So last night we were talking to Jamie's parents, and on top of Cheryl's (Jamie's mom) need to back surgery and a hip replacement, she just came down with Shingles.
I couldn't take it anymore, I HATE being so far away from them, I miss them so much, and I haven't seen any of them since July.
So this morning, Jamie and I talked about it, and I booked a ticket to go to PEI for a couple weeks. Jamie won't be able to get time off work on such short notice, but Donovan and I will leave on the 5th and return on the 19th. My stomach is flip flopping with excitement and nerves!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
The great trip...
I mentioned before on this blog (but don't look for the post, it was in the "pre-deleted days") about my Grandmother and her health issues. In case you don't remember, or weren't a reader back then, here is the Cole's Notes version. A couple years ago she started getting sick, turned out she had EXTREMELY high blood pressure (largely uncontrolled) which lead to her kidneys not functioning. So we had a long time of ups and downs, and more then one, "come say good-bye to grandma intensive care stays) and now she is on dialysis three times and week and seems to be doing quite well.
So now she is on dialysis three times a week, and because of some issue with the times of her treatment and such, she isn't able to take the transportation the hospital offers. So our family has set up a schedule, my grandfather takes her to all her appointments, and my mom and her two sisters each have a day of the week that they pick her up. My mom's day is Thursday.
So yesterday it was Thursday, time for my mom to pick her up. Only mom had a sewing class, so she asked my dad to do it. But Dad had some work obligations, so he asked Jamie to do it (Jamie and my dad work together), so when Jamie called to ask "where do I go to pick up Grandma?" I laughed, and told him to just come home and stay with Donovan and I would go get Grandma (I've picked her up before so I knew where to go).
I get to the hospital, and they were late starting her on dialysis, so she still had some time left before she was done. We sat and chatted, and she caught me up with the family gossip, and I let her know what Donovan had been up to lately, and she snuck in a "he needs a playmate" remark, and then laughed and said, "but that's easy for me to say, you do what's right for your family". I watched her machine pretty closely and noticed her blood pressure was 115/75 which sounds really good, but for her, that's low. I think her body became so accustomed to high blood pressure, when it gets in the "normal" rage, she reacts as if it were low. But she seemed fine, so I didn't mention anything.
I left the room to wait in the waiting area while they un-hooked her, and met her at the elevators to take her down to the car. When she was walking with the nurse towards me, I thought it looked like she wasn't walking as well as she was the last time I picked her up from dialysis. I asked her if she was feeling ok, and if she wanted a wheelchair or anything, but she insisted she was fine, and her cane was all she needed.
So we get down off the elevator, and are walking in the main area of the hospital and as we were transitioning from the tile floor to the mat outside the doorway, I felt her tripping....
My stomach dropped. I grabbed her, but it was too late, she was already past the point of stopping. I did the only thing I could, and while trying to stop her from falling, I fell under her, so she mostly landed on me, rather then directly on the floor.
I felt sick. A lovely lady rushed to help us, and called her husband to help too. I screeched "don't grab her arms, she just had dialysis!" and we manged to get her back on her feet.
Still with my stomach flip flopping and my heart beating in my throat, and my mind racing about possible hip fractures, a trip to the ER and having to call the rest of the family explaining how a simple "pick Grandma up from the hospital", led to a visit to the ER and x-rays. I asked if she was ok, and she smiled "oh yes, I'm fine" followed by "sometimes those feet just don't do what I want them to do". I SLOWLY walked her over to a couch, checked again to make sure she was ok, which she insisted she was, and left her to run and pull the car up as close to the front doors as possible.
I thought about taking her to the ER anyway, even though she insisted she was fine, just to be safe. In the end, I decided if she was able to walk to the bench, she was probably ok. Also, I knew by the way my knee was throbbing, it was me that took the brunt of the fall.
We got back to her home without any more incidents. And she is fine now. But man on man, was that scary!
Everyone was very thankful that I was there and able to help and that I handled the situation, but I still feel like I let her down.
Wonder if I'll be asked to pick her up again anytime soon?
So now she is on dialysis three times a week, and because of some issue with the times of her treatment and such, she isn't able to take the transportation the hospital offers. So our family has set up a schedule, my grandfather takes her to all her appointments, and my mom and her two sisters each have a day of the week that they pick her up. My mom's day is Thursday.
