First of all, I have to apologize for stopping my updates on my Tintin, way back when. I don’t have a good excuse for it, other than that I just sort of let her be the one to show you how she’s been doing through her own social media. Obviously she’s doing amazingly well, and we’re excited to announce that she is set to finally return to work this coming Monday, after the Easter weekend, on April 2nd! This was my imaginary finish line for this entire ordeal. I was not going to rest or be at ease until I knew that she was able to go back to work, and you know what? I’m so ridiculous, because I don’t think it’s going to change my worries I feel inside, one bit! But you see? That’s just it. I know she’s going to be fine, and get right back into the swing of things, and be great at her job, and she’ll exceed their expectations. It’s my own doubts in my head that I deal with all the time, every single day, that come from this weird form of PTSD that my Mom and I both talk about having. If you had experienced what a few of us went through, including her Mom, sister, and a few close friends who saw her at her so-called worst moments, then you might understand. She’s the toughest, bravest, most resilient and determined person I know, and she keeps proving that every day. Her speech therapist, and her, have been best buds for the past 6 months, seeing each other 3 times a week. Stephanie is her name, and she’s played the integral role in all of this. Well, I can take some of that credit as well, cause you know, I dropped her off and picked her up all these times until she started driving herself last week, lol. Stephanie’s so proud of her, and has seen the progress in her memory and brain function since the first day of therapy. We love Stephanie, and we are forever grateful for her. She is another true gem of a person, and a hero of ours and I’m sure Christine’s as well, even though she makes life tough for her, haha!

Although things have quieted down around here, and life has gotten back to normal, I will always be grateful for the love and support that so many have given Christine, and the rest of us as well. From simple phone calls and texts to check on me, to visiting or sending gifts to her while she was in the hospital, we thank you so so so much. I thank you so damn much. We were scared out of our minds, but we kept our hopes up, and we stayed the course, taking care of what was most important, not worrying about our own thoughts and feelings. Now that we have lots of time for that, we can reflect on it and heal ourselves. Tintin’s like, “I don’t know what’s wrong with y’all, cause I feel fine!”. As she should, hehe. She doesn’t remember any of what happened. Her last memory recollection was going to Vegas with her friends. Almost everything is blank up until a few days before her surgery, when she recalls being wheeled down the long hallways of Huntington Memorial, and seeing the exit door, thinking that the outside is just right there, and she can leave this place right now! She said she can also remember seeing a bunch of people in a room above her, watching her being operated on, which is bizarre on some alien abduction, Stranger Things, type sh*t, but it makes sense, as Huntington is one of the leading educational hospitals around, and what she was diagnosed with, ANTI-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis, is still very rare and unheard of. For most of the doctors, this was their first patient to have this, and it had to have been a major educational opportunity for them. Perhaps reading Brain On Fire should be a reading requirement for all of them!

So yeah, we are all excited and nervous to release her back into the world, but she’s ready! She’s got this! And if she doesn’t…okay there I go again, worrying for nothing, haha! Think positive!! She will succeed and be herself, but even better because we are collectively here to support and love her! Thank you all again, and drop her a message some time! -Billy

(PS- I’ve categorized all of the new and prior Christine updates and added them to the Christine category, which you can click in the top right corner of the front page, in case some of you are new followers!)

We are slowly adjusting to life back at home. You’d think that being free at last from the hospital, you’d want to be out and about every day! Getting Tintin to leave the house takes a little bit of encouragement but she manages fine as long as she’s with somebody she knows and trusts. This is because of the short-term memory issues that I think I mentioned in the last update. I’m not sure what it feels like, but I imagine it’s something like what Dory goes through, and you forget what you were supposed to be doing. I called and spoke with Dr. Rosenberg the other day, about having him be our neurologist to follow-up with, and he delightfully said yes, and he mentioned that the memory thing can sometimes take up to a year to heal.

She will be doing her speech and occupational therapy here by the house at Casa Colina in Azusa, and the speech is the one she will probably dread the most lol! It’s like going to school again for her, and she’s not the best at math or spelling as it is, so I hope they don’t think it has to do with the illness! Nope. That’s just my Tintin! She makes up for it by being an awesome loving person.

