the stroke

On May 30th around 10pm I saw I had missed a phone call from my Mom and my big brother.  I knew something wasn't right.  I immediately called my Mom back and I could just tell in the way she answered that something was terribly wrong.  She couldn't even really form sentences but I got the gist of what was going on.  She had walked across the street for maybe 20 minutes to give my grandmas something and when she came back my Dad was on the floor.  He couldn't speak and couldn't move half of his body.  

I freaked out because I didn't really know what all that meant and if he was going to be okay.  I got down on my knees and cried out to the Lord to save him and for there not to be any permanent damage.  I hated to bother my Mom because I could tell she was so stressed so I began calling and texting my big brother.  He had followed the ambulance to the hospital and knew all the details of what was going on. I will never forget the conversation I had with my brother that night.  We were both in tears as he explained to me what had happened and that Dad had suffered a stroke.  We both knew then, that our lives and especially our Dad's life would never be the same.  I had lost it at that point.  He sent me a sweet text to later on to "Be strong sis".  

Once the doctors knew that he had had a stroke, the took him into surgery to remove the clot.  He couldn't have the "clot busting drug" they typically give patients who suffer a stroke because he had just had a recent trauma. Thinning his blood could make things even worse for him which is why they had to go in physically and remove the clot themselves.  

Matt and I decided that we needed to be there for my Mom so we woke our boys up and left our house around 1:45am and arrived at the hospital at about 3:30.  Matt took the boys to our sweet friends, The Raneys, and then came back to the hospital to wait in the waiting room with all of our friends and family.  When we first got to the hospital I just hugged my Mom for the longest time.  It was like we were in a nightmare that we just couldn't wake up from.  I knew I couldn't do anything by coming back to Dallas, but I just knew I had to be there for my Mom.  I honestly didn't know how that night or morning was going to end.  It was one of those Grey's Anatomy moments where you are just pacing in the waiting room waiting for the doctor to come out and give you news.

He made it through surgery, but that was just one of the many hurdles we would have to jump in the next few months.