A New Year Begins
January 2019 began much like any other new year. There was refreshed perspective and renewed activity level at the office with everyone back from the holidays. All were mourning the infrequency of corporate holidays between the beginning of the year and Memorial Day, etc. Having to work full weeks is such a challenge after the holiday season is over!
Family Emergency - Day 1
All was going well, but then on the evening of January 10th, I received a call from my mom that my dad had another stroke that morning. He had two strokes a few days apart almost 4 years ago, and it has been a bit of a roller coaster of strength and weakness since then. As is the case with most strokes, though, this one came out of nowhere. He had been his normal self that morning – just feeling a little “off” – but in the span of less than 30 minutes, the stroke had taken its toll. Mom called 9-1-1, and they whisked him to the nearest hospital for the quickest intervention.
She had been really concerned that he was not going to make it while they worked on him in the ER. He was scheduled to spend at least Wednesday night in the ICU, but that it would be a matter of observation to see where he went from there. My brother, sister-in-law, and nephews, who live nearby, were on a week-long Caribbean cruise. I was 6 1/2-7 hours away feeling somewhat helpless.
Family Emergency - Day 2
Thursday morning, the emergency seemed to have passed, and now it was “wait and see” to determine how much damage had really been done this time. As soon as others were made aware, we were covered in prayer across the country – for Dad’s recovery, for us as we cared for him (and each other), for the doctors’ wisdom, for safe travels home for the rest of the family, for safe travels there and home for me…whatever crossed someone’s mind on our behalf.
What's a girl to do?
By Thursday night, I had made plans with my boss for me to leave town on Friday to check on both of my parents. (I am SO grateful to work for and with a group pf people with such a gracious perspective in situations like this!) Upon my arrival around dinnertime on Friday, Dad had already shown significant signs of improvement even from the day before. It was becoming quite evident, however, that this stroke had affected his cognition more than the others had.
Making Strokes...errr...Strides
Since the hospital speech therapist doesn’t make rounds over the weekend, we worked on that piece. Several times a day, we would give his brain a workout as much as possible to help re-anchor him in the current. He did well on some questions, but others generated more entertaining results. (My family tends to find humor alongside any less-than-ideal situations. 🙂 )
As the initial stroke fog wore off, he became more aware when what his mouth was saying was not what his brain intended for him to say. That was a small source of frustration for him, but he kept working at it, even when it was wearing him out. Overall, we saw improvement day over day, even though the progress was a bit slower than the physical recovery.
My brother and his family returned home that Sunday morning. After they finished their morning church activities, we all spent a good bit of time together at the hospital. On Monday, I spent the first half of the day at the hospital, then headed back home. It was a bit of a whirlwind weekend, but during these times it is so important to be together as a family! The events of the weekend didn’t necessarily warrant lots of photos, but there were some things I thought I would share. Check out the few photos below.
What about you?
How did your year begin? Has it been routine, or did you have something attempt to throw you off course early, too? Please share in the comments.
James and I had just started Whole30 two days earlier. I was determined to stay on the right path on our health journey while I was gone. This was one super tasty meal I found in the hospital cafeteria – chicken, green beans, and seasoned veggies. Yum!
They had my dad on a pureed diet, so he generally got a pureed version of whatever they happened to be serving that day. Any guesses as to what this is? Leave your guesses in the comments. It should be interesting to see….and I would bet that no one will get it right! 🙂
My Precious Niece, Bella