As you may have seen on social media, she went to the fair twice this past weekend, and she walked at least 2 miles easily each night. She keeps eyeing the electric carts that you can rent, but I encouraged her to take breaks as needed and just people watch. I said maybe if we go for an entire day or something, then we can rent one. She got to witness Alina see her photos and artwork for the first time, on display at the fair, which was all because Tintin had them take pics and do colorings so that she could submit them to the fair. Both Ray and Alina got a few first place and second place ribbons! Thanks auntie Tintin!

She is now caught up on Game of Thrones. Actually, she is catching up on quite a bit of her tv shows that we’ve been saving on our Tivo for her. Shocker that this girl remembered how to operate the tv remote, but can’t remember what drawers to put her clothes away in! Sounds just like the girl I know, mmhmm. Maybe I can slip the occupational therapist some money on the side to teach her some of these cleaning routines and organizational skills, lol. Tintin 2.0 coming soon!

Sorry if she hasn’t been responding to your texts or phone calls. She’s been avoiding her phone like the plague. I think she is still very shy, or insecure and doesn’t know what to say to most of you. Don’t take it personal though, please. Here’s a perfect example of what I mean. Nini was coming over today to pick her up and go run a few errands with her, just to get her out of the house for a bit, and before Nini arrived, Tin asked me “when I go run errands with Nini, do I just wait in the car or do I go with her?”. She’s so innocent and sincere about it, and it makes you wanna cry. It’s like I want to protect her from everything out there, but I want her to build up her confidence of going outside and seeing things, and dealing with the everyday sights and sounds that are currently overstimulating her mind. I see it at the fair when we walk through the carnival area and there’s music pumping from one direction, simultaneously while a ride is going and you hear 5th grade girls screaming at the top of their lungs, and then there’s the carnies shouting at you to play their game. You’re being bombarded from every direction! I’m hypersensitive to all these things now because I’ve got my head on a swivel for any and everything that may bother her. She complains that it’s too loud or too much, but not sure if she is just unable to concentrate cause of the clashing of all the sounds. It is quite a chaotic setting and probably isn’t the best place to take her in the fair, but she gets through it and I firmly believe it’s helping her get stronger in her recovery. She has her moments of confidence and her old self though, as in stuff like her pic she posted on Instagram, famous random hashtags and all! So you see…she’s working on it!

If you want to come by and visit, just text me or msg me on Facebook. We’re usually here unless we have appointments or something. I work from home, so that helps tremendously. I’m sure she’d love some company just to sit and watch TV with. She probably won’t have much to say in terms of a conversation, but if you’re cool with that, then come and kick it! I think small intimate visits work better for her, because as we’ve seen with big group gatherings, she tends to just want to go hide and lay down from the overstimulation. We just got to give her time, that’s all. Okay guys, thanks for still keeping her in your hearts and mind. We’re far from out of the woods, but we are on the trail to recovery!

They found the teratoma!!! Yes, you read that right everybody! The doctors have finally found what they’ve been searching for since Tintin was diagnosed with Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis. You’re asking what this means right? Well, if you’re like most, you probably haven’t researched what her disease is about and what typically causes it. Teratomas found in the ovaries are the most common cause, and FINALLY they found and removed one from her left ovary. We’re hoping that this is it.

She’s already been on a positive trajectory since she was admitted to the rehab hospital on Tuesday. The Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapists have had her busy each day doing things like walking without a walker (see the video I attached), taking a shower sitting on the bench, and reading, writing, and arithmetic. She’s young and strong so the physical stuff is coming back really quickly, but like I’ve mentioned before, the memory and brain functions will still need some more exercise before we can say she is 100%. The best thing is that she may be able to come home soon! No need to keep her here for that part. We can do that as outpatient I’m sure.

So basically, I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders with the doctors finally finding the teratoma and removing it. I vividly remember talking with Carla, the friend of a friend who went through this same ordeal, and her telling me that it would be awesome if they found a teratoma on her ovaries, because it would mean once it’s removed, everything goes back to normal. I really hope this is it!! Tin’s sister Michelle said she’s never been so excited to hear about a tumor being found, lol. Me either Michelle! Me either. Whew! Looks like that party is coming sooner than later. Love you all! – Billy

Hello everyone. It’s been a busy busy week for Tintin. This girl continues to amaze us with her recovery, and she continues to surprise everyone with new things every day. First off, her plasmapheresis treatment is now over and her creepy neck catheter has been removed! I’ve enclosed a photo of what it looks like, comparing it to the size of my hand. No wonder she didn’t feel like eating anything. I was worried about her sleeping too much last week, but after over 24 hrs. of sleep, she has gone back to a more regular sleep pattern. I guess she just needed a deep recharge of her batteries! She is now on the 6th floor, where it’s less critical care, so that’s another sign of improvement.

