From Mellow To Crazy with One Call

Yesterday, the school bus came to pick up The Princess. I then buckled Pumpkin into her carseat and took her to daycare, where she would be for the day while I came home and got massive amounts of work done (And I had massive amounts of work to do, including one deadline for noon). I then ventured over to Starbucks for a cappuccino to start my day with, and while I was waiting for the drinky-girl to make my drink, my cell rang. It was my mom calling to tell me my grandpa was in the hospital.

Apparently Monday night, he passed out and fell, smacking his head on the way down. From the ER he was admitted, with the docs saying that he had an internal bleed. Meanwhile my grandpa was swearing he had a heart attack, as he knows what those feel like. His blood pressure was pretty low (my mom was freaked out about it, but to be honest, his blood pressure was about 96/52 – and at my last doctor’s appointment, my blood pressure was 98/60 – so maybe we’re just lightweights).

I rushed home to get my work project done, finishing it in record time. I then headed up to the hospital to be with my family. My mom and her husband were there, as was my sister. Grandpa was in fantastic spirits, though he was confined to his bed and being transfused with a unit of blood (so glad I don’t get skeeved out at the site of blood). Though he was in a fantastic mood, he looked so small and tiny in his hospital bed, and it made me sad. Sad because he looked frail. Sad because he’s getting older. Sad because I really adore my grandfather and I want him to be okay.

He kept saying, “You know, I’m going to be around for a LONG time. I’m not going anywhere.” I brought him balloons like he was a kid and it made him smile. We sat and he talked about how wonderful my daughters are, which made me smile.

When my aunt brought my grandmother back up, I ventured downstairs to the hospital cafeteria with my mom and her hubby, and my sis and her boyfriend for lunch. Mom kept saying, “For hospital food, it’s really good.” (This is the same hospital my mom just spent a ton of time at when my brother was recently ill). My years of working in hospitals and eating hospital food on a daily basis only cemented what yesterday’s lunch confirmed: “good hospital food”? Ain’t no such thing.

After lunch, we sat with my grandpa a little longer while waiting for the GI doctors to show up and work their doctor-talking magic, but by the time I left about forty minutes later, they still hadn’t come by. I ventured back home to get more stuff done, and about an hour later my mom texted to me to tell me that the doctors believe that the bleed is a small one, but it is causing my grandfather to become anemic which is a huge part of the problem. He’ll have a few procedures (one today, one tomorrow) to try to locate that bleed. However, an even bigger part of the equation is that his carotid artery is 90% blocked, and so once he’s home, he’ll work with a vascular surgeon to schedule its repair.

I’ll probably take the girls up tonight to see him, and I’ll go again tomorrow when I’m sans kids. Hoping he’ll be home tomorrow night or Friday. In the meantime, I’m just thinking positive thoughts and hoping for his speedy recovery.