Betty Boo

Prayer shawls made by Brentwood Baptist Church
A lady who came by the house nicknamed us Betty Boo.
I'm going to miss my gorgeous side kick!

October 13

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 

because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  

James 1:2-4

Passing the baton to my husband to write today and try to explain where we think we are at this point.

Love to you all, Boo

Probably the best way to describe where things are right now is the road we are literally on... I-81 headed home. We are still in a valley, but can see the mountain tops on both sides. Many great things going on but not there yet!

First of all, Mama Boo passed her driver's test Sunday morning. As usual for this journey, that turned out to be a time of sharing and praying with the test administrator. No matter where the road goes, the path crosses with people in need. This was a great milestone but she is no hurry to drive car pools. We laughed because Sunday morning should be the best time to be on the road in Nashville... because everyone is in church! But for some reason that day, walkers, runners, cyclists, dog walkers and traffic were everywhere. She had to deal with GPS issues, driving a strange car, and dealing with known intersections. Reminded of the story when a boy calls his elder dad to be careful on the interstate. Someone had been reported driving the wrong way on the highway. His dad replied, "Some one, heck there are hundreds!'

Monday began with more therapy including a few tests to check for progress relative to original benchmarks. All good here but a few disappointments; that despite weeks of pretty intense work, there is still much to be done with balance and endurance issues.

The event of the day was the neurologist appointment after lunch, which couldn't have been much more encouraging. We are both so impressed with this doctor.  First of all, he reported they believe to have found the culprit. A blood study showed a genetic abnormality; plasminogen activator inhibitor, 1- (4g+5g) polymorphism (or something like that!). Bottom line is her blood has a tendency to clot more than others putting her at risk for veinous thromboembilsm or myocardial infarction. The suspicion is the disorder coupled with the long car ride to Nashville on September 14 caused the stroke. Interestingly, this was the first thought our nurse daughter-in-law, Jenna, expressed the first day.

So, the bad news is the blood is not normal; the good news is that with daily Plavix, the risk of a future stroke should be minimized to a statistical normal. This is significant as it helps to lesson the fear of being alone or doing the activities she desperately wants to continue... kayaking, walling, making me gourmet desserts etc!

All in all, enough good news to see those mountain tops. However, not there yet. The daily regimen involves much therapy for the balance and endurance issues. There is another component as well. Despite her progress and the normalcy at the way things look at face value, there is the reality that she has indeed suffered a stroke and in many ways she is dealing with a new normal in her life. She is already struggling with how to thank everyone for the prayers and support as she knows it will take some time.  It's still one day at a time.  Not sure what day she will actually get to Shiloh. The first day of travel was exhausting and she was up most of the night with a terrible sore throat.  She has doctor visits in different locations and then is headed to Va. Beach, so it will be difficult to have friends come and visit this week. The time will come for that. 

That's if for now. Oh, one more interesting tidbit. The doctor said that her blood disorder ordinarily would resist the effectiveness of the miracle drug TPA but for some reason it didn't. Go figure!  We say, "Prayer works!"