Tin’s appetite for outside food is growing, and this week she ate some Vietnamese “bun thit nuong” that her mom or sister brought her, and since she was preferring this outside food all of a sudden, we asked her what else she wanted, and right away she said “tacos”. We asked her again a few more times, and same answer. So today, Nini and her co-workers who Tin knows, went across the street to Urbano, our new favorite Mexican spot by here, and got her some carne asada tacos, and she wolfed them down!

Tin has also been making great strides in the physical therapy department. What started out barely a few days ago as barely being able to stand on her own, has now progressed into her showboating all over the lobby outside her room, walking in her walker! I’m telling you, this girl is determined to go home. Just ask the docs and nurses. She’s always asking them how to get out of here, lol! Poor thing. That’s another thing we’re now experiencing. She’s starting to show feelings and emotion. She’s getting lonely here all by herself overnight, and she is also concerned for others, like when her co-worker (now boss) Yvette came, and Tin told her “okay, I don’t want to keep you”. Sorry Yvette, she wasn’t trying to ask you to leave hehe.

Tin’s occupational skills are improving too. She started coloring in one of those adult coloring books and she was precise and neatly filling in areas with her markers! Oh, and we had her practice her signature and sure enough, she could write it exactly how she does, albeit very tiny, but hey, we can now send off her short-term disability form cause she’s able to sign it! She was also able to play some brain puzzle games today. Pretty cool.

Tin has passed the physical tests to qualify for physical rehab, and she should be transferring to the 3rd floor for that, possibly tomorrow, once insurance approves the request. This is the progress we’ve been hoping to get to, and we didn’t expect it to happen this quickly. Just yesterday she was learning to use the bedside commode, and today she’s already going in the regular bathroom! Sorry if this is TMI! I’m just excited for all of this.

The brain has obviously been the most affected and crucial part of this whole disease, and I want to remind you all that this is the hardest part to wrap your head around. Photos don’t show you her lack of a short-term memory. I’m sure it will come back soon though. She can memorize what we tell her, but when we sort of put her on the spot with things like what kind of tacos she wants, she changes her answer from carne asada to carnitas if you ask her again. I scroll through Facebook and show her all the posts and photos on her timeline, and she can name off everybody, so you are all not forgotten lol! She’s in there, and she’s got work to do, and she seems to know that she has a hard time remembering things cause she told me she couldn’t answer some of the doctor’s questions correctly, like why she was in the hospital, which she made it sound like she was a little disappointed. I reassured her that it was okay and it just takes time, and some things are better not remembered, like how this all started out over a month ago. I’m just glad this was caught within a few weeks. Reading so many others’ story about this Anti-NMDAR Encephalitis, and seeing how they went into a coma, or slowly battled with confusion and depression for a few months before getting the seizures and brain swelling that can cause permanent brain damage and memory deficits. I’m hoping and am pretty confident that Tin will regain her full personality and compassion that she once had before. If there’s anything in this world I want for her, it’s for her to have that back. I selfishly need that back. She needs it back for herself, too. Oh, and you better believe she’s gonna knock this physical rehab out in no time…And we’re throwing a huge ass party for her! You’re all invited. Love you all. -Billy

Hello everyone. It’s been a week since my last update, and if you thought last week was good news, then you’re going to think that this week is GREAT news! This girl is making great strides in her progress, and every day there’s something new that we see from her.

Over the past week, we’ve seen her speech improve, and she is forming longer, more complete sentences, and most importantly they’re making sense and are mostly in response to our questions or conversations in front of her. I’m not gonna’ lie, you should’ve heard her random comments about being in outerspace, and talking to mother earth. Very trippy, but we understand this is still just the brain trying to “exercise the demons” -Ace Ventura, hehe. She’s also had a few minor seizures. Nothing to be worried about they say, but she’s been given some medicine to help with that. Other than that, she’s been all about the gains! We carried on a 5 minute conversation with the sitter the other night about her side hustle as a bartender. She was telling us how she went to school for it, so it’s good that all these memories are starting to connect again. Another funny story, was that I was holding a yellow manila envelope with some documents about her Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis, and I think it triggered some memories about work, and she said “I’ll take that and give it to Yvette”! She associated the folder with probably the same types she hands back and forth all day at work, and of course her co-worker Yvette who she sees every day. Yay, more memory recollection!

