Curveballs

Dear Life,


I don't understand you sometimes.


Sincerely,


Ashley



I got off early on Friday and was looking forward to Riley's return home for our last weekend at our home in Mustang. Well my mood quickly changed when I received a text from my sister. This is all it was...

Although we have had years and years of experience with my mom and the emergency room, everytime I find out she is sick it sends a wave of fear through my body. So I immediately called my sister but got no answer. Another wave of fear. She finally texted back with more information than a terror-inducing photo. My mom had woken up and felt terrible from the get-go on Friday morning. She progressively got worse as the morning drug on and had Bailey making several calls to her transplant doctor in OKC. After an unsuccessful trip down the hallway which ended in my mom being too weak to make it to her destination and falling, Bailey was advised by her nurse to call 911. My mom protested this of course but felt so bad that she finally gave in. She spent much of the afternoon in the ER at Bass Hospital in Enid and was finally transferred by ambulance to OKC around 4 o'clock. Hallie and I were of course there waiting for her in the hallway as they wheeled her toward her room on the stretcher. I was surprised to see a not so bad looking momma. Until we got settled in her room that is. The waves of nausea and dizziness settled in as well and she was not looking so good. Hallie and I waited for Bailey and Spencer to arrive and then I headed home to put a tired baby girl to bed after reluctantly saying goodnight to mom. We had decided to put my name and number down as an emergency contact since my dad was home sick and unable to travel to OKC that night. So I innocently gave them my contact info not thinking that they would have to use it. Well, they did. I got a startling phone call at 2:30 a.m. telling me that my mom's condition had worsened and that she was being moved to the ICU. What!?!? It was pretty tough to sleep at that point so I settled for lying awake in bed praying my heart out that she was going to be okay. I awoke the next morning to find that she was somewhat stable in ICU. Her heart rate and blood pressure were still acting up and the doctor's were confused about what was causing this whole cascade of nonsense in her body. One thing is for sure, my mother's health is in the best hands...Dr. Doug and Dr. Nelson have been referring to her as "Karen" for over two years now....we all joke that she is so high maintenance that she is only known by her first name. No last name needed...they definitely know who "Karen" is. Dr. Doug decided to intervene and put a temporary pacemaker in place which was a Godsend and finally fixed part of the problem. At that point my mom went from a lethargic lady to a feisty female. She was commenting on the cute male nurse out in the hallway and begging the docs to let her out of ICU so that she could see Hallie. They are thinking it is most likely her heart transplant rejection that caused this cascade of problems. As this is a chronic issue, our question now is how to keep this from happening over and over. That is the question we hope to have answered tomorrow when her main doctor is back on duty. Now I sit here typing with much greater ease than I have had over the past couple days because I know that she is on the up slope to recovery. There are still many questions to be answered and of course we would like her out of ICU but after many go-rounds with my mom being in the hospital she is making a recovery look easy. Like she always does.

We managed to break a few rules today. No children under 12 years of age in the ICU?? I don't think so....

The Best Medicine

I got a call around 3 p.m. today telling me that I could bring Hallie with me to visit. She had worked her magic somehow and her nurse, who was in charge on the floor for the evening, said it would be okay to sneak her in. Thankfully Hallie was minding her Ps and Qs tonight. Of course she found many entertaining objects to play with. All of which were sterile of course...

"I need a breathing treatment too Grammy."

After spending nearly seven straight months at the hospital in 2009, my mother and I became familiar faces to many people around the hospital. And it really was my second home for awhile. Which leads me to make myself at home in certain situations. Like today, I took in upon myself to fill out the information board in her room...

I don't even think it's necessary to state that life is a tad bit stressful right about now. So I won't. I will just give you a rundown of what the Fannings have been up to lately....

We have loved our weekends with daddy home. He is elated to see his Hallie girl and reluctant to leave us on Sunday evenings. Almost as reluctant as we are to survive on our own. But survive we have and I should say that we have done a mighty fine job with the help of Nanny on Thursdays and Fridays and pop-ins from Grammy on doctor visit days. Hallie has been a very sweet, loving girl during the daytime. During the night, not so much. I am not sure when she decided that she needs to eat during the night but it has become an every night event. The strangest thing since she was doing so great from months 2-4. Those were the days. The days when sleep deprivation seemed to be a thing of the past. I don't think Riley has enjoyed his weekend nighttime duty with Hallie since we began supplementing with formula. Lol! I think he much preferred the old days of strictly momma feedings so he could snooze while Hallie and I partied in the middle of the night.

Our angel has become a full-time sitter upper with no support needed. She plays by herself in sitting and has been for a couple weeks now. PLAY. That is all the girl does. She LOVES her toys and they are being put to good use. So if you bought her a toy for Christmas, rest assured that she is playing her little heart out with it. She also enjoys exploring a very furry toy we like to call Emmi...

Soulmates

We have cut back on the messiness as I have grown a backbone and decided to limit the amount of involvement of her hands during feedings. ;) We still have our messy moments though...

We loved our quality time that we got to spend with Aunt B and Spencer this weekend. Although the circumstances weren't the best we made sure to make the best of it....

Hallie reached a big milestone yesterday evening at dinner...she sat in a big girl high chair. Nevermind that it only lasted 30 seconds due to boredom and us not allowing her to munch on the edge of the table.

Oh yeah, did I mention that we are moving by the way. Lol. This is what I mean by curveballs. Geez. Of all weeks to be moving. I don't want to leave OKC until Grammy is out of the hospital...and who knows when that might be, especially if she has to have a pacemaker surgery. All unknowns. But what I do know is that we just spent out last weekend in our home as a family. It's the last time Riley and Hallie were here together. The last time our puppy was here. The last time all three of us were here together. And when it all hit me suddenly today, I literally broke out in tears. Riley just laughed and gave me a hug. :)  It helped, but it still hurts. I still don't want to leave this home. I still don't want to pack up our lives. I still don't want to start a new job. When will this grow on me? Well it has about two days because we are moving to Woodward on Wednesday. Although I will be back here on Thursday, Friday and Saturday to pack and of course spend time at the hospital. As I type this Riley is at our rent house unpacking a huge load of stuff that we packed up earlier today. And by the way, who needs professional movers when you have a stock trailer and a strong man.....

This is how us country folk move

Between packing and hospital time today I managed to snap our last family photo in our first home....

Hallie is even waving "bye"

Please send up a prayer or two or three or four for my mom...she isn't completely out of the woods yet. We are still waiting for a permanent solution to this problem so that it doesn't happen everytime she has transplant rejection. Thank you for the prayers!