Update on Yaya

I'm behind on blogging, but not much worth mentioning went on last week.  We did have quite a scare with my mom over the weekend, and that just knocked me off course for awhile.

For those of you who don't know, my mom had a massive stroke on December 11, causing her to need brain surgery.  Since leaving the hospital, she's been at a rehab hospital and is now finishing her rehab time at an independent living/assisted living facility where my father works.  The stroke left her paralyzed on her left side, impacted some cognitive skills, and left her with a condition called left neglect.  Her brain did not realize the left side of her world and even the left side of words when reading, her plate etc.  She is now walking with assistance and should be able to walk on her own one day.  She occasionally has movement in her left arm but no controlled movements yet.  Her left neglect is better, and because she's aware of it now, she remembers to compensate.  A big hurdle was cleared a few weeks ago when she stopped having to depend on a catheter.

The road to recovery has been long and full of ups and downs.  She is now suffering from her second case of c. diff. bacteria.  The first put her in the hospital for over a week, but this was caught quickly and she only had a day or two of feeling bad.  She'll have a few weeks of doing well, then have a set back like a UTI, pain or swelling in her leg, and these cases of c. diff.

Last Friday my father found her very confused and not herself at lunch time.  It came and went all afternoon until they decided to take her to the emergency room.  There were several possibilities: UTI, coming off a medicine, etc., but confusion after a stroke is scary.  My dad kind of downplayed everything so I did not go.  By 7 or 8 p.m. they had determined that she had a UTI, and a CT scan only showed swelling.  I had been pretty down until then but then began to think it was nothing serious.  Just before 10 my dad let me know that an MRI had showed bleeding on the brain.  They would be leaving for Norfolk where she would be evaluated and possibly have surgery.

I'm almost 2 hours from Norfolk, so I didn't know what to do.  My dad really didn't want me to come, but I wanted to be there with them.  Ned couldn't take me because I wanted him to be able to get back to the kids in the morning.  We finally decided that I would get up really early, feed my parents' cats and pick up some things for my dad, then go, unless something changed.  By 12:45 a.m. they determined that the blood was not fresh and that she would not require immediate surgery.

Miraculously, by the time I arrived in Norfolk, Mom's surgeon had reviewed all her scans and determined that the blood was from the previous stroke, not something new.  She called it an "over-read" on the part of the first hospital.  She was confident that the confusion/short-term memory issues were due to the UTI, and Mom went back to where she is staying now that afternoon.

We are extremely thankful and very exhausted.  I know if I am, my parents, especially my father, must be experiencing 10 times more.  I haven't mentioned my mom's condition in many posts, other than we've been to visit her.  While I owe no one an explanation, I wanted to be sure that no one thought I was just sailing through this.  Our world turned upside down on December 11.  We're living, getting dressed, working, trying to have fun, etc., but all we've done is managed to figure out how to do those things still upside down.  I have spent a great deal of these past 4 months in silent mourning.  I only told that to a few people for awhile, because of course I should be celebrating that she's still here and doing as well as she is.  And I am celebrating, but I had to mourn too, for her, my dad, my kids, and myself.  Right now it is easy to look ahead toward a new normal when things are going well, but a set back sets me back a bit.  The stress and worry mounts so high sometimes that I feel like I need to shake out of my skin.  Thankfully there is a wonderful husband, sweet babies, incredible friends and co-workers, and powerful messages from God.

I had finally become extremely comfortable in December despite an extremely challenging school year.  While that comfort fell apart, I know I'll find it again soon.  Avery wants to spend the night with Yaya and watch the Sneetches from Green Eggs and Ham, and Sam still smiles at Yaya and Poppa as big as ever.  That's how I know that no matter how much as changed, an awful lot has stayed the same.