Yesterday, the occupational therapist had her sit on the edge of the bed for awhile, which must feel good, although tough to do, especially when you’ve pretty much been bed ridden for over a week. They’ve also been trying to get her to practice walking again, and she’s getting the hang of that. I posted a video for you all to see. Still a long way to go, but this is progress to us! She also has more deliberate motor skills, with less shakiness than before, and is a pro at eating French fries and dipping them in sauces, and also throwing them across the room. Yeah, I’m not sure what that’s all about, but I tell her to knock it off, lol. She’s all of a sudden found this attitude, and it started with throwing her stuffed animals out the room, and then she took her Naked Juice Green Machine and dumped it over her shoulder, making a mess on the bed sheet! This girl!

She hasn’t been sleeping very long these past few days, but since today she has finally started sleeping A LOT. She looks relaxed and not fidgety like she normally does, so hopefully this is natural sleep. She isn’t catatonic, so don’t worry. She responds to the nurses and squeezes their hands and stuff still. I believe she has one or two more plasmapheresis treatments left, and then the doctors will decide what the next phase will be. It’s hard to be patient sometimes, but what other choice do we have, right? She’s got some amazing sitters that really have been key in helping her with her daily living, and keeping her company, and the nurses have all been really great to her as well, so that makes it easier for us and for her.

Tintin is now in Room W683, and she is allowed visitors, and small flowers, and all that good stuff, so if you wanted to visit or just let her know you love and miss her, then feel free to! Huntington Memorial’s address is 100 W. California Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91105, and heads up, parking is not free, but the max day rate is $6. Valet is $7 for you fancy folks. I usually park underground right in front of the main entrance off of California Blvd across the street from Vons.

Well, that’s about it for now. She’s doing great. She’s silly (she wanted to put her stuffed toy dog on her head). She’s got her spunky attitude, and she’s speaking her mind (of course with no filter) lol. Who can blame her, right? Thanks for all the well wishes, support, and for caring enough to stay on this crazy journey with us. Love you all! – Billy

Hey everyone. I was going to try and make this update thing a weekly event, but I am just too excited and felt like today was a great day in terms of Tintin‘s progress. It’s been a few days since her Solumedrol steroid treatment completed, and today she started her plasmapheresis treatment, which they will run for 5 days and then depending on her progress, they may choose to do a few more days of it, but her doctors are liking what she’s already showing them. It seems like her motorskills and level of communication have increased 10-fold over night, and keep in mind that this is before today’s start on the plasma infusion. My Mom and Nini came to visit her this morning, to find her with her new neck catheter installed (for the plasmapheresis), which is of course kinda scary to see, but you understand why it’s there. After a little bit of command exercises to wake up her brain, her motor was up and running. She was eating for them, which she has been increasing her food intake each day, and has been able to chew and swallow much more deliberately as if it’s back to being a natural process. She’s not gonna starve, that’s for sure! For the past few days she’s been able to follow my simple commands of “smile” or “show me your teeth”, but she struggled with stuff like “grab my hand” or “close your eyes”. It goes to show you how intricate and delicate the brain really is. So get this. During this morning’s interactions, Tin sits up and points at Nini’s water flask like she wants it. My Mom slides the table over to her and asks if she wants it. Tin sort of points and nods and my Mom hands her, hers, and she proceeds to hold the 40 oz. flask up to her mouth and take a sip out of it, all by herself! Just 24 hrs. before, she could barely hold a sippy cup up to her mouth. Shocked would be an understatement! It gets better. Lunch time comes around and they hold up the room service menu for her, and she starts pointing out exactly what she wants. PB&J sandwich, a coke (which she actually said coke), and French fries. Wtf?! Who is this new person? Oh, it doesn’t stop there. So, the fries come, and what does she do? Starts picking up her fries, dips them in ketchup and feeds them to herself. She was eating soft mashed up food just a few days before. If this isn’t a sign of things moving in the right direction, then I don’t know what is. I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of her progress, and this is all before this crazy bionic plasmapheresis stuff was even started.

