Drama

My grandma scared us witless last nite, and I'd rather not go through anything like that again anytime soon.

A bit of background: starting last weekend my sister introduced the whole family to some sort of stomach flu-like bug thingie. (Norwalk virus? I'm so not in the know with the latest health happenings) and while I was in Mexico it went through half the family. By the time I had returned it had moved onto my grandma pretty much, then me and my dad got hit with it on Friday. None of us have had much of an appetite lately, least of all my grandma who hasn't really nibbled on much in the past few days.

After my parents/sister had done a bit of their Christmas shopping and I had finished work we all headed home to try and eat some dinner before going to Church. My grandma had been laying in bed since noon complaining of a headache and just overall malaise.

The drama all started when my dad tried to wake her up to get her to eat something with us. All you could hear coming from her room were these horribly guttural groans and the urgency in my dad's voice trying to get her to wake up and tell him what was wrong. Mom went in to see what the problem was, then she returned to the kitchen and fumble with the phone. Eventually she handed it to me and asked me to call 911. The distress in my mom's face made me really uneasy.

Unfortunately, since I was the liaison between my grandma and the paramedics I had to be all up-close in the action that was going on in my grandma's room. Daisy has commented before (when I had to call for an ambulance for a man on the C-Train platform) that I'm fairly good at staying calm in an emergency, and I thought I held it together pretty well. However, when my baby sis broke down and I realized she was figuring out what was going on I had to run her out of the room and we hugged each other. That's when I started to get a bit choked.

The paramedics arrived and did their thing and they took her away to emergency. My parents inhaled their dinner and rushed off to go meet her at the hospital, leaving me and my sister to figure things out for ourselves. Since there was no way we were going to get to Church at this point the two of us got together and prayed the rosary.

I always feel guilty when I become "suddenly religious" in times of emergency or personal concern. I mean, I do my part and pray everyday but it's almost out of habit that I do so. When I pray 'cuz of a "favor" I need (i.e. watch over a friend/godson while they are away travelling, look after me during my surgery/radiotherapy) I always feel really bad. But I guess that's the way with all relationships, even religious ones. You take it for granted on a day to day basis until you personally need something out of the relationship. Anyway, my sister and I knelt together and prayed, we hoped our grandma would be alright and that she would come home soon. (My sister and her share the same room so not having my grandma in there with her would cause her more anxiety.)

But because of the whole "selfish" feeling I was worried no good would come from our prayers. The whole ordeal had been overwhelming. My imagination was running wild with the possibilities and I had morbid expectations for the worst.

Thankfully, they figured out that her blood sugar(?) had dropped really low due to her lack of eating and have regulated it overnight. My dad picked her up from the hospital this morning and all should be well by the time I come home from work.

P.S. I apologize to anyone who I've made uncomfortable with all the religious talk. I just find great comfort in thinking that there's someone up there somewhere ultimately taking care of all of us. I would never preach to people or try and convert them to believe in what I believe. However, I would hope that they have a similar sort of belief to turn to when they feel they have no resources left within themselves.