March ended with...the hopsital

Monday morning my alarm went off around 6:30am, I'm normally up around 7am and so I was dozing in and out of consciousness when I heard a bunch of pounding, banging and felt everything shaking. Earthquake entered my groggy thoughts but I quickly dismissed it. 

My dad came out of his room shortly after and yelled for all of us kids to get up. He said something was wrong with mom. Within in five minutes we were up and dressed and standing in the doorway to my parents room. He said he thought she either had a seizure or stroke. I instantly prayed that it wasn't a stroke. 

If you know anyone who has ever had a seizure you know the post symptoms to expect. But if you don't, it's very scary to watch what happens after a seizure. My mom went from not responding, to opening her eyes but not focusing. To finally focusing and speaking but saying complete gibberish. Finally just before the paramedics showed up she was alert and speaking normally. My dad went with her to the hospital. I went to work, my bro covered farm chores for my dad and Christie held down the fort. And we waited. 

I spoke briefly to my dad at one point and he said they had done a CAT scan and found something and were waiting for an MRI. 

Much later after still not hearing anything I called him and he told me to head home after work and he would update us then on everything. Not knowing hardly anything all day it was a very never racking few hours as different thoughts and situations went through my head. And by the time I had this conversation I did not feel good about it at all. A solemn face met me as I looked at my co-worker and voiced that I didn't feel good about this. She told me to call her later if I needed anything. Back to work I went, trying to focus as my scared thoughts went through my head. At that point I was thinking the worst...

Finally, my aunt called. She had been up there for most of the day and she calmly filled me in. They found a tumor on the left side of my mom's head. It was benign and has probably been there for years. The doctor couldn't say for sure but it could have been anywhere from 10 to 20 years. It was now the size of an egg. It has also probably been the cause of all her migraines for so many years. You don't want to have a tumor, but if you do this is about the best one you can have. 

They scheduled her for surgery the next day. We all rushed to get up there on time the next morning so we could see her before they took her into surgery. It was a scary moment for all of us. There were a lot of risks even if she came out of the surgery fine. But the amount of people praying for us was amazing. And I felt at peace most of the day. 

The three and a half hour surgery concluded with us meeting with the doctor. He said that the tumor was more into the brain than he had originally thought. He got everything he could see under the microscope but he wondered if it had impaired her speech at all. He later told us to prepare ourselves her speech was different. We went from our normal waiting room up to the ICU waiting room. Finally they rolled mom across and we saw her for a moment. She was pretty groggy though. 

Much later we were able to see her, her speech was not as bad as I had expected. It was more it took her longer to form words and she slurred some of her letters. The best part of the day was holding her hand and getting to talk to my normal and ok mom after major brain surgery.  Before I left that night I asked her how she felt. She said her head hurt and pointed to where they had done the surgery. My sister and I kinda laughed and said told her that was normal.

By Wednesday they had moved her out ICU, which was faster then we expected. She was much more alert and doing well that day. Eating finally too. She hadn't eaten anything before that since Sunday. She was so nauseated that she wasn't keeping anything down. She had lots of company both that day and on Thursday. 

I talked to my dad on Thursday to see how she was doing and they said they were releasing her! We have been constantly surprised with how fast she's been recovering. So by Thursday evening she was home. 

We're all taking the weekend to recuperate and get some much-needed rest. We've had more food than we know what to do with. Thankfully we can freeze a lot of the extra. Our living room has become a regular florist shop. And we have had multiple phone calls and visitors throughout the last few days. But we're so thankful for how well she's doing. And praying that God continues to guide her through this recovery process.