Another long day…I think there will be a lot of these from here on out. With the news that my mom was sick, our phones were ringing off the hook (and emails lighting up) with offers to help…food, babysitting, visits to the hospital – everything. That is one thing I am amazed by – the volume of support we are receiving, so thank you to everyone.
Once again, we had our babysitter, Christin, arrive at 9:00 to take care of Micah. I had arranged for my mom’s friend Sheila to come help me out at the hospital that morning (she asked what I needed, and I said babysitting!), but knew I couldn’t get there until close to 10:00 because we had an initial intake evaluation for Maya for the Maryland Infant and Toddler’s Program. I suggested that Sheila go over a bit early and visit with my mom, and promised to be there as quickly as I could. During the intake meeting, Dr. Powers called, and he said he had gotten through to Dr. Brem at Hopkins and my mom had been accepted into their program. He expected her to be transferred to Hopkins later in the afternoon.
Around 9:45, my mom called me in a panic – she said they were coming to transfer her, and she was afraid they were taking her and none of us were there. I asked her if she had seen Sheila yet, and she replied that she had not. I called Sheila (who thought my mom had been sleeping) and she quickly went into my mom’s room to sit with her. I did my best to wrap up the intake meeting quickly and head to the hospital.
When I arrived, Sheila came out to watch the baby. My father and brother arrived shortly thereafter, and we all waited together for the transport to Hopkins. I think it was 12 or 1 before they finally showed up. My Dad decided to head up to Baltimore with my mom in the transport, and my brother and I followed behind. We decided that we would stay in Baltimore at Jeremy’s house for the evening so we could get back to Hopkins with little effort in the morning. After the transport took our parents, Jeremy went back to my parents’ house to get clothing and medicine for my father and to pick up his dog. I went home to spend some time with Micah and get my things together, too.
Elliot and I decided that we would pack up the kids and we would all go to Hopkins together. It was nearly 3:30 when we left, and finding the Meyer building at Hopkins was quite the challenge. When we arrived, we learned very quickly that Hopkins is not exactly child-friendly. Elliot had to sit down in the lobby with the kids while we were upstairs – it wasn’t exactly a comfortable environment. Luckily, Elliot remember the DVD player with several episodes of Sesame Street to keep Micah entertained. We traded back and forth with the kids and took turns up in the room with my mom.
We were joined at the hospital by my mom’s friends Diane and Joey. We were able to speak to the surgical resident and the chief resident of the neuro critical care unit. Dr. Brem, the neurosurgeon, also came by to meet with us, and explained that he would be unable to perform the surgery because he was leaving town. He recommended that Dr. Olivi, his 2nd in command and the head of the brain tumor program, take over the case. Dr. Olivi came in to meet with us, and he went over the information with us. We talked about surgery, and my mother was able to express her wish that while she wanted to live and she wanted to fight this tumor, she also wanted to come out of surgery a whole person – herself. She explained that she wanted both quality and quantity of time, and she was afraid of coming out of the surgery…not herself.
Dr. Olivi was very understanding, and he promised that he would do everything he could to respect her wishes. We were told surgery would be in the afternoon. Shortly thereafter, we said good night to my mother and we headed to Jeremy’s house for the evening. Elliot and I went home first with the kids – it was nearly 10:00 when we got there and put them to bed. My father and Jeremy stayed until my mom returned from her MRI.
Since the girls and Jen were at the beach, Micah slept in Paige’s room, and I put Maya in her car seat in Peyton’s room. When my father and Jeremy arrived home, my dad took over Jeremy’s bed, Elliot took the couch, and I decided to sleep in Peyton’s bed in the room with Maya.