Family 2: My Mother

I've had a lot of people ask me recently about how my mom is doing. That means I haven't been actively telling people. Oops.

It's one of those things where this needs a lot of prayer and I have asked a bunch of people, so I should give updates kinda regularly.

Anyways, if you haven't been following the story so far here's the summary: my mom had an acute pressure build up in her eyes and lost the majority of her sight maybe a year and a bit ago..? Not too long after both of her parents passed away. And then a lot of stuff happened with her seeing and feeling things that weren't there and it was freaking her out and truly horrible for everyone. She was in and out of doctors' offices and was always prescribed different medications. Since fourth year university she had had migraines and since then has had a pile of medications to take that requires lists. Earlier this year she was taken to the hospital and it was determined that she had been overdosing on sinus clearing medication or something common like that, so they ended up looking at the list and dealing with that, so she went through withdrawal for a bit and was a lot better. Then she ended up losing balance and falling down a lot and getting weaker and weaker and losing her hair and being diagnosed as depressed. We got a puppy. This kinda made things worse. When you can't see an over excited, energetic, mischievous puppy that loves to run around your ankles and jump on you, that doesn't help you.

This is kinda where we were when I was about to leave for the summer. > .> I remember going to the hospital to see her just before leaving, maybe a week. It sucked. She wasn't herself, she wasn't able to do anything. She was being wheeled around pretty much everywhere and required a couple people to help her get around. She ended up getting so weak physically that she had to be taken to the hospital for an extended period of time (which she hates so much). She was taken home before I left and I just spent as much time with her as I could and prayed with her.

I left for co-op. She ended up in and out of the hospital. I called semi-frequently, but whenever she was back in the hospital I made sure to call more often.

She couldn't walk or stand on her own or anything. So, they did a pile of tests and did physio and all that stuff. When I got back she was home and had people coming to take care of her for a few hours each day and my dad doing a lot for her. She could kinda stand and walk with assistance again. She had her personality back. She grew stronger with the physio and the main thing that doctors found was a severely low protein uptake, so her diet was changed severely.A few weeks ago her protein levels were just below normal.

She could now walk, but her typical lack of direction and spatial sense made her extremely hopeless for the future. She is an independent person and really hates having to have people take care of her. She was really depressed with the idea that she'd never be able to maneuver around the house and would probably get lost and be unable to do anything until my dad got home.

I kinda gave her a pep talk. She is a very stubborn person and can typically will herself to do anything, but she was so stuck on this hopeless future and how she hadn't improved in weeks that she had become so depressed and said she'd never be able to walk around the house. I told her really that if she put her mind to it and just took little steps at a time and didn't give up she would be able to do it. We showed her how to use the walker-cane thing that she had pretty much refused to use and that was that.

That week I got a text from my dad saying that while he wasn't there she had become so hungry that she had walked from the living room back to her bedroom where she knew a protein bar was. > . < So from one day saying 'never' to a couple days later doing it. > .>

So, she's actually doing a lot better now and doesn't need assistance to go to the bathroom, or walk to and from her bedroom and now she is thinking about how she could be able to prepare meals and things while using one hand for the cane and one to feel what she is walking into. Planning for a future. Good.

She has been like overheating a lot recently though, getting prickly feelings and stuff. She got a hair cut and is now growing new hair. She also was interested in coming to the Christmas concert, which involves going out of the house, walking, and some stairs, which is a whole lot more than she would have ever attempted, so that's really awesome.

She was telling me that she really can't see much of anything now, sometimes door frames and walls, but otherwise it's mostly blackness, the last thing she saw, or like really bright whiteness and she is having some trouble sleeping.





You can keep praying for her and for opportunities to share the gospel with her.