None of us, not even Kay herself
thought she would be joining Ray in Heaven this soon.
But, for those of you who would like to know -
this is what happened........
Kay hadn't been feeling well for a couple weeks and on tuesday, April 30, 2002 - she got to the point where she knew she'd probably have to go to the hospital. She was having a tightness in her chest, and a little trouble catching her breath. She didnt let any of us kids know though. She looked up the date of her last bypass surgery (May of 1986) and got her license and insurance cards together to take with her. By then it was about 12:30am, Wed., May 1st. She actually took a shower and washed her hair, then sat around and argued with herself trying to decide if she was actually going to go to the hospital.
At 4:30am she drove herself to the hospital and barely made it inside for she could hardly breathe. After she was stablized, she called her youngest, Missy, to let Missy know where she was, and that she was FINE!----We later learned that she had had a heart attack and would need another by pass surgery. Her neck arteries were also plugged, so they scheduled the surgery to do both on Friday, May 10. It would be a very long surgery, because of them doing both her heart and neck. Also highter risk because of it being her second bypass surgery. Mom was okay about it though. She told the doctors to "Hurry up and get it over with, so I can get outta here and back home!"
We all gave her a hug and kiss that morning, and they wheeled Mom into surgery about 7:20am. It was about 12 hours later, before we heard that the surgery was a sucess.
We got to see Mom at around 8:30pm and stayed with her awhile. She was still asleep, but, her heart was functioning really well.
The next morning, Saturday, I arrived early, and she was still asleep. Her pupils were dialated differently, and they were gettting no responses from her. It was then that we really started to worry. We took turns talking to her , told her to rest if she needed to, but to wake up and talk to us soon........ On that day around 4:30pm, her blood pressure suddenly soared up, and then came down.
On Sunday morning the 12th, Mother's Day, a specialist came in to do some testing on her responses, and could get none. He told us that he should be able to get a flicker of something, anything, if her brain was still working. He said it was his belief that she was brain dead. There were 3 tests that they would run, before they would know for sure, but, it looked like Mom was gone.
The first test was a CAT scan and it showed that she had suffered a massive stroke that had damaged almost all of the left side of her brain. The brain had swelled, and the brain stem had been eventually pinched. The doctors believe that happened when her blood pressure soared up on Saturday. It was then that the hospital chaplan came in and prayed over Mom, blessed her, and gave us a beautiful quilt to cover her with.
The other 2 tests confirmed his diagnoses, there was no blood flow to the brain at all,
Our Mom was declared legally brain dead at 6pm, Sunday, May 12th 2002.
But wait......here is where the sad story becomes wonderous.......
We asked the doctor if they could keep Mom's life support going till my brother arrived form Arizonia, and they agreed. So it was about 11:30 that night when he arrived at the hospital. We let him have some time alone with Mom, and then we were all there together, at her bedside. We told her good-bye, we loved her, and that Daddy was waiting for her in Heaven. We told her not to worry about us, we would take care of each other.
And then we let the nurse turn off the machines................................
We were telling her it was okay, she could go now,
when her fingers started to move.....
Then suddenly, she raised her arms, and was reaching up and out!!
We believe she was reaching for our Dad, who was coming to bring her up to Heaven with him. They were finally reunited again after 18 months of separation!!
GO MOMMA! We said, go with Daddy!!!................
And at 12:38am Monday, the 13th of May 2002.
My Mother's heart stopped beating.
She may have been "legally dead" before that, but, we know her spirit was still with us,
until those moments we all shared with her, when our Daddy came to lead her away.
They are now together again...........forever................... |
