MOTHER’S MIRACLE

When I last wrote about my life I was finishing 10th grade. I had been through a very traumatic time. Looking back on my junior and senior years I don’t really have anything that stands out to share today but as I look past graduation I find the next trial that would shape my caregiving skills.

I recall my mom calling me and telling me about these headaches she kept having. She could hardly find comfort. We eventually got her to a neurologist and found that mother had a tumor the size of a baseball behind her sinuses and at the base of her brain. It was a scary time.

I recall the doctor telling us that they would only be able to ease some of her pain but the outcome would not be saving her life. The prognosis was unfortunately death within 3 to 6 months. As a family, my siblings and I chose not to deliver this prognosis to mother. She unfortunately had fought depression and alcoholism her whole life and we knew she needed encouragement at this point.

Mother was scheduled for radiation treatments twice a day for 5 days a week for 8 weeks. It was a very difficult time. I had just really gotten started at my job in Atlanta with Southern Bell. Thankfully my niece, Michelle had recently graduated and she drove mother twice a day to Rome from Rockmart for all her treatments.

Here is where my memory gets confused because so much happened during this time. I know mother kept smoking and with the radiation fluid built up on her lungs. She ended up having a lung collapse and spent over 30 days in ICU. The doctors weren’t sure if mother would ever come off the ventilator or make it home.

I can recall working all day in Atlanta and staying at the hospital and going to work again. I hadn’t been 18 long and it was such a life altering event. Just as I had begun my own life my mom’s looked like it was ending. My siblings all had major things going on in their lives. I felt so alone. I didn’t grow up in church and had no relationship with God.

I can recall driving highway 101 between Rockmart and Rome and thinking maybe I should just pull over in front of the transfer truck in the other lane. I know that sounds crazy but things seemed so hopeless and I didn’t know where to turn. Today, I can’t recall when I began to pray but I did!

God really showed up too! Mother not only got off the ventilator and came home but she was a miracle. When the final MRI was done on mother she only had scar tissue no cancer where the baseball tumor was. I remember doctor Vancise saying there is no way the treatments did this!

This you see was my first experience with the power of how our mind can heal! Mother believed she would live. We told her she was going to be ok. Even with the 30 days in the hospital we remained positive with mother. Today looking back I am still truly amazed!