On Friday June 30th we went out camping at Lake Sarah with a group of "Platt's". Friday night Tucker spent the night with Granny and Papa and Saturday Granny spent the afternoon with Tucker and Taya (Taya was napping) while Scott and I went for a cruise on the lake with a few Platt's. Tucker had Granny playing x-box and she finally beat him once. Of course Granny decided they should do some school work so Tucker started writing "This is the best" and then Taya woke up so he didn't get to finish his sentence but he told Granny it was going to say "This is the best weekend ever". Little did we all know the best weekend was about to come to an early and unexpected end. After leaving the campfire mom and dad went back to the camper and had some late night supper. While getting ready for bed dad noticed her speech was slurred, her eyes had a glazed over look and her breathing was different. He ended up calling 911 around 2:30 am and Garvin and Balaton ambulances showed up. She was transported to Tracy as they wanted air support available and were told they couldn't land in Slayton due to weather. Dad and I drove to Tracy while Scott made arrangements for the kids. After arriving in Tracy we were told she had a blood clot on the left side of the brain and she needed a medicine to start breaking up the clot, but with that medicine she would require aircare to a hospital that could preform a surgery to remove the clot. At the time of this discussion they couldn't fly to Sioux Falls because of the weather and they were calling St. Cloud and Hennepin County hospitals to see who could accept her. We were told she was going to Hennepin, and then Hennepin called back and said they couldn't accept her. They began calling the University of MN when aircare got the page that they were cleared to land in Sioux Falls (what a relief). We told the doctor we'd rather have her go there. As they flew her to Sioux Falls dad and I went back to Slayton to grab a few things and Scott drove us to Sioux Falls. We arrived in Sioux Falls and they did the surgery. We got up to the icu waiting room around 10:00 where the doctor later came and gave us an update. He was able to remove the clot but said the left side of the brain showed that 40% of it had been damaged. By doing the surgery there is a 70% chance of a full recovery, but it'll take a lot of time and therapies. They discovered that she has Atrial Fibrillation (AFib), which created the clot that was sent to the brain which caused the stroke. Since the damage is on the left side it affects her right side as far as motor skills along with her speaking. She will remain in the icu yet today as the brain shows signs of swelling which has gone over to the right side. The swelling is normal with an injury but they need to watch it. They will be giving her some medication to try to decrease the inflammation. They were able to get her to sit up in the chair for a couple hours today. Even while in the chair she dozed in and out quite a bit. Speech therapy worked with her and although no sounds would come out she tried her best and was willing to work with them. She does have a reflex to swallow however it's about 5 seconds delayed so at this point they will insert a tube through the nose for nutrients and medication. Speech therapy said she's got the basics down so they will build from there. She seems to understand what we are telling her, but it's hard to know for sure. We haven't seen the doctor yet today but the nurses are very knowledgeable and the doctor's assistant(?) did stop by showed us the picture of her brain along with answering any questions we had. We think the doctor will come by yet today, but we're not sure...At this time we are still asking for all your prayers but the nurse's have said no visitors yet.
Thursday, August 8th mom had another seizure. Dad called 911 and the Murray County Ambulance brought mom to the Slayton ER. After a CT scan, they found there was no more damage to the brain, an EKG showed the heart was good, and her labwork didn't show any sign of infection or anything. After reaching out to Sanford Sioux Falls neurology they were instructed to increase her seizure medication and observe her for the afternoon. Mom stayed in the hospital until around 5pm on Thursday and didn't have anymore seizures and seemed to be fine. Dad took her home and continued to see improvements over the weekend. As of last night he said she still didn't have the stamina she had before the seizure but he felt she was getting there. We were all scared, especially mom. We are hoping and praying that with the increase of medication we won't have to experience anymore scares! Thank you for your continued prayers and support. A special thanks to MCMC staff and the first responders!
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