A detour

I was asleep Wednesday afternoon, with my third 12 hr shift ahead of me that night, when I heard Croft calling my name at my front door.  “Sorry, but it’s an emergency, it’s your Mom…”  I grabbed for clothes and my phone and ran over.  Mom had said she thought she had a stroke.  Norma and Kris were already with Mom, giving her an aspirin.  911 was called.  Off she went in the ambulance.  Half awake, calling into work to say I would not be in, I asked Croft to drive me to the hospital.  As he cycled through various gears in random order with my stick shift, we got there and Mom wasn’t in the system yet.  I gave them a few minutes, and then she was in the system but not in a room.  A bit later the reception guy walked over and gave us visitor badges.

Croft waited in the outside reception room while I went in.  Later, after finding me some breakfast, he headed home.  Mom had no obvious issues from the stroke, but she doesn’t remember Tuesday night.  She didn’t take her medicines and clothes and stuff were not where she normally puts them.  At 85, this doesn’t sound unusual, except that my Mom is as active and with it as I am (not that that says all that much lately…).

Yesterday a MRI determined that she did have a stroke and she has been admitted to the stroke unit.  Her handwriting and speech don’t seem to be affected at all, in fact I now see little change in her other than she has been mostly in bed the past 24 hours so is a bit shaky when shuffling to and from the bathroom.

Needless to say I haven’t finished my shifts at work this week.  I have plenty of vacation time accrued, so that is not a problem.  I appreciate that Croft and Norma and Kris jumped in and helped us, and that Favorite Neighbor went over to check on Mom when she wasn’t obviously active that day.