And the Earth Stood Still – January 16, 2013

Life is fragile. On Wednesday, January 16, Cassie was admitted to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. That morning she was completely fine and exhibited no symptoms of anything being amiss. Well, around 8:20 AM she texted me saying that she was feeling a little weird. Since I was at work, I was able to finally contact her a bit later and she was crying and was not quite sure what was going on. Her speech was mostly incoherent and I assumed it to be due to her state of mind and her obvious crying. Well, she said that in the middle of class that her hearing and her ability to transcribe suddenly disappeared, only to return before class ended. It freaked her out and rightly so, but when she called her doctor that is when she discovered that her speech was not functioning as well either. The doctor said to take some Tylenol and drink water constantly.

After an hour, and much confusion and fear demonstrated by Cassie and another conferral with her physician, we went to the emergency room. Cassie was scared and did not know what was happening to her. Due to her symptoms, the stroke team came and did some tests and it was determined that she had a blood clot in the left side of her brain. So, my dear sweet wife, who is only 23 years old, has had a stroke. This was totally unforeseen (naturally) and it has been difficult to deal with. The first day was a whirlwind, as she had tests and MRIs and high hopes that we would be soon done with this. As Cassie was in with the physician, we waited in a room off the operating room for what seemed forever. The first thing tried was an IV drip, which did not work. The second was through a catheter in the groin in an attempt to drop some medicine directly on the clot to try to dissolve it, which worked until it clotted again. The final attempt was to manually withdraw the clot, which mostly worked until some dissipated and broke loose.

That night it was determined she would go to the Neuro Shock Trauma ICU to ensure her safety as she was in a critical state. My Dad was still on the road, but the rest of the immediate family was there. We had a prayer and placed our faith in the Lord that things would be alright. Most of the family stayed until midnight, and it was difficult for anyone to leave. Ryan and Maritza Magoffin came to see her that night, and they were wonderful as they brought me some food, took the extra car home and returned with bedding, toiletries, clothes and other things I might need. Right before midnight, they came to do another MRI and so I had to go with her and wait. It just breaks my heart to have had to look at her in all her misery and inability to do much for herself. I spent the night and only rested for a couple hours. Understatement of the year: it was a rough night.

Contributed by Christopher Holt