The Miracles of Prayer with a Stroke of Bad Luck

After being gone for almost a week, we returned to our campground in Kansas City. We had just spent six days with Mark's Mother. We had taken pictures with her smiling and feeling healthy. It's been a tough year for her, as she turned 90 and just lost her husband of 69 years.

We were very surprised when we got the phone call the next morning that she had been rushed to the emergency room, and then medi-flighted to Oklahoma City. When she arrived at St. Anthony hospital, she had no movement or feeling in her left arm or leg, and her speech was slurred. She had obviously had a stroke. So we hopped in the car to make the 5.5-hour trip right back to Oklahoma. We spent the next several days watching monitor readings like this one, and praying that the doctors could stop the A-fib that had caused the stroke.

During the next four days she endured a whole alphabet of medical tests--MRI, CT, EEG, ECG. Our view from her ICU room showed the downtown Oklahoma City sky-line. Thank goodness for small-town emergency rooms, as she had been given the clot-busting medicine when she arrived at the hospital in Beaver. This medicine must be administered within a few hours of a stroke. We would watch as her stroke symptoms began to disappear. Within a day, she was regaining her movement and ability to swallow.

Prayers were answered as she continued to improve. We spent four days at St. Anthony's hospital, as a long line of her children and grandchildren came to visit. The nurses smiled as they carried in more chairs to hold the 13 visitors that were there at one time, after she was moved to a regular room. By the time she was discharged, she was eating, and was able to walk, talk, and take care of herself. What a wonderful miracle! Even though we had just seen her, it was a good reminder that we never know how our plans can be changed in the blink of an eye. It was also a good reminder that prayers are answered.