Her administering of new plasma was a cool thing to see. It’s done similarly to dialysis, where they pump in new plasma and they take out some of hers. The new plasma will take the wheel of her plasma and teach her auto-immune system to get back to work, fighting off viruses and infections. Oh, and we finally got an official diagnosis based on her lumbar puncture lab results, and she tested positive for Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis. That means that Neurologist Dr. Rosenberg from Magan and Inter-Community, who first suspected that and treated her, was right in that she did have it. That’s great, and means they can continue down this path more confidently. There is such a sigh of relief right now from me. She’s more healthier, responsive, alert, hungry, and still sweet as ever. I ask her for kisses and she puckers right up…Sometimes slipping some tongue in there 😑. Mmhmm. Blame it on the brain ticks, lol. Speaking of ticks, the only one left that I notice, is her chewing while asleep mostly. Sometimes while awake. Looks like a junky who needs a fix lol. It’s probably related to some of the meds. Not quite sure, but it’s minimal. Tonight, her nurse came in and asked her to perform tasks for her and she pretty much was capable of doing them all. Holding up hands, squeezing fingers, wiggling toes, nodding yes and no, and she was even able to answer “yep” to a question. All major improvements for her. She has started working with the physical and occupational therapists on getting these functions going, and we’re gonna continue to keep it up. They brought a recliner chair into her room, and she likes sitting in it when she can. I’m sure it’s a nice change from laying in the bed all day. She’s a trooper.

So yeah, this week was full of a bunch of small advances, until today when it seemed to just take 10 steps forward. So nice, and a long way from almost 3 weeks ago when we were taking 2 steps forward and 1 step back almost every day. I hope this keeps up, and she improves even more rapidly after this plasmapheresis phase. I’m crossing my fingers!

I want to thank everyone who has followed her on this crazy journey. Her eyes lit up when I told her that her story got over 700 views on my blog in 24 hrs. That’s all you guys checking in on her. Every like, comment, and share, will be there for her to see when she gets better, and you know this gentle sweet girl just wants to be liked, loved, and accepted by everyone. Why else do you think she puts herself out there unconditionally for so many of us? Because she wants…No…She needs to be loved. I don’t ask people for anything, but I would like to ask you all to show her some love! It’s her lifeblood. It’s her energy. It’s her soul. Thank you everyone for the love and support.

Hey everyone, just a quick update on Tintin. She’s settling in at the new hospital, and wow is Huntington impressive! She had a lumbar puncture yesterday morning, and that went without a hitch. She hasn’t had any swallowing, heart stoppages or respiratory issues either, since the day before she left Inter-Community. Her brain seems to be healing the involuntary action stuff that we take for granted! She’s finally sleeping again, and Lord knows the brain needs that. She is mostly coherent in terms of looking and following us around the room, and she is trying real hard to find her words. You can see the struggle in her facial expressions, which she has many. The most popular seems to be the “wtf” face, which I’m sure is due to me talking too much. The neurologist started to ramp up the Solumedrol steroids in hopes that there will be more improvement. In 5 days he will see if they will advance to an IVIG treatment, which basically inserts another person’s perfectly working immune system into her body through a blood transfusion, that will teach hers to work properly again. Ever since I posted up her story the other day, I’ve gotten so many responses, and well wishes, and personal msg’s, and I’m just overjoyed by all of it. I even got a special msg from a friend of an old family friend, Melissa Scheliga, who my Mom used to babysit when we were kids, and this friend of hers named Carla Cassia, went through this same ordeal back in 2009. She was diagnosed with Auto-immune Encephalitis; Cause unknown. It was so reassuring to know that this is something that you can recover from, albeit after some time, but mainly I wanted to know if Tintin could hear us even though she can’t communicate, and she said most definitely. Carla said she could hear and understand everything while she was coherent, but she was unable to talk and find the words she needed to say. That was all I needed to know, so that way we can at least let her know that we know she can hear us. Once we told her that, it’s as if she became more calm and patient with us. No resistance or struggles, and also less shaking episodes. This is all progress, and we’re happy. She was even smiling for the selfies which I posted for you all to see! I know it’s a far comparison from how you’re used to seeing her, but it’s 100x better than where she’s been for the past few weeks. We’ll take it! Right now, her food is getting cold, but she’s knocked out asleep, and there’ll always be more food! Sleep is nature’s best method for healing the brain! Keep her in your thoughts, and prayers. Appreciate you all. 🙌🏽🙏🏽❤️

