So its been since February that I last blogged. I figured when I started this blog that I would do this... go forever without writing anything. Most of the people I know that have blogs have kids or something specific that they blog about. I don't really have anything, or so I thought. I have lots of things going on in life that sometimes I just need to spill my guts and one thing I thought would be so neat to blog about would be Elgie. So here goes.
Elgie is my grandma on my dad's side. I used to live beside her (and my grandma Cathy) and I would spend the night every Friday night when I was little. When we moved to Durham I didn't do it so much anymore. School, sports, friends, lots of things got in the way. As a lot of you who know me well know, the summer before my senior year, Elgie had a stroke. July 4th we took Sydnee and some friends to Wet and Wild Emerald Point for her birthday and called Elgie that night on our way home. She had had a couple friends over for hamburgers and hotdogs and was okay. The next morning I headed over like I normally did, and found Elgie in the kitchen floor. --Okay, now let me backtrack a second. At the beginning of the summer Elgie had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer. I, of course, was worried and scared but my parents and Elgie reassured me that it was going to be okay. Treatment plans were chemo and radiation; Elgie was happy because she wasn't going to lose her hair that she had done every Friday at noon. Chemo was through a pill, but we had to go to the hospital to get the radiation done. So every morning I went and picked her up and we went to the hospital to have her radiation treatments.-- Now that were up to speed; I went to her house on July 5th and found her in the kitchen floor. I didn't realize what exactly had happened so I jumped up and called my dad. He was actually on his way to her house and was going to take her to her treatments and let me go home. I quickly told him that something was wrong, and he called 911. (My dads a paramedic and he came quickly and knew exactly what to do) Basically, Elgie had had a stroke and we weren't sure how severe it was. My mom sent out a prayer email to get everyone on board and the Lord came through. The next morning, Elgie got up and walked to the door and back (with assistance of course). I was so happy!! Then we realized that this wasn't going to be that simple. Elgie had lost her ability to speak. She couldn't form the right words anymore. At first, all she could say were the words "some" and "come". She would look at us and say "some come, some come, some come." Goodness was it frustrating!
So many "everyday" tasks were foreign to Elgie now. We taught her to use a fork and use hand signals when she wanted to get something across. I even tried to teach her some baby sign language but the part of the brain the stroke effected inhibited her ability to learn sign language or connect the information. Once she was strong enough to leave the hospital, she came to live with us. I was really excited to have her in our house! We fixed up our office down stairs that had a full bath attached to it! It was like a small little house for Elgie! But it definitely was not easy. Elgie could think like we do, but just couldn't say what she wanted. Trying to figure out things was so difficult. I'm not sure when her words changed from "some, come" to "no" was, but now all she says is "no". It's actually just become a new language in our house. "no no, no no no no, no no!" and that can mean a variety of things! From I want something to eat, to I want go to the mall! Elgie is fully dependent on us. She cannot live alone. She can feed herself but we make it for her and make it so that she doesn't choke on anything. She gets really tired after walking so when we go places she sits in a wheelchair!
My dad was at work one day, and saw a doctor that helped with Elgie that night in July, and asked how she was. Dad explained that she had come such a long way with physical and occupational therapy and the prayers and the help and support of so many people. The doctor was amazed and told dad he definitely did not expect to hear that.
It's been five years since that horrifying morning in July. We've had a lot of scary times with her getting sick and trips to the ER from UTI's to choking on hotdogs. But the Lord has kept her here with us for a reason. I realized that this is something worth sharing. Our ups and downs, our experiences and our trials. Because I do not know where I would be without this woman. I don't know where I would be without the love and support from my parents that have done so much to take care of her. I left for college and that was the hardest thing to do, was to leave her. After two years I came home and decided I wanted to try to get into nursing school. So for the past two years I have been taking care of Elgie. We have gotten EXTREMELY close in these last two years. People laugh when I say that the two of us can have full conversations in "no". I just started back to school and in January 2013, I am going to be getting really busy. I thought blogging about Elgie and the things we do would be a wonderful way to remember the fun times we have together! And one day my kids can look back and read the about how much fun Elgie was! And this way anyone can follow her status and keep up with us this way!
More will be coming soon! I'll post some pictures at the end of this blog and I hope everyone enjoys stories of Elgie!
This is Elgie and I a couple weeks ago before bed!
She's a queen!
Elgie and her first great grandbaby Micah.
Elgies second great grandbaby Asher.
One thing that Elgie did not lose was her sense of humor. Her facial expressions are the BEST!
She is also, the biggest UNC fan you'll ever know. (this was when Caroline beat duke, 2012)
Post any questions or comments!
