The wedding went really well, and we caught up with all our friends and family, some of whom we hadn't seen for a couple of years. When you have friends and family scattered all over England, it's difficult to visit them all within a five or six week visit.
On Monday, we arrived at our static caravan in Bigbury Bay. The sun was shining, and it was raining back at home in Algorfa, so we could look forward to a relaxing time spent in the sun. Or so we thought.
At around 1.30am in the early hours of Wednesday morning, I received the phone call no mother should ever have to experience. My 40 year old daughter Elizabeth, who looked so lovely in her red dress at the wedding, and who was due to visit us on Wednesday, bringing her German Shepherd so we could all take a walk across the cliffs to Burgh Island, was in intensive care at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth.
While she was cooking her evening meal, she'd suddenly felt tired, and lay down to rest. Then she started vomiting, before passing into unconsciousness. Luckily, her son was at home, and he called an ambulance. She'd suffered a stroke, and it was one of the rarest and most dangerous ones there is. She was lucky to make it through the night, and even luckier that Dan was at home, because that meant she got treatment within the critical first four hours. She wouldn't have made it otherwise - her chances of surviving were rated at around 20%.
She had a procedure to drain the clot on Wednesday, and on Thursday, it looked as if she was coming around. She opened her eyes, and recognised the family, and she was moving around independently. Then on Friday morning, she went unresponsive, due to a build up of fluid and swelling on the brain, so it was back into theatre for emergency surgery.
As I'm writing this, we still have no guarantees that she will make a full recovery, or even that she will survive, so it's a terrible time for all of us. We're just thankful that she's alive, and also that we were here in England when it happened, so that we could be with her as soon as possible.
I'm afraid the blog's on hold for a while, along with everything else. I can't seem to concentrate on anything when I'm away from the hospital, and it's all very physically and emotionally exhausting. When we can see an improvement in her condition, normal service will be resumed. It's helped to write about it, and I hope it's not too depressing for you to read, but I did want to let you know why I've been a bit quiet this week.