Las Vegas—Things can truly change in just a split second—one second innocently eating lunch, and the next second total distress!
It was a quiet Wednesday afternoon. Had just finished cooking a late lunch of kare-kare. Told my husband, who was watching TV in the family room, to help himself to the food. Went inside the bedroom to relax by surfing the internet.
Not more than 30 minutes had passed when I heard a loud, unintelligible sound from the family room. Hmm, I thought, is that the TV or do we have a visitor? Ran outside and saw a scene that will forever be etched on my memory: my 64-year-old husband, in distress, trying to scream but producing only muffled noise, the right side of his face contorted, his mouth still with food, unable to move his body.
My first thought was: Oh, my God, he is choking on the kare-kare! So I cleared his mouth of the food and started screaming for help from my doctor-niece, who was in the other room going through a medical review online with headphones on. She immediately diagnosed a stroke, and told me to call 911. The fire department came right away, followed by an ambulance.
On the way to the hospital, I prayed the Memorare nonstop. I remember praying, Lord, if it’s Your will, please let my husband survive. The emergency room was a blur: He was whisked to the CT scan and other tests; several doctors and specialists talked to me and told me this medicine called TPA had to be given within two-three hours of the stroke to “bust” the clot in his brain, but it had a side effect of bleeding within 24 hours.
Husband was awake, and we both agreed to the medication.
I finally got a chance to sit down and catch my breath. Made telephone calls to family and requested prayers. Went on Facebook to announce he had a stroke and requested prayers again.
He was transferred to the ICU to be closely monitored for any bleeding. A battery of tests was performed, including MRI, which showed the blood clot was at the back of the head near the neck. Twenty-four hours had passed and no bleeding. His earlier stroke symptoms were slowly improving: He could talk with a very slight slur, barely visible contortion on the right side of the face, slight weakness on the right arm and right thigh. But his mental faculties were intact. Yes! Thank you, Lord!
In the meantime, my Facebook site was full of messages from family and friends expressing concern and offering prayers for his healing.
Finally, after three days in the hospital, husband was released. Home, sweet home! I strongly believe that prayers from family and friends, along with the medication TPA, tipped the balance for him to recover and, hopefully, slowly mend. Truly, the Lord is good all the time!
Olive Quimba O’Donnell, 65, retired from the US federal government and lives with her family in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is a political science graduate of the University of Santo Tomas.