Grandmother Whiddon

I realized that I had been putting a lot of "heavy" stuff on my blog recently. All this drama in my family with the medical issues so I wanted to post something more upbeat.
This is my husband's grandmother. Grandmother Whiddon is 94 years young and still finds time to sit down and play a game of checkers with her 8 year old great-granddaughter. I love that about Grandmother Whiddon. She is the most special lady you will ever meet. She always has a smile on her face. She does all her cooking and cleaning herself, has gorgeous flowers that she tends to, and occasionally a tomato plant or so. She got on a horse this year for her 94th. birthday. I will try to find the picture and post it. Grandmother Whiddon still drives too (although we'd rather she didn't b/c of the traffic on her road), but she does. She takes fresh cut flowers from her yard to all her friends when they are in the hospital, but she has outlived most of them now. She goes to church nearly every Sunday. That woman can do just about anything and with the right frame of mind. If you are ever down and out, all you have to do is go by and see her and when you do, you will find yourself smiling before you leave. We are fortunate to live directly behind her. We should stop by more often though. Thanks Grandmother Whiddon for showing my girl love, playing with her, and giggling the whole time when you let her beat you!!!
I love you so much!

Stress, stress, and stress

Please accept my apology for taking so long to update my blog. We have had a ton of stuff going on. Gymnastics meets almost every weekend, doctor's visits for me, my mom, and my grandfather, in-patient stays for my grandfather 2 out of the past 3 weeks.
My grandfather was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer today. Not good!! I have been the caretaker for most of his and my mom's needs for the past 4 months. My mom nearly died back in December and she is doing somewhat better, but is still really sick. My grandfather complained of chest pain about a month ago on a Monday morning so we took him by ambulance to the hospital where he was admitted, cardiac cathed, and a stint was placed in his 95% blocked artery. He started looking jaundiced the day before that discharge, but nobody but us thought anything of it. He came home on Thursday. He was supposed to go to his regular doctor on Monday for bloodwork about that, but it snowed so we had to cancel it. He went on Wednesday instead. Thursday night they called my mom (who doesn't understand all the medical stuff much) to say that he was extremely jaundiced and he needed to be admitted immediately back into the hospital. I couldn't go that night so we took him the next morning. He was inpatient Friday, Sat., and Sunday. At discharge they told me that they had done some tumor markers on some blood work, but didn't have the results back yet. I was told to bring him to the gastroenterologist office in 3 weeks which we did today. She saw us and told him and me that he had extremely high levels of the tumor marker. Way off the chart so it is probably advanced stage. He has bad back pain, headaches, abdominal pain, nausea, etc. Now, all we can do is keep him comfortable. I am going to call hospice tomorrow to see if I can get that started. I am his main caregiver b/c I hold his power of attorney as well as my mom's. My younger sister at home is 19 and pregnant. She is due in 2-3 weeks. I need prayers for my family, for Pyper's family (she is doing some better), and for my peace of mind please. I will try to update again tomorrow when I get a chance.

Pray for Pyper

I have a little friend who is 2-years-old that just relapsed with leukemia. She had it as an infant. She was rediagnosed last week. The family lives in South Georgia, 5 hrs. from Atlanta. Mom isn't working of course as she is taking care of her. They have a total of 5 children. Dad and the other children at separated from them while she is in-patient. She will probably be inpatient at least 6 weeks and she had a white blood cell count over 200,000. That is astronomical. They are really struggling right now, physically, emotionally, and financially. PLEASE pray for her. Her name is Pyper Sellers. You can check out her blog at www.caringbridge.org/visit/pyperaddisynsellers
I was trying to come up with a creative way to raise some money for them. I, like everyone else don't have any extra money right now. With her daddy being 5 hrs. away he will need gas money to come visit on the weekends. I was thinking that I could collect loose change for them to use in the vending machines while inpatient or if I raise enough money to buy them a gas card or an American Express card to use whereever. I am going to put a change bucket in my Sunday School room at church for people to throw their loose change in to. If you feel so inclined and have a few extra coins laying around, bag it up, or take it to the bank and write a check, either to me (I promise I will give them every dime) or donate on her website at Suntrust Bank. Everyone has a few loose coins. If you would like to donate through me, just email me at:
whiddonfour@windstream.net and I will give you my address. I want to collect change for the next 2 weeks and then take it to her. Mom would be so grateful. Let me know if you would like to help.
Wendy

