• Jan. 4, 2009
2008 In Review Part two
Okay as you can see I didn't make it back the next day for part two. But better late than never, so here goes. Now where was I at. Oh yes, Levi had left for Basic training, we had the leak in the living room etc.
July 2008 we planned a family get together on the 4th. Didn't happen as planned, but did happen a way. Enough said on that. Later in the month the hole in the floor is fixed, we go pick up the tile and supplies and find a guy who will lay it for a very good price. I should have been cautious, but I wasn't since he knew my daughter and was seeing her. He asks to be paid up front so I do that. I know, I know, BIG FOOLISH MISTAKE.
Not only does he not finish the job he does a poor job and I'm left holing the bag. Guess what?! I learn to lay tile. Guess what else?! I learn I do not want to lay tile for a living! It could make you old quick. Oh my aching back!
Now I hope I've mentioned we are going to be grandparents again? If not well we are at this point and the blessed event is due to happen in December. So ever since about May of June I have gotten to go to the doctor with my daughter. It's a Girl! Or It's going to be A Girl! I guess the baby already is a girl , but...... Oh you know what I mean.
On to August. We leave for Georgia to see our son graduate basic training. The BIG day is August 14th. We haven't seen him since the second of June. Oops I am in the wrong lane in Mephis and have to vear right. Oh well we'll just go through Jackson Mississippi on our way to Ft Benning. That was the biggest mistake of the trip. We made it to Jackson just fine, but from just East of Jackson all the way to the Georgia line we drove through pelting rain. It was awful.
Apparently everyone back East slows way down and turns on their flashers when it rains like that. How were we to know. We thought it odd and it took awhile for us to figure out what was going on. Back home when it does that we just deal with it or pull over to the side of the road. No way would we keep driving at twenty something miles per hour. Oh well to each their own.
The graduation ceremony was something to behold.It was very nicely done and we loved it. We head for home as fast as we can get there because Levi is determined not to spend anymore time away from home than he has too right now. We make a stop over in Chatanooga to see the aquarium there. Awesome and spectacular! If you haven't seen it then you need to go. It's worth the trip. Aweek after we get back Levi has weekend drill.
I get a call earlier that Sunday morning telling me I need to come to the ER. Turns out they were playing tag football and his and another guys feet got tanlged and he flipped in to the air. He came down on his shouldet and guess what?! He broke his collar bone! One week after finishing basic training. He made it all the way through basic without getting hurt and gets hurt his first drill after coming home. Figures he said!
Our daughter starts having some trouble with the pregnancy once we are back. Oh yeah and I had a b-day eialier in the month . Let's just say I'm a bit older than I was and leave it at that.
Roll on to September. Gabrielle continuies to have problems , but although her B/P is elevated it's not really too high. She passes her glucose test. We do end up making a few visits to the OB ward for her to be checked out and each time things are okay. I think they are beginning to think she's a hypochondriac and she does too. She did have a UTI once though. I've lost count on how many times we go to the OB ward, but late afternoon on September 25th we go one more time.
This time she has B?P that is getting way up there so she is transferred to OKC by ambulance. I try to keep up, but about ten miles out of town I realize it's no use and just decide to drive a normal speed. I've lost sight of the ambulance anyway. I stop in Kingfisher at McD's for a hamburger and go on to OKC. I get to the hospital and couldn't believe it, but I got to Gabrielle's room about five minutes before she did.
The doctor decides to see if they can hold things off for awhile and hopefully at least two more weeks. I call everyone and tell them the news, letting them know it may be in two days of two weeks, but not tonight. Within minutes things change and they decide to do the c-section right then. The room fills with what seemed like twentyfive people all at once. Finally they wheel my dd down the hall on a gurney and tell me to wait right at the end of the hall. About the time I am beginning to think they've done delivered and forgotten to come get me they call me in.
Within minutes my granddaughter is born. 2lbs 2oz of her. She is so tiny and doesn't look real. In fact it's hard to believe she is real until she moves. The nurses clean her up, take her vital signs and then let me hold her for just a few seconds and let her mommy give her a kiss then they whisk her off to the NICU. I start to go with her, but my dd gets so sick from the anesthetic to I stay to help and be with her.
This is the beginning of a very long stay. After a week I have to go home and my dd wanting to stay right with the baby sleeps in the waiting room.
At nine days post partum she developes not one but two blood clots in her lung. Instead of going to a nurse one night very late she calls me. Itell her to tell a nurse immediately and I already suspect what turns out to be right on the money. She does get better but starts on Coumadin and seeing a cardiologist. She's dismissed once again.
October 2008 We cannot keep this pace up going back and forth to the hospital so we end up buying a camper to park behind the hospital so Gabrielle can be close to the baby and yet have a place to go rest in quiet and privacy. The baby developes a blood clot in her heart, but the doctors don't seem fazed. This Nana is very fazed! Time heals all and the clot dissolves.
November 2008. Several times they have started to send my granddaughter hime and each time there is a setback. My dd is starting to feel edgy and as is she is never coming home. Finally on November 18rh she is released. On a heart monitor but she is released. Welcome home baby McLarin!
December 2008. We have a big happy Christmas this year. A new grandbaby to share it with and lots of family too. Not a lot of eventful things happen this month. I do get a gift I'dlike to return or give back to whoever gave it to me though. I end up with stomach flu the day after Christmas. It had went through my family mildly off and on for a week before Christmas and now I guess it was my turn. This was the most awful flu I've had in ages.. I was so weak I couldn't get to the bathroom on my own steam. My dh had to help me. I don't often get the flu. Maybe once like this every ten years or so. Hopefully I never get it again though. I'm getting too old to do the flu!
I did get better and was able to attend our church's watchnight service on New Year's Eve. I even stayed awake and saw in the new year. I should say prayed in the new year. After we prayed in the New Year everyone left pretty quickly. I think we're all getting too old to stay up so late and need our beauty sleep.
So that was my year of 2008 in a nutshell. I'll try to be more attentive about blogging in 2009. I know I had to have missed alot of things that would and should have been recorded.
