Success! Yay Grandmother!

Friday evening: Grandmother asks a neighbor to take her to the emergency room. (She never complains which means she was in serious pain)

Saturday: Aunt Nancy drives up to Lubbock in a frenzy. Grandmother has to have a blood transfusion, and she has continuous struggles breathing even with an oxygen mask.

Sunday evening: Grandmother is placed on a ventilator. We pack our bags in a haze for the 7 hour trip to Lubbock from San Antonio.

Monday: (As we are on the road) We are told grandmother may not make it through the day. Silence occupied our car for what seemed a lifetime as we listen to the mad flutterings of our afflicted and grieving hearts. We arrive to the hospital to find grandmother in a hospital beds with an uncountable amount of tubes going in and around her entire body. She looks at us, and squeezes our hand with the strength of someone who has the will to live. She writes in my palm with her forefinger three meaningful words, "I love you." The tears, already hiding behind my lashes pushed to surface, but I held them back as I told her that I loved her too. It was hard seeing one of the strongest women I have ever known, and one of my greatest role models in that bed in such pain, but she was much stronger than I had expected considering they had given her a 10 percent chance to live through the day. Optimism crept in for the first time all day.

Tuesday: She grew stronger.

Wednesday: She gave us orders to clean the house, and shampoo the carpets. We were ecstatic. If she was giving orders, she was on the mend.

Friday: She asked, "When do I get eat?" (When people are on the ventilator they have to be tube fed, which also has a tendency to cause diarrhea. Lovely eh? Not only does she have tubes shoved down her throat preventing her from verbal communication, but it also can cause more unpleasantness.) She also gave a belly laugh at one of our stories. I think it was the story about Kyle and his nerf gun. Look out for that post.

Saturday: An attempt was made to take out the ventilator, but it was unsuccessful. The doctor wouldn't say she was in the clear until the ventilator was successfully removed. We were all biting our nails with anxiety.

Sunday: The ventilator was successfully removed after they cleared her lungs of excess mucus. Hallelujah and Thank you God! We are so thankful that grandmother who was on the death's doorstep has now been pronounced "in the clear." Thank you all for your words of encouragements, thoughts and prayers. It was most definitely appreciated.