More prayers for Grandma....

Unfortunately my grandmother has had some serious setbacks in the last 24 hours, and so once again I ask for your prayers.

Saturday morning the nurses at the rehab center found Grandma in her bed thrashing around, having what they believe were Grand Mall seizures. She had bitten her tongue and lip and was very much out of it. They suspected more bleeding in her brain and had her sent back to Sacred Heart Hospital. CAT scans done there did confirm that she once again has severe brain hemorrhaging and it is still inoperable. The doctor has told my mom that there is nothing they can do for her that will improve her condition at this point with the damage that has been done and so the decision has been made after consulting her health directive, to just keep her comfortable and not prolong the inevitable. She has been given a few days to live and so now comes the hard part, as we just sit and wait.

Grandma had been at rehab facility for the past few weeks, making a little progress with her mobility skills. She did have a setback the second week, being sick in bed with the Norwalk virus. (From what we were told this is a pretty common virus that sometimes makes it's way through nursing homes and it weakened her greatly so she spent several days in bed and thus couldn't participate in any therapy.) My mom had hopes of still bringing her back home to live, if enough progress was made and the doctors thought it was safe to do so. She had been wrestling with the idea that she may be forced to put her in a nursing home, which would provide a higher level of care than she could give her and so had begun the process of visiting a few in the area and checking things out...just in case. Still she just wasn't comfortable with the whole idea with Grandma living out her final days in another place away from family.

As difficult as this is, part of me can't help but think that maybe this is God's way of answering our prayers for direction. The decisions that were coming were going to be difficult ones for my mother to make. In the last 24 hours, God just sort of closed the doors and made it evident to us that a nursing facility isn't the place for Grandma, and the time has come for her to be called to Himself. Although it will be sad for those that she leaves behind, we will have peace knowing that she will indeed be in the best place possible, with the great Physician, the only one who can heal her completely and restore her to perfect health. She will no longer suffer as she has recently, or miss my grandfather as they will soon be reunited.

I ask now that you continue to pray for her, that her last days here on earth would be as comfortable as possible, and also for the family as we prepare to say our goodbyes to her. I am so very thankful that the children and I went down to visit her a few weeks ago, after her first stroke and were able to spend the day with her. She was surprisingly more like herself at that time than I expected and I am so glad that we went and that we will have those better memories of our last time together. In the last few weeks, she has declined rapidly so I am thankful that God urged us to go when we did.

Thanks so much for your love and concern. It means a lot to us all.