Bumps in the road....

The closer we get to a huge life change, the more rocky the road we travel to get there becomes.

It is to be expected, and honestly at this point in my life, I am an old pro in rolling with the flow.

There are some things that still throw me for a loop, and anything happening to my kids or Jack affects me in a big way.

Jack was in the hospital for 6 days last week.

He had an attack of diverticulitis.  Long time readers know that he was diagnosed a few years ago, when he got an infection so bad that it almost killed him.

This time, he knew what was happening, and had me take him to the E.R. at the first sign of trouble. The down side was, I had been up for 24 hours prior, and was in town with my Mom when he called. I went to a doctor appointment with my Mom for some moral support, and had not slept yet, since I had planned to sleep when I got home. I ended up having a late lunch with Mom and we had been having some pretty deep conversations when Jack called and told me he needed help. He did not want to call an ambulance because he had Alex, and did not want to scare her, so Mom and I rushed home and she took Alex with her while I took Jack to the E.R.

We got there at 5 pm and after a couple of CT scans and blood draws they determined his white count was through the roof and wanted to keep him. He finally got a room at 3 that morning. I had been awake for 38 hours by that point. I was in no shape to drive so I got a couple of hours sleep on a pull out chair and  finally went home the next morning when I was in a better position to drive. Mom kept Alex the whole time, but I only got to go see Jack once, due to gas money issues. I was very unhappy with him being gone. Luckily things were not as bad as they were last time, because he went right in at the first sign of trouble, but it was still very painful for him. It is impossible to rest in a hospital, so he was tired and grumpy, and missing home. He had to spend Father's Day alone in there. While I did not cry or anything, I still hated being apart from him. In the almost ten years we have been together, we have only been apart at night twice, once the first time he went through this, and the next when I broke my ankle and had to stay with my Mom since he had to work and I could not be alone for a while. It was hard. Not only are we husband and wife, we are each other's best friends, and we do not handle being apart for long very well.

I spent a lot of time cleaning and doing stuff around here to keep busy, and talking to him often on the phone.  On the 6th day his white count was within normal parameters and they let him go home with prescriptions for antibiotics at home. He is still tired, but feeling much better.

I am happy he is feeling better and that I have he and Alex back home, where they belong. My family is my center, and I do not feel right when they are not with me.

We had his last appointment with his back doctor on Monday, after he was released from the hospital. His Dr. is retiring from the place he was currently at, and he is moving to Destin to open a practice there. I was sad..I have known that doctor for over 20 years. He operated on my father and several other people I know. He is almost like family at this point. He gave me a hug and shook Jack's hand, wished us luck, and asked us to keep in touch, and let him know how things turned out, and that he was handing us over to his old partner, who is staying there in the practice. His partner is a good doctor too, we actually saw him first before we requested his current doctor when we found out he was available. There is really nothing to be done medically right now...they can't fix him, and we go for our first mediation next month. So now we try to move on with our lives and adjust to the fact that Jack will never be as he was before he got hurt. Jack is still struggling with the acceptance part. I am just happy he is alive and able to continue with his life, even if it is not in the same capacity as it was prior to the injury.

As for me, I had my nerve test almost two weeks ago, and I am still waiting to get an appointment to meet with my neurologist to get the diagnosis from all of my tests. My Mom's neurologist said it sounds like I have MS to him, and he is not the first person who has said that, and I will be honest, that has crossed my mind many times too. If I have not heard back from him by Monday afternoon, then I will call Tuesday and see if I can get some information.

In other news, we dyed Alex's hair pink for the Summer. I will take some pics soon and share, I have to make some room on my memory card in the camera for them. It looks really awesome, we both love it. After we find out what happens with the mediation and I no longer have to be sure and look respectable by other people's standards, I am thinking of dying mine Lavender. I am ready for a drastic change.

That is all that is going on for now. I will be making some changes around here soon, with the blog and my home. I want to make a new layout and tweak some things on the blog, plus get back into my recipes and  book posts. Plus I have some book reviews to write. On the home front, I am about to go through the house and declutter a lot of the dust collectors we have, and donate them to my favorite thrift store, which feeds the homeless with the funds they take in. I also have a good bit of clothes to go through and donate, and some other things. When we move, I intend to only take the furniture, our clothes, the kitchen stuff, and our personal keepsakes. I am donating everything else. I have been hauling some of this crap around for 20 years and I am over it. I need room for new memories.

