Life is so very precious x

I must apologise for neglecting my blog this week - it has been an emotional week and I haven't felt like sitting down and typing until today.

My gorgeous Grandparents with Alexa

This week I was again reminded how fragile and precious life really is.  My gorgeous Grandad, who I completely adore, had a stroke on Saturday evening.  We had a phonecall from my Mum's cousin before the ambulance had left my Grandparents' house.  The problem is they live in Dorset and we live in Reading, so the dash to the hospital is not quite as week as we have become used to!  Mum, Dad and myself threw lots of random bits into bags and ran to the car, picking Alexa up from her Daddy's on the way; my sister was at a do in Stroud so felt even further away and totally helpless.  The journey seemed very long and we were all full of worry as we did not know anything. 

Once we got to the hospital we went straight to A&E; I was slightly worried about the risk of infection, but it was a risk I was willing to take for my Gramps.  Luckily we had a side room to congregate in and took it in turns to go and see him.  At this point he was very out of it, his face had dropped and he could hardly move his right side.  It was so emotional seeing the man I love so much so poorly.  He is 85 but he is extremely 'with it' both mentally and physically.  In fact this was somewhat his downfall; he decided that he would change his leaking water tank himself rather than pay for someone to do it!

Throughout all of this I just felt for my poor Grandma; she doesn't cope well in emergencies and I knew that she was hiding just how upset she was from all of us.  But she reacted so quickly and knew that grandad was having a stroke, and this ultimately saved his life.  It was when Grandad sat down after working all day that the stroke happened; he dropped his paper and tried to pick it up but couldn't.  He couldn't talk and Grandma recognised the signs of a stroke from the television advert.  She ran next door and they took over from her ensuring that the ambulance was called.

We left the hospital at about 10.30pm when Grandad was safely tucked up in the stroke ward and had some egg and chips, which went down nicely!! We all slept well that night.  We were eagerly looking forward to going to see Grandad the next day, but unfortunately as there was the neurovirus on his ward we were restricted to just an hour at 2pm.  I didn't stay too long when we went; I literally popped my head in to say hi and bye.  He looked really well; he was talking (although muddling his words), he was sat up and he could move his right side.  My Grandad is a fighter and I was so pleased to see his amazing progress in less than a day.

He came home on Thursday; he is able to walk, climb stairs and is independent. He is still muddling his words, but he will have support from Speech Therapists.  His recovery so far has been amazing; he does need to have an operation on his corroted artery soon.  I am amazed by his strength and I know that, although his recovery will be a long road, he will get there and will be back to being my sparkly Gramps again.

Do you know the signs of a stroke?

So the moral of this story is; make sure you let the people you love just how much you love them, spend time with them and appreciate all that they do for you.



Keep praying Cx