On September 27th I got the phone call no one ever wants to receive, telling me that my mom had had a stroke and was in the hospital. I found out on Tuesday and on Thursday I was on the plane to Portland. Fortunately my weekend was pretty much unscheduled so I was able to get away easily.
The picture above was actually a couple of days after I arrived. When I first saw Mom she had about 30 electrodes connected to her head to monitor brain function. Those came out shortly after I got into town. My sister, Jill, arrived from Boston the same morning that I did and we met up at the airport to head out to the hospital together. Our brother, Reed, picked us up in Portland after we took the light rail into the city center.
Mom was in the Oregon Health and Science University Hospital in Portland, which has an excellent stroke unit.
It's up on the top of a hill and there were some nice views overlooking the city of Portland and the Willamette River.
There were some nice fall colors starting to turn, which was farther along than the autumn leaves were in Virginia at the time. Autumn is Mom's favorite season and we were sad she wasn't able to enjoy the turning leaves.
Dad, Jill and I would arrive at the hospital every morning at around 9:30am and stay until about 4pm. Mom was mostly unconscious during this time and only spoke a few words while we were there. It was General Conference weekend, so I played some Mormon Tabernacle Choir music for Mom because I thought it would be soothing to her.
My younger brother, Brett, came in from Texas for a day, so we were all able to be in a group photo. We weren't sure how much Mom would be able to recover from her stroke. I took a red-eye flight back to Virginia on Monday night and arrived home at 9am on Tuesday.
It was hard to leave, but I had to get back to give piano lessons. On Thursday morning I was heading out to California to help Adri as her new baby was due, and I was already cancelling lessons for the following week. My dad was holding up very well, considering his wife had a stroke and his step-father passed away within a couple of days of each other. He drove us into Portland to the hospital every day and was very sharp.
Mom ended up being in the hospital and then in a rehab center for over two months. She's able to talk normally, walk on her own with a walker and doesn't have any drooping on her right side, which was the side affected by the stroke. Her mind is still a little fuzzy on details and dates, but does well with a bit of prompting and reminders. We're all just so happy that she's still with us!
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