This might have been a "having a great time in Santa Barbara!" blog, and I'm even gonna add some pictures to show what a great time we were having. But, on Monday, October 8th, I got a call from my sister at 6:40 am. Mom had a stroke. It takes a minute for that information to register, regardless of the hour. In this case, in addition to the hour, there was a lot of "what?" "where?" and "where are you?" because the three of us were all in unusual places in various stages of traveling. Andrew, David and I were in Santa Barbara enjoying Drew's work trip for the weekend and squeezing in some college visits. My sister had just landed in London for her layover en route to Milan to join Mom for their fabulous two week weaving tour, and Mom had gone adventuring a few days early on her own to Bergamo, a medieval city east of Milan that she had wanted to visit for more than 20 years. Immediately upon landing Karen received a text from Mom saying "I had a stroke, call Sara."
A couple of days before this, Mom had enjoyed a full day of touring with her local guide Sara, blogging about it here: http://bit.ly/2J4whCe But on the second day, as they walked together, she didn't feel well. After sitting a bit and having some tea, she knew something was wrong - she was having difficulty feeling her left side and it was tingling. They agreed to go to the hospital. Thank goodness for Sara. She was absolutely wonderful, driving her to the hospital, checking her in, translating everything for the doctors and nurses and talking to Karen when she called. Mom got excellent care. They very quickly figured out that she had had a stroke and gave her TPA (tissue plasminogen activator given through an IV that dissolves the clot and improves blood flow to the affected part of the brain being deprived.) They put her in intensive care then sub intensive care for the first two days then transferred her to the neurology floor.
But, meanwhile back in Santa Barbara, I knew none of this. PANIC. Strangely, I had not slept a wink all night before the call. By all rights I should have been snoring away having had a big day wine tasting, seeing the Space X launch by chance(!)
and generally having a great time. I just couldn't get comfortable and now in retrospect, it makes perfect sense.
Karen and I agreed that I had to go to Italy too, that there was no way for her to deal with things on her own. At that point, we had not spoken to Mom or the nurses or Sara, and we had no idea what Mom's condition was. Karen had to leave to get her connection to Milan and would be out of touch again. I immediately began trying to find flights out of Santa Barbara, figuring out what routes I could take, how to not pay $8,000 for a last minute ticket when I realized... I don't have my passport! PANIC AGAIN! I called FedEx to see how long it would take to get it to the hotel in Santa Barbara. They assured my they could overnight it to arrive at 9 am the next morning if they received it by noon. Our awesome dog/house sitter busted into my safe and Fedexed it immediately and I began figuring out a flight that left Santa Barbara anytime after noon or so to be safe.
To say this was a time of high anxiety is a serious understatement. After more than two hours on the phone, I was able to get a flight out at 2 pm the next day through SFO direct to Frankfurt (last seat on the plane) then Milan thanks to the incredible lady at United who rerouted my ticket and figured it all out for me (using Drew's global upgrade certificates! Yes! And yes, she is only nice to me because he flies so much with them.) I would arrive Wednesday at 6 PM! Unbelievable! Karen would be arriving soon, late at night on Monday. She would head directly to Bergamo Tuesday and get to the hospital in the afternoon. We had a PLAN!
Thank goodness for calm and wonderful Drew, friends, and family who helped to reassure me that EVERYTHING WAS GOING TO BE OK. My biggest concern was that the hospital was some podunk teeny place that didn't know what they were doing. Andrew was most concerned that she get TPA - he knew how important it was that anyone with a stroke get this medicine as soon as possible. I had asked Karen to make sure she called and asked them this but we were out of touch before I could find out what they said. Drew and I were finally able to reach the hospital and get a male nurse on the phone who spoke a little English. He was wonderful and kept repeating, "Yes, she get the TPA! We break the blood! She move everywhere! She ees good!" Anxiety began to subside slightly. "She move everywhere" are three pretty incredible words. Tried to sleep but of course, no success. Here are some pics of the calm before the storm!
Julie Wood
2018-10-19
Wow, Maia! So sorry for all the stress! Sending prayers for your Mom and all of you!
Cindy
2018-10-26
Sorry - just seeing the details now. How stressful. Sending healing thoughts/prayers. Hugs, Cindy