Dad was admitted smack dab in the middle of the omicron surge’s peak), we struggled to make contact with anyone who could tell us if he was even still alive. Sounds dramatic, but that was our reality for the better part of two weeks.
This culminated in an acute—and scary—event for Mom on Wednesday, Jan. 19, where we found Mom alone in their condo disoriented and unable to get up off of the floor. She was admitted to the ER just a stone’s throw from Dad’s room in the ICU with a suspected stroke or TIA. Tests were inconclusive, and she was discharged later that afternoon. For the next week, us Flynnlets kept her under 24-hour supervision and escorted Mom to doctors’ appointments in search of a root cause for the abrupt change in mentality. Then, exactly one week later, Mom experienced another acute episode at Shannon’s house in the early hours of the morning. Following loss of sight and speech, and then a minutes-long seizure, Mom was taken via ambulance to Grady Memorial Hospital, which is known for its neuro trauma and stroke unit. After a battery of tests, we are still in search of a diagnosis. They’ve thankfully ruled out a stroke or brain tumor, but also detected recurrent seizure activity and changing white matter in her brain—both of which, obviously, warrant further and quick investigation.
Mom was discharged on Thursday, Feb. 3, and is now under the 24/7 watchful eye of Sean and a caravan of great friends/neighbors/Aunt Pat. The events of the past few weeks, in tandem with a new seizure medication (Keppra), have left her tired and, frankly, scared. We are working to connect with a care team who will help us get to the bottom of her case ASAP.
Dad was successfully discharged from Kennestone today around lunchtime. Super Bowl Sunday marked his sixth Sunday in a row (!!) and last full day as a patient there.
He is now at a rehab facility in Marietta, and so far it seems pretty great.
The facility welcomes mail for patients, and I know Dad would LOVE to get snail mail from anyone and everyone. To send him mail, here’s how to address it:
Tom Flynn
Room E10
811 Kennesaw Ave NW
Marietta, GA
30060
His recovery road will be equal parts long and arduous, and a little encouragement will go a long way.
If anyone would like to send mail to Mom, text me (Meg) or message below and I’ll send you their new home address (Mom and Dad moved out of their Sentinel Ridge abode in the fall!). This site is technically public so want to be careful to not post their home address here.
Hopefully only more good news from here on out! 🙌🏻
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