It begins

One month ago today everything changed.

One month ago today my mom had a stroke.

We didn't know that's what was happening. Not that day. She'd been having dizzy spells and losing her balance. She and her doctor were starting to look into that. But Monday afternoon she fell. And again on Tuesday morning. I stayed with her that day, calling her doctor, describing her symptoms, trying to decide what to do. Mom had an appointment with a specialist to see about the dizziness the next day. It seemed okay to wait for that. By the middle of the afternoon it was clearly not okay.

It started with her sitting on the edge of her chair, looking absent and a bit confused. "What's wrong?" I asked. "I don't know," she said. She decided she needed to go to the bathroom, but needed my help to get there. A few steps away from the chair, she started to lean against me heavily. I was on her left, and she didn't seem to understand when I said I couldn't hold her up much longer. I don't think she even knew how far to the left she was leaning. I slowly lowered her to the floor and helped her scoot back to lean against her chair. I called for an ambulance and waited.

While we waited, Mom started to mix up words. That's when I started to get scared.

That's when I knew that everything had changed.