Weekend at Mom and Dads + Mom post stroke

Welcome to my slice of the internet aka my blog livelyrachelanne. Where I can let down my hair and spill my guts on things happening in my life.
First I'll start off by writing about the most recent happening in my life which has to do with my mom, Pam.

About one month ago on Christmas day I called my mom on the telephone and spoke for a little while and thought she didn't sound quite right.  Come to find out, she suffered from two massive strokes. The next day my older sister, Karla, took my mom the the hospital and that's when we found out that my mom's right carotid artery was 100% blocked and her left one was 90% blocked.  She had suffered a few transient ischemic attacks (TIA) similar to a stroke where blood flow is stopped to the brain, but only briefly. Some of the tias were recent and a couple were older.  Either way something had to be done.

She was scheduled to have an endarterectomy on January 20th to allow her brain to heal a bit before surgery.  But the docs moved the date of the surgery up sooner to the 8th, after noticing more tias while my mom was in the hospital/rehab.

Don't let this picture fool you, she wasn't feeling well at all

I recorded a youtube video here so you can see how I handled things in the first few days.

It's crazy because no one prepares you on how to take care of your parents after a life-changing event like this.
As I write this post, my mom has arrived back home today and she is doing okay.  After I rearranged and organized a bit around her house, she has called a couple times asking where I put things.  I don't blame her:-)

"After" Organized in boxes

"After" I can see the dinning room again!

I'm grateful and thankful God has gotten her home and she is feeling better. I'm grateful my mom worked hard at PT/OT/and speech therapy to be given the okay to leave rehab.  And I'm happy her speech and scattered thinking has gotten better.

I'm going to visit my mom this weekend and come back and post an update!