family

Family is such an important thing to me. I wouldn't be where I am today without them. I talk to my Mom, sister and Grandmother daily. I talk to my Grandfather and Uncle some, but to be honest I'm not a big phone person and neither are they. But, I do catch up with them occassionally :)

We've had quite a few health scares with my family in the last few years. My Grandfather had a massive heart attack in May 2009. He actually died but luckily when he had his heart attack he was surrounded by friends who were in the Coast Guard and CPR trained and literally within spitting distance of the Fire Department. Otherwise he wouldn't be here today.

Before that in 2007 we had crazy crazy times with my Grandmother. She went through more testing, poking and prodding than anyone I know. They diagnosed her with everything from leukemia to stomach cancer. But, after going in for exploratory surgery for what they thought was lung cancer they finally figured out what was wrong. Her Dr. (who I can't remember his name right now, he is an amazing surgeon in the Hampton Roads, VA area) went in and took samples from nodules in her lung. He felt something wasn't right and after came out to talk to us. Interestingly enough the week before he and some colleagues had been doing a discussion on Wegener's Granulomotisis which you can read about here. It only took him about 5 minutes of talking to us and suddenly (you could literally see the lightbulb go off in his head) he just turned around and left. My Gran spent the rest of the day in recovery and then 4 days in ICU and then a few days in a regular room. I think all in all she was there for about 2 weeks. The diagnosis: Wegener's. It's been such a large part of her life since then. Daily medications some of which are the drugs given to prepare people for organ transplant. Nasty drugs that take a lot out of a person. Luckily for us she's still here and I'm so lucky I get to have her in my life. But, she has to remember to take care of herself and to take it easy. She doesn't produce red blood cells like the rest of us and tends to be more tired. And she's NOT good at resting. She prefers to go go go.

Recently my Uncle has been going through some health issues as well that he doesn't want to discuss or have anyone know about. But, the news has been taking a lot out of both my Grandparents. They could use some extra love and prayers.

I luckily get to give them some of both very soon as Matt and I will be travelling to VA for Labor Day (maybe sooner if Hurricane Irene decides to hit the Myrtle Beach area this weekend...) and I'm so excited to give all of my family a hug and just spend time with them. Only 10 working days until we pack up the cars and the dogs and we head North! I think a car ride with those two is going to be quite interesting. We took a longer than normal ride (about 2 hours in the car) this weekend and while Lady slept, Cajun cried and cried and wanted to be held. Cajun does NOT like the car, he prefers getting himself places with his own four paws. So the 6 hours each way are going to be very interesting. I think I will pack some chocolate! ;)