Got home this afternoon and promptly fell into bed for a few hours. I just had to shut down and get some solid sleep. I'm sure my physical exhaustion is partly from the stress, the unpredictability, in addition to the driving, sleeping in the Yuma heat on an old pull-out sofa with my mom... just all of it packed together ( Read more... )

Sunday night I got a text message from my mother, saying that my grandma was in the hospital. Monday I got an update: my grandma had a 97% blockage in the left pulmonary artery and was facing three choices, none of them great. They could do nothing and she would have a massive heart attack at any time (hours, days, or months but more likely sooner ( Read more... )

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Kate and Pramas and I were in Portland over the weekend. I crashed the Canby High School Class of '88 reunion, even though I moved to Minnesota in my Freshman year, and reconnected with several of my junior high school friends, visited with my brother for the first time in a year and a half, squeezed in breakfast with my friend JD Roth and his wife ( Read more... )

Got back yesterday afternoon in time to pick Chris up from the airport on his return from Massachusetts. Slept horribly on my visit because I was sharing a small bed with Kate at my mom's house so I'm completely exhausted but otherwise feel the trip went well and was worth it.


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My grandmother went home from the hospital today! I was shocked: on death's doorstep a week ago, home today? But it's true. They've determined she's stable, she's coherent, she's still weak and sleeping a lot to regain her strength, but the crisis has passed. The family is greatly relieved.

To celebrate: a music meme. ( Albums I've played the hell out of over the years )

Have received news that's 100% better than I expected. Grandma is conscious, can move her left side a bit (originally they'd thought it was paralyzed), can respond to commands ("Squeeze my hand."), understands she's in the hospital. She asked for her glasses, but hasn't yet asked for her teeth. When she asks for her teeth, that'll be a sign. Heh ( Read more... )

I wrote about my grandmother's state of health in January. Yesterday she had the second of her scheduled surgeries for her clogged carotid arteries. She came out of the surgery much better this time around, but began complaining of a headache soon after. Her headache grew worse and worse, and shortly after it became apparent that she'd had a stroke ( Read more... )