A Prayer of Hope on Mother’s Day

Good morning my love and Happy Mother’s Day! These were the first words I started with for the previous 25 years on that special day. Lyn’s first Mother’s Day was May 1992, after the birth of Breanna, just a month earlier.

Mother’s Day (May 14, 2017) at 4:30 AM, started radically different. I recall seeing Lyn’s silhouette as she was sitting up in bed trying to blow her nose, however, something didn’t sound right, but it was so early I didn’t fully grasp that anything serious was happening. She got up and went into the bathroom to look in the mirror and quickly returned to shake my foot.

As I rolled over I asked, “Are you okay?” Lyn tried to talk but could not. She shook her head “No.” I asked if she could breathe, and at first, I recall her nodding “No,” but she quickly conveyed she could only breathe through her mouth. There was panic in her eyes because she didn’t know what was happening. I quickly recognized Lyn was having a stroke and called 911.

As we prepared for the paramedics to arrive we prayed, and asked God to help Lyn and give wisdom to the doctors. Lyn tried to write a message on how she was feeling, which was very difficult. As the paramedics arrived, they quickly did their analysis, and prepared her for transport. I walked with her and the paramedics to the ambulance and Lyn was scared, upset, and started to cry. I reassured her to stay calm and told her that I loved her, her family loved her, she was in good hands, and most important, God is with her. Lyn calmed as we said our quick prayer, and she was taken by ambulance to the hospital.

When my oldest son Jordan and I arrived at the emergency room, the staff immediately took Lyn to get a CT Scan. It was a frightening time for Lyn because she could not ask questions and could not write clear enough to be understood. The doctor clearly did not grasp that she couldn’t breathe through her nose or swallow.

The CT scan showed the bleeding had stopped and the doctor said he did not see anything to cause additional alarm. What was known was that Lyn suffered a serious stroke and could not speak, swallow, or breathe through her nose. She also had weakness on her right side, right eye, and mouth. A stroke was all we thought we were dealing with at this point.

Within hours Lyn was transferred to a sister-hospital with a neuro ICU department. Once we arrived, it was difficult to wait for the doctor because we quickly wanted answers.

While waiting, I stayed positive and truly thought they would assess Lyn, monitor her overnight, give her game plan going forward, then start stroke recovery. I was so wrong.

As the ICU neurologist came in and introduced herself she began asking questions about what had occurred. I explained that at 4:30 AM she awoke with stroke like symptoms. The neurologist asked what we had done the day before. I told her that it happened to be my birthday and it was a great day of fun that ended with the family coming over for dinner.

We were not prepared for what direction the conversation was heading next.

Abruptly the doctor asked me to tell her about Lyn’s melanoma skin cancer from 20 years prior. I recall sitting there and responding with, “Excuse me?” I clearly heard the doctor, but I needed a moment to process her question because it simply did not make sense to me! Where was the doctor going with this? Lyn suffered a stroke!

The doctor restated, “Please tell me about her cancer from 20 years ago.” I responded with, “It was 30 years ago!” When Lyn was 19 years old she discovered a melanoma spot on her shoulder and had it removed. I went on to say that Lyn had been checked annually by dermatology for 30 years.

The neurologist examined the spot where Lyn had the original melanoma. The doctor said she feared that during the removal of the melanoma that they did not get it all. We sat shocked as the doctor told us that she hoped she was wrong, but she was ordering an immediate MRI. We would not have solid results for a day or two. We continued to pray it was just a stroke.

We cried many times during the day. In times of worry, concern, fear, or anxiety I prayed for her and reassured Lyn that we were a team and we would walk this journey together. I cannot underestimate the peace and comfort that prayer provided the both of us in these early moments.

This first day we were reminded that the vows we took in 1989 meant something special. We had always been blessed with the “In health” part of our vows. Now we were putting into practice what we signed up for…the “In sickness” part of the vows.

We looked to God for his provision, guidance, peace, and healing on day one, and this carried us through the journey.

A couple of special verses that spoke to us on day one were the following:

 Psalm 4:1:

“Answer me when I call to you,
    my righteous God.
Give me relief from my distress;
    have mercy on me and hear my prayer.”

Romans 8:38-39

³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

While we knew things sounded daunting, we decided on day one that we were going to pull together and trust our faith. What good was our faith if we were not going to rely on it? As day one ended, we prayed that Lyn would show signs of stroke recovery overnight. God heard our prayers and gave us new hope.