This past week has been really tough. It started out with a Phone call from my dad last Monday morning telling me Mom had a fall while he was out getting some prescriptions filled in preparation for a big trip they were about to leave on that afternoon. When he came home he found my mother on the floor face down and unresponsive. He was following the Ambulance to the hospital when he called, I of course popped out of bed and got dressed and sped right down to meet him there. The adrenaline and the many thoughts that went through my mind at that very moment was not pleasant at all.
A little back story of my Mom. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to share any of this or not, but this is my Journal of sorts and I want to be able to look back on this time of life and remember it whether it’s good or bad. All I know is 4 years ago when my parents came home from a 2 year mission I noticed my mom was not quite the same. I couldn’t put my finger on it but something was definitely different about her. Later they find out that she had suffered a few strokes that may have affected her speech. Mom’s speech over the next 4 years has slowly gotten worse and worse. She is now to the point where most of the time, she doesn’t speak at all, She and My dad communicate somehow, but for the rest of us a hug and smile is about all we will get out of her and sometimes a slurred I love you. It has been extremely hard to watch, but my dad and mom seem to have a system that works for them and they seem happy. Mom can still kick my dad’s Butt in domino’s and almost any other game they play together.
So back to the fall. Because of my mom’s speech, we have no real answers as to what happened that morning. All we know is she had a huge goose egg on her forehead. I decided to text all of my siblings and let them know what was happening. I was surprised that within an hour or so every single one of us siblings and a few of the spouses that live in Utah were surrounding mom’s bed in the Emergency room. Even though we broke all the rules and we had to sneak all of us in… Two visitors were the limit, I think at one point there were 9 or 10 of us in there. LOL At the Emergency room they took a CAT Scan of her head which showed a small bleed on the brain. Which meant an overnight stay in the hospital. Because American Fork Hospital didn’t have a neurosurgeon on call they sent her to IHC in Provo just to make sure that if anything where to get worse the neurosurgeon would be there. Luckily in the morning they did another CAT Scan and it showed the bleeding had stopped which meant mom could go home.
Those next few days were extremely hard on all of us. Mom didn’t look or act like herself at all. It was the first time that even my dad showed that he was scared, which of course made all of us nervous as well. It has been a huge eye opener for us. Nobody ever wants to think of losing a loved one, especially a parent, but that thought of course has gone through all of our heads this past week. And it isn’t fun at all to think about 😦
Luckily Mom is making improvements everyday, little by little, but I know she won’t magically start talking again, which to be honest has been secretly super hard on all of us, but we as a family don’t really like to talk about it, I am not sure why, I just think we were all in denial about the whole thing. Right now we all just hope that she can get back to where she was before the fall.
**The picture of her smiling was this past sunday, it was the first time I saw her look like my mom again. Yay!
The silver lining to all of this has been the way my family has banded together as a unit. We all met together and tried to figure out a way that we could be the most help for Dad while Mom is on the mend. It is definitely tough with everyone’s busy schedules but luckily this fall has been the little wake up call that we all needed to help open our eyes and see that we need to make family more of a priority. And the sad and harsh reality that mom and dad won’t alway be here, has really set in.
I guess my message to everyone would be if your parents are still around, don’t take them for granted, there will be a day that they won’t be around, don’t let everything that is happening around you seem more important than visiting them. In fact that should be the way it is for all your family members and even your friends really, everyday is a gift that we are not promised that it won’t be taken away at any moment.
Janna's Journey 