Wednesday, March 25, 2009

MIA

I know, I know it's been over 2 weeks since my last post. I'm a slacker, well I've only been a slacker for the last week the first week I was out of town in a place with no internet, cell phone reception and the land line could only make
local calls.
Scary I know.

Here's what happened,
My Grandpa Paul went into the hospital with Brain Cancer, so my mom flew out to do whatever was needed for him. But when she got there and talked with the doctors, grandpa's future didn't look good. She went to his house and found it in complete disarray. Grandpa let the birds out of their cage and let them wander the house without picking up after them, the cats brought in dead birds to stash, in a nut shell it was sick. Mom had visited him a year before and deep cleaned his house but since then you could tell he hadn't done anything.
We had always talked that when grandpas time came, we'd both go to clean out his house.

That time had come and she needed help.

So I flew out with N.
I spent 5 days between Portland, Oregon and Ryderwood, Washington.
We arrive and went to the hospital to see grandpa. And I'm glad that I took N. Why? Todd and I were trying to decide if I should leave N at home with him or take her with me. We decide to have her go with me because it would have been too difficult for Todd to look after her and have class, and tests, etc. Well, while visiting with grandpa, he looked at her and said, "That's my girl." Taking her along gave grandpa the opportunity to meet his only great-granddaughter.

The next day I had the 24 hour stomach flu.
Lucky me.
But it worked out because we couldn't get started on the house for various reasons, so I had a day get better.
This was also the day grandpa went in for brain surgery to find out what he really had. What it just a fatty tumor, was it cancer? And if so what type?

The day I was sick my dad drove up from Texas with a truck to load up with anything mom wanted to keep and take back down. So while he rested from driving for 3 days, I rested from the stomach bug and mo went to the hospital for grandpas brain surgery.

That was Friday. We spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday cleaning house. This included 1 truck load to the homeless shelter, 2 car loads to the library, 1 car load and 4 truck and trailer loads to Goodwill, and about 7 truck and trailer loads to the dump. And we filled the truck and trailer with things to keep. There was A LOT of stuff. We had to go through ever file folder every box that looked like junk, because we needed to find the house deed, car titles, family history was tucked into EVERYTHING and we found grandpas wedding ring and a silver band in boxes filled with trash.

On top of all of this mom had to run around and talk to various people to get what she needed to get Power of Attorney. This would have been done before hand but Grandpa had messed up on the paper work and although the hospital clergy witnessed it there was no notary to sign for it! Then he was taken into brain surgery. What a nightmare.

After 3 days of cleaning and chucking and packing, with 7 people in and out in a small home we did what we could. We stayed the last night in a motel thank heavens. I had been sharing a twin bed with N most nights and I was needing a few hours of consecutive sleep.

Dad took off Tuesday morning and N and I flew home Tuesday after noon. After all was said and done, I'm very happy I was able to go down and help mom out. I was happy to see grandpa a few times while he could still recognize me and wasn't in too much pain. I know we'll be driving to Texas this Summer for a visit, but given the time frame he's been given to live, I'm glad I went.

He's now recovering in a rehabilitation home to beef up to get ready to fly to Texas. I think he'll like it. I'm pretty sure when mom mentioned the High Def Cable, high speed internet and someone else cooking he was sold on the idea.
Such a guy.

Despite what's happening I think it's a good thing. Grandma died almost 3 years ago and she was the type who did everything for grandpa. And now he's been alone with multiple health problems and multiple surgery's over the last 3 years, I think it will be nice when he wont hurt anymore. I'm glad he's going with mom now, he wouldn't when grandma passed away, and now he needs family more then the pride and independence he was defending.

*Good news, Hospice will take his Medicare insurance so mom will be able to have him at home for a little bit.




2 comments:

  1. that soounds like a tough but rewarding job you did! im glad you were able to help your mom and your grandpa out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. sounds like life has been crazy for you!

    ReplyDelete

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