Family update

Thank you (SO MUCH!) for your positive thoughts, vibes, prayers, etc., for my brother-in-law and older nephew for BIL's transplant on Monday. It was a VERY long day for all of us -- especially dh. He was up at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday and, despite my pleas, was not able to sleep at all during the day or evening. He left here around 1:15 a.m. on Monday morning, picked up Younger Nephew, who lives nearby, then drove about an hour north (on dark rural roads) to pick up Older Nephew & his wife, and then all the way to the hospital in downtown Toronto, where BIL had already been admitted a few days earlier. (ONW's mother/Little Great-Nephew's other grandma was staying with LGN;  SIL checked into a hotel near the hospital on Saturday afternoon, and has been there since then.)  

Older Nephew had been told to check in between 5 & 6 a.m.;  they made good time (no traffic at that hour!) and arrived around 4:30 a.m. Even so, Older Nephew was quickly admitted, and everyone else spent the rest of the day hanging around a waiting room. Dh texted me that ON was in the operating room around 8 and out around 2-2:30. He had to wait a while for a bed (!) and so it was about 10:30 p.m. before his wife could see him.  Understandably, BIL's surgery took much longer. He went into the OR around 10:30 a.m. He did not emerge until after 11 p.m. (!) 

Once they knew BIL had also come through the surgery successfully, dh, Younger Nephew and ONW decided to head home. (SIL stayed at the hospital, along with her brother, who was also there for support, until she'd seen BIL, around 12:30 a.m., before her brother took her back to her hotel.) Dh drove ONW home first, then dropped off Younger Nephew before heading home. I'd gone to bed around midnight, but woke up when he (finally!) came through the door around 2:15 a.m. (!).  He estimates he was out of the house for about 25 hours, awake for 44, and drove a total of 250+ kilometres ( = 150+ miles)!  

While all this was happening, I was at home, fielding phone calls, texts and WhatsApp messages from dh & BIL's extended family (there's a WhatsApp group for cousins on one side of the family, and I set up a text group for cousins on the other side), as well as my own friends & relatives who knew what was going on, and updating them all as I received updates from dh via text. I (foolishly) couldn't resist posting a photo of BIL & ON that fortuitously popped up into my Facebook Memories, along with a request for prayers -- which prompted an additional flurry of enquiries that I responded to privately. I was in the comfort of my own home, but I was BUSY, and I was EXHAUSTED by mid-afternoon -- I can only imagine what the others were experiencing! 

Dh slept until 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, and napped on & off throughout the day. He was (understandably) EXHAUSTED, so we took it easy that day (we're both still tired and have been in bed earlier than usual the past few nights!).  

Yesterday (Wednesday) we got up early and headed downtown, arriving around 10:30-11, and spent about four hours there, mostly with Older Nephew, although we did head up to see BIL in the ICU briefly.  We also had lunch with SIL in the food court.  Both guys are doing well, especially Older Nephew. While we were there, a nurse disconnected almost all of his tubes & IVs, brought in some solid food for his lunch, and when we returned from visiting BIL, we were delighted to see him walking down the hallway (with the help of a walker & a nurse nearby).  When he returned to his room, he sat in a chair for a while and he & his wife Facetimed with LGN and his grandma.  :)  

BIL was sitting up with his head back when we first saw him, enjoying some ice chips. (ONW visited him a little while later and said he was asking for ice cream, lol.)  He looked a bit tough, to be honest, but SIL told us he looked a lot better than he had the day before -- and when he lowered his head a little, he looked more like himself to me. He had a lot of tubes, etc., but the nurses told us some of those would be coming out soon, and that they were going to give him some apple juice. They also told us he really didn't need ICU care anymore and they would be moving him down to the same floor where ON was, just as soon as a bed came open (and SIL messaged dh later that evening that he had in fact been moved). (Yay!)(Having them both on the same floor will certainly simplify thing for her!) BIL was very emotional, and I could tell dh was struggling to hold it together, so we made it a short visit. 

Older Nephew's Wife asked if we could drive up and stay with LGN for the day on Friday (tomorrow), so that she could come back downtown. Of course we said yes. (We get to see the dog too! -- yay!! Haven't seen him in several months now.  ONW says her mom says he's been kind of depressed since ON's mysterious absence... he knows something is up!)  We plan to head back down to the hospital again on Saturday ourselves. 

Meantime, we're still fielding calls & texts from the cousins.  :)  

I will admit... I'm barely getting through my emails right now, let alone reading or commenting on too many blogs and/or forums and/or social media, or reading books.  :(  I normally manage to get through 3 or 4 books a month, give or take a couple -- it's now mid-July (how did that happen??), and I'm still only about 1/3 of the way through the book I started on July 1st. Oh well. Priorities!!