The day before yesterday i received two calls...the first from my mother-in-law who is currently in Alabama watching her newest grandson while his mommy and daddy are back at work and they are waiting for his daycare to start. While down there, she took Artemis with her (for those that don't know, Artie used to be ours, two girls came to our door one day in January with this kitten, and Lord knows, i couldn't just let them leave her outside! So she became Artemis and the vet estimated that she was around 3 months old, which put her b-day in September sometime...so we gave her Grandma Carla's birthday...anyway - we eventually got Saige (our 100 pound Rottie) and then brought Gabriella home, and Artie couldn't take it...she peed all over the house and soaked the basement - we had to replace carpeting in the entire house and then were looking to sell...so there could be no more peeing! Grandma graciously took her (and to our knowledge there's been no peeing at Grandma's house) and even added two more cats to her clan! She has been loved and well taken care of, but whilst down in AL, grandma noticed significant weight loss (those that were around her when we had her, may also have heard us call her "fat Artie". She was now down to about 5 pounds...no more fat artie...She took her to Steph's vet and after a checkup - they did some bloodwork. Kidney failure...They can last a couple days or even months, but grandma wanted to let us know. Thanks for the call Grandma...not what i wanted to hear, but i really appreciate knowing. so that was kind of sad for me...our first baby...and i feel so sad that it's now grandma's baby, and she's having to deal with it. Thanks Grandma Carla for loving on Artie. We know she was well taken care of and loved!
Later, i receive a call from my mom (nana). She tells me that my neice (ok - for all those that don't know my family - here's the quick version...I have a step-father - who is the only "father" i have ever known...we're not genetically related, but he is my dad, and what more can you ask of a man, than to come in to a family and take on that role and love us unconditionally...i have the best dad ever! Sorry, little distracted...he was previously married and had three children, all much older then my sister and myself. Two of which had their own children - I have a neice and nephew here in Michigan and 2 neices and one nephew in New Orleans...We aren't super close with those in LA, as we don't see them at all, but those in Michigan, i'll at least see once a year (we were really close with them, but their dad and my step-brother passed away several years ago.) My neice is 22 years old and has gone through a lot, to say the least...but that's something different all together. She was very ill a few months back and then discovered she was pregnant with her boyfriend's baby. She is now 26 weeks along and was brought to the hospital with preclampsia. The docs were going to do a c-section yesterday to take the baby, but as her mother sat there with her, all of a sudden her BP dropped to normal range (don't know if the bloodwork still shows preclampsia, but her bp dropped at least to normal - so they scheduled her for 4:00 today (7/25).
***UPDATE*** As i was writing this, i got a call from my mom at the hospital. they found Holly unresponsive at 5 this morning, and their weren't a lot of details available to my mom, but she was also having chest pain at some point...so in they went for an emergency c-section. She is in recovery now and they said she did well through the procedure. I believe they named him Matthew Robert, and he is 1lb 14 oz. he is with us, but obviously has some hurdles to overcome. Please pray for baby and for my neice Holly. My sister and i are going to go up tomorrow to see them, pray that i know the words to say, that i can be supportive and loving. Thanks so much!
July 20, 2008
