A few weeks ago. Approaching a month ago now. It hasn't been easy to discuss - especially when there were still daily updates and uncertainty - which is why I haven't blogged about it until now.

She survived. She had surgeries, and is still recovering at the hospital. But a lot of things happened before then.

It happened on June 20. My mom was in the bathroom doorway, and suddenly had a violent episode of vertigo that made her have to sit down. It wasn't alarming at first, because she frequently has episodes of vertigo. My sister and I were right there, and were able to try to attend to her. (Later, we discovered that our presence there may have saved her life, but it was damn scary at the time.) She asked for some of her homeopathic vertigo remedy, but it didn't get better. She had to lie down on the floor, and her speech started to slur. My dad came home, and a family friend arrived - the latter immediately recognized it as a stroke, and told us to call 911. The ambulance came and took her to the nearest hospital. They did some quick scans there, and recognized a stroke in progress. So we had her medevacked to a much better hospital in Salt Lake, and she was in surgery almost immediately after she got there. It had been a stroke (a hemorrhage, not a clot), and they repaired it. They didn't know yet how it effected her, but thought that she might be able to to recover in between 10 and 15 days.

Her recovery in the intensive care unit (ICU) was steady but good. But a few days later, she had a sudden failure of one of her internal organs, and she had emergency surgery (this time much more life-threatening) to have the organ completely removed, replacing it with a prosthetic. Nevertheless, she resumed recovery, which has again been steady.

Several days ago they moved her from the ICU to the acute care unit (ACU), then from there to in-patient physical therapy. Her brain's cognitive functions are intact, and she recognizes people and such. She hasn't had an opportunity to talk or write yet, but this may be just because of how much the entire episode has weakened her - she may still yet do both. She may still be in the hospital for as long as a month, hopefully regaining her strength, speech, writing and her previous ability to walk. Even before the stroke she couldn't walk but with the help of two canes. She only recently moved in a wheelchair under her own power. Still, she could very possibly recover just about all of her previous function, and we're hoping for the best.

My mom is a very strong and brave person. And she's still relatively young - only 63, not even old enough to be considered a senior citizen. I wish for my mom to still be my mom for at least some decades more.