This is a run blog, but not really. It’s a life blog for me. So, today I want to share a recent event that happened to my family. My 25 year old son is hospitalized.
No soccer today!
Jordan is my eldest son, age 25. He lives with us as he is preparing to go into medical school. I have 3 children. Jordan, 25, Zion, 21 and Kingston, 7.
He has always been like a second dad to Kingston. So, when Kingston started soccer, Jordan was right there at every practice and game.
So, on March 20th 2023, Jordan was in the car ready to head to soccer practice with Kingston and myself.
With his head in his hands he says, I just don’t feel right. My momma antenna is up.
discovered he only has one kidney (yeah, big surprise- we found out a year ago).
I insisted that he get out the car, and go take his blood pressure.
He gets out the car and goes in the house.
He returns and says it’s “150/ something!” I immediately tell him to stay home, but he is the “unofficial” soccer coach and does not want to miss his brother’s practice.
I insist, he refuses, so we head to the practice which is approximately 15 minutes away.
On the way, I tell him if it gets worst, I am talking him to the ER. He pleads with me that he will be fine.
Within the next 5 minutes, he starts to complain about his eyes. He says to me, “now I can not see clearly!”
I safely whip my vehicle in the opposite direction and head to the local hospital which is about 10 minutes away.
Jordan is still trying to make a case why he should not go to the hospital.
At this point, I am in full blown momma-mode.
The ER
As we walk into the entrance to the ER, Jordan is now unsteady. I still have Kingston who doesn’t really understand the level of seriousness, and is frustrated that he is missing soccer practice.
I escort them into the ER and with fear in my voice, I ask if triage can see my son immediately, he is having stroke symptoms.
The first desk clerk ask a few questions, and now Jordan is slurring his speech pretty badly. In all honestly, I am terrified.
The nurse comes out quickly and takes him into the triage area and begins to assess him. They do all the normal stuff, blood pressure (it was still elevated), glucose, and temperature. They ask him the current month, day, and year. They tell him to touch his nose and put his finger out straight in front. They touch his left and right side for sensation. He states his left side isn’t sensing when they touch him.
My husband comes fairly quickly to pick up Kingston.
Terrified
They decide that they need to do a CT scan. He is wheeled away and I am left in the waiting room wondering. Even though, my kid is 25 years old and at this age, I was already married with 2 children, I felt like a helpless mother whom baby was whisked away by doctors and wasn’t sure if he was going to be ok.
I have strong faith, but if someone says that they have no fear in a situation like this, I would say they are trying to fool themselves.
Every possible thought ran through my mind; “What if he dies during the CT scan?” “What if it’s a brain bleed?” “What will I tell his brothers?”
“April stay calm.”
“I wonder if this is how my mom felt when my brother was dying in the hospital 14 years ago?”
“April, the peace of God will guard your heart and your mind.”
“PEACE!” “Peace be still.”
I kept saying these words. I knew from being in the hospital a couple years ago, that was God’s message to my spirit and so I employed those same words to this situation.
Terrified?
Yes, but I was determined not to allow my mind to wander into uncertain places.
The Wait
I waited for over an hour battling my thoughts and trying to take them into captivity. After waiting for what seemed to be long enough, I questioned a nurse if my son had completed his CT scan and if he had been given a room.
She went to ask, and came back very quickly that he was in. a room and I could go see him.
If you have older single children, I would highly suggest getting power of attorney and living will so you are able to speak for them when they aren’t able to speak for themselves.
In his room, he looked ok. His speech was starting to come back but he still had a headache and his eye sight was still blurred.
I ask him about the CT scan he isn’t able to inform me what the neurologist reports. He does mentioned that they wanted to give him blood thinners.
The nurse comes in and states they still need to do more testing.
He has already had a EKG and his first round of blood drawn.
The nurse gives him a Lipitor and aspirin and hooks him up to an IV.
The aspirin is standard for anyone that are having these symptoms.
I Don’t Want to Alarm You
The first doctor that he sees in the room is a Black female doctor who is going over the specifics from his recent tests. She states that the CT scan came back within normal range, but his blood work is showing some irregularities. She states, “I don’t want to alarm you, but one of his markers is showing that he is having a heart attack.”
My eyes widen and I wait for her next statement.
She states that she wants to get another sample because he is only 25 years old and he does not look as if he was having a heart attack.
The tech comes back in and gets what seems to be a lot of blood from him.
At this point, I notice he is becoming more uncomfortable. He starts to squirm and complain about his stomach. Now after hearing his Troponin levels are elevated, I am very concerned that he is having a heart attack and is manifesting now through stomach pains.
I buzz the nurse multiple times to come back to his room but she isn’t really sure what is going on. His vitals are stable.
He starts sweating, and shivering uncontrollably and is now very frustrated why this is happening.
Up until this point, he was not in any pain. He was just very uncomfortable.
Now, he is experiencing level 8 pain.
Prayer Changes Things
I understand the power in prayer, so I had been praying from the car, to the waiting room and now in his room.
