Why I'm still tired today . . .

. . . I am so tired today because I left home yesterday at 7:30 am and didn't get home until 11 pm. This was after an evening of being awake until 1:30 am waiting to hear what was going on with my darling baby granddaughter, Cassie, who was at OHSU in the ER. She wasn't at the children's hospital Doernbecher since it was an after hours emergency situation and they are adjacent hospitals. OHSU handles all emergent care but Doernbecher has its own PICU. I wasn't at all sure what was going on with her until around 1:30 pm yesterday, and then I only had part of the story.

My cousin Nick and I had to go to the VA medical center in Portland which is also adjacent to the other two hospitals, three actually if you count Shriners. It is known by Portlanders as "the hill." Or pill hill by some. I am just so grateful it is there, and there is specialized care for children with Spina Bifida. Spina bifida is a somewhat common (1 in 4,000 births) birth defect.

I talked to Tess for about a minute when we were approaching the hospitals. She thought they were headed to Doernbecher to meet her pediatrician. The stupid neurosurgeon assumed it had nothing to do with her shunt and foisted her off on the rest of the Spina Bifida team. After a couple of hours at the VA, we finally got the voice mail Tess had left us telling us they had gone to her dad's house in Molalla.

When I finally got through to Tess, she said Cassie's fever had just spiked at 104, and she had thrown up on herself again, but was cooler now and resting pretty comfortably. She said the doctor had given Cassie an antibiotic and it seemed to finally be kicking in. She said she would love it if we would come to her dad's for a bit before we headed back home since Cassie always calms down when I am around.

Cassie said, My Grandma as I entered my ex-hubby’s house, patted couch next to her, leaned on me and said MY grandma, again. Within half an hour of us getting there she was starting to feel better. And Cassie started getting visibly better pretty quickly after that. I could tell she was really better when she asked to get down because she wanted to crawl. Of course crawling, meant she wanted me to follow her which entailed many laps around the house, down the halls, into the various rooms, and back to the living room. She of course had to stop periodically and yell Momma, I want you. I think she was just making sure we were all there. By the time we all left their house Cassie had eaten some chicken nuggets and was drinking chocolate milk Nick had bought her. Tess said they stopped at a Denny's and Cassie really stuffed herself with chicken. When she got home she played until 1:30 in the morning she was so happy to be back home. Then she and her sister, Athena, both went to sleep on the couch in the living room (their other favorite bedroom).

Nick and I made our normal trip to Walmart, since there isn't one in Lincoln City, and got to his house around 10:15. I think it was around 11 when I got home. My dad was still up when I got home, so I had to get him to bed and bring in the Walmart goodies: catfood and yogurt and put it away. Oh, and feed the outdoor cats. I was exhausted but strangely awake and I think I got to sleep around 1 am or so. I slept until 9 this morning. No wonder!! And to quote Paul Harvey, "and now you know the rest of the story."