Didn't think that would ever hit home?

Late 2010, early 2011 Mom sat us down and told us she had a brain aneurysm.  Shocked and confused we had no idea what this meant. I’d only ever known of brain aneurysms to rupture and cause many medical problems and quite possibly kill its victim.  Stress was high again.  We had no idea what was to happen in the days to come.  Never had we once been through something like that, something involving surgery, nothing of this magnitude. Sure we were strong through epilepsy and MS and allergies and talks of COPD. Sure we knew all of those things, things we had all dealt with together for many years. Things that were just medicated and seemed under control most days.  This was something all new, this was serious, and this was life threatening potentially.  Mother decided she didn’t want to take the chance of sitting with this “time bomb” in her head. She was going to take the steps and have it corrected. “Preventive Maintenance” as I like to call it, very serious indeed. 

Mother survived this ordeal. Mother went into that surgery like Super Man. Nothing would conquer her and get her down.  After days in the hospital, her face swollen and purple, we thanked everything good that she was alive and better and we wouldn’t have to worry about this problem any more.  I remember when we received word she was in recovery and they would let us know when she would be taken upstairs. We met the lady in the hall and she told us quietly if we hurried we could see her get off the elevator. I remember the excitement I felt knowing that I would soon be seeing my Mom.  She rolled out of that elevator and I shoved my sister in front of me to see her. My Sister wasn’t there that morning to see her off. To hug her and tell her she loved her just in case the worst happened.  Seeing them cry and my Dad so happy to see her just as I was. She looked like hell.  Her face already swollen and the cut was gruesome. But she was there, she was alive and she was beautiful.

The surgeon released mother from her care months later.  She has recently regained most of her old ability to chew her food, her temple is slightly caved in and she can feel the screws and plates through her thin skin, the scar mostly covered by the hair that is growing back.  She can no longer have an MRI, which was always required to check on her lesions caused by MS. If anything slips or leaks, she could very possibly have a stroke and there is no way for them to scan and check that everything is OK with out a risk of the machine sending metal fragments from her new plate into her brain.

Never thought this would hit home…

photo taken here