On Sept. 26 my sister went to my mom's house, as she does every week day morning. Kim found mom unresponsive in her bed with a blood sugar of 500. Kim immediately called 911 and so began another few days in the hospital. That entire day was just bad! Mom was out of it all day until about 6pm that evening and her speech was terrible. Kim and I know that when mom's blood sugar is high her speech is affected, but as her blood sugar goes down, her speech improves. This was not the case on Sept. 26. We were worried and a series of CT scans and a MRI's were done to determine if mom had another stroke. She did. She suffered another stroke adjacent to her first stroke, very close to her language center. The 2nd stroke was much smaller (thank goodness) and did not affect her mobility (another blessing). As I write this today her speech is much improved, but she's headed back to speech therapy next week. She was speaking so well that speech discharged mom two weeks ago.
God is at work here and when these bumps in the road hit, He reminds me time and time again He is in control and we have a tribe of people praying for us and God has listened to those prayers. For example, all last week was just hard. Mom had fallen into an abyss of depression. My mom has never battled depression. There is no shame in depression, or taking meds to help with depression, but it's very hard for the people on the outside to witness the fall into the abyss and try to pull them ot of it. In fact, you can't pull them out of it. Only they can decide. A few things occurred last week that turned it all around. My mom's dear friend, Leslie, prayed very hard the night of Sept. 26, that not only would mom be better in the morning but that God would restore her emotional state of well being. Then Mary's mom, Joyce (who Mary says has a bat phone to God), stayed up all night on Sept. 26 and into the wee morning hours of Sept. 27 and prayed for mom. When I came into mom's room on Sept. 27 she was sitting up, smiling and talking (broken but we could understand her). And she laughed. Have you ever loved someone and witnessed them fall into a depression? Most people have but what hurt the most was not hearing my mom laugh. Then on Sept. 27 she laughed, like really laughed and Kim, Leslie and I laughed right along with her. It was the most beautiful noise I've heard in a long time and I doubt I will ever forget that sound on that day. Mom confessed to Kim and I just last night that she is praying again! Since mom's stroke on July 9, she has wanted to read her Guideposts everyday and she has wanted people to pray with her but I didn't sense she was actively engaged in her own intimate prayer life, until her confession last night. I believe God intervened this week to get our attention. Something feels different - like this was His way of helping mom accept where she is today and reminding her (and all of us) that He is in control.
We got mom sensors for her diabetes. Every minute of every day Kim and I can look on our phones and see what mom's blood sugar is. We've had this for four days and so far, so good. As we move forward our goal is to keep mom safe, healthy and happy. Whatever it takes to accomplish those things, we will do.
By the way, the picture included with this blog is the selfie I took of us the day we got home from the hospital, Sept. 28. God is good, all the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment