"Stroked" by Lightning

Today is a rainy, thundery day.  The kids stood in the garage watching the storm and I warned them a couple times to stay in the garage because we don't want anyone getting struck by lightning.  After the warning, Selah came in very worried about where daddy was working today.  I thought this behavior was odd because she is not usually fearful of storms.  "Where's daddy?", she would fearfully ask over and over.  "Is he inside or outside?"  I finally realized that she was afraid that Steve would be working in the storm.  I assured her that daddy was a cautious person and that he would be careful if there was lightning.  "But, Mommy," she said with tears in her eyes, "remember when he was stroked by lightning last time?!  I don't want him to get sick again!"  Huh?  "You know, when he was stroked?  I don't want that to happen again." 

On April 10, 2012 at about 1:30pm, Steve had a stroke.  I received a call on Steve's cell phone at about 1:45pm that went like this....."Is your husband Steve?  I found him on the side of the road unconscious."  Wow.  How do you process something like that?  Caleb and I were on the couch reading when the call came in.  20 minutes before that, Steve and I had been talking....I was grumbling that I didn't think he was fulfilling his responsibilities with Alec and Linnea's science lessons.  I was pretty much being a super big jerk.  And now this.  I loaded the kids in the van--minus Selah who was in Florida with my parents--and we headed to the hospital.  In God's complete goodness, He gave me peace and calmness.  If you know me, peace and calmness are not my normal character traits.  I am much better at freaking out.  We prayed.  We cried.  We drove what seemed to be the longest drive ever. 

The next day, Steve was diagnosed with a moderate cerebellar stroke.  After tons of tests and scans, it was learned that he has a left vertebral artery dissection which caused the stroke.  He still has a blood clot that causes almost daily headaches and fatigue, but he is doing very well and is expected to recover fully within a year.  

Selah was in Florida during Steve's 5 day hospital stay.  We never told her anything about Steve being sick until she returned home. 

Today, she was worried that Steve was going to have another stroke.  I almost laughed when I realized that she thought you got a stroke from being "stroked" by lightning.  Funny girl!!