How things can change in a moment of time...

We have unexpectedly been in Spokane this week...Rob's mom suffered a hemorrhagic stroke on Sunday and was airlifted from Chelan, where she had been staying, to Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane. Many indications are positive, and we are thankful for that. Both of Rob’s siblings are here, as well as Cheryl’s brother, and of course Bill too. We met with the neurologist today, who is apparently one of the best in the country. She was unwilling to make predictions, but said that for the size of the hemorrhage, Cheryl is doing better than she would expect. They did take out her breathing tube today about noon, but are monitoring her closely, as she is laboring a bit to breathe on her own. She had some heart abnormalities over night last night, but they did an EKG type procedure this morning and said it came back normal. Cheryl is more alert today and does respond to familiar voices by opening her eyes and squeezing our hands with her left hand. Her right side is the affected side. So far she does not have any response on the right side, but the doc said that it will take up to 3 months for the bleeding and swelling to go down, and there will be improvements through that time. They have been unable to evaluate her speech and cognitive processes, as she has been intubated and also has a feeding tube. We are working out a “schedule” of coverage – unfortunately we all live in western WA, so will be learning the road to Spokane well over the next months. It is unlikely that they would transport her back to the west side just for convenience sake. It is too expensive to air transport and too risky to transport via ground. Rob has set up a caring bridge website to provide updates: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/cherylread. Our prayer is that this experience will draw each of us closer to God, and that we’ll have the patience we desperately need.