A Rough Couple of Weeks

Sorry I haven't updated in the past week, but my family has had a rough couple of weeks & I ended up making an unexpected trip out of town again. It all started a few weeks ago. We found out that my grandfather had a 7 cm mass in his lungs, which we assumed was cancer. My parents flew to Michigan to visit him & to meet his doctor. Unfortunately, my grandfather was not a candidate for surgery, chemo or radiation because of his age & health. We were told he had about 6 months left, but my Mom thought probably less.

While my parents were there, my Mom had a horrible accident. She fell down a flight of stairs at their hotel & landed on a tile floor head first. She had a severe concussion & she fractured her shoulder. She was fortunate she didn't break her neck! She was taken by ambulance to a hospital about an hour away & held in the ICU for head trauma patients. My grandfather lives in a little town out in the country, so they had to take her to a hospital that could handle her injuries and on top of it, they just had a snow storm so it was not good weather. Needless to say, my Mom was in horrible pain & had a really hard time traveling back to Texas on the airplane.

When she got home, my Dad took her to an orthopedic surgeon & she ended up having surgery a few days later. She has a plate on her shoulder that has 7 screws holding her shoulder back together. It is pretty nasty looking - I have pictures & have shown a few people but she might not want me posting in on the Internet! She will wear this contraption for 4-6 weeks & then will continue with physical therapy. The device is so big that after it is bandaged up, it looks like she is wearing football pads. My Dad had to going shopping to find tops for her to wear that would fit over it & button up the front because she can't pull anything over her head. The pain from her head injury, bruises, shoulder, surgery, etc. was so much that they sent her home with an IV in her neck & a pain pump that continuously gave her medication for a few days.

Needless to say Sadie & I decided to go visit & surprise her. I tried to help around the house as much as I could, but I mostly knew Sadie would cheer her up. While we were there, my Dad & my Granny got to help feed her for the first time:

My Mom didn't get to hold her or feed her obviously, but she had a good time watching her:

And we also had a few visitors stop by. Friends from my parent's church brought dinner every night & some of them enjoyed seeing Sadie, especially since these are women that I grew up with.

Here is a picture of my Mom with her pain pump & the new sweater my Dad bought her:

Finally, here are a few snapshots of Sadie playing while she was there:

Unfortunately, while we were there visiting, my Mom got a call from Hospice saying that my Grandfather was not doing very well & they thought he only had a matter of hours, maybe a day or two left. A few hours later my parents were back on the plane to Michigan with my poor Mom in horrible pain. They had a 7:00 flight that night & would get to Allegan really late - probably well after midnight, however when they landed they found out that my Grandfather passed away earlier that evening. We never expected to lose him so fast, but they say he fell asleep & never woke up, so I am glad he left us peacefully. I hate that we lost him so early, but I am glad he is no longer in pain or suffering.

I am thankful that we all went to visit him the summer of 2010 & he got to meet his first great-grandson. Here are a few pictures from our trip that summer:

Grandpa Lee loved to go gambling (he would play the slot machines) so this is a picture at the casino.

He never got to meet Max (my nephew) or Sadie, but he did see pictures. Here he is with Kason: 

And finally, here is a picture of my Mom & her father:

Please pray for my Mom as she continues to recover from her surgery & for the loss of her father. My parents are still in Michigan taking care of everything before they come home. I know it is a hard time for her emotionally & physically.