Hey guys, so some of you have heard some stuff, but I realize that many still haven’t. My sweetie Tintin has been sick with what we now know is a form of auto-immune encephalitis. We’re just doing what we can for her, and keeping her as comfortable and calm as we can. I’m so sorry to not keep most of you in the loop on this, but I’ve been preoccupied with so much, and sometimes I just don’t want to initiate the sadness that comes with a message like this, but also it’s because I know we have a lot of friends who truly care for her and her well being, I know that I need to do my part to keep all of you informed. We don’t need anything at the moment, but just keep her in your thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery. She’s already moving in a positive direction, even after going through hell for 2 weeks, and all we can do now is put our faith in the Dr.’s that will be taking charge of her recovery. I thought I would tell you the entire story from when this all first started, so if you care to know the whole ordeal up until now, then please continue reading over on my blog and Facebook…

We believe it started with an infection from a cut on her foot, that she got while in Vegas for the weekend. Days after, she had a swollen foot. Started on antibiotics, but then she started feeling very emotional and couldn’t stop crying. It led to an anxiety attack, and then she started to hear music in her head. She began to worry cause she knew something was wrong, but didn’t know what. She started to show signs of confusion as well, and we had to go to the ER for a bad panic attack on Wed. 7/19. Blood work came back negative. Diagnosis was Anxiety. Prescription for Xanax. Sent us on our way. Next day we left for the weekend, for Nini’s wedding, in which she was to be her Maid of Honor. You’ve seen her IG over the past year and you know this was just as important for her, as it was for Nini. She was calm all Thursday, as she was feeling the drugs I’m sure. She was confused, but functional. She forgot to pack a few things, as we discovered when we got to the hotel, but it was okay. All through the night, she wouldn’t sleep and just kept worrying about the music in her head and she just kept crying that something is wrong. Her meds were helping a little, but I did breathing exercises all night with her, to keep her calm. She never slept.

Friday 7/21, we head out to the rehearsal walk-through, and everything seems mellow. If we can just get through this, we should be good. Well, we got through most of it, but then she started to cry again and once she knew she was sort of making a scene around everyone, I had to walk her away back to the car, where the next panic attack set in, and this one was really physical and loud. She was screaming that we were missing the rehearsal, and she needed to be there. She was climbing over to my driver side and wanted to sit on my lap, and was turning up our music to full blast. She was trying to leave the car, and I had to hold her inside. I called my Mom, and basically she understood that this was getting worse, so she called Shawna, Sean, and my Dad, and they all took off up to Ventura to come and help me bring her back home. There’s no way we were going to make it through the weekend, and I decided to just call it right then and there. Paramedics came out to the venue and helped calm her down and assess her, and they also believed that this was something psychological that was causing this. I agreed. So after waiting awhile, we were able to get her back to the hotel with the help of Mimi and Randy, the sister and bro-in-law of Nini. Once there, it was a game of keeping her calm, until the family showed up. Keep in mind, we were all the way out near Ventura, about 2 hrs. away with traffic. She was surprised to see them show up, and of course she was already confused, and had already forgotten that we were at the rehearsal just hours before. I didn’t want to trigger her that we were leaving, but Mom and Shawna distracted her in the bathroom. They had her show them some new clothes, while we threw everything in our luggage and checked out. We said we were going to go eat lunch and check out the venue, but I think she knew we were going back home. She was calm all the way home, and said to my Mom, “Mom, something’s wrong”. My Mom replied, “Do you want to go to the Dr.’s?”, and she said yes. We were so relieved, because we assumed there was going to be no resistance once we got to the hospital, where we were hoping to get her admitted.

