Dear Friends,
It’s been a week since Mum had her fall(s) at home in Shanti Kunj. We look back on this week with our heads still spinning as she was in such a critical state just a few days ago. By God’s abundant grace, the has come out of the ‘valley of the shadow of death’ and has returned to the land of lucidity as well.
We have now spent the better part of this week in ‘our room’ at the Landour Community Hospital. Mum has stabilised in so many ways and is almost off oxygen. She had her naso-gastric tube removed earlier today and is now drinking liquids with a straw and eating her meals. She is almost off oxygen and her kidney function as improved. We are thankful for each step of grace that she is receiving.
What is slowly dawning on Mum is that she is bed-ridden, and cannot at this point care for herself. The stroke condition she is in at present means that she cannot move herself around in bed – let alone get out of it. She has minimal movement control in both her legs and arms, with the left-side limbs marginally better than the right-side ones.
Please pray for Mum in this situation which is so opposite of who she has been for so many years. As a woman with a big heart who cared for so many others, she now has to be cared for. As an active soul who loves the outdoors and had a daily prayer walk of at least 1 hour up and down the hillside, she now is confined to her bed and needs help to be shifted from one side to the other. As a person who would set her times and go up to the prayer room at Shanti Kunj for her morning devotions, she now is ‘at the mercy of’ the hospital rhythm of blood tests, feeding times, bed change times, blood pressure and oxygen saturation monitoring.
Mum’s nights have been hard the last 2 days – as she has regained much of her consciousness, the restlessness has increased. During the day there is a rhythm of feeding and people coming to meet, but the nights are long.
As I write this at 2 AM on the 1st of March (!), Mum is struggling to fall back to sleep after having slept for a good portion of the night so far. She asked me for water, and asked whether she can leave her bed for a few minutes. Along with the nurses, I helped change her position, and while she was drinking water she drifted off to sleep, but now she is ‘hell-wach’ (wide awake in German) and is finding it hard to sleep.
We met with our wonderful psychiatrist Dr. Raja this morning and he has suggested for Mum to express her feelings about her current condition – as a “Psalm 151” – Christa’s psalm. Speaking out to God from the heart about how she feels, and also reminding herself of who God is during this time. There is a lot of processing that all of us need as we walk through this valley. We know that our Good Shepherd knows the way forward, but the way seems so hard at times.
Thank you for your prayers. We started to read to Mum some of the comments that you sent to the Whatsapp group and on her FB page. Her face lit up when we would share your name – and what you wrote to her. For those who recorded messages and sent them by whatsapp – we were able to play them which she enjoyed.
And so we close the chapter on February 2022 and step into March. What will this month hold for us? Only the Lord Jesus Himself knows. He knows how weak we are as sheep, and in His great love comes after us to find us. Your prayers continue to be cherished as Mum ‘walks’ into a new chapter of her life – while (at this time at least) not being able to walk at all. We need our Lord so much during these days. Thank you for standing with us.
- Andi and Sheba Eicher (for the Eichers near and far)
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