So yesterday it was Thursday, time for my mom to pick her up. Only mom had a sewing class, so she asked my dad to do it. But Dad had some work obligations, so he asked Jamie to do it (Jamie and my dad work together), so when Jamie called to ask "where do I go to pick up Grandma?" I laughed, and told him to just come home and stay with Donovan and I would go get Grandma (I've picked her up before so I knew where to go).
I get to the hospital, and they were late starting her on dialysis, so she still had some time left before she was done. We sat and chatted, and she caught me up with the family gossip, and I let her know what Donovan had been up to lately, and she snuck in a "he needs a playmate" remark, and then laughed and said, "but that's easy for me to say, you do what's right for your family". I watched her machine pretty closely and noticed her blood pressure was 115/75 which sounds really good, but for her, that's low. I think her body became so accustomed to high blood pressure, when it gets in the "normal" rage, she reacts as if it were low. But she seemed fine, so I didn't mention anything.
I left the room to wait in the waiting area while they un-hooked her, and met her at the elevators to take her down to the car. When she was walking with the nurse towards me, I thought it looked like she wasn't walking as well as she was the last time I picked her up from dialysis. I asked her if she was feeling ok, and if she wanted a wheelchair or anything, but she insisted she was fine, and her cane was all she needed.
So we get down off the elevator, and are walking in the main area of the hospital and as we were transitioning from the tile floor to the mat outside the doorway, I felt her tripping....
My stomach dropped. I grabbed her, but it was too late, she was already past the point of stopping. I did the only thing I could, and while trying to stop her from falling, I fell under her, so she mostly landed on me, rather then directly on the floor.
I felt sick. A lovely lady rushed to help us, and called her husband to help too. I screeched "don't grab her arms, she just had dialysis!" and we manged to get her back on her feet.
Still with my stomach flip flopping and my heart beating in my throat, and my mind racing about possible hip fractures, a trip to the ER and having to call the rest of the family explaining how a simple "pick Grandma up from the hospital", led to a visit to the ER and x-rays. I asked if she was ok, and she smiled "oh yes, I'm fine" followed by "sometimes those feet just don't do what I want them to do". I SLOWLY walked her over to a couch, checked again to make sure she was ok, which she insisted she was, and left her to run and pull the car up as close to the front doors as possible.
I thought about taking her to the ER anyway, even though she insisted she was fine, just to be safe. In the end, I decided if she was able to walk to the bench, she was probably ok. Also, I knew by the way my knee was throbbing, it was me that took the brunt of the fall.
We got back to her home without any more incidents. And she is fine now. But man on man, was that scary!
Everyone was very thankful that I was there and able to help and that I handled the situation, but I still feel like I let her down.
Wonder if I'll be asked to pick her up again anytime soon?
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
18 Months
Recently Donovan had his 18month check up. Before I went in, they got me to fill out a little questionnaire to see how his development is.
Climb up stairs by holding you hand - check
Go from floor to standing without holding on to anything - check
Able to put very small objects into a small container - check (and by the way, can we say "CHOCKING HAZARD"?)
Turn pages of a book when you read - check
Gets upset when frustrated - check and double check for good measure
Help around the house - check (he likes to vacuum and swifter)
Imitate you doing daily tasks - check (too cute to watch him brush his teeth and "spit" into the sink with me)
Take off some articles of clothing (like socks) - check (in fact after most naps, when I go into his bedroom he is pointing to the side of the crib (the back and against the wall) where said socks have been thrown. Just today I retrieved 3 pairs from back there)
Try to help put his own clothes on - check
Have a 10 - 20 word vocabulary - umm..... well no....
The doctor asked me about the vocab again, because I hadn't checked it on the sheet. I smiled politely and asked,
"Does "uh-oh" count as one word or two?"
All in all, Donovan is doing great. I was asked about speech therapy, and I laughed and said, "no, he's 18months old!" That being said, although no panic is happening around here, we are trying to work on the speech thing.
Since this appointment Donovan has got "Daddy and Dad" down as well as "Ruby" ok, Ruby is more of "uh-eeee" But we know that that MEANS Ruby, so I count it.
