Inspired by Another Blogger's Post

Empaths & Highly-Sensitive People (HSP): Trauma Could Have Been Avoided if Parents Had Listened to Teenager


One of the bloggers I follow recently wrote the post above about how a family could've avoided a tragic event had they listened to a highly sensitive teenager.  I had a similar experience though I was about 22 at the time.  My mom informed me she had scheduled an annual test she was told she needed to have done because of a chronic illness she has.  The sick, sinking feeling in my stomach was enough to tell me it was a very bad idea.  By that point in my life though, I had been taught so much to ignore my instincts and that my feelings were always wrong so I kept quiet.
On the day of the test, I had just started a summer college class and had planned to stay home but got home just in time to go with my parents for my mom's test.  Fast forward two hours...my mom is being rushed by ambulance from the testing center to the local emergency room with a perforated intestine.  That night she is rushed into surgery and the hole in her intestine sewn closed but with a less than stellar outlook from the surgeon.  Two days later she is rushed back into surgery and 7 inches of her intestines removed while a colostomy bag is placed.  The next day she is awake in the ICU but her oxygen keeps falling dangerously low.  Shortly after my dad and I left for the night we were called saying she was being put on a ventilator.  In the next month, there was one more emergency surgery and more inappropriate actions by staff and doctors than I can count.  Finally she was released and took almost 2 years to recover to some semblance of normal though she is left with permanent medical issues.
I still wonder if I'd told her about the horrible feelings I had surrounding that test if I could have changed anything, if she would have listened.  Logic says no, but I still can't help but wonder.