Spring Break 2012

Spring Break didn’t go the way we had planned. Shelli left on Sunday night for business to Connecticut. I awoke to a call early the next morning (last Monday) saying that Shelli had been admitted to the hospital. I quickly packed a bag with a few changes of clothes for both me and Zoe, put the address of the hospital into the GPS, and off we went – 3 hours to Connecticut. Without going into too many details, Shelli had to have emergency surgery. After being in Connecticut for 5 days, I called Dana to the rescue and she drove up to sit with me during Shelli’s operation. I was in need of super support!!! After Shelli was out of the woods, Dana and Zoe headed back to PA. Zoe can’t afford to miss any school. Zoe had already missed two days and I didn’t want her too far behind. Words cannot begin to describe how grateful I was to have Dana right by my side. By the time she got here, I was going on day 5 of no sleep, 12-15 hours at the hospital a day sitting with Shelli in pain and trying to keep Zoe occupied, enough said! I was completely depleted and worried to death.

When Dana got to the hospital, they were wheeling Shelli into the operating room. I threw my arms around Dana as tight as I could, shed a few tears, and said, “Follow me; we are going to the OR!” We met Shelli in the operating room and got to spend a few minutes with her before they took her in for surgery. Shell was under for about 4 hours, it seemed like 4 days. The time wasn’t moving and I was anxious. (I thought Dana was going to have to slap me). Once the doctor came out and gave us the good news that she made it out and was in recovery, a huge weight was lifted off of me - I could breathe again!

Zoe was a perfect angel through it all. For the 5 days she was here, we would get up, spend all day at the hospital , eat what we could find on the way to the hotel, take a shower, sleep, wake up, do it all over again. She didn’t once complain. Shoot, we even had to buy clothes because we ran out and then even still had to resort to doing a load of laundry at the hotel. Zoe was worried, and just wanted to make sure her Mimi was okay. Not to mention she knew all the nurses and doctors and had to make sure she never missed a report. Jill even made a few visits to the hospital as well.

When Zoe left Saturday, I was SOLO. My partner in crime wasn’t here with me. I missed her (and Dana) the second the elevator door closed. It didn’t really hit me hard until I left the hospital that night and headed back to the hotel room without my sidekick. I had no one to push all the elevator buttons, no one to eat dinner with, no one to cuddle with, and no one to eat my nightly cookie with. (Every night the hotel had cookies out and we would stop and get one before we went up to our room). It was also hard waking up Easter morning and missing all the festivities. Dana stepped up and made Easter as ‘normal’ as she could for Zoe and I couldn’t of been more thankful. I don't know that I would of made it without her here with me. I on the other hand, tried to lighten up the mood for Shelli on Easter as well. After all, she has been in the hospital for 7 days at this point and she needed a little cheer too!
All in all, I thank God that Shelli made it out of surgery safe and sound. This whole experience had put a lot of things into prospective for both of us. We are on the mend and should be home soon!

Happy Easter!