We headed straight for Inter-Community in Covina, since we knew they had a psych ward where she could be evaluated, but upon arrival to the ER, their triage team said due to her not being a harm to herself, or others, they couldn’t admit her. We were in a panic. They said she would need a Dr.’s referral of some sort, and suggested calling her regular Dr., which she has none, because we only go to urgent care as needed. Called Magan, and they said they don’t need to approve something like that. Great. We’re stuck in the middle here, with my girlfriend, who is on the verge of something she has no control of, and we need professional help. People are just such robots these days. Nobody bothers to think about what they can do for someone, instead of what they can’t do. By this time, Tintin is starting up again, worrying about not feeling right, and getting another anxiety attack in the ER waiting room. She starts asking everyone in the ER waiting room if they’re hurting, and one older gentleman had said yes, just being funny, and she asked him if she could give him a hug, all while she was sobbing uncontrollably. This is her demeanor, totally. You know her. Anyways, we decided to call Aurora Charter Oak, in Covina, which is the best place in the area to go to, for any type of mental health related issues, and they said to bring her down right away, and so we did. This was so tough for me, because she was already hysterical while driving over there, and she didn’t want to be taken out of the car, and she wanted me to carry her. They put her in a wheel chair, and I helped them wheel her down to the unit where she was to stay for evaluation, all the while kicking and screaming. I felt so bad, because she was screaming and crying “Don’t leave me”. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do.

So, thankfully they were able to get her consent to share information with me, so that way I could stay up to date with how she is doing. The first few days are just a lot of resistance, and fighting off everyone. She won’t sleep, and she won’t even get into her bed. Not eating either. On the 3rd day, which was a Monday, she was admitted to Inter-Community’s ER, due to dehydration. I arrive, and she is a hot mess. Hair is all messy. She has bruises on her legs, and scrapes on the tops of her toes, like she’s been scraping them, and her speech is still normal, but she’s yelling nonsense, like “I don’t like your french language” and stuff like that. She is clearly out of her mind, which is a hard thing to see, after knowing her better than anyone else for the past 11 years. She comes in and out of coherence, which I assume is just the Ativan that they have been giving her, because they chemically restrain her, instead of physically restrain her. It doesn’t work with her though. She fights through all of it. The ER stabilizes her and then sends her back to Charter Oak. This happens 4 times over the next week, each time, she is degrading even more. Loss of speech. Can’t say words. Mumbles, and hums. Still physically strong at times, and is able to walk and I even got her to eat one day while visiting, but then she started seizuring and locking up. She would get stiff and contort her foot. They ended up sending her back to the ER cause she was getting fevers of like 104. This time, the ER actually paid closer attention and was taking in to account her regression. Fucking finally! They admit her over night, while she is administered IV fluids and to observe her.

We would come in every day and try to interact with her, and we would start to record her episodes of seizures, and we were able to show them to her Dr. and the Dr. said this is something that looks Neurological, and wanted the Neurologist to come and assess her. He came in and said that he thinks he has seen it before, and it was something along the lines of an auto-immune encephalitis. Hey, we were willing to hear anything at this point, after over a week of nothing over at Charter Oak. After researching this auto-immune encephalitis, everything became much more clear to us, and I was putting all of the experience together, and YES, this seems to match up exactly with how she was reacting and how she was displaying psychological type problems, and going into a psychotic state, but it wasn’t for the reasons we had thought, like stress from the wedding, work, me lol, etc. It was already set into motion, and we were just treating it wrong the entire time. So, this is when the Neurologist decided to get her started on Solumedrol, a high-dose steroid, to help aide in whatever this is doing to her brain. Almost within 24 hrs. we started to see tiny signs of progress, like no seizures, and she was starting to focus on us more, and she was making facial expressions, although still talking to herself and not really recognizing us. She was also sleeping on her own. This was progress to us. The next day, she was starting to have longer times of being interactive and alert, but there are a few side effects that have been happening, one being that she gets over-stimulated very easily, and her heart rate can jump all the way up to 170, or as low as stopping, which it did 5 times one day, but since she was moved to the CCU (Cardiac Care Unit), I think she has had only one stoppage, and she has been hooked up to machines that have like an external pacemaker to keep the rhythms on time, but they also shock her if it drops to zero. I saw it do it once to her, and boy is that scary! She sits right up. The conversations and the mannerisms in her face and hands are improving. She has small windows of clarity, where she told her Mom yesterday “I haven’t seen you in a long time”. Hey, this is all progress. I can get her to kiss me sometimes, and she’ll actually pucker up sorta. She’s so cute. Her words are still not really there, and she has trouble adding subject matter to her sentences. The brain is busy, but it’s going to take more time for sure.

As of yesterday, her Dr. has decided to transfer her to Huntington Memorial, where she can get more advanced treatment for this. That’s great news, and hopefully she continues to improve. Nothing is for certain at this time, but this is where we are at right now.