Two weeks ago today Brandon very evidently had a cold. It wasn't a big deal as we had been able to manage the last three at home just fine. My grandpa was back (for the second time in two weeks) in the hospital with severe pain, the source of which at that time they thought was solely a compression fracture of one of his vertabrae. Wednesday morning Brandon's cold and asthma were starting to act up, so I started up the nebulizer and mist. About 1:30 I emailed Bryan that I thought we might be dealing with croup again--he told me not to curse at him with such a horrible word. By 2:30 strider had set in and we were on the way to the doctor's office where Brandon proceeded (thankfully in the office and not on the way) to spasm and stop breathing--he was panicing. By 5pm he was being admitted to the hospital where he needed more epy's through the night and his oxygen level dropped to 88 (supposed to be 94 or better).
After resting in the hospital all day Thursday the doctor still wanted to keep Brandon overnight initially, but after listening to him she looked at Brandon with an astonished look on her face and said, "You sound perfect. I guess you can go home." That was the first of the "big" miracles we saw.
Thursday night my mom and grandma spent the night in the hospital with grandpa because the doctors had given him 10 to 72 hours to live. They had discovered that not only did he have a compression break but his heart was spasming as well.
Thursday evening Micah started having a difficult time breathing and I was hoping some albuterol would do the trick. By Friday morning the doctors were talking about admitting him because his brochialitis was scaring them. They told me to bring him back in the afternoon when we went in for Brandon's hospital follow up and they'd make a determination then wether he needed to stay or not. We all prayed hard that he would be significantly better by the afternoon. Our second "big" miracle was that he was well enough the doctors felt he could go home and not be admitted.
Friday afternoon my grandfather had perked up and the doctors told my mom and her siblings if they wanted to take him home that was their narrow window of opportunity. By Friday evening hospice had set up a bed in their house and he was home, surrounded by lots of family. My brother Bryan spent the night on the couch next to him to keep watch.
Saturday morning we got a call from my mom saying if we wanted to go out sooner rather then later would be better. Bryan and I had been talking about driving to Colorado because the doctors were concerned about the boy's respertory systems with flying. We decided to take both boys back in to double check because flying would be so much easier. Amazingly the doctor gave both boys clearance and also discovered Micah had an ear infection so we got him started on antibiotics right away. Again providential we had decided to take them back in. Saturday afternoon we did a whole bunch of looking for tickets for Sunday or Monday, knowing that my grandfather was declining rapidly. In the depths of my heart I was hoping to get there before he passed away so we bought tickets for 6:15 am Sunday morning, direct flight.
2:30 am Sunday morning Bryan was driving the boys and I down to Seattle. We had decided he would stay because so much was up in the air and he had lots going on at work, but would re-visit his flying out later in the week.
At 2:35 we got a call from my father that grandpa had passed away an hour before. I had just missed seeing him and that's been the hardest part of healing/grieving for me since we've been home and had time to breathe.
We stayed with Aaron and Stacey, which was a wonderful retreat from all the intenseness going on at Grandma's house. Here are some pictures from the week. I took lots of pictures, but am not sure how many I'm going to share on here. Here's a beginning anyway.
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| Uncle Calvin and Kinsley flew in about an hour after we did. Grandpa and Uncle Bryan came to pick us up from the airport. |
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| Micah was quite clingy and had some serious separation anxiety going on the whole week. Unfortunately this is about the only time he played willingly with Grandma. |
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| Nap time at great-grandma's house. |
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| Grandpa teaching a very skeptical Brandon how to eat hay... |
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| "Well, maybe if you stick it in my mouth I'll try it..." |
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| Playing on the hay stacks. |
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| Uncle Bryan would throw snow balls at him... |
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| ...and he would try kick them. |
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| The tractor war: I brought all the John Deere clothing I could find for the boys... Uncle Aaron said the green tractor was broken. ;) |
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| He was just thrilled to be able to drive a BIG tractor. |
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| Oops, I forgot to pack the boots. |
Blessings
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