Stroke - not of good luck

Last night I got a call at 10.15 from our friend Katie who has converted the old cow shed beside Mum and Dads house into a house and stays there on weekends with her family.

The call was to say that mum had been taken to hospital with a suspected Stroke. Not really what I wanted to hear.

After getting pieces of the story from various different people it appears mum left work at the petrol station at about 9pm then drive out the opposite way from home without headlights on then ran into a ditch.

Somehow someone called Alex found her and decided to drive her home. Mum apparently couldn't talk of make sense so I think he thought she was drunk. Katie pulled into the driveway just before Alex did which was so lucky because Alex wasn't really sure where mum lived. Katie took one look at mum and realized that something was seriously wrong and called an ambulance.

Dad came out and stayed with mum who couldn't talk or move the right side of her body and they all waited for the ambulance. Dad was obviously upset and couldn't drive so Katie's husband Damon ended up driving Dad to the hospital which was really lovely.

My brother Craig was down in Sandy Point so Shell called him and went to the hospital too.

They did a CT scan and said that mum had definitely had a stroke and it was the bleeding kind, not the clot kind so they couldn't give her any drugs we just had to wait and see what happened and hope that the bleeding stopped.

At first mum couldn't move her right side or squeeze anyone's hand but by the time Craig and Dad left at 3.30am she could move her arm a bit and though she still couldn't speak and was very frustrated she knew a bit of what was going on.

The four of us siblings were texting through the night with information from Craig and questions from us. Shell had gone to check on mums car which she couldn't find and that the house was ok.

Craig and Dad went back this morning and Mum was a bit better again, she could lift her right arm when asked to and could squeeze a hand which was really good so her movement and strength were coming back.

After lunch she could sit up and could say a few words which all looks really promising. They are going to try and get her to stand up tomorrow all going well and the speech pathologist will come on Monday.

The bleed was 2 centremeters which is a relatively small one apparently and early signs are hopeful. The progress mum has made so far is good as long as she can keep it up and there is no more bleeding.

Craig is taking the day off work on Monday and Joti and I are going to fly down on Tuesday. Shelly lives down there and Nik is in the middle of doing school reports so I will spend at least the rest of the week down there to share the driving to the hospital and be there for Dad.

So pretty horrible thing to happen but could have been a lot worse.

We went back to Sea World this morning to see the dolphin show (and nearly missed it again!). Then had to go to the shops and get Joti another pair of shoes because she dropped one in the water under a bridge and it floated off to be with the fish!!

We went to Wet and Wild this afternoon for the first time. It is a water theme park and there was hardly anyone there because it wasn't very warm!!

Spence could only go on two of the big rides because of his height and one of them was closed! Him and I played in one of the pools (which was freezing as its not heated) then him and I went on the big water slide a couple of times before he got too cold! Kaz had a couple of turns a that and then went on the Aqua Loop which was pretty scary apparently!

We came back and then went out to a Mexican restaurant for tea then everyone was in bed by 8.15!