I remember....

Today is one of those days....an anniversary you wish you didn't have. Four years ago today, my mom called in the middle of the night asking me to take her to the ER. She'd had a bad cold. I arrived to find her dressed in a nice suit, the bed was made perfectly, she had her little hospital bag packed and we figured we'd be back the next day at the latest. Little did we know....

I could write a novel about my mother. She was truly amazing. But this is not the day for that... Mom thought she might be having a stroke (thanks to a head's up from a guest in their Sunday School class). She knew something was definitely wrong. The ER was frustrating; they didn't want to believe Mom when she said she couldn't swallow. She looked fine. She couldn't raise her arms as high as she normally did doing her nightly stretches. "So?" was the look we saw on their faces..... Within 24 hours, Mom was on a ventilator, fully paralyzed except for her eyelids and toes. And her brain was not affected in any manner. Imagine. We were told she had been attacked by this most unusual syndrome: Guillain-Barre. Oddly, even those who are the most severely stricken usually recover. Mom was recovering neurologically months later, she actually had the best physical therapy session of the six month ordeal the day she moved to hospice. It had all been just too much... 27 weeks after calling me, she ran to meet Dad and they danced together with Christ. My guess is there was a pretty big party that morning with more hugging than we can imagine.

This post is not intended to be a tear-jerker. But please, just in case one of your loved ones might be one of the 'one-in-one-hundred-thousand' who fight this illness...please take five minutes and check out this site. Guillain-Barre Syndrome Fact Sheet: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) It can hit any one, any age, any sex, any where, at any time.

I promise to post something humorous tomorrow. Really.