It's Been a LONG Month

Part 1:

It’s Been a Long Month

Running…has sort of been on hold.  The AFM 5K on Friday (Sept 20) was canceled due to t-storms. Good call on the organizers, but I was disappointed.  People still got their medals, which was cool. (Of course I felt that I had to earn my medal, so that Monday I went out and did a total of 4 miles.  And my 5K split was 45:54, and I was pleased.  But since then, I’ve only run 4 times, and I have a 5K in just over a week which I am NOT prepared for.  Oh well.)

After the cancellation of the 5K, we went to our friends’ house and had dinner. It’d been far too long since we’d spent time with them and we really enjoyed ourselves. During dinner I was introduced to a brand of wine called Rex-Goliath: Giant 47 Pound Rooster…or as I like to call it “The Giant Cock.”  (I know, not terribly creative)  She’d bought Moscato, which I had JUST tried for the first time a few days before. I LOVE it.  I’m sure I’d be criticized by “real wine connoisseurs” because it is far too sweet.  Well, they can bite me. It’s yummy.  

 

The following morning my husband did his 10K. His goal was to beat his time from when he was 22 years old.  He honestly did not think he would pull it off.  But he did…by nearly 2 minutes, 54:29.  I was very proud of him.  I have now challenged him to go for 50 minutes.  (yes, sometimes I’m the little devil on the shoulder.)

Jim after 10K walking to get his finishers medal. (I won't lie, he was looking pretty sexy at that point)

That night we went to visit my Grandma and step-Grandpa to celebrate their birthdays. Grandpa Irwin had been fighting prostate cancer for years and I knew that fight was coming to an end. But when we saw him that night I was stunned at how much he’d decline in the past month. He was so frail.  They’d brought in a hospital bed and put it up in their sun room.  When we’d been there just a few weeks before, he’d been sitting in the living room on the couch.  But now he was only leaving the hospital bed to go to the bathroom. 

 
Grandma was telling me that she was having problems caring for him due to her own health issues.  So that night my family decided that I would come back on Monday and stay the week with them so Grandma wasn’t trying to care for him alone.  And selfishly, it allowed me to spend some more time with him.

By the time I got there on Monday, they had aides coming in to help during most of the day. That was a HUGE help.  It was a rough week, but also a good week.  He was in a lot of pain and at times he was very confused and agitated. Then there would be periods of time when he was sitting up in bed, doing the crossword puzzles and laughing.  We watched Dancing with the Stars together and talked about the news. Sometimes he would get irritated about all the different aides coming in and out of the condo and would rant about that for a while. Or get upset about his medications and lash out a bit.  But the man was in pain and he was scared and dammit, he DESERVED to be able to bitch and complain and holler! I do NOT begrudge him of that at all.  And the fact that he would always apologize later, after the pain subsided, would break my heart.  But, *I* was able to handle that. Grandma was not. *I* knew it was not personal. Grandma would internalize it. It was very sad. I was torn between wanting him to be able to yell at the world and wanting him to stay calm so Grandma wouldn’t get worked up.

 
The last night I was there was a good night. The three of us stayed up late and he was telling me some stories about the end of World War ll.  Some sad and some funny.  We all ended up laughing before it was time for bed.   As sad as it was, I will always cherish that week and especially that evening. 

The plan was for me to come back the following Monday and stay for a couple of days and then his children would come and take turns helping.  But I got a text early Monday morning from my dad.  Grandma had been taken to the ER.  

The end of week one and start of week two.