Friday, May 13, 2011

Not the week I had anticipated...

This week was a strange one.   I had anticipated being home all week with the kids, with no real plans.  (Which was actually going to be kind of nice since last week was a hectic week with district soccer and me working 4 days.)  D and I had planned to take his grandma to the doctor on Monday.  We also decided to send the kids to my folks' for the weekend so we could go to the doctor's appointment alone and pick them up afterwards on Monday. 

However, when we got to his grandma's, she was in poor shape and unable to even get up off of the couch.  Good bye doctor's appointment, hello ambulance.  After a long afternoon in the E.R., they admitted her to the I.C.U..  She had been having lots of pain in one of her legs which was what was preventing her from getting up.  They ended up deciding it was a nerve based pain due to a previous surgery and prescribed some pain medication that has made the pain much much better.  They also discovered a host of other medical issues including COPD and emphysema, a urinary tract infection, possible pneumonia, and unregulated blood sugars which are due to her diabetes.  Her oxygen/carbon dioxide levels were of grave concern so much so that they almost put her on a respirator.  Thankfully, they got things straightened out without having to go that route. 

At any rate, I ended up spending Monday through Thursday in Norfolk with her.  D came back home on Tuesday and Wednesday and the kids stayed at my folks' until Friday.  They moved her out of the ICU on Thursday and since her pain was much better and the issues with her breathing had seemed to stabilize, D came up on Thursday and we decided to come back home on Thursday night.  I am not sure when they will discharge her nor am I sure when we will make the 2 1/2 hour trek back north.  I suppose even if they don't dismiss her, we will probably head back that way within the next 3-4 days.  I'm certainly glad to be back to a bit more normalcy even if that means cleaning out some really nasty things out of my fridge and coming back to a mountain of laundry, a broken AC unit, a barely working clothes dryer, and a clunking sound in my van. 

On another note that just make my Mama heart happy, I was so pleased at how Conleigh dealt with this impromptu mini vacation at Grandma's.  Last summer, she stayed overnight without us for like 4 days.  When we picked her up, she was a bit clingy with Grandma and kind of had that "do I listen to Mama or Grandma" look.  It's one of those things where you kind of think she's sorting out being left, having another mama type figure in the picture, etc. and now she is having to sort all of it out.  So while her response then wasn't cause for grave concern, I was so pleased to see how she responded this time around.  When she saw us pull in, she got silly and started trying to hide in Grandma and Grandpa's car.  But then when she could get close to me, she wrapped her arms around my neck and started telling me that she missed me, that I was her Mama, etc..  It was beautiful.  No hesitency from her about if she should stick close to Grandma or come running to Mama.  She chose Mama...just like she was supposed to.  Ah, sweet joy!

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