ABOUT THIS EPISODE
This episode of Turtle Talk goes deep into the brain injury rehab recovery stretch — the months where Michelle and Tom were living in two places, running two households, and trudging through days that just sucked them dry. Michelle reads the CaringBridge post Tom wrote on a night she couldn't find the words herself, about perseverance, resiliency, and learning to embrace the suck instead of fighting it.She also talks about the thing that kept them going: refusing to accept the prognosis. First a nursing home for the rest of Morgan's life, then a care facility instead of home. The answer both times was no. Michelle explains why she took notes at every therapy session, asked ten thousand questions, and researched everything before agreeing to anything — including the tendon surgery she and Tom turned down and have never regretted.What is a pediatric rehab hospital stay really like for a family? It's infections and BiPAP nights and a trach that clogs, and then it's Morgan's first sneeze since the accident — the first real sound anyone had heard from her. It's Deacon Jack Sullivan flying in with a first-class relic of John Henry Newman for a healing service that filled the whole church, and the crushing moment afterward when the instant miracle didn't come. And then, on the morning he left, Morgan's trach came out.For families walking a traumatic illness journey anywhere from Sioux Falls to Rochester, Minnesota, this one is about hope arriving quietly instead of all at once.
