We've had a crazy week. Last Thursday, we received a phone call from David's uncle. David's grandma (not the one we went to visit in American Falls) had been hit by a car that morning, and was in pretty critical condition. We weren't sure she'd recover, so we packed up and drove 8 hours to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where she was in the hospital. We got to Grandma and Grandpa's house at about 2 a.m. so we had to wait to go visit her.
Come daybreak, David and I had gotten about 20 minutes of sleep; Owen hadn't gotten any sleep, because he was busy scratching his fingernails on the mesh side of the play pen. Scritch, scritch, scritch. All night long. He also did a little jumping and even knocked something off a near-by dresser. David went to the hospital to see Grandma, but I stayed put and slept some more, while David's sister hung out with Owen, who finally went to sleep an hour later. Drew slept through everything (he was extra tired, because he didn't sleep more than 3 hours of the ride there. At midnight, as we were driving through the mountains in Montana, we heard him yelling, "Whee!" every time we accelerated or went around a curve).
Grandma was still in bad shape, but the doctor was pretty optimistic. She had blood clot on her brain that was removed with surgery right after she got to the hospital. There was a lot of swelling on the brain, which was to be expected, so the doc kept her sedated to prevent any activity which would increase the swelling. She was really lucky that there happened to be an ambulance in the area when she was hit; she actually lives in a town about 15-20 minutes outside of Coeur d'Alene, and apparently there are no paramedics or anything in town. But there was an ambulance that had just dropped someone off or was making a pick up or something, and they were able to get her on right away to take her to the hospital.
We didn't end up staying at Grandma and Grandpa's house; there were a lot of reasons why it wasn't a good place for us to stay--mostly there were lots of breakables that the boys were tempted to touch and pick up. Also, the dog was having a hard time after seeing Grandma hit by a car, and not knowing what was going on, and seeing lots of strangers around, so she was really on edge and snappy. She bit Owen once (it didn't break the skin, but left some bruises) and lunged at him another time, but luckily someone was between her and him. So we went and stayed with our friends Seth and Abby up in Sandpoint, about 45 minutes from Coeur d'Alene. Seth and Abby were great hosts, and even watched the boys a couple times so we wouldn't have to drag them with us to the hospital.
Sandpoint is a cute little town and I wish we'd been up there under different circumstances so we could've had time to play and tour around, and go to the beach (we did go for a walk on the beach, but it was too late in the day to swim. I would love to swim there, because the water was clear and there were no mysterious floaties in it).
Driving back and forth from Sandpoint to Coeur d'Alene every day made for a long five days. I had just started weaning the boys off their pacifiers, but the trip pretty much un-did any progress we'd made. So we'll have to try again when things get back to normal.
Monday was Grandma's 76th birthday. It was pretty hard on everyone to have Grandma in the hospital for the occasion. We couldn't bring her flowers because she was in ICU, but she hadn't opened her eyes yet, so she wouldn't have seen them anyway. Grandpa joked with the doctor that we were going to have a big party for her and bring hats and cake and hooch. The doc said that would be fine as long as we didn't try to slip Grandma any, especially through the IV.
We stayed in Northern Idaho through part of Tuesday, getting home late Tuesday night. Yesterday was spent recuperating; lots of napping. Today will probably be spent in a similar fashion, with a little grocery shopping and maybe some laundry. My baby didn't appreciate all those car rides, and has been kicking and punching more than usual. There have also been some minor contractions (not the labor kind, but still uncomfortable). It's kind of draining.
We're really glad to be home, and we're relieved that Grandma is starting to recover. At last report (we heard from David's aunt late Tuesday), she was responding to familiar voices--turning her head. She can make purposeful movements with her hands, fingers and legs. I don't know if she's opened her eyes on her own yet, but when the doc tried to open them for her she fought it, so that seems to be a good sign. I think it will probably be a long road, but she's going in the right direction.
4 comments:
Glad she's improving a bit. We're keeping her in our prayers. Sounds like you need a few prayers too --and a good rest!
Love ya!
Oh my, I am sorry to hear about grandma. I hope she will continue to heal up and you continue to recuperate from what seems to have been and exhausting week. Two toddlers and a baby in the tummy, on the road for that long...I am sure you need all the rest you can get! :)
You will have to go up again for a fun visit. Just a bit of info the lake in Sandpoint is so deep that during one of the World Wars submarines were tested in it. There is a really cool campground there called Farraget (sp?) St. Park on the lake, but if you stay there be careful we saw black bears.
I'm sorry to hear about David's Grandma. We were in Coeu d'Alene two days ago! Too bad that wasn't a planned trip, we could have planned and met up there.
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