Living the Week from Hell

Wednesday, November 26th

• 6 am mad dash to the airport
  
• two uneventful flights land us in Orlando
• call from home that Garter (my grandmother) has been hospitalized with pneumonia
• family dinner at Downtown Disney is not so fabulous, but the Lego store is a winner

Thursday, Thanksgiving

• Call Garter, doing well
• Spend wonderful day with family in Florida
• wakened in dead of night (12:23 am) to a call from home: Aunt is being air-lifted to the heart center, as she has had a massive heart attack. Don't know if she will survive

Friday, November 28th

• 1:30 am, still awake and listening to the last Disney busses stop at our hotel
• 3:30 am, randomly wish I were a smoker so I could go have a drag on the balcony
• 4:30 am, finally fall asleep
• 6 am, wake-up call for "fun day" in the Magic Kingdom
• 11:30, finding quiet place in MK to take conference call with family - finally get the full story, still not sure if aunt is going to make it.
• 1 pm, nap
• 5 pm rejoin family in MK and have some fun after all
• midnight, fall into bed

Saturday, November 29th

• Last hurrah in WDW
• Flight delayed and will not make connection
• Aunt still touch and go
• Garter checked into nursing home; my aunt was her primary care giver
• Fly home on a jet far to small for my taste

Sunday, November 30th

• 1 am, home at last; fall into bed
• 10 am Richard departs for week in Texas
• visit Garter in nursing home (30 minutes away) - take home a list of items she still needs from the house
• go to Aunt's house (30 minutes away) and reheat Thanksgiving leftovers. How perverse is it that my aunt made the dinner we would need while she was in the hospital?
• Family meeting at 7 to figure out details of next week
• 9 pm, take items to Garter
• 10 pm, visit Aunt for first time. It's as bad as everyone has said.

Monday, December 1

• All manner of running about, to nursing home, to hospital, to pick up Nephew from school
• GOOD NEWS! The balloon pump that was in Aunt's heart has been removed and her heart is pumping on its own. Thank God.
• Dinner with Uncle and Nephew at our house

Tuesday, December 2

• Another blur of hospital and nursing home visits, groceries, Nephew and dinner at our place
• Hospital decides not to take Aunt off ventilator yet.
• Garter calls and calls and calls - she has inane jobs she wants us to tend to (brushing her dog, putting up the Xmas tree for Aunt, etc.)
• Father has to go put Garter in her place.
• we are all on edge with one another.
• I polished off an entire bottle of Chardonnay.

Wednesday, December 3

• 9 am, Take coughing child to Dr. Diagnosed with mild form of asthma - only flares with colds
• 10:30, pharmacy for refill on nebulizer
• 11 am, pick up Nephew
• 11:30 am, visit nursing home, conference with occupational therapist
• 1 pm, discover that the little whippet has demolished the carpet at the threshold of our bedroom door
• 1:30 pm, oh yeah, the boys need lunch
• No word yet from hospital. Have yet to visit that bunch.

I don't even want to ask what could go wrong next for fear of jinxing us all -- we just need some peace and quiet.

UPDATE:

• 5:30 pm, reheat and freeze last of Thanksgiving dinner at Aunt's house
• 8:15 pm, Hayes has to be held down by me AND my father for nebulizer treatment.
• 9:30 pm, glass of wine and vegging by the TV