Quick Trip to Florida ):

On Thursday I sat here late at night trying to upload and order all my pictures from 2004 on. Yep, I am that far behind! Around 1 am I go downstairs to see that my best friend texted me..."Glenn is in ICU". Immediately I picked up the phone to call her. She answered in tears, (as one can imagine) she told me that earlier that night she got a call from her daughter saying "Daddy is sick and locked himself in the bathroom". She rushed home to break down the door and find a "CSI murder scene" in her bathroom. She called 911 and then it became tunnel mode for her. He was bleeding from every orphasis and they couldn't get it to stop. He went to the hospital and eventually she was kicked out to go home. She was cleaning the bathroom when I spoke to her and my heart immediately sank that I was so far away. As her best friend it sucked not to be able to go over and clean that mess up before she got home, or hold her while she cried or meet her at the hospital or do whatever she needed. Without question I knew what I needed to do, but it was 1:30 AM what could I do before the morning?! Todd was out with the boys and left his phone in the car so I couldn't talk to him about when/how to get down to Florida. Within 20 mins. after reading the texted he was home arranging my flight and helping me pack for a 6AM flight. In a very rare occurrence the Philadelphia Airport had no screening lines, ran on time and we took off as scheduled...Never happens! In another rare occurrence I made my connection flight in Atlanta despite the 30 mins and a long walk (train was broken in Atlanta so everyone had to walk to their terminal). Nothing is ever that smooth for AirTran...Never, ever that smooth! I arrived in Fla. on time and hugged my best friend about 14 hours after her nightmare began!

We spent the first day in the hospital trying to get a grip on what was happening. At this point in the hospital visit she still had no idea why her husband was bleeding or what was happening! No one knew anything except that he was in ICU. It was painful to watch her struggle with the poor medical care he was getting. I just wanted to scream! Between the rude nurses, (you would think that they would have a lot of compassion considering they are ICU nurses) doctors that just wanted to go play a round of golf and lack of information it was a hair raising experience. When I saw Glenn he seemed slower, not himself but was able to banter back and forth with me as he drifted in and out of sleep. In the late afternoon we were hoping for an answer when the Dr. decided to scope him and look in his GI track. We sorta got one when they told us he had a ulcer and the stopped the bleeding. Whew...until later that night when he started throwing up and bleeding again. ARRR. Todd had arranged my flight home for Sat., but once he started to bleed and have issues again we delayed my trip home! They once again scoped Glenn to see where the bleeding was coming from. Once again they informed my friend that they found another ulcer (he has 2 at this point) and they catheterized the bleeding. The dr. was totally rude, but seemed to satisfy Meg's thirst for what was happening. On, Sunday Meghan rushed to the hospital b/c he was bleeding again and needed a transfusion. The dr. on the phone told her that if his body didn't like the blood that he could instantly die!?!?! He said this over the phone and wanted to begin in two min. It was horrible so to say the least she ran out! I stayed home with the Andrew, the youngest of the three! A friend of Meg's and I decided to try and help them the only way we knew how...Unpack. They had just purchased their first home and moved into it two weeks before all of this happened! They were trying to finish making a bedroom, finish the kitchen, paint and make it theirs while she was working full time and running the kids around to their abundance of activities. So, despite the house being a gift from God it was differently a stressor in both of the parents lives. She kept saying that she needed it to be unpacked by the time Glenn got home, so as her friends we decided to try and unpack her the best we knew how. It will take her months to find everything, but at least it is away! Sat. afternoon I went into the hospital to sit with my dear friend. We were able to sit in Glenn's room where he seemed to have good color and his personality back! Having seen his improvement I decided to go ahead and plan to go home on Sunday. I was really homesick for my family! I am never like that...away from everyone Yahoo, but not this time I really wanted them. Todd was even sick for me and worried about his friend that he was going to bring Margaret Ruth down to join me. Sat. night seemed to be a good one for Glenn, but he needed another transfusion. By the time I left on Sunday it seemed we were on the up and up of Glenn's internal problems. I felt secure in leaving and knew my friend would be okay that is until my flight landed. As soon as my phone was turned on I received a text : Glenn is going into surgery at 8pm. What?! I didn't know what to do! My first response was to get back on a plane and head back down, but instead I called my unpacking buddy and asked her to sit with her during that night as Glenn went into surgery. Todd and I decided to go home and see what happens that night. Later that night Meghan informed me that they didn't have to do surgery, but scoped him. She also informed me that she Finally got a doctor that knew what he was doing and cared about what was happening to Glenn. The Dr. yelled at all the nurses for allowing this man to bleed for three days, not have oxygen on him and giving him medicine to try to help the headache, but that caused it. You go Dr.! Needless to say the transfusions, bleeding and medical issues continued to haunt Glenn for a few more days before he finally got on the mend. On Wed. night we was finally moved out of ICU and yesterday he came home! Yea Glenn!

Thank you Jesus for the return of Glenn's health and for giving my friend the strength she needed to endure this traumatic event alone! Love you friends!