First and foremost I want to thank ALL of you for your thoughts and prayers. We feel them here in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and are so blessed to be held up by such amazing family and friends. For those of you who follow my blog, in light of what has happened to my Mother, I am going to still highlight God's grace in my life, but also focus specifically on updating our family and friends on Mom.
PRAYING FOR A MIRACLE:
The phone rings at 12:30 this morning and I wake up in confusion and miss the call. I looked at my phone and saw I missed both Dad and Sister. Of course, my phone was nearly dead and I was half awake and as I finally hear Court say, "Dad called, Mom's in the ER call Dad right away." I thought YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME...this all feels like a VERY BAD dream. I got up and went downstairs and called Dad who proceeded to tell me it was in fact reality!
"They think she's had a stroke." He said. And EVERYTHING INSIDE OF ME did not want to believe him!
Mom was traveling back from a Tennessee Pod Camp and was in her Winston-Salem hotel doing laundry (we think around 7:00 pm). Another hotel guest (who happens to be a nurse) was also doing her laundry. Mom's speech began to slur and she lost consciousness. EMS was called to the hotel and she was taken by ambulance to the hospital. I called the ER as Dad got in his car to drive down from Baltimore, MD. The ER nurse said she had been with Mom since she arrived and if it were her mom, she would be on a flight to NC. Courtney and I had our one-way tickets booked by 2am and had two hours to shower and pack (you should see what we brought :o)
The on-call Neurologist was back and forth with Dad on his drive and an x-ray, spinal tap, MRI and echocardiogram later it was confirmed that Mom has suffered a large stroke of the left frontal lobe. Dad pulled into town about an hour ahead of us with the last ER update stating Mom was awake but not able to talk and not able to function on her right side. By the grace of God, Courtney and I were on the same connecting flight from Charlotte, NC to Greensboro, NC. We arrived at 10:48 am. As Dad ran up to us with tears in his eyes at the airport he said, "First miracle; she can move ALL extremities and is up WALKING (with help). PRAISE GOD! BUT - she did not recognize him and she still could not talk.
You sure never can prepare yourself to walk into that room for the first time. As we walked in she did not recognize us either. But we are here as a family hugging, kissing, loving and praying on her. We can not continue to say how thankful we are for all of your prayers.
Doc came by this afternoon and gave us an update:
With a left frontal lobe stroke, two major issues:
1. Lack of communication (both understanding and production)
2. Right side function
Also, the most crucial point is that the brain continues to swell five days after the stroke with day 3 through 5 being the most critical. As her brain swells we were told to expect a decrease in both 1 & 2 listed above and also told there is still a risk of fatality as the brain swells. Thursday, Friday and Saturday will be vital days and as they continue to run tests and monitor her, we continue to surrender it all to God as he is holding our family right now. We find comfort in knowing that he knows what is going to happen and we continue to pray for a miracle.
Momma Besch is a fighter and we see it in her eyes. From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU!
Gordy, Courtney and Jessica
As I always ask, and we continue to see amplified in NC, Where have you seen God's grace in your life today?