Holidays and Hospitals

Suffice it to say that somehow this Catholic girl thought that Hanukkah started on Wednesday the 17th, not on Friday the 19th which was the actual first night.

Ok- So I found out I was wrong, adjusted our plans for a huge feast to Friday night and was cool with it...

Imagine it is now Friday, the First Night of Hanukkah... I have the roast in the oven, the potatoes grated for Latke's and the house is clean. Andy comes home at 4pm from work and we begin to cook the rest of our feast together. (We enjoy cooking together).

Grandma comes to see if she can help, trips on something (something imaginary, since the floor was actually debris free for once) and falls to the floor! Now considering that she is 92 and has severe arthritis and osteoporosis, and that we can see a huge swelling developing in her wrist as a result of the fall, we decide to go to urgent care for x-rays.

Our urgent care is less than a mile away and is never busy because I live in the middle of nowhere. It has one doctor, two nurses and fortunately, an x-ray machine. A little over an hour later, we are back at home with a sprained wrist, no fractures and one upset Grandma.

We had Hanukkah feast at 7:30pm and then proceeded to exchange gifts and enjoy the rest of the evening in an uneventful manner.

Saturday morning Andy and I got up, made a battle plan for last minute shopping, fed and dressed everyone and took off to shop on our own.

We came home at 4pm and around 5pm Grandma started complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath. Off to the regular ER this time, knowing that if I took her to the little urgent care center they would put us in an ambulance to the ER anyway because of her age and symptoms.

Grandma spent Saturday night at the hospital, finally making it to a room on the cardiac ward at 2:30am. Spent most of Sunday being tested and finally released at 5pm.

She has a bladder infection, some sore ribs from her fall and lots of anxiety, but fortunately NO HEART PROBLEMS!

Today I am thankful that she is home and made it through the torture that is the emergency room. I am looking forward to having her with us for Christmas. I am praying that she does not decide to die during the holidays, but I am fearful of this. My mom died on Dec. 28th, 1999 and I am not sure any of us could handle losing another loved one so close to the holidays, so my fear hides inside and I pray and hold my breath that we have a peaceful, uneventful holiday.

Peace and Love for the Holidays!