What a night!!! Just as Daniel and I were getting ready for bed at 10:00, a text came from Cait, "I don't know if dad has called you guys but mom had a stroke earlier today. She didn't even know she had one. Earlier she had numbness in her left arm and her face and she said she couldn't swallow because her tongue felt like it weighed a lot. Dustin recommended she go to the hospital to get a CT scan. So dad and her went around 8 and are still there" At 11:00 pm just as Daniel and I were falling asleep we heard Variah shout for Daniel. Earlier at dinner she had thrown up a little after gagging on some food. So because of that, when she shouted for Daniel he went quickly to her room. Sure enough, she had thrown up quite a bit and continued to do so with both of us in there. After she finished, I gave her a bath while Daniel cleaned up her bedding, bed, floor and pajamas. After her bath she wanted to cuddle and watch bubble guppies. As she and I were cuddling More and more texts came through over the next 2 hrs about my mom. After doing the CT scan, they found a mass on the x-ray and immediately scheduled an MRI to determine if the mass was a tumor. Carter and Dustin were able to go to the hospital to give my mom a blessing. As soon as my dad hears about the MRI results, he is supposed to text us. Variah threw up 2 more times while we were up watching tv with her. It is 1:20 and she has gone to bed. Daniel is sleeping on the floor in her room. Everett just woke up to be fed. Here are some of the informative texts from tonight:
10:03 Cait
Moms at the hospital now with dad. They did urine sample, drew blood, an EKG, etc. A doctor went in the room and told them she had a TIA. A mini stroke. She might have to stay over night. They haven't decided yet for sure. She'll get a CT scan tomorrow morning and maybe meet with a neurologist.
10:09 Chels
Dad just said she is doing well. Her blood pressure dropped to 142/87. Don't know what it was before.
11:36 Chels
So dad just called and said the the CT scan came back with a mass on it and they think it might be a tumor, so they are ordering an MRI tonight. Dust and Carter are going in there right now to give her a blessing. Dad was crying.
12:03 Chels
Yeah, so she called me today right after it happened, she told me this. I have a cough so I drank some delsyum cough syrup and minutes later my left arm went numb then her face felt numb, but she left to go visiting teaching and just warned her partner Stephanie Macintosh, she asked of her face looked droopy, steph said no. She said while they were at Lynn Godfreys house she felt like she couldn't swallow, that he tongue was huge, kinda like after the dentist. They left the house and steph said Lauren now that you feel normal and I look at your face now, it did look different it looked kinda pulled back, not droopy. It did look different. Steph said mom was talking fine before. No slurring. So talking on the phone, I never would have guessed that she had had anything wrong. But I told her, those are like stroke symptoms. She didn't feel pain, I asked if her heart was racing and she said no. She didn't feel dizzy. Dust told her to go to the er. I asked my friend Rachel who is a nurse, she called a nurse that works at the OBGYN and is amazing! And she told mom to do a couple of tests and she did them fine. Dust had her do some tests for a stroke and she did them.
Carter:
This is the CT scan. The top left corner about 10 o clock is the dark spot where they think is a tumor. If it's a tumor she'll be transported to the Murray hospital and will need surgery to remove the tumor. Dad will be sending out an update after the MRI. They aren't sure it's a tumor at this point. The MRI will show more details.The blessing went well. She is doing fine and is totally normal and doing fine. They were having the procedure done as we were leaving. That was 35-40 minutes ago.
Dad said he would notify us as soon as they hear back from the doctor about the MRI results
October 29th
1:44 Chels
"She came back from the MRI and Dr Hayes immediately came to tell us what the neurologist found. He said that there was some good news. There is a tumor, however the tumor is located in the one of layers sorrounding the brain and not in the brain it self. The tumor is not cancerous nor aggressive. It is most likely benign, but will still need to be removed.
Because it is not going any where we are going home and will see Dr Rich. The stroke was caused by some irritation from the tumor. Mom is so glad that she wont loose her hair"
So as I was typing all the info up poor Everett was having a hard time breathing. He's been super congested all day tonight while the texts were coming through just after nursing him, I suctioned out his nose. Just around 2, he was gagging on the mucous and then threw up mucousy milk! I had to clean him up. Luckily it stayed on him, his blanket and my garment top and not on my bedding! Now he is wrapped up in new pajamas and blanket and is just smiling away! And he just threw up again a little bit but seems okay.
2:10 Christian
Ok. Just got off the phone with Dad. The Dr. Actually came in while I was talking to him and he put it on speaker phone...The dr said that there is no worry in going home. That most likely she has had this tumor for maybe even years and for some reason it just irritated something and caused her to have the mini stroke. He gave her some meds and a steroid to help reduce any type of swelling that may have caused the stroke. Dr said there is very very little chance of it happening again and even if it did then it wouldn't have any effect on the long term situation or healing of things.I also talked to mom. And she is feeling fine and got choked up that we were all texting about it and worried and up late. I just said of course we are worried and let her know that we all love her. Told her that they need to focus on just going home and relaxing and resting the next couple days. They meet with Dr. Rich, who I guess is the expert to discuss surgery and all of that process to get it removed. Mom sounded positive about it and said she was just in shock the whole time they were giving her the news and throughout the process. She couldn't believe what was going on. But she said that this is really the best possible outcome and doesn't seems worried about it at all.
8:30 mom
So as they were wheeling me down for my MRI last night and I wasn't sure what to expect, some words of a very cute little darling kept coming to me and I said to the tech, " make it easy" meaning to me please don't find anything bad...it worked! The beautiful blessing and my children's prayers really helped, but variahs sweet words kept coming to me
After all of that when my mom met with the Dr. they decided to hold off on removing the tumor until she got back from Thanksgiving with my family in Arizona.
Her favorite color is yellow so to support her my family all wore yellow to send her "happy thoughts" and let her know that we loved her.
Getting ready for the MRI
After Surgery
Her incision and the staples
My mom was in the hospital for 3 days and then was able to go home. Ciara flew up to stay for a week and take care of my mom. We were able to go up 2 times to visit with my mom and Ciara. It was really good to see my mom and see her healing. I was amazed at how well she did with the surgery. She is such a strong and amazing woman!
This is a week after her surgery. Doesn't she look good?!
This is what it looked like after the staples were removed
Cait and Everett
My mom is doing great. She still has numbing episodes but the Dr. says it is probably her body just adjusting to the surgery and having the tumor removed. The tumor has probably been there for 10 yrs or so and just grew enough to put pressure on her brain causing her to have that mini stroke. We are so thankful that everything worked out and my mom has been able to heal without any side effects other than the numbness. We sure love our Larlie!
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