Everyone should have two clothes dryers // Nana update

Don't you think? Two clothes dryers would keep laundry flowing smoothly so that you're not up at 12:30am waiting on the dryer to kick off so you can shove another load into it, thus freeing up the washer that needs to be going again because you've not been in your house more than about 45 minutes at a time lately and your children have no clothes to wear to school tomorrow and are sleeping in their daddy's t-shirts tonight because they had no pj's either. Yeah.

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I let my poor exhausted children sleep in this morning and took them to school an hour late. I dropped them off and then drove to town where I got Kady some tots for breakfast (she's been watching entirely too much Napoleon Dynamite and would eat tots for every meal I swear) then dropped her and Chandler off at Sis'/Mom's and went to the hospital. By the time I got up there it was nearly 10:30 and I was worried that I'd miss seeing Nana because the surgery was scheduled for 11:30. But I made it in time. Puh-lenty of time. We hung out and quite frankly I'm glad I was there because no one up there was even trying to make the day enjoyable. Granted, we were awaiting surgery on a nearly 85 year old woman, but still ya gotta laugh, people. Ya gotta. By golly, I had everyone laughing and that was what I wanted to do. Nana was spunky as all get out and even though she was nervous, I still made her laugh. Finally around noon Mom and I decided to go on to lunch. We hugged her and kissed her and told her we'd see her after the surgery. While sitting at the Sonic Dad called to tell me that they had pushed the surgery back to 3:30 or 4. Mom works at the college and this is such a busy time of year for recruitment and scholarships so she opted to go back to the office awhile and dropped me off at the hospital. Dad and my aunts and uncle were at lunch so I got to spend 2 wonderful hours with Nana alone. She was having a lot of trouble talking, but we managed.

Nana suffers from tremors and uncontrollable muscle spasms in her face and mouth. It is painful and very frustrating for her. She is hard to understand, especially on the phone, but in person she can get her message across better. Well, she's used to being alone and doesn't talk much, so imagine how exhausted she was after talking to a group of people and being made to laugh by your granddaughter for nearly an entire day! She was hurting, tired, thirsty and hungry and very anxious for what laid ahead. But still we talked.

We talked about a lot of things, but we mainly talked about Pop and I enjoyed that conversation the most. Pop died when I was 3 so I have very few memories of him and what I have are vague. She told me how much he loved her and how much she adored him and how that all she had to do was mention off-handedly that she wanted something and he did everything in his power to make it happen, get it for her or arrange it to happen in the future. What love. She also told me what I'm to have when she passes away. I knew I am down for the cookie jar and have known it for years. The cookie jar is a symbol of Nan for me, plain and simple. I will be honored to have it on my kitchen counter for my kids and someday, grandkids. She also told me that she wants me to have a cross necklace that Pop bought her. I listened and when she was done telling me what Sis and I get, I said, "Nana, that's wonderful that you've thought this all out and I am honored that you want me to have the cookie jar and cross necklace, but to be honest, I don't want them yet!" and without skipping a beat she said, "Well good! You ain't gettin' 'em yet!"

I had to leave around 3 to come back here to get kids off the bus. I threw a snack at them while I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, tried to make sense of the mess on my bar, but all I really did was just redistribute the clutter and make new stacks. Then it was back to town to relieve Sis of her babysitting duties for awhile. Mom called us at 5 to tell us that they had JUST wheeled her back to surgery.

The surgery was amazingly simple. I was shocked. Since it was a clean break, all they did was make a small 2" incision in her hip, go in and put in three screws. Voila - hip repaired. They gave her a spinal block and Valium and she talked to the doctor through the entire procedure, even though she doesn't remember a thing. They'll have her up on a walker in the morning and she'll be released from the hospital on Saturday. They say after 3 weeks of rehab, she'll be able to go home, but I'm not too keen on that idea. I think at this point an assisted living facility is where she needs to be. We'll see. Lots of decisions to be made now.

We got up there around 7 and they brought her up to her room around 7:30. She looked so small and frail all bundled up in warm blankets, but she was awake and only slightly confused. There was a slew of family up there so we all took short turns in with her. Sis and I were the last ones to go and we took our time making sure she was settled, as comfortable as possible and had a fresh warm blanket. She didn't remember my name and that really bothered me, but I kept telling myself that she had just had a whopping dose of Valium and is 7 days away from her 85th birthday. I'm sure she'll remember me tomorrow. After all, I can make her laugh like no one else can.

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Thank you so much to everyone who has sent up prayers and thoughts. Please continue. The biggest battle is yet to come - convincing her that she needs to go to the rehabilitation facility for a few weeks. She's not really happy about that idea at all. And even though there is no other option, she's still balking at the thought of not going directly home.