Happy Birthday

Today is my nephew's birthday. Big number 9!!! Part of the present he received was a Wii. Well, actually, the whole family got a Wii, but it just happened to be on his birthday. I got to spend some time over at my sister's house today b/c we were hosting a baby shower for our other sister. After all the baby shower guests went home, I stayed behind to learn to play the Wii. Let me just tell you, that thing is so much fun. Very fun!!! I always enjoy getting to see my nieces and my nephew, but today was especially fun getting to play the game. This picture is of my sister, Monica, my nephew, Timmy, and my niece, Hannah. My other niece wouldn't come out of her room to play with us when we were trying to get the pictures.

My niece, Hannah, aka "Sticks". This is here nickname on the game b/c she has the longest skinniest legs and she looks like she is walking on two sticks. How, I do love that girl! Freckles and all!!!!

This is the birthday boy himself, Timmy. He turned 9 today. His nickname on the game is "Tee". I think he changed it without our knowledge, b/c we used to call him TT as in TinyTim (his daddy's name is Tim and he is just like him). Anyway, I beat him at bowling and he didn't even have to let me win. We had a great time today. Thanks for letting me hang out today.

Let's see.....

Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, I was stressed out and tired from all the running back and forth.
My granddaddy got readmitted on Friday morning with a bile duct obstruction and jaundice. They couldn't do the really necessary tests (example: IV contrast CT) to rule out pancreatitis or a malignancy in his pancreas or liver b/c he just had a cardia stint placed last week. The doctor said it was most likely a gallstone stuck in his bile duct, but the possibility of a malginancy is still there as well as further gallstones. They are thinking some time in the future they might do a very specialized test called a ERCP or something like that to cut the duct so future gallstones would be able to pass thru and not get stuck, but now he is on Plavix for the cardiac stuff and can't have surgery for at least one year. That is still in the air, but they did let him come home today after a really long night last night. I stayed at the hospital last night and thankfully, we were able to get a decent amount of rest. The nurses on duty knew that I was a nurse and would call them if I needed them so they shut the door and didn't bother us. Thank God for that! He always gets extremely confused at night time when inpatient so he was on a tangent when I first got there yesterday afternoon, but I was able to get him to calm down rather quickly and then he did fine after that. It was rather funny b/c he kept telling the nurses that he put some connectors into the shot box (that was locked hanging on the wall) and he needed to get them back out. He said it wasn't locked when he put them in there and he had stopped on the way to the hospital to pick them up. Granddaddy was an electrician so he keeps remembering that he used connectors I guess. He doesn't even drive anymore and my sister had driven him to the hospital and definitely didn't stop to pick up any connectors on the way :-)

Let's see....

Other news this week. Oh yeah, Tori-bug had a gymnastics meet yesterday. My hubby was still home with the flu so my mother-in-law went with me. She didn't have her best meet yesterday and there was only 5 girls her age. She should have had better scores (from what she is capable of), but she still placed 2nd. on everything, including all-around and 4th. on bars. Bars are normally one of her best events, but she fell on her shoot-thru and got a really low score for it. She will always be number one to me, but I want her to do her best every time. She did have fun and my little brother, Alan, and my dad's girlfriend came to watch her for the first time. I really think she might have been a little too excited about that and lost her focus. I am definitely not trying to make excuses for her b/c she is capable of doing way better, but she was excited about them being there.
My husband is feeling MUCH better today and in fact, took himself and Tori-bug to church this evening. Tori-bug spent the night with a friend last night so that helped me a lot since I was staying at the hospital and Kevin was still sick. Thank you, Mrs. Barbara. I am so glad you are my friend and can help me get Tori-bug everywhere. It really means a lot to me.
Tori-bug is off next weekend and I am giving my sister a baby shower. She is due in 6-7 weeks. One of my best friend's is also due at the same time. They are both having girls so we are so excited. Since my baby days are over, it will be fun to spoil theirs rotten. Again, thanks to everyone for praying for my family. I don't want to speak too soon again, but I think it might just be a normal week this week. THAT is what I am praying for now anyway. It will be a gorgeous week in Georgia. 77 degrees today and about that tomorrow too. I can't wait.

