There are things in this life that you can simply never be prepared for.  One of them is a phone call from your child that starts with “Mom, are you sitting down?”  Instinctively your stomach knots as you wait for the next words.  “I’m in a hospital in ICU.  I’ve had two strokes.”  My daughter said my response was “No.  That can’t happen.  That can’t happen.”  I don’t remember saying those words, or even all of the conversation that followed, but I do remember shaking uncontrollably for the better part of the next hour.  I had to rouse my husband from sleep and tell him what had just happened, and quickly prepare to fly out of town.  You see, I am in Texas and my daughter (my only child), is 1,000 miles away in Minnesota.  And yes, it’s just too far from home!

The last several weeks have been a blur of hospitals, doctors, nurses, insurance paperwork and appointments, and trying to assist my daughter after she was released from the hospital.  And I was dealing with extreme temperature changes (below zero most days), and learning to drive in the snow and ice.  The very GOOD NEWS is that my daughter doesn’t seem to have any lasting effects from her two mild strokes.  Still, as she is only 29 years of age without other risk factors, the neurologist is puzzled as to exactly what caused them.  The determination is arterial dissection with stroke. and she will be on blood thinner medication, which requires close monitoring,  for at lest the next 3-6 months. These medications also require dietary changes.

I have been home now for one week.  My daughter will be going back to work next week, which is also good news since she had just graduated from the University of Minnesota and started a new job.  I have a deep faith and believe in the power of prayer, and can honestly say that we have found many blessings in this trial.  For one, I have to say that all the staff at the Fairview Southdale Hospital where my daughter was treated, and all the other medical and insurance personnel we worked with were simply amazing!  I can honestly say that I think she received the very highest level of care possible.  To the folks of Minneapolis and Edina, you have a piece of my heart.

“Though they are grown and flown
Never does a day pass
without the same worry
how are they, where are they
though they may be grown
In your eyes the child never ends nor should it”

Bill Mitton