I want a fresh start in our Forever Home.


That sums it up for tonight.

What have you all been up to over the last couple of weeks? How is Summer treating you?

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It has been a long week..

Well this week I had planned on working on my kitchen, bathroom, and Alex's room, but fate had other plans for me.

I took Monday and Tuesday for myself, if you read the last post. Good thing I did, because I would need the energy I regained.

Wednesday afternoon, 20 minutes after Jack got home, his cell phone went off and said he had a voicemail. He was in the shower and told me to listen to it and see who it was. I did, and it was my Mother, telling us that she needed to take Dad to the hospital and she needed me to come stay with the kids. ( If you don't remember, my older two live with them just down the road..)

I called her back and asked what was up, and she said that Dad was having chest pains and was all swollen up, he looked pregnant, and he was short of breath. I told her Jack was in the shower and as soon as he was out I would be there, since the kids are old enough to stay by themselves for a while. She said ok and I went to tell Jack what was up. He was still in the shower and he said to just go ahead and take his truck. ( Mine is out of commission right now ) I asked him about him going to work the next day, and he said do not worry about it, he would go in late if need be. So I got Alex and I dressed ( no way would she have forgiven me for not taking her to spend time with her brother and sister, whom she adores.. ) and we left.

Mom and Dad were still there when we got there. I feel so bad for my Mom, she has so many health issues herself, ( a double lung reduction for starters, she only has half of each lung ) and she has been sick with a cough herself, so she was already tired. Dad DID look pregnant, he is a slender man, and his belly, face, hands and feet were very puffy. They left shortly thereafter, and I spent time with the kids and fixing their three computers. I got there at 4:15 in the afternoon, and Mom did not get home until 1 AM...and they said they wanted to keep him overnight for more tests. They gave him a diuretic and apparently he was peeing gallons, so did in fact have a lot of fluid. ( I should point out here that my Dad has had a triple bypass done several years ago, and had to have heart caths done before. ) I got home around 2 AM and went to bed at 4 AM...

I called Mom the next afternoon and she said that they were going to do a heart catheter on him later that day, and she needed me to go back to her place and look after the kids. ( Sad dad is in the hospital but LOVING all the time with my babies without anyone's interference lol ) I told her as soon as Jack got home I would be on. She said that she should be home by 8 at the latest that night since Dad would have to lay flat and rest for the rest of that night.  I talked Jack into coming with me, as I has seen him 20 minutes in two days and we missed each other horribly.

We got to the kids and I made dinner, and then we all went outside and playing for a while, tossing a ball and a Frisbee around. Jack usually goes to bed at 9, since he gets up so early, and he still had not had a shower, so at 8 when we still had no word from Mom he was a little antsy. She finally called at 9 that night and said she was on the way, and got home about 10 till 10. 

It turns out he had 5 blockages in his arteries, all of them 90 to 99% blocked. The doctor flat out told my Mom that within a week at most he would have suffered a massive heart attack and died. This confuses me a bit, because my Dad is on meds for these things, he does not eat junk food or fatty foods, and he goes to the doctor regularly. I asked Mom about that and she said the doc told her all it takes is a tiny blockage in the artery, and within a couple of days it can get blocked up just that fast. Scary when you think about it!

Poor Mama was so tired, she looked dead on her feet. I had the kids do dishes after dinner ( Yay for teens old enough to do dishes lol ) and I set the coffee pot for Mom the next day. We left shortly thereafter and Jack got a shower and went to bed, and Alex was not far behind him. I stayed up unwinding and talking to Stag, and then it all caught up with me and I crashed.

I called Mom when I got up this morning and she was on her way home with Dad, and he had strict orders to take it easy for a few days.

We will be over there most of the weekend...and as far as I know Alex is spending tomorrow night...we are going over Sunday to help cook Easter dinner, although to all of us it is just Sunday dinner lol. I figured plans would have been cancelled but with Jack and I helping, the weekend can continue as planned I guess, which is good, we do not get to spend much time together as a family anymore with my parents.

So that is how I have spent this past week. I am so glad that they took Dad into the hospital, this was a very close call! But he is home now, which is a good thing, and I have gotten to spend a lot of time with the kids, which does not happen near enough.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and that your loved ones are healthy and happy!