Mom's Okay

Well, as okay as you can be if you have just had a stroke, even a small one, technically a 'transient ischaemic attack.'

I called my sister earlier to tell her about it and she called Mom at the hospital and then me. She said that Mom was irritated that her BFF had called me, "She's such a busybody" and was saying that she didn't want anyone to come visit her. From what my sister said I determined that my mother was in the place where she would feel really good knowing we wanted to visit and feel good about being strong enough to tell us not to come.

So I called her and when she said hello I said, cheerfully, "Hi! It's my turn to call and keep you from resting!"

She laughed. She told me that she had "A transee... um ishac attack" She was stammering, clearly not able to pronouce the words and frustrated. She is a retired nurse after all. She knows these words. She pushed on and said, "And that is the best kind to have." I said, "Well, thank goodness you had the good kind of stroke!" And she laughed again.

I could definitely hear that she was having trouble speaking. She told me that when she tried to write the check, "I got the the name down, but then then I tried to write the the amount and I couldn't! First I wrote the LETTER [she meant number] for three and I thought 'that's not how you spell that.'"

I told her that I could come to visit soon and she said that she thinks it would be easier to "cuper re-ate...you know that word?" "recuperate" "Yeah. that. You see what I mean about my language?" "Yeah, I noticed. So you think you will recuperate better without us?" "Yes. I don't even have two beds up. I have the quilt frame in the the other bed bedroom. I can see the end and I don't want to to take it down!"

She notices when she can't pronounce a word, but I don't think she notices when she repeats small words, which she does quite a bit. Well, except when she did it at the end of a sentence, and then she turned it into a joke, "I will know more later later...later, later, later, later!"

She was very cheerful and happy that we called, and I think she means it when she says that she would just as soon we didn't visit. She isn't sick enough to need us to take care of her, or she won't admit it right now, and she would be very frustrated at not being able to do things for us. I told her that I would plan on visiting her again soon anyway. She made me promise to let her finish the quilt first. She may be more interested in having a visit once she gets home, but right now she is very invested in the idea that they will give her some pills and she will go home and be just fine, thank you very much.

In some ways this is not a bad thing. It is possible that she will continue to have difficulty with language, but she might not. Though it is frustrating to her not to be able to pronouce words with more than three syllables, or even remember what word she wants, it is not difficult to understand her. She is also having every test in book and using this as an excuse to change to the physician she was meaning to change to anyway. Her next test is an ultrasound to look for blockages in the arteries in her neck. It is possible that she will have to have some procedure done, but she hopes she will go home tomorrow.

But she is peeved that she can't go to the quilt show.