Oh and mom? mommy? You know, me the one that takes care of him every day, looking after every need, whim and fancy? The odd time I get "Jackie" (Donovan language Jackie of course) but that's only when he's frustrated, the rest of the time, I'm Dad too. But it's ok... you know I'm not hurt about this at all.... *sniff*
He'll look at me, call me "Dad" and I'll say, "I'm MOMMY" and he will smile so big you would swear his face is going to break and shout "DAaad!" pest...
The rest of the time he communicates in a series of grunts and groans. Think the seagulls on Finding Ne.mo "MineMineMineMine"
So we are working on the speech, slowly but surly.
Climb up stairs by holding you hand - check
Go from floor to standing without holding on to anything - check
Able to put very small objects into a small container - check (and by the way, can we say "CHOCKING HAZARD"?)
Turn pages of a book when you read - check
Gets upset when frustrated - check and double check for good measure
Help around the house - check (he likes to vacuum and swifter)
Imitate you doing daily tasks - check (too cute to watch him brush his teeth and "spit" into the sink with me)
Take off some articles of clothing (like socks) - check (in fact after most naps, when I go into his bedroom he is pointing to the side of the crib (the back and against the wall) where said socks have been thrown. Just today I retrieved 3 pairs from back there)
Try to help put his own clothes on - check
Have a 10 - 20 word vocabulary - umm..... well no....
The doctor asked me about the vocab again, because I hadn't checked it on the sheet. I smiled politely and asked,
"Does "uh-oh" count as one word or two?"
All in all, Donovan is doing great. I was asked about speech therapy, and I laughed and said, "no, he's 18months old!" That being said, although no panic is happening around here, we are trying to work on the speech thing.
Since this appointment Donovan has got "Daddy and Dad" down as well as "Ruby" ok, Ruby is more of "uh-eeee" But we know that that MEANS Ruby, so I count it.
Oh and mom? mommy? You know, me the one that takes care of him every day, looking after every need, whim and fancy? The odd time I get "Jackie" (Donovan language Jackie of course) but that's only when he's frustrated, the rest of the time, I'm Dad too. But it's ok... you know I'm not hurt about this at all.... *sniff*
He'll look at me, call me "Dad" and I'll say, "I'm MOMMY" and he will smile so big you would swear his face is going to break and shout "DAaad!" pest...
The rest of the time he communicates in a series of grunts and groans. Think the seagulls on Finding Ne.mo "MineMineMineMine"
So we are working on the speech, slowly but surly.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Victory!!
Not sure why it took me so long to post this! Got caught up in all the excitement and completely forgot!
Monday, February 2, 2009
More PhotoShop!
Jamie came home the other day with roses that were given to the office he works at, and I just couldn't help but play at bit with photoshop.
First I just upped the colour a bit, and then I got creative!
This is the original:
And when I was done messing around, it looked like this:
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Real Mommy's
I got this forwarded to my e-mail this evening and thought it was too good not to share.
MOTHERS
Real Mothers don't eat quiche;
They don't have time to make it.
Real Mothers know that their kitchen utensils
Are probably in the sandbox.
Real Mothers often have sticky floors,
Filthy ovens and happy kids.
Real Mothers know that dried play dough
Doesn't come out of carpets.
Real Mothers don't want to know what
The vacuum just sucked up.
Real Mothers sometimes ask 'Why me?'
And get their answer when a littleVoice says, 'Because I love you best..'
Real Mothers know that a child's growth is not measured by height or years or grade...
It is marked by the progression of Mommy to Mom to Mother...
A sight seen a lot at my house, "Mom, can we read this one please!!"
The day before I tried to let Donovan "help" me cook with Fennal seeds, then after that contair was completely emptied (into the carpet no less) I got smart, and filled it with rice, much easier to clean up, less smelly, and he is just as happy!
But at least he's good to help me clean up the rice when all is said and done!
Comparing apples to, well, apples...
The day before I tried to let Donovan "help" me cook with Fennal seeds, then after that contair was completely emptied (into the carpet no less) I got smart, and filled it with rice, much easier to clean up, less smelly, and he is just as happy!But at least he's good to help me clean up the rice when all is said and done!
Comparing apples to, well, apples...
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