SCA Life

Dear Readers,

As those of you have been following my blogs may remember, my mother had major surgery in July. The surgery was needed to undo a major blockage in one of her arteries. Anyway, at first the surgery seemed to have done a great deal of good. This was a tremendous relief as Mom had been having minor strokes due to the blockage.

It seems the surgery didn’t do enough. Mom has had several more minor strokes. She’s been very ill. And today, after yet more and more and more tests, we found out that one of the minor strokes was in fact a major stroke. Her entire right side is affected. She’s having trouble with balance, speech and a number of other issues. Now, I don’t mean to imply that’s she’s paralyzed or dumb. But she is very weak on that side. The minor strokes are still coming, and we’re going to have to go through more tests and maybe another major surgery.

To top it all off, the first surgery will apparently take six or more months to recover from and this is complicated by the fact that she’s still having “mini-strokes” which I think are also called TI’s.

This is the reason that my blog posts have been off their normal schedule or missing entirely on at least one or two days. Please bear with me, as I am doing my best to get everything back on track. In the meanwhile, you may see a lot of short posts and YouTube videos. This post is for the 28th and 29th of August, in case I miss more after this.

Oh, and Mom wanted me to let all you know that she really appreciated your thoughts and prayers last time. J So did I.

Thanks,
Catslyn/Zeva/Lori

UPDATE: Surgery was cancelled due to a lack of hospital beds in the ICU. The hospital has a bad rep for patient care during the night. So the surgeon refuses to do the surgery unless there’s an available bed in the ICU for my mom. Now we have to go back tomorrow morning and start all over. Thanks for the good wishes, and keep thinking of her.

Dear Reader,

I’ve just realized that I didn’t let you know why the next edition of the Medieval Recipe series was postponed. So here goes.

My mother, who is 67 years old, is having major surgery today. Her entire cartoid artery (hope that is the correct term and spelling) is being cut open, cleaned out and stitched shut again. This is because it is 90% blocked and has already caused her to have several “mini strokes.” Until she has the surgery, there is a 20% chance she could have a severe stroke and die or suffer major brain damage.

So the surgery is a must. She is very nervous, and my dad, my niece and I are all going to the hospital with her today to stay during the surgery, and I will be spending the night there with her afterwards.

Her name is Betty. Keep her in your thoughts, and please be patient if a few things are late over the next few days.

Thanks,
Catslyn