Friday, June 8, 2012

To Grandma's (and Grandpa's) House

The last few months have been tough on my grandparents health.  First Grandma got pneumonia and was hospitalized for almost a week, then Grandpa got really sick and was hospitalized for surgery and tests to rule out cancer.  Well the tests came back positive for carcinoid cancer, which really scared our family.  I felt really bad because I wanted to go up and visit them, but I really wanted Steve to be able to come too.  He's never been to their farm in Central Oregon and I really wanted him to come when I went up there this summer.  Because of Grandpa getting sick, we were each able to get some time off of work and were able to go up and see Grandma and Grandpa and Kathy for a quick visit.
Grandpa has lost some weight and some strength, but he is still himself and still ready to tell us all sorts of stories.  Grandma seemed to be fully recovered from her pneumonia.  She was so funny about her oxygen concentrator and little O2 sat monitor.  She would check her O2 sats a few times a day and seemed to be quite over the whole thing.  She would tell us "it's going to be at such and such percent and then I'll take a few breaths and it will go up to such and such percent."  The little thing kept reading higher than her guesses though which was good.  She never wore her oxygen the whole time we were there.  I was actually scared to see her wearing the oxygen, like it would make her seem sicker and more fragile than she would be without it.  She also did not have home health over the whole time that we were there.  I never found out if it was because she "got rid of them," or if it was because they weren't coming during that week.  She had called my mom last Tuesday and told mom how she just didn't have time for this home health nonsense.  It made us all laugh :)
While we were there we also got to go visit Aunt Kerma one night and the Wright family another night.  I'm so glad that my grandparents have such amazing family and friends up in Oregon.  Sometimes I think my siblings and I feel like they're all alone up there without us, but this trip especially reminded me of how many people there are up there that they spend time with.
I was also able to take Steve around to some of the cool things in Central Oregon.  We went to the Ogden Bridge, High Desert Museum, Petersen Rock Garden, and Smith Rock.  I really realized how much I love Central Oregon.  It really is a second home for me.  I don't make it up there nearly as often as I did when I was  a kid and I forget how much I miss it until I'm there.  It was good to go home but it was definitely sad to leave.

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