Home again...

Kara called me this morning to let me know that she was feeling quite sick. It started in the wee hours, and then grew through the morning. That was pretty much the final straw for me, and although I really, really need to be in Kansas City, I changed my flights, and came home. Where, I discovered that my car battery had died in the airport parking lot. Gotta love those cold Boston nights. Anyway, I jumped a cab home - I'll deal with it tomorrow between working, taking care of the two K's, and running over to visit Gram.

Gram is doing a bit better, but as part of the hospice setup, they have stopped giving her the usual set of medications, and are occassionally administering very mild doses of morphine. So it's pretty clear that it's a waiting game. My aunt is in town, and my sister arrives tomorrow, unless she has trouble getting out of Saint Louis due to the storm that I beat out of Kansas City.

And I haven't seen my little girl yet - I don't want to disturb her. I'll tuck her in when I go to bed, and get up with her in the morning to give Kara a break.

Update on Dave's domestic situation

Gram is doing a little better, but we've basically converted her status to a hospice situation in the nursing home. The whole family is flying in this week. My aunt is already there, and my sister is coming in on Thursday, when I return as well. It will be the first time in a long time (and, unfortunately, maybe the last time) that all of this side of the family will be together.

Kara and Katherine had a terrible night. Katherine stopped in the wee hours of the morning, but she wouldn't drink anything, and got dehydrated, so Kara had to take her to the emergency room this afternoon. The only good thing about the ER was that there is very little that takes priority over a dehydrated 13 month old baby, and so she got right in. It was a pretty bad experience. She is so small it's hard to get an IV in her, and they had to strap her arm to a board. Then they had to take a urine sample with a catheter. She got out around 8:30 or so, and Katherine is now sleeping peacefully. She should be drinking fine tomorrow. Kara is also resting, although she's probably going to crash emotionally at some point. She's been absolutely tremendous through this entire thing. I mean, this was not a life threatening situation, but her mommie instinct kicked in, and she just did what she had to to make sure little KLO was OK.

And I am finally getting better too, but who cares about me, right?

Everyone is sick

Except Kara. No really, I mean it. This is pretty serious.

The hardest of them is Gram. We visited her on Sunday, and she was in pretty rough shape. Then, on Sunday evening, they called and said that she was declining further, and that her blood had started to pool in the extremities, and that they could not get a pulse, blood pressure or 02 sats. They told us it was basically a matter of time, perhaps a few days. I went over in the evening with my father, and he stayed late into the evening. She's doing a little better today - she's more alert and so forth, but we've basically set up a hospice situation in the nursing home. So I left for Kansas City on Monday morning knowing that there was little I could do. I've spent a lot of time with her over the last few years, and I think I'm ready. Her quality of life has been poor at best over the last few years, especially after she stopped walking regularly. So it's hard to say, but I think it is probably time for her. That's not easy to come to terms with, but it is what it is.

Katherine is also sick - her first major illness. I fear that she picked it up from the nursing home, because Gram had the same bug a few weeks ago. Kara called me in the early evening to tell me that Katherine had thrown up everything, and I mean everything in her stomach. Now, a few hours and several calls to the doctor later, she has a temperature, and occassional dry heaves, but she's sleeping in between heaving. Kara's had a hell of a time of it, trying to take care of her alone like this. The doctor has seen this one a lot lately, I guess, and it's supposed to be a 12 hour bug, so if she's still throwing up (or heaving) tomorrow afternoon, Kara will march her off to the doctor.

And I'm sick too. I started to feel it my last day here in KC last week, and yesterday was the "bad day". Today I feel a bit better, but I'm pretty wiped out. It's just a nasty head cold. The two plane trips I had to take to get to KC were fairly unpleasant. I did my usual savvy traveler trick of taking both Sudafed and Allegra (different drainage points), but I still had trouble equalizing pressure in my right ear as the plane came down from altitude. I managed, but only by putting a finger in my ear, squeezing my nose, and then blowing for all it was worth. Very unpleasant.