Whew! What a Week!

Whew! What a week!

This past week has been rough. I will start at the beginning. Again, prepare for a long post……Let’s start at Thanksgiving…..

My grandmother came over for Thanksgiving dinner. My parents picked her up and of course, we were worried about all the noise and commotion that is normal for us at the Crumb house. She was in good spirits and she was doing pretty good. After dinner, my parents took her home and that was that.

Well, the next day, she apparently started to get sick. My Mom said she had some type of cold but the folks at her assisted living place weren’t worried too much about it since she didn’t have a fever. They just told her she needed plenty of rest and hopefully she would kick it soon. Well, that was Friday. The following Tuesday (November 30th), my Mom called and told me that she was going to pick up my Grandma and take her to the doctor. The staff at her place called and said she had a fever and she didn’t seem to be getting better. My Mom took her to one of the small ERs we have near our house and her pulse oxygen was low. They said they wanted to transport her to the hospital and that she would probably be admitted. At that point, they weren’t sure what was going on, but they were running some tests to see what she had. After the tests came back, they said she had pneumonia and she was jaundice so her liver was starting to fail. Additionally, they said her gall bladder was inflamed, but since she was so weak, they couldn’t do anything about the gall bladder or the liver until her pneumonia was better and she was a bit stronger. That was Tuesday-Wednesday, and by Thursday, she still wasn’t doing better. My Mom was up there everyday and helping her eat her meals since she couldn’t do it on her own. Well, Friday morning, my Dad called me and told me that Grandma took a turn for the worse and that I should get up to the hospital pretty quickly.

Sidebar: Now mind you, my Mom watches Molly so I had to figure out what to do with her since she couldn’t watch her. I ended up taking off work on Wednesday, and luckily, my neighbor’s daughter was able to watch her half a day on Tuesday, all day Thursday, and half a day on Friday. At this point, we weren’t sure how long my Grandma was going to be in the hospital so we called in reinforcements – Ted’s Mom! I am so thankful that she was able to come out and help take care of Molly. We are officially putting her in daycare in the beginning of January! More on that later.

Okay, so Friday morning, I immediately left work and headed up to the hospital. When I walked into the room, I was not prepared to see my Grandma the way she was. She was having such a hard time breathing and you couldn’t understand what she was saying. She did answer a question I asked her, but that was it. After that, she pretty much went into a semi-conscious state. The doctor’s told my parents that her organs were starting to fail and that they were pretty much making her comfortable at this point. They prepared us and told us she had about 48 hours to live. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, she was just at my house for Thanksgiving!! So my sister and I stayed up at the hospital all day long on Friday (Ted offered to pick up Anthony and Ashleigh from school and let Christy stay. So sweet!) and my Mom and Dad stayed with her Friday night. We got back up to the hospital Saturday morning and she actually looked more comfortable to me than she did the prior day. My Mom said that she had a few scares the previous night where her heart rate plummeted but it went back up. Her breathing was worse, but she was still holding on. The doctor came in around 11:00 am and we asked about the oxygen mask she had on and if that was keeping her alive. Since my Grandma had a living will, she did not want any extraordinary means keeping her alive. The doctor said it wasn’t hurting or helping and he took it off. She took her last breath around 11:30 am. I am so thankful we were able to be with her and say goodbye to her one last time. I can’t even imagine how hard all of this has been on my mother, having to say goodbye to her Mom like that, but my Grandma was a strong woman who had a full life of 97 years! We will miss you Grandma!

So that was Saturday. Like I said, Ted’s Mom was able to fly out and take care of Molly and we picked her up on Sunday afternoon. My Grandma wanted to be buried next to my Grandfather back in Ohio and apparently arranged and paid for everything 25 years ago. We arranged for her to be flown back and the funeral was scheduled for last Thursday. So, my parents and I, Christy, Ashleigh and AJ booked our tickets and headed to Ohio last Wednesday. Well, that morning, Christy apparently kicked her suitcase and thought she broke her toe. When we got to the hotel in Ohio, we asked where the nearest urgent care was because she wanted to get it checked out. Little did we know how important that question would be.

So Wednesday night, we decided to venture out and get something to eat. On the way there, my Mom started complaining of chest pains. We all told her that it was probably stress or anxiety and that she had a lot going on, but it probably would be best if she got checked out. So after dinner, we headed to the urgent care and they said that if it was chest pains, she needed to go to the hospital. The nearest hospital was about 10 minutes down the road. So off we went. I stayed out in the van with Anthony and Ashleigh while my Dad and Christy took her in to get checked out. The plan was for them to get her settled and then my Dad would take me and the kids back to the hotel. So he came out about 30 minutes later and said that she was waiting to be seen. So I put the kids to bed when we got to the hotel and waited to hear.

My Dad called around 8:00 and said that they had her back in a room and that they weren’t sure what was going her. Her vitals were funky and they were going to run some tests. At first, they thought it might have been a pulmonary embolism. Luckily, the tests came back negative for that. After all her tests came back, they ended up admitting her with pneumonia. She was trying to fight with them telling them she needed to go to the funeral the next day, but they weren’t letting her go. She needed to get antibiotics into her system.

So, while all that was going on, my sister got her foot checked out and apparently she dislocated her toe. She came home with a boot on. So, here we are, in Ohio for my grandmother’s funeral and my sister has a boot on her foot and my mother is admitted into the hospital with pneumonia. I mean….when sh*t hits the fan with us, it hits hard!

My sister and I, plus Anthony and Ashleigh, attended the funeral, which was sad but I am glad we were able to go. We were able to see relatives that we hadn’t seen in a while, which was good. My mother, of course, was heartbroken since she wasn’t able to go, but we brought her back some stuff and I was able to take a video of the ceremony at the cemetery for her. After the funeral, we headed up to the hospital and luckily, my mom was able to be discharged Thursday night. So we flew back Friday morning and made it home safely Friday afternoon.

After we got back, I had my department Christmas lunch/dinner, which I was thinking about not going to, but I am glad I did. I had a good time and it was nice to be able to do something happy for a change. Then, I went home and crashed and prepared for Molly’s 1st birthday party the next day. Yeah, I forgot to mention her party was scheduled for this past Saturday. I went back and forth about cancelling it, but I decided to go forward with it anyway. Again, I wanted to do something happy and I really wanted Molly to have her special day. My next post is dedicated to Molly’s Birthday so read on and enjoy some pics from her special day!