Where I’ve Been

You’ll have to excuse my absence.  For the few of you who may have been paying attention anyway.  I don’t pretend that anyone might be missing my jibber jabber.  But I have sure missed writing it.  Unfortunately the last few months have been a blur and I just haven’t had any time to write.

In April, my dad had an aneurism on his heart which caused his aorta to tear. In layman’s terms, we almost lost him.  He was rushed into emergency open heart  surgery.  My mother and I were both at the hospital with him fortunately, but once we got the news, we had a whirlwind 15 minutes to take in the news, discuss insurance and say our goodbyes as there was only a 20% chance of survival for this particular surgery. I’ll get the whole story out later, but that’s the gist of it.  The weeks to follow were really difficult for everyone.  Him especially obviously. Luckily, he’s recovered at a much faster rate than expected, but he’s now looking at another one to two surgeries, most likely with another open heart. The doctors could not fix all of his issues the first time because the survival rate was already so low.  They just had to fix the immediate issue and get out.  Shortly thereafter we discovered that my uncle has cancer.  He recently had a procedure to try to shrink his tumors.  Unfortunately 10-12 still remain.  I don’t think I need to discuss what happens next.  Then my cousin lost an arm and a leg in an IED explosion in Afghanistan. With the info constantly changing and the family not being sure what was actually going on, the event was made even more dramatic. But he made it to Germany and then eventually back to Walter Reed in the states. He’s an amazing kid, a hero and is in great spirits. When my aunt got to the hospital he looked at her and said “mom, I have to tell you, I’ve had a hell of a day!” And he laughed. He has a long road ahead of him, but after a few more surgeries he should be in a wheelchair and mobile. His upbeat attitude has kept the family going.  President Obama went to visit him personally today and I’m patiently (not really, I’m never patient) waiting for the pictures!  Pretty cool.

Have I depressed everyone enough yet? This has all taken up most of my thoughts, but I have to say that my family is truly blessed.  Because through all of this, all of them are still here with us. Someone above has been looking out for all of us.  Mind you, I am with my dad every single weekend because I still haven’t really gotten over it

There were some other things mixed in here as well.  Some friend drama which resulted in losing a few friends. Some good happenings that resulted in making a few new friends. I also threw four back to back events during all of this, which was completely exhausting, but I got a promotion in the aftermath.

And finally, last week I went on a fabulous, much-needed vacation to California. We left Ava with my in-laws so we could just truly relax, which in theory sounded like a good idea. But with everything else, it was actually much too much for me.  I missed my baby. It took two full days to really let go.  But after that I really did have a great time.  We swam, we sunned, we hiked, we shopped.  Really can’t go wrong with that. And because I think I’ve earned it, I’m taking another week off to spend with Ava at the end of July. Much pool time will be had. Maybe the beach if the wind carries us that way.

So, I’m back.  Making my way back anyway.  With lots to share.