Wow! This year has started off just crazy… some great highs & some great lows.
The 1st & 2nd days of 2012 I got to spend with my best friend. He’s an avid Lions fan. We met in Green Bay for the Lions @ Packers game. It was funny when we showed up dress in matchy-matchy winter wear … plus the hats we were wearing is what we bought each other for Christmas. That was not at all planned.
The next day was his birthday. I kept the tradition going of “forgetting” to wish him a happy birthday until he reminded me. We spent the morning clothes shopping for me. In case you didn’t know, he’s my personal shopper. I can never find clothes I like or fit well unless he’s with me. Bonus: he is remarkable at finding great deals. Our shopping excursion resulted in getting $390 worth of regular-priced clothes for $110. We parted just before lunchtime because he wanted to be home to watch some college football game … Michigan, I think.
The next 3 days of the year … I spent a lot of time in hospitals and driving. My brother’s ongoing health problems made him go to the local ER on Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon we were on our way to the regional hospital 70 miles away where he could see specialists. He looked like death warmed over that day. All I could do was pray… for him … and for me to keep my vehicle on the road. Not only was I an emotional wreck, but drive to the hospital was horrible due to a snowstorm the previous days. One of my sisters is also on dialysis and happened to be in the middle of one of her appointments when she got the news that LilBro was on his way to that hospital. She met us in his room when she was done. After his evaluations, he would meet with a kidney specialist (YAY! the same doc my sis has) the next morning. In the meantime he needed the following: a CAT scan, a transfusion of 3 bags of blood, numerous more labs, and a bladder catheter. I drove back home (on horrible roads) because my dogs needed to be let out then fed in the morning… only to return (on still horrible roads) the next morning to see the kidney doc between 7 & 8 am. After meeting with a flurry of doctors & nurses on Wednesday morning, we were told the news: he has full kidney failure & has to go on dialysis. He had a permacath put in that afternoon and went on dialysis immediately after. Two of my other sisters were going to be there with him at that time so I returned home again… this time on good roads. On Thursday morning, it was another trip to back up hospital. When I got there, he was midway through his second dialysis and said that he might have to stay another night. It was early evening that he finally got the clearance to go home & then another 3 hours before we actually got to leave the hospital.
Friday morning, I returned to work on 12 hours of sleep in three days and having put nearly 600 miles on my truck. That was horrible … I was being bombarded with petty things that had to be taken care of immediately. I was only gone 2-1/2 days from work. I had to remind my boss & secretary that they went through similar family situations traveling back forth from that hospital. In both situations they were gone for a couple of weeks. I must have been a wee bit bitchy because they both took the afternoon off.
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