My mom and last speech therapy session

So last week, my parents came into town on Tuesday to spend some time with Maddie and to watch her while I snuck out to get a haircut.  They stayed through Wednesday and returned home.  Friday morning, I woke up to an alarming, erratic Facebook message from a relative in Argentina who I rarely speak to, asking what was wrong with my mother.  As you can imagine, I panicked (although at first I kind of laughed, thinking this aunt was cuckoo and had gotten my mom mixed up with someone else) and immediately called my dad to straighten things out. Part of me was thinking the worst, the other part slapped that feeling away because I was confident that if anything serious had happened, I would have been the first to be contacted, of course.
When my dad picked up the phone, I heard beeping monitors and immediately knew he was in a hospital:(  He knew I was about to panic so he tried to calm me down, "everything is fine, but..."

So my mom had been practicing the piano Thursday evening; she started feeling dizzy and got up to go lie on the couch and she can't remember what happened after that.  But my dad heard a loud thud, which was my mom collapsing backwards from the piano bench onto the hardwood floor.  He found her lying there and took her to the hospital where she's been since.  MRI's showed she had four tumors in her head.  Initially, my dad told me about only one so I didn't know until the weekend that she actually had four.
I cancelled my Saturday lessons and we all drove up to Canton so I could spend time with my mom.  I'm glad I went so I could see her in good spirits, which calmed me down.  She was back to eating, drinking and could walk, but mostly was still bedridden for safety measures.  She's on anti-seizure medication and we were told that her dizziness and fainting was basically an "aura seizure".  Essentially, it's a good thing that she experienced this because it was a "warning" and we caught it early.  So I'm thankful for that.

She will be having surgery later this week for removal of the tumors.  Whenever that is, I will probably be travelling back to help out in any way I can.   She is a strong Christian and has expressed peace with whatever comes her way.  I admire--and admittedly am a little envious--of that confidence and acceptance with what most of us would deem as a potential tragedy/difficulty.  I very much value my life on this earth, but I also know we're not here forever.  This little scare has set me into "preparation mode" where I've been thinking harder and more deeply about why we are here and where we are going next.

***********

In another speech therapy update--today was Maddie's last session as she demonstrated so much improvement today!!!!  Hooray!!!  Her vocabulary and babbling has shot up tremendously in the last week.  She is crazy cute when she talks.  She also kind of has a "deep" voice, which is hilarious to me.  Sultry and raspy...maybe she'll grow up to be a Jazz singer, lol.

The nicer weather arrived just in time to lift up everyone's moods in light of the stressful happenings recently.  Just wanting to get through the week.  Hope everyone else is enjoying the weather, as well.

Comments

Shelley said…
Your mom - oh, I can only imagine how you must be feeling! What a scary time for your entire family - sending you nothing but peace and light and positive thoughts right now.
Gaby said…
Thanks so much, Shelley.
Leslie said…
I'm so very sorry to hear about everything that has been happening with your mom. I hope the surgery goes well and that your family gets good news soon. Praying for strength for all of you during this time.
Gaby said…
Thank you, Leslie, I appreciate it.

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