family circus

Things have been more or less a circus around here...


Bud (my grandfather) woke up with chest pains at 3am on Sunday.

At 3:15, Nan (my grandmother) called my mom and told her that an ambulance was on the way.

Bud was taken to the ER at Chester County hospital where they began to run tests to figure out if he had had a heart attack or not.

I spoke with my mom around 3 pm yesterday. I had no idea any of this happened, but she was on her way to work and wanted me to maybe pick up Nan around 5.

I went to Target and the mall and finished up my Christmas shopping, waiting for a call to tell me whether I was supposed to pick her up or not.

At 4:30, I went over to the hospital where they had JUST moved Bud from the ER to telemetry. When I got there, I chatted with Nan and Bud for a moment and as we were leaving, they brought his food. Bud was too weak to cut his food and get it to his mouth... so I cut, Nan fed, and then she had to help him go to the bathroom. I swear, from babe to babe... such is life.

We finally got out of there around 6 and home around 6:30. We had a pretty good dinner and Jon came over. Around 8:30, my mom left with Nan and she stayed there overnight.

I should mention that I am getting sick and had a pounding headache most of the day yesterday... so that was pleasant.


Today, I woke up with the same painful sinus headache, so I decided to stay home from school. I spent most of my day writing to companies and pleading with them to give me money to send kids to Costa Rica.

My dad was supposed to pick Nan up around 3 to take her over to visit Bud and perhaps see if Bud was to be discharged. I called my mom around 4ish to see how things were going and what was happening with Bud.

My dad answered to phone because apparently she left it at Nan's last night.

My dad then says that he is waiting for the ambulance to pick Nan up. At this point I am extremely confused because at the time I did not understand why Dad picked up the phone... or why the ambulance would have to go to the hospital to pick up Bud.

Then I get the full story: Nan passed out in the bathroom with her blood pressure extremely low. They called the Tel-Hai nurse, the nurse recommended she get checked out. Fabulous. My dad was waiting for the ambulance, my mom was to meet them at the ER. No one knew if Bud was going to be discharged or not because no one had talked to him. In the meantime, Dad had called uncle Andy and uncle Tom and told them to get their butts down to the hospital to visit Bud while everyone was taking care of Nan.

So I call Jon and told him what happened so that he can let Josh know that I will not be at the workshop tonight at lower merion because I feel like I ought to stay home in case I am needed. During that call, my brother calls.

I call Chris back... he had called Dad, who basically answered, said Nan keeps fainting and he has to go, and hung up on him... so he wanted to know what was up.

I am finally home now, because I had gone out to pick up my contacts, deposit checks, and fix my online banking account... and since then I ran the dishwasher and emptied it, then finished up laundry... and pretty soon I am going to continue cleaning. Yeah.



So really, it is like a circus. If you have a chance, say a prayer for my family!