At that moment when he was having pain, I laid my hands on his chest, and his head and prayed a verbal prayer for my son.
I was communicating with God on behalf of my son, but also I wanted my son to hear me pray for his healing.
After several minutes and with a cold rag on his head, his body started to regulate itself and the pain subsided.
He’s Staying
The doctor reports back that his Troponin levels are still abnormal, and he will need to be admitted so they can figure out what is going on.
He is then wheeled to the 3rd floor where we camp out for the night.
Tina was a very kind nurse. She met us as we arrived to room 832. She asked him if he had eaten, and he stated he hadn’t.
She knew immediately that it was the aspirin that was most likely the reason he had such stomach discomfort.
She was kind to me by bringing me a recliner chair so I wouldn’t have to sleep in an arm chair.
I am grateful for nurses like Tina.
That first night was filled with him being poked every hour on the hour.
The follow morning, techs came to get him for a MRI, sonogram of his heart and kidneys.
I decided to go home during that time to shower and get cleaned up.
On this day, he was in no pain, but still a slight headache. His speech had returned as well as his vision.
All Scans Are Within Normal Range Can We Go Home?
His MRI, CT scan, heart come back fine. We are aware of his one kidney, so that comes back within normal range for him. The doctors were confused why his Troponin levels were elevated.
On the second afternoon, a younger Black male doctor comes to see us. He reports that over night his blood work shows improvement and that is a good sign.
My cousin the ER doctor calls simultaneously and I take the opportunity for the doctor to explain everything to my cousin.
(What are the chances that I get two doctor’s schedules to coincide at the same moment)
My cousin feels good about what Jordan’s numbers are doing today and offers his medical ER experience.
Unexpected Hope
Jordan shares with this young doctor that he is on the path to become a doctor too. They start talking and this doctor starts to encourage my son. They talk about MCAT scores not being what they both preferred.
Then I see it.
A transfer of hope.
My son needed to speak with this young Black doctor who shared he didn’t score what he wanted his first testing experience. He said I wished he’d had more experience.
Jordan shared he was recently employed to work as a scribe in the hospital and would be retesting next year.
They talked a good while about the MCAT experience. He mentioned that in his opinion, medical schools will be competing for my son with medical scribing under his belt.
This doctor mentioned that, despite his lower MCAT score, he was still awarded a full scholarship to medical school.
I had never heard that happening.
So not only did it give Jordan hope, but it showed me that God is able to do exceedingly above all I can even imagine.
I truly believe that on that day, even though we still didn’t have answers to why this medical emergency was happening, we were grateful to meet this young doctor who gave my son hope for his future.
On the Third Day
We were hopeful that on the second day, we would be going home, since Jordan was looking better and his blood work was improving.
Nope.
The neurologist advised that now Jordan needed a EEG. A EEG is a electroencephalogram. A test that checks brain activity. The neurologist was interested in checking to see if Jordan had a seizure.
This could only be done on the following day.
So I opted to come home and sleep since he was stable.
The next morning I went back to work and waited on him to report back about the test.
He completed the EEG and its was normal as well.
After work, I came to the hospital and requested that he be released since all scans were normal and his blood work was stable. The attending physician agreed.
But as we were released, the current charge nurse hands him papers that states he has had a TIA.
Unfamiliar to me, I ask, “TIA?”
Jordan responds, “Mom, a mini stroke.”
My eyes widen again.
The entire 3 days, no one had mentioned this term. I don’t know if this is common medical practice to just do the tests, scans, labs but not inform the patient about suspicions.
I initially thought it was a stroke, but threw that out after all the scans came back negative.
The nurse advised me that this was how TIA work. They don’t leave lasting results and even though all scans were normal. All signs pointed to a mini stroke.
We Must Change
When I started running in 2020, I never knew that my new habit would be impactful on my children. Jordan started running with me here and there and God shared that my running was not only for me.
While studying tirelessly for his MCAT, he stopped running.
In all actuality, he stopped ALL things other than going in the basement and sitting in front of a computer screen for 10-15 hours on end.
Preparation for the MCAT was a beast.
I have my suspicions about what happened on March 20th.
I also want better for my family.
High blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol runs rampant in the Black community.
It will NOT be so in my home!
I am taking more steps to be a healthier influence in my family’s life.
I hate cooking, but have decided to learn to cook more.
I don’t have a definite answer why this happened, but I know it’s another opportunity for me to make changes.
Yes, two of my children are adults, and some say, it’s too late.
I beg to differ.
I am a influencer not only to the world, but in my own home most importantly.
We we make individual life style changes, even though we are doing it for ourselves, God never looks solely at one person at a time.
He is thinking broader.
Bigger.
He has community on his heart.
Thank you for reading this blog today. It is quite personal.
I documented this to help others and as a line in the sand for me.
I pray I can come back to this blog months later and see that I have made changes in how I serve my family by cooking better.
With Kind Regards, April
April I’m soooooo glad to hear that he is doing much better. I’m glad momma mode kicked in too. Praise God!
All honor to God. Thank you for reading.