So, I'm not a usual blogger as most of you know, especially when it comes to things that are going on in my life.  But I think maybe it'll be good to share the things that are going on for me recently.. seems like there is a lot of this going around for people, doesn't it?  Heavy things that people are dealing with?..  For me it's been about my aunt.  She's had a really bad patch of health over the last week. It all came on very suddenly, without any forewarning for us.. (though she may have had minor warnings??)  She was sent to the ER by ambulance last Tuesday night with complaints of a severe headache, dizziness, incoherentness, and erratic driving (a friend was following her in her car on the way to a work meeting).. In the ambulance, while on the way to the hospital, she fell unconscious.  They were concerned that her symptoms pointed to a stroke.  Much of my family went to the hospital ( I was still driving home from visiting my sister in Brainerd, so wasn't able to get to the hospital. ) They gave her a CAT scan and determined that she had bleeding on her brain.. as they watched her through the night they also found that she had pressure on her brain stem, which probably was the cause of her body putting her into a coma.  We were told it was either a stroke, a tumor that burst, or a spontaneous hemorrage, possibly caused by high blood pressure. It was determined by the next morning after another scan that it was a spontaneous hemorrage.  The family was all called into a meeting room to listen to the team of doctors' advice.  They gave us two options, surgery or 'to let nature take its course' and be less aggressive with treatment, more like just monitoring the situation.. recovery at all would be less likely with the second choice, and with the first, she'd be more likely to recover somewhat, with a probable disability.  They also said that probably her vision would be the part affected and the rest of the brain appeared to be in good shape.  We decided that my aunt was a fighter, and that doing the surgery would give her the best option for a full life again.. though possibly her periphereal vision may be affected, which could take away her driving ability. This was a really hard decision, because my aunt had said in her health directive that she did not want to live in an assisted living situation and/or to have life support.  Hopefully, we've made the right decision and she will bounce back close to her independence before the incident.  After the surgery, in which they removed part of her skull to take out the blood clot that was on her brain and release the pressure, she has done remarkably well.  That was last Wednesday.  She's continued to progress slowly in the past several days.  They will be removing the 'brain drain' from her tonight as it's no longer necessary, hopefully her ventilator will be next.  She grasped my hand today when I visited her and seemed to be listening to everything I was saying to her.  My brother and sister and I started a Caring Bridge website for her and it's really amazing how many people she knows and has touched from many different workplaces and volunteer activities, etc.. throughout her 69 years!  She's a trooper and very involved in her community and has always kept up with old accquaintances and friends.  It'll be great to be able to share all of the encouraging comments with her as she progresses through this *fingers crossed* (If you're interested let me know, and I can tell you the site address). She's really quite a lady.  I can't imagine what it must be like to be in her shoes now.  Hopefully, we'll be able to hear all about it very soon..