About Me

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I have been married for 16 years to the love of my life. I have a beautiful daughter,Katelyn, who has a sweet baby boy. I have a son Drue, and a daughter, Abigail. I have a wonderful Savior that I am in awe of daily!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Passing of my Sister

Sorry it has been weeks...
On August 3rd, I went to visit my sister after her vacation to TN. She was very bloated in her abdoman and it was obvious that something was going on with her. She explained how she didn't feel good her entire vacation, and how she slept most of the time. She made an appointment with her oncologist and he scheduled a pet scan.
On Monday, August 8th, he confirmed that the Pet Scan showed that her Liver was full of cancer. That week, I went to her house and did laundry, dishes, vacuumed, and cleaned so she could sleep.
By Monday, the 15th of August, she was having trouble breathing. Her husband took off work for the week, and decided he would take her to all of her dr appointments. That morning her oncologist decided to begin cycle 1 on her chemo regimand. She was to get that on Tuesday the 16th, and then have her port put in on Friday, the 19th. They weren't even sure if she was strong enough, but they said the tumors in her liver were producing the fluid on her abdoman which was putting stress on her lungs causing her to have trouble breathing. So on Tuesday she had her first Chemo, began taking lasiks, and Friday they put in her port. I went over on Friday night, and still she was so swollen! I then began rubbing her feet, which she said would help her:)
On August 20, 2011 The next morning, I went over to check on her. I had already decided that I was going to talk her into going to the ER. It didn't take much persuding after I saw her beginning to Jaundice, and more swollen. I asked for permission to call her drs, and she got up, and went and got ready without questions (This is NOT normal behavior for her! Any other time she would have fought me!) I called the drs, and told them I was bringing her to the ER- Which one do you want to meet me at? He was already at the one in Stuart, so that is where we travelled. Her husband was so aggrivated! He had been calling the drs all week, and they never advised him to take her. He had been trying to get her to go all week, and they kept pushing him off. She was admitted into the hospital on Saturday, August 20th, 2011.
August 21, 2011 They decided to drain fluid off her abdoman on Sunday morning.The drs took off 12 lbs of fluid! They also started her on strong doses of lasiks, which in turn made her dehydrated by Tuesday! Her husband had used up all of his vacation/sick time, so he planned to go to work.
August 22, 2011 I received a call on Monday morning that he was to stressed to work. He had to put shutters up for the hurricane that was headed towards us (Which turned). And he couldn't stand to see her the way she was. He called me from work, and I spoke with my boss, who in turn told me I could go. I was thinking- Let me just go be with her today. She is going to be ok. She is just on a lot of meds. The whole day she was incredibly loopy, and saying crazy things. When her husband came to see her that night, he decided that the drs needed to not give the pain meds unless she was acting like she was in a lot of pain. He thought maybe the meds were the problem.
August 23, 2011 When I came in on Tuesday morning, she was in diapers, because she couldn't get up to use the restroom. Her blood pressure was 80/30. She seemed much worse to me.  They also sent in a pulmonary Specialist to look at her. Most of Tuesday, she was in the Radiology department having tests. I spoke with her oldest son, and decided he would come in that night from Gainesville. Our brother and his wide also decided to come in on their own from Alabama. I decided I would stay the night, becuase I couldn't stand the thought of her being alone. The nurses told me not to be surprised if she bounced back for a few days, and then got worse. 
On August 24, 2011 Wednesday Morning, Larry and Evonne (brother and sis-n-law) arrived about 5am-And guess who woke up for an hour to enetertain them! Yep! Susan was a chatter box all day! She told stories, and laughed, and made us all laugh. Her blood pressure returned to normal,although, she did have a very bad blood infection that they attributed to her port being infected.  Her oncologist even said that she could continue chemo when her infection went away. Her boys took turns sleeping at the hospital, so that allowed me to rest.
On August 26, 2011Friday rolled around, and she slept all day. She asked for the nurses to take her cath out, which meant she would have to get out of bed to go potty. She made plans for her husband and I to take her to the shower that night so she could wash her hair, and get totally wet. But...by the time that she got to the evening she was so worn out from having to get up and go pee. So-no shower:( All of her boys came up on Friday night, and all her grand babies were there. She got lots of hugs and kisses from all the grand babies. Larry decided he would stay his last night there with her, so we all went home to get some rest.
 On Saturday, July 27, 2011At 1:15 in the morning, Evonne called to get Jeff's phone number, and he said she wanted to have the cath put back in. I didn't think too much, and then at 2am, the phone rang again, and they were calling all the family in who wanted to come in. My mother and I got dressed and we drove to the hospital. When we got to Her room, we saw her very aggitated. She could not get comfortable. She was tearing off her gown, trying to get out of bed. She had a crazy look in her eyes. I told her husband that he needed to make sure the boys were on their way. I could tell that she was not good. She was very hot, and they had a fan blowing on her, which was odd being that she wanted to be covered up all week because she was so cold. She was struggling to breathe, and gasping for her breaths. She was making an awful moan as she breathed. We asked the nurse to wait until her boys got there to give her anything that would make her go to sleep. the boys were all there by 4am, and at that time the nurse administered her meds that would make her comfortable enought to sleep. It was decided that Larry would go to Susan and Jeff's home and give Jenny (their 15 year old daughter) and option about coming to the hospital. Jenny walked in at 6:30am and asked to be alone with her mother. We all left the room. After about 15 minutes she came out. Jason, her oldest son , and I went in and were holding her hand. We were talking to her as she slept. Her breaths started to get further apart, adn I asked the nurse to come in. She said that she was getting close, and she went and got all the family back in the room. We all stood around her bed, and held her. We rubber her feet, her legs, her arms, her face, and her hair. We began singing "Jesus, Jesus,Jesus-There's just something about that name"... and my sister went peacefully to Heaven. No more Pain, No more Crying. It was so beautiful, yet so painful to watch. Can't believe she is not here on Earth anymore.

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