This weekend

We had a good time camping. Hubby went and set up while I was at work Friday morning. I packed and then went over. When I got there he and our dog Mo were on a walk. I opened the camper door and there on the table was a dozen pink roses and the sappiest card he could find. It was so sweet! We had my brother over for dinner (my sister-in-law has a new nursing job). We just relaxed and enjoyed each others company until Sunday.
One not so fun thing: Friday night my Grandma (my dad's mother) was taken to the ER. I've mentioned before that she has parkinsons and she has been in a nursing home for about 3 years now. Her hands have been crippled up into tight balls for about a year now. One of them seemed to be swelling all the sudden. They found out that her hand was so tight that her ligaments(sp) were being forced to puncture her skin. Basically, the insides of her hand were coming out. Its so horrible to think about. Anyway, she ended up in a hospital in St. Louis, Mo. She had surgery Sunday to cut the ligaments in both her hands to releave the pressure and relax her hands. She hasn't had good use of her hands for two years, and the problem was just going to get worse if they didn't do something. Now she for sure never will-but it had to be done. Yestarday my dad came over and got me and I got to visit her. She was doing pretty well. 3 doctors came in around 2:00. The first two didn't impress me one bit. It was a woman and two men. The woman spoke first-a short middle-eastern man standing close behind her-she explained that my grandma had an infection from the wounds on her hand being open. They would need to put in a port to give her antibiotics for 6 weeks. Ok...I understood that. Then she started talking about weither my father wanted them to do the procedure or not. She wondered how far we wanted to take her care. She wanted to know if perhaps we should just let the infection "run its course". What?!!! My dad looked confused-but I understood perfectly. It angered me so! I asked her just what she ment by run its course. I told her that we were not about to watch my grandma slip away from an infection that started in her hand if there was something we could do about it. My dad was starting to figure out what they were suggesting too and he asked her and the short man to leave. The third man seemed to be annoyed with the woman and the short man. He asked if he could talk to us a little more about the procedure. That sounded more like it. He was very nice and spoke to us in English. He was the doctor that would be doing the surgery. They are doing the surgery right now, as I'm typing. Hopefully, she'll beable to come back this direction today.
You know- one time 3 years ago she was barely holding on. I held my breath until she took another. It was heart breaking. We delt with that for several days. Then she woke up. Some how she started getting better. In fact in weeks she was better than she had been before. She was walking, talking, feeding herself. Slowly-though-the disease has taken its toll. Now she can't move, talk, and her food is pureed into mush. She has to be fed and her only way of expressing herself most of the time is to moun. Yes, I've wondered about her quality of life. She was so independant during my childhood. If she knew what her life was like now, she would be mordified. But-God has decided to keep her going. Her nurse made the comment yestarday that she could tell a lot about the way my Grandma was by her eyes. I felt that was a blessing for the nurse. Even though she can't talk my Grandma is still a witness. Shame on those doctors for thinking she was done.