Part 3 -- Bad News

(Just as a note--feel free to ask questions if I accidentally assume my readers know what I am talking about when you really have no idea).

January 2nd, the second full day of my trip was interesting.

It started off with snow--oh man, was I ever stoked about that, even though I knew it wouldn't be good for the drive down to Denver that day. When I woke up in the morning, I did my little morning routine, and when I stepped out into the living room and kitchen area, I looked out the window and Lo, and Behold! SNOW!!!! It was snowing and it was covering everything.

I had really, really hoped for snow and there is was! I got dressed and put on my coat and snow garb and went outside for a few minutes to take some pictures and enjoy the snow. It was glorious!

I went back inside and that was when I remembered that the previous night I had gotten a call from my mom's cell phone, but for some reason, my cell phone didn't like Laramie, so I couldn't retrieve my messages. At the time it was too late to call my mom back because it was late, despite the one hour time difference.

So, after I got up and did some packing and such, I called my mom back to see what she had called about. The first part is actually kinda of funny, the second part isn't.


1st Part:

On New Year's Day, my 8-year-old brother was sitting in a chair, I think in the kitchen, and decided his arms were cold, so he pulled them inside his shirt. Then, he proceeds to lose his balance and fall off the chair! Of course, since his arms are in his shirt, he can't catch himself. If you knew my brother, or have seen pictures of him, I'm sure you can imagine this happening.

Unfortunately, he ended up going to the emergency room because he broke his clavicle in the fall, but he is pretty much acting like his normal self. He is supposed to wear a brace to help keep him from moving around too much, but he sometimes doesn't even wear that and he seems fine. My brother is such a goofball sometimes---I love him :-)

2nd Part:

Now here's the bad news...while my mom was in the ER with my brother, she gets a call on her cell phone and it's my grandmother's caregiver calling to let her know that my grandmother is on her way to the ER herself because she is having trouble breathing.

To give a little background for those of you who don't know, I live with my grandmother (who will be 94 in March), next door to the rest of my family. She had caregivers during the day from 9am to 9pm and then I stayed at home during the night in case she needed anything. She was doing fairly well, walking around the house on her own, with just a walker to help her.

However, over the holidays, she started having trouble breathing and it turned out she had water in her lungs. Apparently, it just got worse and she ended up in the hospital on oxygen to help her breathe.

When my mom called, she wasn't in great shape and my mom told me that she could basically go any time.

Needless to say, that upset me quite a bit. There I was in Wyoming with my grandmother in the hospital, not doing very well. I was scared that she would die while I was there--scared that she would die at all. I was kind of in shock for a few minutes after I hung up with my mom, and honestly, I think I might still be in a slight state of shock, or at least denial or something, now.

I called Robert to let him know what was going on and also to see how things were rolling for the morning, since everyone in Laramie was scheduled to head down to Denver for the conference.

After quickly filling Robert in, I hung up, and I just wandered around the house a little trying to sort out my feelings. I busied myself with getting some things done and ready for going back to Denver. I was doing some dishes when I broke down. All I could think was "Oh God!" and "Please don't let her die while I'm here".

And He didn't. She is at home now, still on oxygen and pretty tired and weak. Her heart is not in good condition. It is enlarged and pumping pretty weakly. That is what somehow caused the build-up of fluid in her lungs. She also has a blood clot in her aorta and is on blood thinners for that. I know she doesn't have much time left, though I don't think she wants to admit that. I just hope that when she does die, she does peacefully in her sleep, like she wants to when she does die.

In fact, she told me once about a pact she made with a friend of hers that they would each die in their sleep--they decided that was the best way to go.


A little after that, people started coming to the house, since Eric and Gentry's was where everyone was going to meet and then carpool down to Denver. There were a bunch of people I didn't know, but I was not feeling very social since I had pretty much just learned what was going on. I just finished up the dishes that were still out while people chatted and talked about the weather and the drive and such. A few times I thought that I might start crying, but I was able to hold myself together. I couldn't eat much, though, which thinking back probably was partly due to the altitude as well.

Robert was the last person to get there, and I was really glad to see him, since he was the one person there I was close to. He asked me how I was doing, what exactly was going on (he hadn't been able to talk much when I told him what was going on) and gave me a hug.

I was glad that it would be just the two of us in his car on the way down, cause I was able to talk comfortably without having to deal with any new people I didn't know. I think that would have just been a bit much at the time.

It was snowing and flurrying (is that a word?) quite a bit on the ride down, for about the first 20-30 miles or so, but I thought it was cool. I knew Robert knew what he was doing as far as driving in the snow, so I wasn't freaked out about the driving conditions or anything. It was so beautiful, though!


Okay, I think I better break it up here, otherwise this is going to be a very long post.

I think I might end up writing enough for a novel!! Hee.