An Update.

Yesterday we had our monthly doctor's appointment, and Nathan is still doing well. I'm 26 weeks, and his measuring at 27 weeks, so I keep thinking maybe down the road they'll move my due date up, which would make me happy so I can see him sooner! :)

Travis's parent's just returned from a 3-week trip to California, which included visiting San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and of course, Disneyland---I have to share what they brought back:

ZOMGCUTEADORABLE!!

I'm talking about all of that because I'm having trouble finding the right segue to what I really want to talk about, which is news about my grandmother.

For the last few days, I've been wanting to find a way to let people know what's going on in our family, but I also don't want people to think I'm just asking for sympathy, because I'm not. I just want people in my life to know what's going on, so I'm opting to share information on my blog, because not everyone on my Facebook reads my blog (because I am so popular and I have like 15 trillion friends of course! ...ok, not really. I just have trouble saying no to friend requests), and I figure people that actually care about me are probably the ones reading this...so here we go.

In terms of grandparents, I have been blessed in my life. Until 2006, the only grandparent that I had that was deceased was my paternal grandfather, and he died before I was born. My mother's parents both divorced and remarried in the 1970's, so I had an abundance of loving grandparents, all of whom lived in the same city as me. I never had to travel far to visit grandparents...just down the street, and I loved it. Growing up, we never said things like, "my step-grandmother" or "my step-grandfather" ...it was Poppaw and Grandmom (my mom's dad and his wife) and Grandma and Grandpa (my mom's mom and her husband). All I knew was that they were my grandparents and that I loved them and they loved me.

In 2006, my Grandmom (who was technically my step-grandmother) passed away. Anyone who knows me knows that she was one of the most important people in my life, and that she and I had a very special bond. Losing her was definitely one of the hardest things I've ever dealt with, but in time, I learned how to live my life with her in my memory.

This year has been really intense in terms of my grandparents. My Poppaw (my mom's dad) has had some really difficult health problems, including  waking up one day and being essential paralyzed in his legs around Thanksgiving, to having pneumonia and contracting infections that he's had trouble battling, and a couple of months ago, I really thought that he wouldn't make it much longer. Thankfully, he has really progressed and seems to be on the road to recovery. In addition to dealing with all of his health scares, my Grandma (my mom's mother) has had some health problems. They discovered some heart problems, she's lost a lot of weight and can't get any back on (she weighs less than 100lbs), they've questioned her liver, and just a multitude of other things. On Monday of last week (June 4) she was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia. They began treating her with antibiotics immediately, but on Wednesday, the doctor met with our family and informed us that she has lost nearly all of her bone marrow, and that because your immune system is highly dependent on bone marrow, they didn't think she'd recover. They offered to do a bone marrow biopsy to see what was causing the loss, but bone marrow biopsies are painful, and aside from that, my Grandma didn't think that the testing would be worth it. She's 79, and due to extremely advanced osteoporosis and her other health problems, her overall quality of life has been pretty miserable, as she is pain constantly.

She and my Grandpa came to this decision together, and when I learned of it, I was completely supportive. After watching my Grandmom suffer for years with her health problems, I strongly feel that quality of life is far more important than anything else.

When Grandma and Grandpa reached the decision to opt out of testing, I just didn't know how long before the pneumonia would really take it's toll on Grandma. On Saturday night, Travis and I went to visit her, and there were a lot of people there, and she was sitting up and enjoying seeing everyone. During the night, her pneumonia got worse, so much so that she asked the doctors to quit treating her for pneumonia and put her on Hospice care. Originally, I heard that the doctor's were predicting that she'd make it through today, but now they're not too sure of when things should happen.

I just ask that if you're reading this, you keep our family in your thoughts/prayers. I know that this loss will be much harder for some than others, but it will be hard for everyone. My biggest prayer is that people like my Grandpa, mom and younger brother, Bryan, find the comfort they need. They are the 3 people that have spent the most time with her over the years, and I know that this loss will bring a range of emotion, and I'm praying that they will find comfort with their feelings and emotions, and they aren't afraid to talk to someone if they need to. If there's anything that our family agrees on, it's that our Grandma wouldn't want people worrying over her, and I know that she is worried about everyone.

She even told me last night to be careful on my drive home, and I told her that I promised I would, but she doesn't need to worry about me. She just needs to rest. I don't want her to have any more worries. I just want her to find peace, and to only think about good things.