Chandra's Journal
December 4, 2005
10:15 PM
Drew and I were married six years ago today. It really is amazing to think about how much we have changed since then. What were our biggest concerns six years ago? I can’t even remember a one now. Maybe it was whether or not we had enough extra money to see a movie after we went out to eat on the weekend. We lived in Abilene and went to Westgate Church of Christ, which we loved so much. We had a great group of friends that we always looked forward to hanging out with. We had good jobs and were renting a small house where the washer and dryer were in the kitchen and the whole house rattled when they were on, but on the upside it made the whole house smell like clean laundry.
We never once thought that we would end up in Amarillo. We never really planned on becoming educators. We surely never would have suspected that Amberly would arrive a year and a half later, sixteen weeks too soon. And we would never had guessed that six years later we would be sitting in a hospital room in Houston, praying for our oldest son’s recovery from a liver transplant.
This is the first year that we have not gone out to eat at Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant to celebrate our anniversary. But we did get to go out! Mom, Melanie, and Rylan came to sit with Canon while we went out to lunch. (Drew’s parents took Creed to the airport to drop Casey off to go back to Weatherford today.) We found a Pappasito’s Mexican Restaurant (that’s close enough, right?) down the highway and had a great time. We talked and laughed, enjoying the first time we had had time together since we left Amarillo. I had only left the hospital building for the first time yesterday, so it still feels weird to walk outside. It makes me wonder what the record is for the longest stay (of a parent) in the hospital building – I mean you can eat here, you can sleep here (sortof). It wouldn’t be hard for a parent to essentially live here.
Canon is doing incredibly well! He is now off oxygen completely and off the heartrate and O2sat monitor. He still has the central line in his chest (the IV line that enters right above his heart. He’ll keep that in even when we leave. I have to change the dressing on that every five days, which makes me pretty nervous, but we all just do what we have to do. I’m getting a little bit better at knowing his medications. I know what they’re all for, and side effects of each, but I’m a little fuzzy on the exact strength and dosages that he gets of all of them. Drew did make us some flashcards to study and quiz each other. He took a couple of crawls across his bed today (his arms and legs were a little shaky because they haven’t worked in weeks), and he stood up for a minute on the couch in here! I think I’m going to ask about getting him some physical therapy while we’re in Houston. We continued to hear over the weekend that they would probably discharge him tomorrow. Unbelievable. A week ago, he had his entire abdomen laid open, an organ removed and replaced with another organ, and tomorrow he’ll probably be crawling around our “home away from home”, looking for something to get into.
We have officially started the “help rotation” today. Charlie and Casey left to go back home today. And then later my mom and Melanie left for Austin. Linda is staying through the week because Drew will probably stay the first night in the apartment with us, and then go back to Amarillo to work some this week. I’m sure Travis Middle School is falling apart without him! ? Anyway, Linda is going to stay and help me until Drew comes back for the weekend. Then my mom will come back on Sunday and stay with us next week. The nice thing is that our Christmas vacation starts on the 16th and then Drew can stay with us for two weeks, at which point we’ll probably be ready to come back to Amarillo. It’s a huge blessing that we’ll be here over Christmas break because we won’t end up being docked as many days that way.
I did have to say goodbye to my mom, which is always hard. Life just seems so much easier with your mom around, you know? She really is amazing. She thinks of things I need but don’t ask for, and she thinks of the things that I didn’t even realize I needed! Like when she brought Creed in this morning, there was a beautiful bouquet of flowers for our anniversary riding in the stroller with Creed and a card (“for Mom and Dad, from Canon and Creed”). She’s just always looking for ways to lighten the load and make the journey more bearable. I hope one day Canon and Creed will think the same things of me.
Melanie has been great, too. Paul had to leave to go back to Lubbock on… Thursday I think, so Melanie has had Rylan by herself since then. Somehow she managed to be 100% available to me as a sister while being an incredible mom at the same time. Being at the hospital all day with a nine month-old for six days had to be exhausting, and she still would volunteer to take care of Creed for us, take turns entertaining Canon, and help Mom get the apartment ready for us. Did I mention the awesome scrapbook that she organized for Canon’s transplant memorabilia?? She has several pages finished with cards we have received and some campaign stuff, and then every page ready with paper and stickers and everything; all I have to do is put in some pictures and write some notes. As a person who only has Canon’s baby scrapbook completed up to four months, I can tell you that’s hard work!
I know it was hard for Charlie to leave as well. I told Drew at lunch today that he never missed an opportunity to encourage me. He is the optimist of the bunch (a trait Drew inherited, thankfully), and in these circumstances you have to have one. I couldn’t tell you how many times he gave me a hug and told me how proud he is that I’m a part of their family. He tells me that I’m a good mom, and it makes me feel like I’m doing something right.
Casey flew back today after arriving on Thursday. He is always full of surprises, and proves to be our comic relief a lot of times! He hasn’t spent a whole lot of time around babies, so it’s funny to watch his amusement at the little things that Canon and Creed do. It reminds me not to take for granted a single smile from my boys, because each baby is a miracle and each smile a blessing. Casey has also really worked hard to contribute to Canon’s campaign. He owns a landscaping company in Weatherford called CP Landscaping and he wrote a letter to each of his customers telling them about the situation with his nephew, sharing the website, and letting them know that he would match all donations made to Canon’s campaign. I think the total was around 7 or 8 hundred dollars!
God has really blessed us with two exceptional families. How would we have made it this far without all of their support?
Visitors on Day 6 – Kyle Priest from Houston, perhaps Drew’s oldest friend (and a groomsman at our wedding six years ago today), stopped by tonight to visit, and the daughter and son-in-law of Joe Joplin, who goes to church with Drew’s parents in Abilene; Mr. and Mrs. Helvy (Jennifer Little’s parents) brought us pastries from La Madeline (he had some of a coconut macaroon and I thought that’s probably the fanciest after-dinner treat anybody in the hospital had tonight!); also Chris and Angell Swedlund from Houston brought him some books and Thomas toys and us some snacks (they went to church with us in Amarillo before they moved down here, and have been so gracious giving and praying for Canon’s surgery).
Chandra
Praise God for good days.