Nannie update

My Nannie is now home with 24 hour family care and 3 days of physical therapy.

Snow angels and Miguel snowmen

Today was a fantastic day, so I thought I'd tell you about it. We went sledding with a group of friends at a park in Vienna. While going down the first hill, I hit a ramp and landed absurdly hard onto my left cheek, which will undoubtedly leave a mark. All of us were in-fact successful at bruising ourselves, but thankfully no broken bones. We did this for several hours, had some snowball fights with kids and most importantly, built an amazing snowman. He is Miguel #2, because our snowman looked just like our friend Miguel. He had long hair, black eyebrows, and a goatee created by yours truly. We had random Austrians taking photos of our master piece and many admirers. Well worth the effort! 

We then went out to eat at Figls, which is our favorite Austrian restaurant and had a great meal. After dinner we went to the McDonald house and played Wii. It was just a super fun day! 

It has been snowing every day this week, so it was nice to get out and enjoy it!

Update

My Nannie is now being fed directly into her intestines and no longer intravenously, which is a big step in the recovery process!

Nannie is going on week 3

I arrived back in Vienna, Austria today.

My Nannie has been in a private room for a week. She is able to get out of bed, with help, and much pain. Though there are good and bad days, I think that she is making forward progress. On those bad days it would seem the opposite. She has not been feeling well due to medications, which I believe are slowing her progress, but are unfortunately an evil necessity.  Due to her age, the healing process is slow, much slower than we all had hoped. Please pray that she does not lose hope. She has come so far to give up now.

Thank you to those of you who have or will pray for her...keep it up!

A Rose for Nannie

While on the plane I began drawing this rose for my Nannie. The rose is her favorite flower, beautiful yet complicated, just like her. She loved it though those of us who know her well knew the first thing she would say..."Why didn't you add some pink to it?" She is all about pink, but as the days have gone by she has had time to look at it, and she is now ok with its lack of color. I did however put some pink on the frame I gave her, so that suites her well. I'll post a picture of the 2 of us with it framed when she feels beautiful enough for a photo.

"A Rose for Nannie"

Nannie Update

My Nannie is getting better every day. There was a possiblity that she would need another major surgery that included removing her duodenum (the connecting tube that leads from the stomach to the intestines). She is still leaking bile from her duodenum, which means the patch did not work. The leaking has lessened, but it still present. Please pray that she will heal, because I'm not confident she would make it through such a major surgery after her response to this last one. If the leaking continues to dwindle down, then she will not need another surgery.

We're thinking she'll move into a private room and out of ICU Monday, but we still don't know.

She is in high spirits most days and as feisty as ever. My Nannie is one of the funniest people I know and she doesn't even know it!

Favorite hospital moments with Nannie:
Nurse: banging around outside Nannies room
Nannie: "My Medicare pays for me to be here, and it pays for you to be quiet!"
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Nurse: "I'm from the old school, and that means I'm going to make you cough no matter what it takes!" (nurse beats on Nannies back)
Nannie: rolls over mad as 10 hornets-"Well, I wish you'd go to the new school!"

Illness and a trip back to Roanoke, VA

As most of you already know I (Lindsey) am currently in Roanoke, VA. I ventured out here Friday to visit my Nannie who had emergency surgery last Thursday. She had a hole in her stomach, which had been leaking toxins into her body cavity and blood stream for 2 days. She finally went to the emergency room on Thursday where they performed emergency surgery to repair the hole. She is 86-years-old, so the doctor was not sure she would even pull through the surgery. Only by divine intervention did she make it and she is now on the road to recovery. She was placed in intensive care after the surgery and as of today is still there. There is a high risk of pneumonia and a high risk of infection from the many tubes they have going in and out of her body.

My grandmother is a fighter, but there is much work for her to do and pain to endure before she is "out of the woods."

Please keep her in your prayers... As selfish as it may be, I do not want a reason to wear that black dress I so reluctantly packed in my suitcase.