A Busy Week

First, the not so great news... I have not been blogging this week or even taking pictures because things have been incredibly hectic around here. On Wednesday around noon, my grandmother (Nana) called me and said, "Maghan, I think you'd better call 911." You can imagine the pit in my stomach as I dialed while gating the kids in the playroom and then heading down to her house. Before I go any further, let me tell you that she is hanging in there and actually doing pretty well, all things considered. Anyway, as I waited for the ambulance, I did have time to call Jen (she beat the ambulance to the house!) and my mom, who was at work in the ER.



It turns out that Nana was having a heart attack (her second). She had one on Christmas Eve in 2003, but has been behaving herself (more or less) since then. Once at the hospital, she was immediately taken into surgery to remove a large clot and to place three stents in her damaged artery. They did have some bleeding during the surgery but it was resolved. She is still having some internal bleeding for which they cannot find a source or reason, so that is still a concern right now.



On Friday night, things took a turn for the worse. She went into cardiac arrest twice and her heart had to be shocked back into rhythm. It was bad... to the point where we were all at the hospital until 2am to say our goodbyes. It was heartbreaking for all of us.



Then, on Saturday, she started to improve. Jen says that she is immortal. Seriously, though, she is one tough lady. She is comfortable now but was in much more pain this time than she was last time. She is alert, talking, complaining, etc, so she seems good. No idea what to expect. She had a very large clot and now with a weak heart and three stents, she could have another heart attack at any time. Or, she could be totally fine. Her vital signs and bloodwork look good right now, and she is off of the oxygen and out of ICU. Things have been pretty hectic around here as our house has served as home base for everyone. Visiting family have been eating, sleeping, showering, and just hanging out here since Wednesday, so there has been a lot going on. We were able to have dinner together on Mother's Day, but we didn't really celebrate the day since things were too tense at the time. We are kind of famous for celebrating our holidays whenever we feel like it, so I guess Mother's Day will just happen when we are ready!

The kids are doing very well. They do sense that something is going on, and they were a little thrown off with the parade of visitors and the sleepovers, but they took it all in stride. The hardest part with them was when we were in the backyard on Thursday and things with Nana were not good. Mairead took my hand and said, "C'mon. Go see My Nana?" and we had to go into Nana's house to see that she wasn't home. Mairead must have realized that something was up because she went over to where Nana keeps Mairead's crayons and promptly gathered them up and took them with her. She's no dummy, this kid.

We thank all of you who have been thinking of us and praying for Nana. As of now, it looks like she will get to come home in a few days (barring any incidents or setbacks).

Until then, thanks for thinking of us!