January 5, 2012, 8:34pm - The beginning of it all.

Today started as any other day, Mark (my husband) left for work and Danielle (our youngest daughter) went to school.  My mom (Betty) called me around noon and we talked for quite a while as we always do, my stepdad (Dennis) in the background making comments about our conversation as normal.

It had been a long day at work for my husband so around 8:15pm we started getting ready for bed.  All of a sudden my phone rings and the caller id shows it’s my mom calling.  I answer the phone and on the other end my mom says, “Michelle, Dennis is having a stroke.” I instantly hung up the phone and told Mark what was happening He jumps out of bed and starts getting dressed, I screamed up the stairs to Daniele to get dressed we have got to go.
 

As we all jump in the car Mark starts the drive to my mom’s house to pick her up to take her to the hospital I pick up the phone and call our good friend Mike Hume who is on the prayer chain at our church, First Baptist Church of Montesano.  Mike immediately starts the calls to the members of our prayer chain

 While my husband is quickly, but carefully driving us to my mom’s house, I bow my head in my hands and begin praying. Dear Lord please let my dad be alright, please don’t take him from us, Lord please don’t take his mind from him.  Please don’t put us through this again, (will explain later).  I look up and see the ambulance carrying my dad pass us on the road my heart sank.  I was so afraid my dad could die and all the horrible feelings that went with that flooded to the surface.  The whole time worrying about my mom, my poor mom.  Mark constantly telling me that I have to calm down, not understanding that my mom has been through this before, and not realizing just how bad of memories and the fears this is bringing back to her and myself.  When we pulled up to my mom’s house I jumped out of the car and ran a crossed the road not paying attention to the car behind us, just knowing I had to get to my mom.  Running into my mom’s house I instantly see the panic and fear in her eyes.  I jump in the back seat with my mom and wrap my arms around her constantly reassuring her that dad would be alright, that God wouldn’t do this to us again (again will explain later)  all along not knowing if what I told her was true or not.  I’m not sure if I was trying to reassure her or myself, but it wasn’t working.  Again I bow my head and start praying, I prayed all the way to that hospital I prayed like I have never prayed before.  I could actually feel God with me in that car that night giving me the strength I needed to help my mom. 

 We finally arrive at the emergency room at Grays Harbor Community Hospital.  The check-in nurse instantly took mom back to dad when she told him who she was, but wouldn’t yet let me in.  Mark and Danielle take a seat in the waiting room and I start the frantic pace.  Continually praying the same prayer, Please Lord let him be alright, please Lord don’t put my mom through this again.  Please let dad be alright.  Worried about my mom I go back to the check-in nurse and tell her someone has to stay with my mom, because she isn’t doing well.  Finally after what seemed like forever the charge nurse comes out and tells me that I can go back with my mom.  He tells me that my mom is worried about me and I looked and him and just said, “it’s her that needs to be worried about.”  As I walked into dad’s room he is lying in bed and mom is standing by his side.  The doctor comes in and tells us that yes dad had definitely had a stroke.  The doctor tells us that with where mom caught the stroke as quickly as she did there was a treatment option available to my dad.  They could give dad a clot busting medication that would dissolve the clot and any clots that might remain, but the medication could cause a brain bleed that could kill him.  Mom told them to administer the drug because dad would rather die than to be in a vegetative state.  The nurses come in and start running more IV’s than I could count and start the medication.  The doctor starts telling mom that they are going to take dad to St. Pete’s Hospital in Lacey, WA cause GHCH isn’t set up to handle strokes.  While they are prepping my dad for the ambulance ride to St. Pete’s the hospital Chaplin Dave comes in to be moral support for me and mom.  The ambulance drivers from Hoquiam Fire Department came in and loaded dad u on the gurney and tried to reassure mom and I that they would take good care of dad.  Dad looked so scared when they wheeled him out of the room as did my mom.  Mark and Danielle were in the waiting room when we came out and told them we needed to take mom home and then to St. Pete’s.  We loaded mom in the car and took her by her house so she could take care of her little dogs and the long ride to Lacey began. 

 Praying all the way and trying to reassure mom while trying to stay calm myself.  After what seemed like forever we finally arrive at St. Pete’s Hospital.  We headed up to the neurology department of the hospital and dad was waiting for us in Room 511.  He saw mom walk in the room and instantly reached out his hand to her.  Mom went to his side.

His nurse Cheri came in the room to explain to us what they are going to be doing with dad.  She tells us that they have to wake dad up every 30 minutes for the next 24 hours to make sure he doesn’t have a bleed in his brain from the medication they had administered in Grays Harbor.  It is now past 2am on Friday morning, Mark and Danielle are out in the hall waiting to hear what is happening.  When I come out I tell them what the nurse has said.  I told Mark that I can’t leave my mom alone tonight; she is going to need me, but that him and Danielle should go home and try to get a little sleep if they could.  Mom and I set in for the stay with dad.  Mom stayed in a chair by dad’s side, the hospital brought her in a reclining chair but she still didn’t sleep.  I made a makeshift bed on the baseboard heater under the window, but again I didn’t sleep.  Worrying about my dad and my mom.  Praying the same prayer over and over again, please Lord let him be alright, please Lord don’t put my mom through this again.  Please let dad be alright.  The nurse came in every half an hour like clockwork to ask dad basic questions.  What was my mom’s name, his age, who was the president, what year it was, none of which he could answer correctly.  She would also ask him if he had a head ache, a sign of a brain bleed and she would do a couple strength tests on dad’s right side, he still wasn’t able to move his right side yet or grip with his hand, but his smile was back to normal and he wasn’t drooling anymore.  Danielle called me a little after 3:00am to tell me they had made it home and she was going to try to get some sleep.  She told me she was going to go to school but I told her if she didn’t it was alright.  We said our I love you’s and we hung up the phone.  Glad my daughter and husband were home safe I went back to concentrating on what was happening in the room around me with my dad, my mom and the nurses working diligently on my dad.  But not once stopping my prayer.