Wendy

So I spoke too soon- Jeesh!

Did ya'll not hear me when I said I needed serious prayer? Oh my! I am so stressed out right now. Let me just give you a little recap of today. My husband fell really sick last night. He went to the doctor today and diagnosed with the flu. He is NEVER sick. When I tell you he was fine one minute then was sick, he was sick. He wanted to go to the doctor today and stayed in the bed all day. He doesn't stay in the bed ever and when he does you better know he is sick.
After I found out that he had the flu, I received a call from my mom telling me that my granddaddy's doctor called to say he had an EXTREMELY high bilirubin on his bloodwork yesterday and he needed to go directly back to the hospital to be readmitted for a probable bile duct obstruction. I was at work and my mom is disabled and she can't drive. My sister who is 31 weeks pregnant had already left to drive herself to the hospital for severe back pain, abdominal pain, and bleeding. She was not home and I could not get him to the hospital tonight. My other sister has to take him first thing in the morning to be a direct admit. I have a sneaky suspicion it is going to be a gallstone obstructing his bile duct. It could be a very serious thing. I am just waiting on my pregnant sister to call me back, hoping to goodness she is not in premature labor and has to go on bedrest. I have been squalling all afternoon and feeling really stressed out. I am almost wondering if I should take a Family Medical Leave to try and get everyone back on the right track in my family. So, I spoke too soon. All that, then when I got to the pharmacy to get my hubby's meds, it was freakin $80. Seriously? Who cares if it helps though, right?

Settling down

Things are finally settling down from all the drama around us the past few weeks. My granddaddy is home and feeling better. My mom went to the pulmonologist yesterday and was told that she had even less lung capicity than she did 3 years ago. She had only about 30% of lung function in 2006 and when they repeated it yesterday it was significantly worse. I knew that in my heart, but it still hurt to know the truth. Mom was a bad smoker for a lot of years and started when she was about 13 or 14 years old. Her mom died of COPD, but had not smoked in 30 years prior to passing away. Her father (my granddaddy) has COPD, but he has not smoked in 30 or more years either. Her brother has COPD and continues to smoke. My brother is a smoker and I would love for him to quit, but so far he has not decided to commit to that. Mom's pulmonary function test was so bad that the doctor wouldn't even tell me what percentage is was yesterday b/c it really won't make a difference at this point. She can't regain it and will eventually just suffocate to death. She is not smoking so that is good. She is only 54 and probably (no doubt) not live to be in her 60's. It saddens me. My mom has always been my best friend and I can't even stand the thought of losing her. We are all going to go one day and I am glad that I know where I am going when I go. Mom does too. So less stressed and tired this week, but still going through each day. It is honestly a full time job with trying to take care of her and my grandfather. That is with three of us full time. Both of my sisters too.
My Tori-bug has a meet this coming Sat. Bless her heart she had a great meet last Sat., but her team was swept away by another gym. They are truly in a different league than us and we will have to compete against them at State and again at our home gym on March 28th. Our girls have the ability to do well against them, but we didn't bring it this past week. We have to next time. I will always think my Tori-bug is number 1 no matter what.
Thanks for checking in this week. If you find it in your heart to lift up a few prayers for my sanity and my mom and grandfather we could use them :-)

Tori-bug building a snowman

She was too cold to let her daddy finish the snowman.

WE HAVE SNOW!!!!

YEAH!!!! SNOW IN GEORGIA!!!!

Snow in Georgia is extremely rare. We are loving it. We are looking at 3 inches already and it is really coming down. I will try to post pictures a little later on. My Tori-bug is so excited and is already hoping they call off school tomorrow. It would be nice. It is so rare that we hope it sticks around a few hours or even a day or two. Woohoo!!