This Christmas brought to you by: Don Lohse
So, on Tuesday, I headed down to 'Seca to get some Christmastiming in. Hung out with Dad, Sheila and Erin, ate, opened presents, kicked some ass at Scrabble, the usual. Then, I went to my mom's house as that was where I was staying the night and no one was there. Thinking that maybe they had gone out for a movie or some such nonsense the night before Mom was planning on having her family over, I settled in to wait for them. At 11:15, Mom finally came in the house telling me that Paul's dad had been taken to the hospital by ambulance and Paul was going to wait there with him until they could do some sort of scan to see what was causing all of his abdominal pain (at this time, thought to be caused by some sort of intestinal blockage). So, Mom ran a book back to the hospital and then went to Don's house to put the oyster stew away and then came back just in time for me to tell her I was going to bed as I felt like I had a cold coming on.
We both headed to bed at about 1 and at about 2:30, I was awakened by my mother coming in the room to tell me that Don had been air lifted to Rochester because the scan showed that he had ruptured his aorta and he was bleeding somewhere into his abdomen, possibly for a couple of days, and they didn't know if he was going to make it. So, Mom and Paul went to Rochester, leaving me at home to wonder and wait--by myself.
At about 8:30, as I was eating my Raisin Bran, Don's nosy neighbor called wondering what had happened and if she should call the minister. I told her no, even though at that time I had no idea if a minister needed to be called. Then, Mom called and said that they had done some surgery to fix up Don's tummy and that things looked good, but they were still waiting for him to get out of recovery and then he would be in the ICU for a while. So, it was decided that Christmas was going to be moved from Mom's house to my grandma's apartment and I had to go as I had the main course in the fridge (Swedish meatballs, natch).
Not excited about spending the whole of Christmas Eve day alone, I went over to my Dad's house to pick up my little sis so she could come over to help me make cookies and keep me company. We played PayDay--that game kicks ass. Then, I drove to my grandma's, crying much of the way. Christmas was good, good food, good games, good presents. My aunt offered to have me stay the night at her house and I took her up on it, as the prospect of driving either to Waseca or Otsego was not appealing to me.
She then asked me what I was doing for Christmas Day, and I told her that I was supposed to go to my uncle's house to hang out with my dad's family, but I wasn't really in the mood to be judged and bored all day, so she said that her husband's family was all going to be at her house, so why didn't I just stay? So I did. Yes, I was super tacky and blew off my family to hang out with people I'm only related to through marriage because they're more fun. Does that make me a horrible person?
This morning, Mom called and said that Don was doing very well. The surgery went great and he was off some tubes (breathing and stomach tubes, maybe?) They're going to move him to a regular floor possibly tomorrow, which is a good sign. And tomorrow my mom and possibly Paul are going to come up so we can celebrate a little Christmas with each other, which was one of the big things that I was upset about, not being able to have Christmas with my mom. After the fact that Don almost died, of course.
Anyway, I'm back home now, ready to relax after a couple of emotionally draining days. I wonder if there are any good movies on Lifetime tonight...