Friday, June 13, 2008

Medical Woes

We've had a lot of health issues in the extended family over the past couple weeks. I've avoided blogging about it because one of the people effected was/is Adam's grandma and since he's not blogging about it, I don't feel like I should. The other person is my sister and I just am a complete jumble of feelings about her situation that I didn't want to ramble on and on and on about her on my blog. But tonight we got news about both of them, so I feel the need to comment on both.

My sister was diagnosed last week (wow, it feels like its been a lot longer than a week) with MS. Tonight I was talking to my dad, who had talked to my brother (nothing like a good old game of "telephone" to spread news) who relayed that after more testing they determined that her MS is "severe". I'm not really sure what that means. But it doesn't sound good and she's not even 40 years old yet, so she could be in for a long ride. My brother also said that because of their insurance coverage (or lack thereof) the hospital is refusing to do any further treatments. All of the sudden in my mind my sister seems very old and tired.

Adam's grandma fell last Sunday in the shower and ended up having surgery to relieve blood buildup/pressure in her brain. We were warned immediately that she probably would never be the same. Today is the first day that she's really responded to anyone by opening her eyes or wiggling her toes, but it sounds like she still won't/can't do it on demand. My mother-in-law and her siblings signed paperwork today to have Adam's grandma put into a nursing home. Which absolutely breaks my heart. Because she is not a nursing home grandma. She's a little ball of fire that always seems to be off and running in 15 different directions whether its spending time with her friends or volunteering at this or that or getting her hair done. I feel like her being put into a nursing home means that her life, her spirit, her energy is broken. I keep thinking about walking into my inlaws house when she comes to visit and seeing her pitter patter her way out of the kitchen to say hello and hand out hugs and the thought that I'm never going to see that again makes me so sad.

Alyssa and I were looking through her baby scrapbook a few weeks ago and she very happily pointed out great-grandma to me. I loved that. I was so glad that even though she only sees her great-grandma a couple times a year, we've been able to instill a relationship and a memory of her in Alyssa's mind. I'm so grateful that she has "good" memories of her and I hope that we will be able to help her hold onto those forever no matter what the future may bring.

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