quite a scare!

***let me start this post with an "everything is okay" disclaimer. lest, i have someone speed read and pass around half true info that my mom had a heart attack or is still in the hospital. she is currently home resting, and we praise the Lord for that. she has a doctor appointment thurs. at 3p so we'll see what they think then.****

but of course, looking back on the blur of tuesday, i have to tell the story.......

once again, excitement reigns in the family. we seem to go from one thing to another around here. tuesday, i was taking one of the girls (erica) i babysit out to a birthday party. it just happened to be out by ikea, so i was going to take connor and the little one (shannon) over to ikea while she played at chuck e. cheese. since we sold our escort i was going to borrow my sister's car for the day. well, my mom heard us talking about it and she said she would take me since she had to go pick something up from ikea.

perfect! i would have a way to get erica to the party and i could give ikea a chance at redemption. so mom and i head out there and nicole calls and says she's coming to meet us there. cool.....let's make a morning of it. so we went through the store, and then we hit the cafeteria for a quick lunch before heading out. (don't worry, i'll give my reviews of the cafeteria later.....it did NOT do well.)

we finally get out of the miniscule seating area.....yeah, i'm starting in already.....and we headed out to the car. perfect timing. we'll go get erica, head home, naps all around.....great! i get shannon into her seat. mom gets connor, and starts to get the stroller. i turned around to talk to nicole and mom is leaning into the trunk. not good. i thought she was nauseas and just being over dramatic.....we tend to accuse her of that. i kept asking her if she was going to throw up, but she wouldn't answer me. finally, she regains some strength and stands up holding her left arm to her chest. GET IN THE CAR WE'RE GOING TO THE HOSPITAL!!

after convincing my mom that this was not just "going to pass" i practically shoved her in the car. i took off to get erica. by this time we were a few minutes late, so i ran in to chuck e's, and tried to very calmly but abruptly say thank you and goodbye to the birthday boy's mom and tell erica that we had to hurry b/c i had to take my mom to her "dr. appointment". i told her that b/c i didn't want to say what i was thinking, "we have to hurry b/c my mom is having a heart attack, okay sweetie?"

so we got her in the car, and i called my dad. i told him i was on the way to the hospital, but i think he thought i was around home b/c when we didn't get there right away he called me and asked where we were.....we were by the airport still, but i knew oakwood so i was headed there.
they got her in to the e.r. and i took the girls back to my house. nathan took care of them until he could get a hold of their mom and explain a little better. then he took connor to aunt claudia's and came up to the hospital with mike (who had just dropped ava off at a friend's).

the first thing the doc's did was rule out a blood clot. they thought b/c of her symptoms she may have had one in her leg that moved to her lung. turns out my mom had a leg cramp for two days straight and thought "it would pass".....we bring these things on ourselves i tell ya.

they did a cat scan which revealed that there was no blood clot anywhere....PTL....and then they were going to do some other tests to see if it was a heart attack. they really didn't think she had a heart attack though, but they wanted to be sure. nothing showed up on tuesday, but they admitted her overnight and scheduled a stress test for the morning.

this is where my mom kicks hiney! :) she is a runner. not just a oh-i-think-i'll-buy-some-cute-running-clothes runner. she is a RUN...NER!! she goes through running shoes like they're made of paper. so when they told her she was going to do the treadmill stress test, even though she was still in pain, i know secretly she was pumped. she was gonna show them what was up. so she gets on the treadmill and starts doing her "thang" (for all of you doug heffernan aficianados). they wanted to get her heart rate to 140 to stress it. but it seems her ticker said, "no thank you, sir!". they couldn't get her heart to stress. it's like it just kept saying, "bring it on, suckas! i'll fight ya with my eyes closed! i'll fight ya with one hand tied behind my back!" she ran around 4 miles, while others came in and left in less than 15 minutes. she was definitely in pain, but the cardiologist said it wasn't her heart that's for sure.

he said she may have torn a muscle in her chest or it may be skeletal. not sure how, but he said, "how can a two year old break his dad's jaw? everything was just lined up at the wrong time and something snapped." she has pain when she breathes, so that's probably not cool.

i love that nathan jumped into rescue mode. he took care of the girls so i could go back up and be with my mom and dad. he is very good at these types of situations. probably gets it from his dad. they are very good at thinking through everything that needs to be thought of and even things that are "just in case" things. he was very helpful.

and i have to say, my family is still crazy. even in the middle of a seeming crisis. nicole was dancing jigs, singing, and putting gloves on her head--according to my mom, but that could have been the morphine talking. dad and i were quoting every stupid tv show we know. and there were countless jokes about the heart monitor being flat lined (when my mom wasn't even hooked up to it!). laughter is great medicine. except when the patient can't breathe deeply without intense pain....so really i think that was just for us.

but all in all, i cannot express how good God is. everything worked out so perfectly. from us going together to ikea, to the nearly clear roads on the way to the hospital, to dad working right near the hospital, to the peace that i couldn't explain if i tried. even while waiting in the er, i could rest knowing that God already knew we'd be there. even when i thought of the possibilities and anxiety began to creap in, i was surprisingly calmed by the peace that only God's Spirit could bring. it's amazing how God brings things together. just a few hours before that happened we were talking about ed horn. ed just went home to be with Jesus, and we knew him from high school. we talked about how God brought his family through such a trial and they have been such an encouragement to us. it made us thankful that God is in control and He brings things to strengthen us as we can handle them. my mom has been through a lot in the past few years. i am so thankful that God has protected her over and over through surgeries and sickness.

with ace at his first rodeo

always a teacher! at granny b's birthday lunch


at their 25th wedding anniversary