Whirlwind

What a 24 hours we have had...

We returned home from hanging out with the Simmons' family to a message on the answering machine from my grandmother. She said to call as soon as I could. That's never good. When I called, she said my granddad wasn't doing well. He has been in the hospital then rehab facility for two weeks and has only gotten worse. She said the doctors can't do anything else for him and won't even re-admit him into the hospital because they have exhausted all their treatment options. Basically, his heart is just tired and worn out. He is a diabetic, has one kidney that has about 20% function (The other one was removed several years ago because of cancer.), congestive heart failure, a pacemaker, defibrillator, about 10 stents in his arteries ( I have lost count along the way!), and numerous other ailments. He has been unable to stand up because he gets dizzy and passes out, so he has been bed bound. He is miserable.

While speaking with my grandmother I had an overwhelming need to see my granddad. I told her I was coming either that night or first thing in the morning. I said I would pick her up and take her to the hospital so I could see and talk to him. Drew wouldn't let me go by myself (It was already around 8:30 in the evening.). He called his brother and asked if he would let the kids spend the night. He agreed (Thank you, Matthew and Carrie!) and we quickly threw some things in a bag. We were out the door by 9:00.

We dropped the kids off and drove to my grandparents' house. We got there shortly after 1am. We said we would leave for the hospital by 8:00 and we went to bed. I had set my alarm for 6:45 so I could take a shower and get presentable.

Around 6:30 I heard the ceiling fan go off and knew the electricity had gone out. Drew and I lay there waiting for it to come back on and it never did. Finally, a little after 7:00 he called the electric company to report it. They were aware of the outage. There had been a car accident that caused damage to one of the poles. It would be a while before power was restored. So much for taking a shower! We decided to just get dressed and leave. We were out the door by 7:45.

The hospital is 90 miles away in Fort Smith, AK. (Yes, my grandparents live in the sticks of Oklahoma!) Drew drove us and we got there around 9:15. My granddad looked better than I imagined, but I could tell he felt miserable. We just hung around in the room all day talking and visiting. We got him up a couple of times in the wheelchair and my grandmother pushed him around the halls for a few minutes. He sat up in the wheelchair for 5-10 minutes back in the room then needed to lay back down. He gets nauseous sitting up. I showed him a few exercises he could do in be to try to strengthen his legs. He has be inactive so long his legs are very weak and shaky. It's going to take a lot of work to build the strength back up.

We decided to leave around 3:00 because we have to work tomorrow and our house is about 300 miles and 5 hours away from the hospital. We listened to an audiobook on the way home to pass the time. I'm glad we went so I could see my granddad, but I wish we could have stayed longer. My grandmother is going to spend the gift with him for a night or two then someone will take her home. Hopefully he will get to go home too.

I am so thankful to Drew for going with me and for Matthew and Carrie for watching the kids. It would have been way too much sitting around in the car and rehab facility for them to handle.

We are planning on going back up there over Spring Break, so hopefully he will feel better by then. I will say that was definitely the shortest time I have stayed at their house (6 hours!) and one of the craziest 24 hours I have had in a while! We were in three different states in 24 hours. What a crazy day!