Stroke of luck?

Oh heck - It's 3 months since I last posted!

No, I haven't done the Faith piece yet. Started College instead - two B's and 1 B+ for my journal assignment. Hanging out for the essay mark.

More on that later. First, the bad news:

Why the title? Well, it could have been a lot worse.

Sometime early Friday morning my mother suffered a stroke – a blood vessel on the left side of her brain burst. She had been feeling nauseous in the night, and had “cramps” in her legs. When she tried to get out of bed and stand up, she found the right side of her body wasn’t co-operating, and collapsed on the floor. Dad covered her, called the doctor, the ambulance and me, in that order.

We spent all day Friday in the Emergency department, where she was poked, prodded and questioned by a number of doctors, had blood taken, and two CAT scans – the second with dye. It was 5.00pm before she was taken up to the Stroke ward.

I'm not really feeling any grief in all this - we've been waiting for something similar to happen for so long, it was just a matter of when. Friday morning, and the phone call from Dad, was actually the worst moment - I went into hyperdrive, making calls, and got to the hospital before the ambulance did. I just held mum's hand, and acted as advocate for her and dad - the practical me took over. One thing I've learned over the last six months, since becoming a Christian, is that I am a true "Martha" - practical service is a basic part of my makeup.

On Saturday night, we picked my brother Mick up from the airport – he had managed to get a flight from Melbourne, after receiving my email about mum that morning.


I stood up in church this morning to ask the congregation to pray for mum, and then the assistant pastor and his wife prayed with me in front of everyone - waaaay to much public time! (Our pastor is on holiday in Tonga at the moment).

Mum is actually doing surprisingly well - afternoons seem to be her best time - Mick and dad say she was looking pretty frail and unwell this morning, but when David and I got there this afternoon, she was looking pretty good, and joined in the conversation, laughing and joking. We're going to take Becca in to visit her tomorrow. We only stayed about 20-30 minutes, she got tired very quickly, but still looked pretty good, and could pick up a glass of water easily with her left hand.

We are going back in tomorrow about 1100 to try and catch up with the specialist team in charge of her care, and find out what's in store for us all. As of Friday afternoon, they were talking about 5 days on the Stroke ward, and then about 5 weeks on the rehabilitation ward.


I have no doubt that mum will be up and about again. It will take a while to find out how much damage there is to her brain, and at the moment, her right arm and leg are "disconnected" - we'll find out over the next few weeks whether the neural connections can be rerouted, and to what extent. I was joking with her today about getting her a mobility scooter, souping-up the motor, and having races with it. She thought that was very funny, and she was pleased to know that both I and my sister-in-law are praying for her. (Thanks Barrie – sisters-in law, and sisters-in-Christ!)


I've actually had a surprisingly good weekend - Saturday afternoon, after visiting mum, David took me to the garden centre, and got me a big terracotta planter, two blueberry plants and a bag of potting mix. Before going out to get Mick from the airport, I baked apple muffins for church. This morning was church, where the worship band absolutely rocked, and I was given a lovely cup, and a book called "Mary's Prayers & Martha's Recipes" for being the newest Christian mum (celebrating Mother's Day). Then we picked up Becca and went to the mall, where she got me a little resin wall plaque "If Mother's were flowers, I'd pick you!" Then back to the garden centre to get some little viola's. Put one in the cup, with some glass beads, and took it in to mum.


Tomorrow I'm having the day off to go in and see the specialist team, and then take Becca to visit mum after school. Then college for me from 1600-2130 - wow, what a day!


Stay tuned for the next update.