Update on My Mom

No, Crossing Paths hasn't gotten a corporate sponsor (yet). This picture represents a 20 ounce bottle of soda. This is how much fluid they drained from around my mom's heart Sunday afternoon. This buildup of fluid was a direct result of her illness, Scleroderma. My mom has the progressive systemic variety, meaning it also affects her internal organs.

My mom has been an avid prayer warrior since becoming a Christian in 1982. I am certain that I am a direct product and a favor from God to my mom's fervent prayer throughout my adult life. I used to joke that my mom had the spiritual equivalent to the Bat phone, made famous on the television show Batman. That's the special red phone, under glass, which directly connected Commissioner Gordon to Batman, and vice versa. I was convinced my mom had a similar pipeline to God.

Heck, who am I kidding? She still does! To this day, when she calls me in the morning to tell me the Lord woke her up to pray for me, there's no sense telling her everything is fine. There hasn't been a circumstance yet in which things were fine when I've gotten that kind of call from her. Anyway, I'll never forget when the disease affected her body to the point that she could no longer kneel to pray. This was a special posture for her. She told me that being unable to kneel to pray made her feel like a bird with its wings clipped, and could no longer soar. But, the glass-is-half-full person that she is, she completed the thought by reminding herself, "but I can still sing." (and she still prays, only it's while flat on her back, now.)

You may remember my recent post about my mom's singing. Read it (again?) to really see the depth of this comment.

At any rate, she is still in the hospital, but scheduled to be released Monday afternoon, if all goes well. We're hoping the fluid does not return, but if it does, there is another procedure they can do to permanently solve the problem. It's more involved, so they took the less invasive route this time to see if it does the trick. We're praying it does.

Thank you to those who have been praying for her. My dad and I appreciate you so much, and we ask that you continue to lift her up. She's a special woman, and if you've had the privilege to meet her, you know what I mean. If you haven't, well...you'll have the chance to meet her in Heaven.

She'll be the one with the red phone, singing the most beautiful song you've ever heard.

UPDATE as of 4:48 PM: Mom hasn't yet been released from the hospital. Her blood pressure is very low, so the doctors are wanting to monitor her a bit longer. Her spirits are good, she's not dizzy or anything, but things still aren't right.