It's been a while... Oops

I know, I know... I am a slacker. It's been a while since I've posted and lots of things have happened; so let's get to them.

I spent all of April reading 2 books simultaniously for one class; The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy and In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Now, I'm not really good at comprending anything I read, let alone 2 books simultaniously. Writing the papers, I had to continuously go back and check the book to make sure I was right. Turns out that I had both the stories really mixed together. I ended up doing okay on my final papers, but man was I messed up. The story I had in my head was still pretty good though. :)

My last day of school was April 30th. I am offically done with school! I will be starting back at WSU on August 24th for Fall Semester '09; until then, I am free from homework!!! YAY!! :)

My BFF have decided to go to lunch once a month and catch up on things. I think it is a perfect idea. We never hang out much and getting together for lunch lets us catch up on things. The most recent time we were able to get togther was May 1st. I was able to finally give her the scarf I made her for her birthday. It is knitted with neon green, neon blue, neon purple, neon pink, and finally neon orange. It is just about 5' long and about 8" wide. It isn't the best, but it was the first scarf I have ever tried. It took me quite a while to complete (It was a very belated gift... It was a month and a half late)... Sorry Kale!!! I had it ready for our April get together and would have been only about 1-2 week late; however, when I was finishing it, I dropped it in a muddy puddle and had to wash it 3 times to get all the mud out of it... Oops! But I did finally get it to her!!!

Last week started out slow, but ended up being really full and really stressfull. On Wednesday, my Nana went in for a scheduled outpatient surgery. She was in for 5 hours and they were unsuccessful at clearing the blockage from her leg. While she was in recovery, they gave her a medicine that she was allergic to and she became really miserable and sick. At 9:30pm they told her that she could go home. They were trying to push her out of the recovery room while she was still throwing up and couldn't move without being sick. I was furious with them. They didn't even help her get ready. They came in and said, you can go home now and left the room. My Granddaddy had to help her with anything. He helped her stand up and noticed that her leg and foot were completely black and immediately called the nurse. She tried to get ahold of the doctor, who said that he would not come in to see her, that he was out for the night. The nurse then asked the house doctor to come and check her and he said that he couldn't because she wasn't truly admitted to the hospital. So, she was in a hospital, but couldn't be helped by anyone. Finally, the surgeon came in and looked at her.

She ended up being transported to another hospital at 1am, thursday morning, for an emergency bypass surgery. They were done at 4:30am and it was sucessful. She was placed in the ICU afterward to recover. The next morning we found out that she was experiencing renal failure and was given a 50-50 chance of them being able to revive the kidneys. They have been getting a little better every day. Normal Creatinin levels are 1.3 or below. Her first test showed her at a 2.8 and yesterday, they were all the way down to a 1.98. So they are moving more and more toward normal every day. It will just take a while to get there.

Her foot has yet to look normal again, but it is getting oxygen and nutrition for the first time in a while, so we are still hoping that it will get better. They are watching it close. If it becomes a source of infection, it could rapidly spread through the bloodstream and go straight to her heart; killing her. The doctors have permission to take it at any point needed. She may loose her foot, but it may save her life if they need to do it.

Friday of last week, my dad and I went to yet another hospital in the same city for scheduled tests. At 9:30am he was supposed to have a ultrasound of his gallbladder and at 11:30am he was supposed to have a Echo-Cardiogram of his heart. We arrived at his first test and I could tell he was in a lot of disstress. The nurse came and got us from the waiting area and took us back. Dad had a hard time just getting back to the room. She could tell he was in trouble and commented to us that she was going to hurry and get done. She then told us that we needed to get him up to the 3rd floor to be tested. We told her that was our next stop; that he had an appointment at 11:30a up there. She had us go straight up there and check in early. As we went upstairs, she was calling them, letting them know to watch for us. We checked in upstairs and they came and got us very quickly. We went back and the Rad-tech also commented on his disstress and said that she would run the echo-cardiogram quickly. Then she asked if we would wait while she found a doctor to look at them. I knew at that point, things weren't looking good. One of the Cardiologist came into the room and started talking with us. He encouraged that my dad stay in the hospital and that they would pull water off him and do an angiogram to see what was going on with his heart. By the Echo he was able to see that my dad's heart muscle was very weak and that he was experiencing a extremely unstable heart beat and said that it could be because my dad had a ton of excess fluid around the heart and in the chest. My dad was admitted at 11:38am and was placed in a room on the cardiac floor. They weighed him and recorded it. For the first 20 hours, they pushed Lasix through an IV every hour. That night my dad lost 21 pounds of total water!!! I was amazed. Saturday morning, the doctor came in and talked with us a little more. He said that they were going to do the angiogram and if they found a total blockage in the Coronary arteries, they would go straight into bypass surgery. The angiogram was completed Saturday morning and they found no narrowings or blockages. I was releived. We spent all day and night at the hospital. Dad had to lay flat for 6 hours after surgery. He was in so much pain by 5:45 pm! Once he was able to sit up, he did better. Sunday morning the Doctor came back in and said that he had found a clot inside the heart. They wouldn't be able to remove it because of it's location. Apparently the clot was formed by his irregular heart beat (A-fib). He was discharged Sunday afternoon. He is still in A-fib, but they won't be able to fix that until the clot is gone. If the heart cardio-verts to a normal rhythm, the clot may come loose and kill him. So, for now, he is on bed rest and we have 2 appointments scheduled for friday to check on his heart.

Needless to say, it has been a long few days. I spent, from Wednesday at 6am to Sunday at 3pm, bouncing back and forth among 3 hospitals. I spent Wednesday at one hospital, slept Wednesday and Thursday night at another hospital, and friday and Saturday night at yet another hospital. I slept really good Sunday night; I was able to sleep in my own bed at my own house.

This week I have been visiting my Nana at least once per day. She seems to do better when people visit her. She'll try talking, but gets tired really easily and then will just listen. She does continue respond to some questions by moving her head a little bit; so I know she hears me.

One of my family members asked me why I talk to her when she doesn't talk back, that she is out of it or is asleep. She really isn't... and I can tell that she likes it when people talk to her. The corners of her mouth turn upward (like she's trying to smile) and she squeezes your hand a bit when you hold it. She is there... She may not always talk back, but she's there and listening.

So, that's been my life for the past little bit. Again, I know I've been a slacker and will try to write more often. :) TTYL...