The Walking Dead and the Fight for Life

Lily is in the hospital.  And she is sick.  Three different viruses, sick.  Pneumonia on top of three different viruses, sick.  It was bad.  Real bad. 

But things are getting better.  Slowly.  Her numbers are better, and she's now beginning to breath spontaneously.  On her own.  Above the machine.

She's been ventilated since early Monday morning. 

But she is a fighter.  A Walking Dead fighter.

Yes, Dave and I watch The Walking Dead.  When it was on, I looked forward to watching it.  I think, even though I am grossed out by all of the violence, I am intrigued by the psychology behind it--that of the living.

Think about it.  There are millions of zombies out there and not many survivors.  Luckily, the zombie/survivor ratio isn't all that bad usually. . .until this season. . .but still.

Is there really, realistically, any hope of Rick and his gang ultimately surviving millions of zombies? I don't think so. Yet they hold out hope.  And they fight.  It's just in them to survive.

Every time I watch The Walking Dead and I think about that fight for survival--that inherent fight--I think about Lily and her fight.

She's been fighting since before she was born.  She's been given horrible odds, and yet she fights.

And I am intrigued.

Because here we have a little girl who, according to all the different tests out there, is cognitively around a 9 month old.  Yet here she has this deep-rooted, unstoppable fight for her life.  Even though Dave and I have encouraged her every step of the way to fight, who knows if she's understood it.  Even if she has, I think it's less for us and more for her.  She's doing it because it's a part of her.

We've seen it time and time again:  from her fight to make it to birth, to the fight to take a breath when she stopped breathing. . .three times.  The fight to soar above "failure to thrive."  Conquering the first round of RSV, a bowel obstruction, a diaphragmatic hernia. We see it during therapy, as she strives to push herself past where we thought she'd ever be.

And we saw it when she coded on Monday. . .twice.

We see it on a daily basis. 

Every second of every day, this little girl fights.  And we've said it time and time again:  as long as Lily fights, we will definitely fight for her.