ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Amanda Lynch’s senior year was challenging even before the pandemic.
“I was in school for about a week,” Lynch told the St. Paul Pioneer Press, “and then, boom, I was in the hospital.”
Boom, indeed.
The West St. Paul teen’s crisis began at 2 a.m. Sept. 9 - the day before her 18th birthday.
“She had a headache,” said her mom, Alisha Lynch. “That’s how it all started.”
Her condition worsened quickly.
She spent her birthday throwing up. The day after - Sept. 11 - she became lethargic. When she could no longer respond verbally, her mother called 911. Amanda was taken by ambulance to St. Joseph’s Hospital.
“How quickly life can change,” said her dad, Dave Lynch.
Her family learned that Amanda had developed meningitis from her exposure to listeria - a foodborne bacteria.
It is not known what Amanda ate that made her sick.
Here’s what is known, according to her parents: The scar tissue in Amanda’s brain means she is living with low-pressure hydrocephalus, which requires a shunt to allow for the flow of cerebrospinal fluid.
It’s an extremely rare complication in someone so young and healthy, with no risk factors, her family has been told.
This is why Amanda’s senior year has been spent mostly in a blur of surgeries, hospitalizations and prayers.
Amanda sometimes finds it difficult to believe she really is a senior at Henry Sibley High School in Mendota Heights.
“She only went to school for a week before she got sick,” her dad says.
“I don’t remember that at all,” says Amanda.
She also doesn’t remember her 18th birthday.
Sometimes, her parents have to remind her that time really has passed.
“They’re my fact checkers,” Amanda says.
Fortunately, her fact checkers are able to stay by her side: Amanda was most recently released from the hospital before the pandemic restricted visitors: She has been home since March 2, her longest stretch since she first got sick.
The family does miss the angels of St. Joe’s, though.
“We made quite a few friends on the 5100 floor,” says Amanda’s mom. “Those nurses are tremendous.”
While her classmates have had to get used to distance learning this spring, Amanda was already accustomed to it.
“In a way, everyone is now in the same position as me,” she says of learning from home.
Still:
“It’s kind of lonely,” she says.
Especially since she can’t see her friends.
However, despite suffering double vision and short-term memory loss, Amanda is getting back into her groove as a top student, most recently earning a 90% in her online economics class. Once she finishes three language arts papers, she’ll be ready to graduate on time with her class. She’s even back at her part-time job at Southview Garden Center.
Just like her peers, though, Amanda is disappointed by Minnesota’s effective cancellation of their K-12 finale.
Her neurosurgeon might be, too.
“Dr. Kebriaei said, ‘I hope to see you at your graduation party,’” Amanda recalls from her pre-pandemic conversations.
During this time, her dad has been reflecting on the Class of 2020.
“Amanda was born a half hour before September 11th,” he says of the terrorist attacks of 2001. “The kids who are seniors this year came into the world during a very uncertain time - nobody knew what was going to happen. And now they are leaving high school not knowing what is going to happen.”
Despite the uncertainty that the pandemic has brought, Amanda and her family - including her siblings and her Grandma Jan - are learning to enjoy the moment, whether it’s getting outside, watching a movie or hearing Amanda laugh again.
“Really appreciate what you have right now,” says Dave Lynch. “Your future is very uncertain.”
Their priorities are not.
“You don’t always realize how important your health and family are …” says Alisha Lynch.
” … until they’re challenged,” Amanda says.
The biggest lesson of Amanda’s senior year came not in school but in the hospital, where she fought her way back to her life.
It’s a lesson she’s been known to remind her parents of when times are tough (sometimes, Amanda is the fact checker).
“I’m still alive,” she says.
Her dad says: “It’s her motto.”
She explains her attitude this way:
“I have to keep going,” she says. “I have my whole life ahead of me.”
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