Yesterday (Saturday) Rory had visitors in the morning, and we all went to Cross-E for the pumpkin patch outing. So in all, it was a good day for her. True, we got "rained out" at the ranch, and they closed up the site before we got to do much, so that wasn't so great. However, we all got to go, spent time together, got wet together, and made memories. Oh, and we got Rory's new favorite donuts!
We decided on the way home to stop by Deseret Book to pick up an ordered copy of last year's Christmas Special with Kristen Chenowith and the Choir at Temple Square, something for which Rory had made a special request. Since the rest of our day kind of went south with the wind and rain and mixed snow, we made the decision to do dinner at Chuck-A-Rama. Everyone certainly had their fill, including Rory, so the day ended well!
This morning when I checked in with Rory she said she wasn't feeling well enough to go to church. We kind of figured after such an energy-draining day yesterday, that today would likely be one of her "recovery" days. She wasn't awake when we left for the ward activity at the Salt Lake Cemetery, and was asleep when we were meeting for family dinner. She had requested a special discussion with all the kids about her seizure last Friday and plans going forward, so that got done after some good Come, Follow Me discussion.
As we headed into some family game time with the grandparents, we heard Rory calling from downstairs. When I got to her, she was frantically asking what day it was, and what time it was. She started sobbing that she had "slept the whole day away" and was more than distraught that she had missed out on everything. Her emotions were much more severe than seemed reasonable, and eventually we were able to talk enough to find out she really HAD slept the whole day, meaning she hadn't even eaten anything! Blood sugar levels were checked and found to be in the 40's, which to me explained her extreme emotional reaction. We heated up the dinner for her, got her medications taken, and slowly her speech and overall emotional state seemed to stabilize. The kids came down to check on us, and we had some additional discussion and made plans to ensure she doesn't miss meals again in the future. During that discussion Colton realized that Rory wasn't responding, so we walked her down to the bedroom just as another seizure started up. This time I was able to coach all of the kids through the event, and they were true troopers! Colton held his mom's hands, asking her to respond by squeezing his hands. The kids collected bottles of cold water. After a couple of minutes the shaking subsided and she came back to regular consciousness. Again, the kids were all very attentive and mostly seemed to handle things.
Except Colton.
He really struggled for the rest of the night, and every few minutes felt like he needed to check on Rory or thought he heard her medical whistle or just decided to go see if she was OK. He asked for a blessing, and afterwards has apparently calmed down for the evening. Rory repeatedly told him that she's going to be OK, and that she wants him to be able to continue with his exercise and lessons and school and other activities, that she has help here at home to allow him to continue being himself. I'm hopeful that he is able to process all of what's going on, to the point that he will be able to have a semblance of normalcy while still being able to give attention to his mother. His comment, "I'm not ready to lose her yet" was both heartbreaking and hopeful. I guess it was good that her first cancer came when these three kids were basically too young to really understand the gravity of the situation. This time around they certainly DO "get it" and the concern is obviously how they will ultimately react. I would never wish this on anyone's kids; what a blessing to have older siblings and grandparents and friends who are ready to step in and help them.
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