Our February has been kind of crazy. Where to start? ...
At the end of January I got a call from my mom that my grandmother was having chest pains and was really scared. My mom left work and drove up to her house, which is about 3 hours north of us, in the middle of the biggest storm we have had so far this year. The next day they went to see a cardiologist who immediately admitted her to the hospital. They performed all of the heart tests and determined that she needed her aortic valve replaced. After more testing they also discovered that one of her arteries was almost completely blocked and she would also need a bypass. They were able to take the vein from her mammary gland instead of her leg so that would help with the recovery. She had surgery Wednesday January 27th. We drove up on the 28th to stay a couple days so that I could go up and visit her at the hospital. She looked great. He color was good and was recovering nicely. On Friday (the 29th) my mom received a call that her neighbor was in the hospital. He was having some serious health issues and was given anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks to live.
Don is much more than a neighbor. He is like a surrogate grandfather to us. My kids adore him and call him Papa Don. His family mostly lives out of state so he spends family dinners with us and has joined us for each holiday meal for the past several years. He is an amazing man with tons of interesting stories and life experiences that we are lucky to be able to hear about. Over the years he has given me and my family some beautiful gifts. Some old. Some new. All gifted to us with so much thought.
We drove home on Saturday. My mom was planning to stay with my grandmother longer but couldn't not say goodbye to this friend, who was so much more. She came home Sunday.
Sunday our plan was to prepare for the work week and in the afternoon, drive over and say our Goodbye's to Don. That morning Chris woke up with the stomach flu. He spent most of his day in bed or in the bathroom. By the afternoon he was feeling better so we went over and the kids and I went to see Don. Obviously the kids have no idea what is going on. They just knew he was sick and gave him hugs.
Don is still alive and kicking. He is weak but he has outlived the doctors time lines.
Monday we went to work. Chris was feeling better. After work he was really hungry and we had Mexican Food for dinner. (I know, terrible idea, but he said he wanted it). That night around 9 his stomach hurt pretty bad. He thought it was the food not sitting well and he went to bed. I went to bed not long after. Around 10:30 I woke up and he was laying next to me just trembling in pain. I told him I was calling someone to sit with the kids and we were going to the hospital. He said no. That he was fine. And that he would drive himself. I insisted and he agreed. I knew at that point it was bad. Our friend Doug came and sat with the kids. We got to the ER just before 11. Got him all triaged and put him took him back. They gave him some initial exams and started an IV to take some blood and start pain medicine. A little while later the doctor came in and examined him some more. Their assumption was appendicitis. They sent him back for a CT scan and their assumptions were confirmed. They told me they would be keeping him for the night and he would have surgery first thing in the morning. I left around 1:30am to go relieve our friend. When I got home I was surprised to see Doug and the kids wide awake. Not long after we left, Zach started throwing up everywhere. He got the stomach bug Chris had. Doug is such a saint, he caught puke, cleaned it up and even scrubbed puke off Zach's mattress. Doug went home and Zach continued to puke for another hour or so before he finally fell asleep. Hannah at this point was wide awake. I finally got her down around 4.
In the middle of this I called my mom. Probably around 3am. I felt terrible waking her and putting yet another thing on her, but I just needed to talk to someone. I felt totally alone in the middle of the night with the stench of puke and the sound of the washing machine and I just needed some sort of comfort. Someone to tell me it would be ok. I knew Zach wouldn't be able to go to school the next day and I would need someone to come sit with him so I could go up to the hospital to see Chris. My mom came in the morning around 7. I took Hannah to daycare and went up to the hospital.
I got there towards the tail end of the surgery so I didn't get to see him until he got out of recovery. He was doing really well and it was a relief not to see him in so much pain anymore. I sat with him for a couple hours and I was just feeling terrible. I didn't know if I was delirious from not sleeping the night before, or if I had gotten the stomach bug. I told him I would go home for a little bit and take a nap and be back in the afternoon. I went home and slept a couple hours. When I woke up, it hit me. I had the stomach flu too. It was horrible. By that time Zach had taken a long hard nap and eaten some food and was feeling much better. My mom packed him a bag and took him home with her so I had one less thing to worry about. I spent the afternoon resting and getting sick. Kelly (aka Doug's wife, Max & Molly's mom) offered to keep Hannah for the night so that I could recover. It was nice to not worry about anyone but myself. I was able to not worry about anyone else but myself for a few hours and I slept the sickness off. Needless to say, I didn't make it back up to visit Chris that day.
Wednesday morning I slowly started putting food and liquid back into my system and felt mostly better. Chris called to let me know he was getting discharged soon. My mom was bringing Zach back over so she offered to go with me to the hospital to get Chris. We took Zach to daycare and went up to the hospital. After some more nurses checking on him and giving him discharge orders, we were out of there. The rest of the day was relaxing and restful. Thursday I took the kids to daycare and Chris and I continued to rest at home. My mom spent the day at her house with the stomach flu.
By Friday, the spot on Hannah's bottom was no doubt an infection. I got her a doctor appointment in the morning and they said to just take her to the ER. She would need to be sedated and have it drained. Off to the ER we went. Luckily for us, we knew Hannah's nurse and she was phenomenal. Because Hannah had eaten that morning she had to wait a few hours before they could sedate her so I had to keep her entertained in the ER and outside. Finally they were able to do the procedure. They got her all monitored just in case she didn't do well with the sedation. It was such a scary thing to see her eyes open but she was just blank. They cut and drained the abscess and packed it. Then we had to wait awhile to make sure she came out of the sedation fine and was feeling ok before we took her home.
It was a long trying week, but we made it!
1 comment:
Jen, Just now getting caught up on your blog in this new year! it is flying by. love the pics as always. I would definitely say you had a whirlwind MONTH!! love to read your updates though. Please give Chris a hug for me and Zach and Hannah a big kiss! you're always in my thoughts :-)
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