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I can’t believe that tonight marks 4 weeks since everything
changed. Most of you know what’s
been going on with my mom. In the
face of a disheartening diagnosis, it is far too easy to forget all the ways
that God has already moved in the situation … to forget who God is. We have a long road ahead of us, but
here is a testimony of all that God did that weekend, and continues to do, so that we may
not lose heart or hope as we walk out our faith each day.
I was scheduled to have a heart cath done on Friday
afternoon, and my mom decided to drive into town for the procedure. I told her that was fine, but warned
her that a number of my friends would be in town so I would probably be busy
with that Friday morning & Saturday during the day. That being said, she still may have
stayed in town through Sunday had it not been for the next miracle.
All of my friends were coming in town for a weekend-long Amy
Grant event. I could not afford to
attend the event myself, but was just excited to have all my friends together
in my town for several days. Then,
on Thursday, a last-minute anonymous scholarship was offered to me, making it
possible for me to attend. This
was a miracle for me personally because of the healing it represented. It was also a miracle for my mom
because it solidified her decision to leave town early Saturday afternoon since
I would now be busy Friday night and from Saturday afternoon through Sunday.
On the day of my procedure, I couldn’t eat or drink anything
after 7am. I prayed that I
wouldn’t be overly hungry and that my blood sugar wouldn’t bottom out. This is a small request in the big
scheme of things, but even with the procedure starting later than planned, I
felt great all day. Right before
we left for the procedure, they called to say that their equipment wasn’t
functioning properly and that they needed to reschedule for Monday. This complicated my plans for Friday
and Monday, and complicated things for my mom who wanted to get back and take
care of things at home, not to mention leaving her in Nashville when everything
went down.
The next miracle came when the hospital called back to say
that the guy working on the equipment would be done within the hour, and that
they could do the procedure after all.
So we headed to the hospital, along with two dear friends, one of whom
used to work at that very hospital.
As she met those who would be working on me, she discovered that she
could not have handpicked a better team.
They were all nurses she had worked with in the past and of whom she
thought very highly, and the doctor was highly recommended by all she asked.
Going into the procedure, I asked for as little medication
as possible so I would be up to attending that evening’s concert. The doctor told me I could try doing it
with nothing at all so I decided to give it a go. My body’s natural pain response totally took over and I
experienced only slight discomfort.
The procedure went very smoothly and quickly, and everything came back
normal. It’s frustrating to still
have no answers, but I continue to trust God, His timing & ultimately His
healing.
I was released a short time later, and after resting for a
little while and some dinner, had a great evening of music with friends. The next day, my mom and I had a quiet
morning at the house, spent a couple hours at the pool, and then she headed
back to Cincinnati. She made it
back around 9pm. My brother Rob
was there but left soon after. It
was just a short time later that she was incapacitated by a blinding headache. My dad was out of town, but for
whatever reason, she didn’t call him right when she got in, so then when he
couldn’t get a hold of her for their ritual nightly call, he knew that something
was wrong.
My dad called my brother and told him to go back to the
house. “I just left there and she
was fine,” was his reply. “I don’t
care. Something’s wrong.” Then he called the neighbors and asked
them to go check on my mom. There
just happened to be some cops right across the street attending to a parked car
that had been hit, so they alerted them to the situation and together they
banged on the door. The dog was
going crazy, but there was no answer.
When the neighbors used the spare key to open the door, they could see
my mom lying on the ground, but the dog wouldn’t let them get in. The cops called the paramedics, and
they got to the house about the same time as Rob. He corralled the dog so they could attend to my mom, and
then he followed the ambulance to the hospital.
They did a CAT scan right away and discovered a large brain
bleed for which they knew surgery would be necessary. A few hours later they did an MRI, and what they saw led
them to do surgery immediately. My
other brother, Phil, who was in Athens, Ohio had called his girlfriend, who was
in Kansas City. She called her
parents, who live on the East Side of Cincinnati. Her dad, an ENT surgeon called his friend, Dr. Shibobbian, a
well-known neurosurgeon who had already worked on Rob and my dad, and asked him
to do my mom’s surgery. Her mom, whom
my parents had never even met, stayed the night with Rob at the hospital. This was all after 10pm on a Saturday.
All of that to say, it is a miracle that she is still
alive. And it is a miracle that it
did not do more damage.
My mom came out of surgery around 6:30am on Sunday morning,
less than 9 hours after everything started. My dad got to the hospital around 1pm, and she was already
awake, talking and even joking. We are praising God for the huge improvements
she has been making daily since then.
On Sunday, she couldn’t lift her left arm or leg. On Monday, she had regained much of her
strength, but had very little dexterity or sensation. Tuesday, her dexterity had improved – she was even able to
pluck and put on makeup :) She was
eating, sitting up in a chair, and doing some walking with assistance. Friday, they moved her down to the
rehab floor where she stayed for 10 days. She came home this past Tuesday, July 10th and
started her chemo pills and radiation treatments Monday, July 16th.
Through it all, she has remained very sharp mentally. Everyone was shocked at how good she
looked and was doing. She is
getting stronger every day, adjusting well to life at home, and made it through
her first week of treatments and rehab with flying colors. This past Wednesday, she even went back
to work for a few hours.
Doctors are of course keeping a close eye on things, but we
are just taking things one day at a time, and in the midst of difficult
circumstances, may we continually remember and testify of His goodness, and
never cease to believe in His ability to perform miracles.
