Grandma’s mini-stroke, more planting, help

About 7:20 this morning, as Mama was getting the bottles ready for the baby goats, Grandma got up and sat in her wheelchair. This is her normal perch when she first gets out of bed most mornings. However, this morning, she sat in her chair staring vacantly forward. When Mama tried to interact with her there was no response. Mama tried for several minutes trying to get a coherent response from Grandma to no avail. Grandma was not able to raise her arms, wiggle her toes, or answer any simple questions as Mama urged her to do so. We hurriedly fed the baby goats their bottles and Mama called for help as I finished up the morning feeding.

The paramedics arrived within fifteen minutes of Mama’s call to assess Grandma’s condition. All vitals were normal, and as she was assessed, Grandma began to grow more aware of her surroundings. By the time the medics had been with her for half an hour, Grandma was speaking and interacting almost normally. Her responses were coherent albeit a bit slurred, as if she was very tired. The paramedics left about 8:10 and Grandma and Grandpa ate their normal breakfast, pecan swirls and coffee, before Grandma was helped back to bed. We are not entirely sure what happened, but we are assuming she experienced a ministroke. Time will tell, but all appears to be “normal” for the time being. I am not sure if Grandma even knows what happened to her, but it was a moment we will all remember.

I think Grandpa was more concerned than he let on to either Mama or Grandma. He has been very concerned about Grandma’s mental decline for some time and it is often that his insight into that decline help us deal with the more upsetting interactions we occasionally work through. But, for her part, Grandma is not hard to deal with. She is a very loving person. She can seem quite harsh at times, but her intent is not to hurt anyone, it is, more often than not, that she cannot figure out what to say to get her point across – and she will always get her point across even if she cannot remember the point she was intending to make. So, sometimes it is impossible to follow her line of reasoning because it tends to stray from a central focus. When that happens, we just smile and go on.

She was focused yesterday. She called every person on the contact list on her phone. She asked each of those who talked to her, “If the Lord were to come back in the next five minutes, would you be ready to meet Him?” As you can imagine, most of her contacts are believers so the response was typically positive, but later in the evening she was convinced that there was one person who had given her pause in the way they answered that question. The problem was that she had talked to so many that she could not remember who she was concerned about. It was really frustrating her and there was no way Mama could help her other than to repeat all those calls. Grandma did not want to do that, but she stewed about the issue all afternoon and all evening. By this morning, she had forgotten all about it. I will not be surprised if she repeats all those calls later this week. Maybe that way she can deal with the one person that she thought was unsure.

With some of the recent successes under her belt, Mama is determined to expand her plantings. She is now concentrating on herbs. With that interest, she has purchased several little planters that she will use for window boxes for the many herbs she is planting. Both Mama and Victoria have done a bit of online research to see what herbs can be planted together, what herbs are detrimental to chickens, what herbs can act as an insect repellent, and so on. Since Mama is mostly starting with seeds, we will not see any benefits from the plants for several weeks, but she is excited about the possibility of what the various herbs are purported to accomplish. At any rate, we should have access to many fresh herbs and those that can be dried and stored for Winter use, will be harvested with that purpose in mind.

Days have been pleasant enough that we have been leaving the windows open. A couple days this week are forecast to get hot enough that we will resort to air conditioning at some point during the warmer part of the afternoon, but even those days are perfect for Grandpa to sit outside on the front porch to rest between sweeping the walks, hoeing in the garden, mowing or brush hogging, or whatever else attracts his attention. Each of the chosen tasks are not done for long periods of labor, but a little here and a little there has really begun to add up to visible results. Everything Grandpa chooses to work on is something I do not have to spend time doing which frees me up for so many other little things only I can do while so much more gets done overall.

It has been encouraging to have his help – especially for Mama.