What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been....

....Thursday evening I got a call that part of me had been dreading, but anticipating. My Grandad went to the hospital and was not doing well at all. Since he had an infection, he wasn't able to get the pace maker put in, so they'd been giving him blood thinners to help his heart work better. Four different kinds. I still wonder if that was a good idea, but it's a moot point now. Long story short, he bled out. He had so much blood in his abdomen that it was putting a lot of pressure on his lungs and his right one collapsed. And he was in intolerable pain. And his vitals were dropping pretty quickly. They opted to put him on a vent, and he agreed.

....I threw some clothes in a suitcase, grabbed my pillow, flew out the door, and sped home alone. The ride seemed unending as I pictured so many of my family waiting together to figure out what was going on, and I was stuck alone in the car.

....The past three days have been spent at the hospital and at my Gran and Grandad's house. We've watched over Grandad with guarded hearts, everyone trying to be strong. We've watched as the numbers on the monitor have risen and fallen. We've tried to not look at my Gran as she's teared up over the possibilities that lie ahead. There have been good hours and bad hours. And at this point, we're taking them one at a time, for that seems to be how quickly everything can turn around.

....When I left to come home this morning, Grandad was doing better than at any point of the last three days, save the fact that he is on fairly high vent settings. It's almost as if he was telling me that it was OK to go home. And when I called a little while ago, Gran let me know that they've lowered his vent settings and is still doing pretty well.

....So please keep my family in your thoughts as we go through the holidays. All is not terrible for us, though. We are connecting as a unit to be there for our two favorite people in the universe. And we're finding out that we don't have the monopoly on that feeling. I hate that it takes something like this to make us feel so bonded. But bonded we are. Bonded to helping our Gran in any way we can. And bonded to helping eachother deal with the stresses of what lies ahead.