Too purty to live in town.....

5/30/08

This is gonna be a long one. I want to tell you about my last two days. Here goes...

Thursday I was at work and got a phone call. One of the other moms in Joe's class was putting together an end of year party and wanted me to contribute. No biggie. Then she told me that something happened to a teacher's aide at the school. She didn't realize that teacher's aide was my best friend L.

She told me that L had to take her mother to the hospital. So, I called L, and she sounded so upset. I could tell she'd been crying. All I said was, "what can I do?" She started crying harder. I asked where she was, and she said <name of hospital> ER.

I left work immediately and drove to the hospital. Her mom had gotten up in the middle of the night to pee and fell and passed out. She is obese, and uses a scooter to get around because her legs are bad. Her step dad got up around 3:30 am to pee and found her. He called L, and by the time she got there he had already called EMS.

She was disoriented, and trying to speak but her words were all garbled. She is also a diabetic and when EMS took her blood sugar, it was over 350! Not good. By the time she was at the ER, she was not breathing and her heart had stopped.

They shocked her back, and put her on a respirator. She was also bleeding internally, and when the put a tube in her stomach, blood was there.

I got there just as they were moving her from the ER to ICU. They had given her many, many liters of fluids and 4 pints of blood, and had her on a lot of insulin and a boatload of dopamine to lower her blood pressure. Even after all those fluids, she hadn't produced any urine, indicating complete kidney failure. They were preparing to begin dialysis. Things weren't looking good at all.

L has 3 children, the youngest, Ka is in Joe's class, W is in middle school and her oldest, Ke is a senior in high school and is also highly autistic. Her husband, R is a truck driver and he stayed home with the children so she could go to the hospital.

R had a load he had to take to south Florida and L didn't want to leave her mother's side. I left the hospital, and got her 3 children and took them to my teeny tiny home.

I put Joe on the top bunk in his room, and Ka in the bottom bunk. I told W she could sleep with me in my bed, and made a pallet for Ke on the living room floor.

W was having severe sinus-allergy symptoms, and everytime she laid down, her head got all snotted up, so I put her in one of my recliners to sleep. Joe and Ka kept talking, so I moved Joe in the bed with me.

I got them all up yesterday am, took Ke to his part time job at Wendy's. When he finishes his work, he goes to the high school across the street for his classes. He does the work half a day, school the other half for his senior year.

After taking Ke to work, I took W to her middle school, and took Joe and Ka to their school. I then came home and showered and got ready for a court date I had this am. I'm taking The Donkey back to court to hopefully make some revisions in visitation, child support, and get his share of Joe's medical expenses added to child support arrearages, since he refuses to pay them voluntarily.

I got to court, requested we get sent to mediation, which the Judge agreed on. After leaving court, the plan was for me to go to the hospital and stay with L until 2pm, when I'd leave to gather the children from their respective schools and take them home with me until R came back from south Fla.

I checked my voicemail leaving court, and Lynn had called and said not to go to the hospital. I called her. Her mother had passed away. She was at her mom's house with her step dad, making phone calls.

I went there, and brought her back to my house. I got her to eat half a slice of toast, and drink some sweet tea. We decided to let the kids finish out the day at school and then we would tell them. I put on some soft relaxing music and she napped a bit in the recliner.

About 2ish, her step dad came over, and I went to get the children. It tore me up seeing those children sobbing. I was crying too. We all were. We just held on to each other and cried for the longest time.

I got them all in the house, and L's step dad, C, left to go overnight at his daughter's house in Williston. I made hamburger helper for the kids and porkchops for the adults. I also baked a cake and made frosting to go on it.

After they were all fed and calmed down, I took them all back to L's house. Today, I'm keeping Joe home from school and will care for the children again as L and C go make plans for her momma. Her mom wanted a graveside service only. L has a brother, Ro who is a complete putz.

Ro made 2 trips to the hospital Thursday, and spent a total of less than one hour with them. Oh, but while he was there, he wasted no time throwing his beer gut around, blaming L, C, the doctors, the nurses, and saying he was gonna sue, and call his lawyer. Yep, a real prize, that one is.

L is stressing about today. She knows that anything that she and C will want to do, he will oppose just because he's such a butthole. She wants me to sing Amazing Grace, but isn't sure if she can get her brother to agree to it. I told her I'd be happy to sing if she wanted me to, and if not, that it was no big deal. I'm just so sad that she has to go through all this.

I got my church prayer chain activated, and the pastor called this evening and talked with me some, then with L. It was a big help for both of us. L and her family attend a non-instrumental church, but we have most of the same beliefs. Her pastor and pastor's wife were out of town for most of the day with their own doctor appts.

It's really nice to be able to go back from being on the receiving side of ministry to the giving side again. I didn't really do all that much. I was just there for her and her children, and that was enough. That's what friends-scratch that-that's what family does. That's how we love.

The kids are on their way over. More when I can write later. Thanks for stopping by.