| wheresmytoad in nocturne_alley @ 2003-08-21 22:29:00 |
| Current mood: |  relieved |
Better news
Gran is really, really lucky. The doctors (that's what muggles call their healers) are thinking now she's going to live.
The first piece of luck was where it happened. If she'd been alone at home, they say she probably would have died right there, and no one would known anything until I'd come home from work and found her tonight! I'm so grateful that didn't happen!
Instead, she was in town at the butcher shop, picking up some chops for dinner, I guess, and suddenly she said to the butcher, as if surprised, "I can't see out of my right eye." And that was the second piece of luck: the lady who happened to be standing in line behind her was a muggle nurse, and she knew immediately what that meant, that Gran must be having a stroke, and she needed to get help fast. So they had already called for help by the time Gran collapsed.
The third bit of luck was that the hospital they took her to is one of the very best around for treating stroke. They have a brand new drug treatment available, too, which the tests show really protects against the worst of the damage, but it only works if you get it within three hours of the stroke starting. Since that muggle nurse was right there when it happened and got her help quickly, they're all really optimistic that she'll make a good recovery. They give the drug to her by sticking a hollow needle right in her arm, and running a liquid with the drug dissolved in it directly into her veins! Ugh! Can you imagine? I was a bit upset by that--I mean, the needle stays in there, sticking out of her the inner crook of her elbow (they do tape it down), but Uncle Algie had seen muggle treatments like that before, when he was in the war, and he did his best to reassure me. I must say that the doctors do talk as if they know what they are doing. Anyway, Gran has been sort of drifting in and out of consciousness this evening, but she did recognise me and managed to say my name at one point--well, mumbled it, really. But that's good, they say, so I'm trying to hope for the best. It's early days yet.
Still, it's all been a terribly nasty shock. I mean, Gran has always been Gran, just always there, if you know what I mean, flinty and determined, and as predictable as the sun rising. It's quite a jolt to realize that she's actually mortal.
Going back in to sit with her again.
Neville
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