Extreme Complexity…But Also Extreme Wellness
One thing I have come to understand over the past 21 years is that systems are often built around: averages, categories, expected trajectories, standardized staffing assumptions, and generalized protocols. But some people simply do not fit neatly into those structures. Alex’s situation has never been “cookie cutter.” The severity of his injuries. The long-term survival. The ventilator and diaphragm pacing interaction. The autonomic involvement. The cognitive outcome. The level of wellness achieved. The highly individualized stability patterns developed over decades.(through a lot of tough times) All of it created realities many medical professionals had simply never encountered before. So much of our journey has involved living in territory where: there was limited precedent, limited experiential knowledge, and very few truly comparable situations. And when that happens, systems often try to apply standardized frameworks to realities that fundamentally are not standardized. I use ...
