life support | Belinda Y. Hughes Books

Today’s guest blogger is LaRae Parry, aka the Crazy Lady. Formerly an artist, LaRae found herself on life support due to medical errors. In the course of learning to read again, she gave birth to a successful writing career. LaRae joins us today to share a heart-warming, rib-tickling excerpt from her eye-opening book, Life Support Dang Near Killed Me. – byh

In 2005, I was on life support after a routine gall bladder surgery went terribly wrong. Part of the medical debacle was sort of my fault. The other 90 percent was the surgeon’s.

I had been warned by that protective intuition that we all have within us not to have the surgery. I was sick with a sinus infection—too sick for surgery. I can’t say that I wasn’t warned . . . but, and here’s the hard part—I trusted the surgeon over my premonition.

We all do that at some point, don’t we? Trust other people rather than our instinct? We shouldn’t do that, you know. We’re all equipped with that gut cautionary instinct—why don’t we trust it more often?

But . . . I digress.

There are some things I learned while being on life support that I’d like to share:

Your underwear doesn’t matter. The people in the ICU will rip it off and leave you naked as a jaybird. Then they slap on a flimsy gown that doesn’t have a back and a bunch of necessary holes in the front. So, dismiss your mother’s counsel to always wear clean underwear.

Being able to breathe is very important, because if you stop, someone will straddle you and pound on your chest.

While on life support, my ears worked really well. I eavesdropped on just about everyone.

80 percent of what goes through a feeding tube is laxatives. No kidding. It’s rude.

Sponge baths were just as awful with my eyes tightly closed as when they were open.

There are many excellent people in the medical field. Doctors and nurses provide life-saving services that cannot be repaid.

Angels are real and all around us, especially when we are sick, lonely or sad.

Listen to my gut feelings—they’re always right. Even when I don’t heed the warnings, great lessons still come from it.

I believe my life was spared so I could share the message that we need to listen to our inner voice for comfort and protection, and not worry about what our so-called specialists might think.

The world is filled with goodness. It really is!

Mostly I learned that prayers DO NOT need to be spoken in order to be Heartfelt prayers are answered in the ways they should be. I asked to be completely healed, so I wouldn’t have to wear supplemental oxygen for the rest of my life. Even though the answer was, “Not now,” I learned to accept that answer.

Author Bio

LaRae Parry is a published artist with 12 books in print. She considers herself to be a “very famous art has-been.” She now would like to be considered a “very famous author who nobody knows about.”

In 2005, she suffered a major medical ordeal, which landed her on life support, because of multiple organ failure. After years of therapy and hard work, her mind began creating again. She was able to comprehend some words, but struggled with reading.

It was through her struggle to learn to read that her writing career sprouted. Even though she’ll always struggle with reading, writing brings her great joy and is what inspires her to get out of bed in the morning—when it would be so much easier to stay.