Friday, October 17, 2008

When it rains....

...it pours.
As if the events of today weren't enough. We are all home now with Chris, and though his recovery started out nicely, bed and bathtime were rough tonight. The happy drugs wore off and Chris screamed for a straight hour. It's hard to give a boy tylenol when he's screaming.
Anyway, for more details of the surgery, see his website, http://www.christopher.willman.com

We just got back from our adventures at the hospital. Our return from Riley was delayed for a couple reasons:
A. Christopher's surgery didn't start until nearly 2 p.m. because the surgery in front of his was more extensive than originally thought. I pray for that family. I've been there, and that stress is pretty awful. It's so much easier when things just go swimmingly.
B. Eric is running the mini-marathon tomorrow at Fort Benjamin Harrison. He's been fighting some sort of chest cold, he may have given it to us. He's been on anti-biotics for a week...we haven't. I don't know if he can/should make this run, but he wants to. I cheer and support him, because he's really getting good at this whole running thing for only being at it for a year. But I worry.
C. Eric's mom called and Eric's Grandma (E's Dad's mom) is Not doing well. It's bad. They have her in hospice, they moved her there this week, and already her lungs are filling with fluid, and she's unresponsive. Chris and I just went up to see her 2 weeks ago, she was looking pretty good in spite of just being in hospital the night before our visit. Apparently, she had a mini-stroke last week, and the doctors recommended blood thinners, which had caused internal bleeding a few weeks ago, and now her Congestive Heart failure and thick blood is making stroke problems, so since it became clear that there were too many things to fix they recommended hospice. They moved her Monday. Dad and his brothers are in Marion now, and they're saying the end is near.
I'm really saddened for the whole Willman clan, Grandma Willman is the matriarch, at 89, she's the oldest mom, though Grandpa is nearly 93. She's always been really just an awesome lady, and she loves Chris. When we saw her a couple weeks ago, Chris was taking Grandpa's cane and trying to wreak havoc in their tiny apartment. She just smiled, a knowing, boys-will-be-boys sort of smile. She ought to know, she had 4 boys. My sister and I used to use the following phrase about my cousin who was quite pampered by my own Grandma, "he could fart, and she would frame it." That may have been true in Chris's case. Chris made her smile every time he saw her, and she him. I literally could see improvements in her color when she'd see him.
But tonight, Chris can't make anyone smile. We briefly considered taking him to Marion, either tonight or tomorrow, but his discomfort once we got home, made it perfectly clear that Chris is staying home tomorrow, Stay Jammies. Very likely he's earned himself a nice All Pajama Day, with all the Veggie Tales and Disney Channel he wants.

1 comments:

Unknown said...

Very glad to hear that Chris is doing well and was such a Super Champ! I hope that you have a good Jammie day tomorrow. Rest is good for recovery and preggie mommas!