Making the Best of it

I know I haven't posted.  I just haven't had the time.  I just haven't had the strength.  Emotional or physical.  Here's a quick recap:

Mary Lou{my stepmom} and dad were on a cruise. Tuesday, ML told dad she was dizzy and collapsed. She was unconscious and not breathing. An EMT on vacation started CPR while the ship doctor got up there. They had to zap her {you now...use the PADDLES} and then got her back. The Coast Guard flew in to get her from the ship and flew her to Miami. Since they were in the middle of the ocean and there wasn't room, dad had to stay on the ship until the next morning when they docked in the Bahamas. Meanwhile, Tracy {my step-sister} and I decided we would fly to Miami. Then we decided to go to Houston where their RV was and drive it there so they would be able to get home at their own pace (we weren't sure when she would be able to fly). Once we got to Houston, we found out the keys we had didn't work, so we ended up getting a flight anyway.

In a nut shell she went into cardiac arrest. The ship dr. said that she was lucky, most don't even make it to the helicopter.

After being up for over 24 hours, we got here early Wednesday, and it was bad, very bad. They had her on a ventillator, and sedated. It broke our hearts to see her that way. I picked dad up from the airport a little later, and by the time he got there, she was starting to wake up. She was very scared, and had no clue what was going on. She fought us all afternoon. She was determined to get that tube out of her throat!!!   It was so bad {her being combative about the tube in her throat} that they had to put her in restraints and keep her sedated.  They kept weaning her to where she was finally breathing about 80% on her own and waking up every 15-30 minutes. Then we tried to take her off the vent to no avail. A little while later, we finally got her to breath on her own and they took the vent out!!!!  PTL!!!!!

It took her a little bit, but she knew who we were, but nothing else.

This morning, she's at least back to her normal self and by that I mean that she is not a happy camper about being there, and she's sounding more like herself...although, she still has memory problems. She has lost her short term memory, and we're not sure why. The doctors are great and have been in contact with her cardiologist in Waco, and they all decided that she definitely had to have a defribrillator and a pacemaker. They plan on doing this in the next couple of days. She still doesn't know where we are, what happened, or why she's in the hospital. We go through the whole story with her literally 40 times a day. We're hoping her meomory will come back...she remembers everything up until the cruise, but nothing going forward.

Dad...well, he's hanging in there, but is very emotional. This is very hard for him. Since he lost my mom, the thought of losing ML too is just about to break him. He does good most of the time, but when she just can't remember, he breaks down.

Please keep her in your prayers, and if you would, please say one for all of us, we need them!  We're just drained.  We're all a little scared about the memory problem, and all scared about her heart.