lest we forget ...

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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 10^th and started her chemo pills and radiation treatments Monday, July 16^th.  

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.