I want to thank absolutely everyone for praying for me, sending DMs, Messages of encouragement. I have been in hospital since the 7th Dec until 7th of May this time. I can now stay home for 4 weeks only before returning to hospital for another 3-4 months for reconstructive surgery. Sorry for the break, but thank you for the support, it really means more than you know!!! 🙏❣️ I'd love your continued prayers as I navigate the next few months 🙏 For now I am sooo happy to be in my own environment, my own bed, not being woken up all the time, and this puppy on my lap who I have missed immensely 🥰

So this face really explains everything in the last 5 months. To think i have been in hospital this long is unfathomable. In the last 12 months I have been here for nearly 8 months now. I'm literally scared of my own shadow now. Not much more can happen then it has in the last 12 months. I've had 7 surgeries, MRSA Golden Staph, Sepsis twice, Bactermina, normal Staph twice, and the scariest of all and what's had me here nearly 5 months in a row with a 10 day break home is this rare bone eating infection that only 1% of people in the world get, and 70% don't make the first 12 months. I'm pretty numb to be honest and in disbelief most of the time. Dissociation is my new best friend. I'm usually the talker and I've gone quiet. It's impossible to even grasp the reality of the last 5 years let alone 12 months. My nursing ward has become my family and safe place, because it's extremely hard to talk to anyone about it all because it's emotionally taxing, and when I finally do, I find myself talking about everything else that is completely unimportant butttt what is actually happening to me as it makes me re-live it. I only have family visit to keep the risk of further infections at bay as I am completely immune compromised. I'm constantly telling others around me it's ok I will be alright, but I don't actually feel that way. It's like I have this need to over compensate by comforting others around me who show emotion towards what has happened to me, except myself. I am still on track for reconstructive surgery and praying the date doesn't change from June 12th. Then I'll be here for another long stay. Praying like mad there is no more hic ups that puts that date off, as I am holding on to it for dear life. In-between that, I hope I make it home for at least a few weeks before that. But I want to thank everyone for their prayers, messages and reaching out. I have had a peace at times that really does surpass normal understanding, and have needed that peace to get me through, because God knows I'm at my limit mentally and physically. So Thank you 🙏❣️

Well i've been in hospital for 10 weeks now, fighting a rare infection. Only 1% of people have this is the world and 70% don't make the first year. I've had 3 surgeries, 2 x ICU stays. I find myself longing for my bed, my house, home cooked food. But for now I just want health and to make this fight. 2.5 months down 😘

Meet Dr. Andrew Comley, my Orthopedic Surgeon from Wakefield Orthopedic @wakefieldclinic at Calvary Hospital Angus St. @calvary_health_care Andrew took me on as a patient when many may not have, especially the circumstances i was in, when we met, as I had a lot of trauma to be mended. Instead of shying away, he took me on with full gusto. Always giving me his best. We have had 8 surgeries in 4 years, and he has changed my life, saved my life, and given me hope at a better future, when many could have passed me on. He is professional, meticulous, unwavering, caring, humble beyond belief, and full of grace. If you need an orthopedic surgeon who puts the patient first no matter the circumstance you've found him. Call Wakefeild Orthopedic 8236 4100.

We are so quick to ask for prayer when we are poorly, but not as quick to thank him for the result. I wanna get better at because I'm still here, and that... is a miracle, thank you, Jesus 🙏 When someone asks for prayer, you know they are not ok, as it actually takes a lot of courage to ask for prayer and admit you aren't coping. But society doesn't teach us that. We all put on that brave face. How about you just be YOU, exactly how you come today, and then how you come tomorrow and so on. So many more people will be touched as they gravitate to the vulnerable sides we dont like people to see. No one can be strong all the time. But at the beginning of this now 6 month fight, I would try and be whom I thought people expected me to be, but there comes a time you can't pretend, and I am realising that is OK as well. When you have no choice but to just "be," that's when you find your true self. It doesn't mean that a loud, vibrant person isn't me either. It just means I'm stripped back atm and taking a step back to heal. One can only get back up so many times, before they fall and stay there for a while, and that's me now, and I have now learnt that it is also OK as well. During these times of absolute stripping back, I like to call it, you lose energy very quickly. So, during your "healing journey," many follow and offer help, support, and love, and as the journey goes on, it gets less than a few less again. Then you get to the point where people just don't know what to say. Because you know what? Either do I? I feel like if I explain every detail to someone of the last 5 years I've just met, they wouldn't even believe it could happen because I still struggle too. My best friend Nadine wrote this song for me, and I've used it to show you some really personal pictures of the last 6 months fighting golden staph and then sepsis. Keep in mind these are the good pictures, I tried to take the confronting ones out. This journey is still ongoing, and It's been in this time that EVERYTHING has started to crash around me, literally.... I was and still feel numb, I didn't want to talk, and some days I still don't want to. Don't take it as a sign against you. I need to learn how to take off everything that has crashed around me first. I'm still on the floor and I've realised that it's ok to stay there for a while as well. I nearly died twice in the last 6 months, and sometimes I ask why I didn't? Because after 20 years in pain, it's a long road with very few walking companions. I cry thinking about my beautiful son Colby, who has had to watch this journey nearly his whole life. I wish he didn't have to, but then part of that is what makes him, him as well. So there is ALWAYS a purpose, and there is ALWAYS a reason. Man, I am proud mumma of the man you have become❣️ So I hold on to that last string of hope I still have, well let's say a peice of cotton, in the hope that when my story is read it will help other people, and maybe change lives, because for awhile there I was actually brave enough to write it. I realise managing to sit in the sun for 30 mins in the morning is heaven. Sitting for meals and then back to bed is the reality, but I hang on to "I sat in the sun for 30 mins today." Then slowly but surely I will lift off the things that have fallen on top of me, one at a time, and start finding my way back. Because my small circle is unfailing, never changing, always loving, accepting of any way I come and always available. I am loved and so very blessed 🙏 I'm extremely grateful for all the messages, and if I haven't replied, you now know why, but I have read them ALL, and I thank you. They continue to encourage me. Thank you ALL so much, Much Love Always Emma xx ❣️

If you are looking for a surgeon who cares about his patients outcomes, is trained in all the up to date techniques and options, and more importantly actually listens to his patients and expresses sincere empathy, Andrew is your guy. I've been in a unique position where not many patients would find themselves in, and due to little education, blind trust and rushed surgeries, at the age of only 43 I found myself in the terrible position of having to find a new orthopaedic surgeon who was willing to take on another surgeons mess. Firstly, it is EXTREMELY rare to find, especially in the same state. He took me on without hesitation, and with only my outcome at the forefront of his mind, not the situation. I have now had 6 major surgeries with him and another yet to come. I feel supported, educated, comfortable, and, more importantly, heard. Andrew is an EXTREMELY rare surgeon where his patients needs come first, not his tally on the board. He's professional, curtious, and extremely empathetic to my plight and journey thus far. I will be forever fortunate that he took me on. You see real true surgeons that get into surgery to literally help patients, and their outcomes are extremely rare to find. If you take the time to read this, use this as my testimony to utilise his services and choose him to be your orthopaedic surgeon. I am forever grateful, fortunate, and blessed. Firstly that he took me on, and secondly, because he wanted a better outcome for me at such a young age. Look no further. Make Andrew your orthopaedic surgeon. 🙏 instagram.com/tv/CboJVxFDgiV…