A year ago on my birthday

A year ago on my 28th birthday my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer. By some miracle, a few weeks later it was determined that it was merely a lung infection, not cancer at all!

Fast forward nearly a year to this past weekend. My nephew got married to his longtime girlfriend in a beautiful ceremony and reception. We've had tons of family in town, staying with my sister and my mom. John and I were the photographers. I was really annoyed with my mom for cutting Ben's hair without asking us before she left to bring Ben to the wedding. Even though she was kind enough to bring him and take him home with her! We opted out of our normal Sunday night family dinner at my mom's house so that we could relax. Her company was leaving after church and we wanted to go home and take a nap!

My phone had died at church and I kept telling myself all afternoon that I needed to put it on the charger. But I took a long nap and made dinner and homemade rolls and never plugged my phone in until around the time we went to bed.

My phone rang at 10:05pm. And in my experience, if one of my family members is calling that late, it's not going to be good news. We never call each other that late! Sure enough, it was my sister Ginny calling to say that her and her husband Jared were at my mom's house and were calling an ambulance to take her to the hospital. She's been sick all day and didn't even have the energy to call one of us and let us know (and for my mom, that's saying a lot!) After I hung up the phone with her my phone finally beeped that I had 4 voice mails. One of them was from my brother-in-law Jared saying that my mom was pretty sick and he was going over to give her a blessing. I seriously should have charged my phone sooner!

About an hour and a half later Ginny calls back that my mom has pneumonia. It was the obvious diagnosis, considering my mom's past lung problems, and the coughing and fever and shortness of breath she had been having all day. They put her on an IV and oxygen and she should be okay. I was so relieved!

Then less than 20 minutes later I get another call. It turns out my mom had actually been having a heart attack all day and didn't realize it. I don't know what prompted the doctors to check her heart, but thankfully they did! The ran tests to find she had 100% blockage in one artery and 95% in another. They did an emergency angioplasty around 1am to remove the blockage from the fully blocked artery. They didn't want to risk removing the blockage from the other and cause her to have another heart attack.

Wow, right? Our family has never been prone to health problems and emergencies, and we have a long history of heart disease as well. But it's really scary when it happens to your own mother! After surgery my mom was doing much better and Ginny and my sister Suzy (who had gone to the hospital after word of the heart attack) decided to go home and sleep.

John took yesterday off work so he could come with me to the hospital yesterday morning. My mom was looking great and in really good spirits. She is still in ICU and will be for another day at least. Once the doctors determine her heart is healthy enough, she can go home! (possibly even this weekend)

I'm so grateful for prayer, and for my sister Ginny who just happened to stop by and probably saved her life. I'm grateful my mom was never able to take a nap that day, she said she's afraid she wouldn't have woken up. I'm grateful that her prognosis is good. I'm grateful they went to Harris Hospital because the doctors have been absolutely fantastic. I'm grateful my mom is still here!