Sunday, July 6, 2025

Tacoma Trip-Going Home--NOT!

As mentioned, I was flying home on Saturday evening.  Friday night I had gotten my stuff organized and packed so that we could fit in all of the fun possible before heading to the airport....breakfast, maybe a quick stop at a local park on the Puget Sound and then on to the airport.  More of those little grandmother moments to pack in..........

I have said this before and probably will say it again many more times in my life--I had a plan (see above), it was a good plan, it met the criteria of getting me home for Sunday in Syracuse, but then life stepped in and happened outside the plan.

It went like this:

About 3:00 am, I woke up with stabbing pains in my right lower back.  I had felt this before and recognized that it was the kidney stone---you know the one sitting calmly in my kidney which was picked up in the CT scan in March. My family practice doctor had suggested that I let my urologist know (who even wants to have their "own" urologist) and see what he would want to do to monitor the situation. However, by the time he (Carl-my family practice doc) and I had this conversation, I was pretty tired of checking on "stuff" and decided that since my kidney was functioning well and the kidney stone was not blocking anything--why bother? We already had a follow-up scheduled for  the thyroid ultrasound (which by the way came back fine.  I have two small benign nodes which require no further monitoring.) So, at 3:00 am, the answer to the "Why bother?" became a bit more relevant.  The kidney stone had definitely begun moving down the ureter.

At first, I assumed that it would pass.  Over 10 years ago when my other kidney stones happened, I had brief episodes of pain and/or vomiting over a 2 week period before things went terrible.  So I expected the same thing would happen here.  It would go away and I would for sure go see my urologist when I got back to Utah.

Except it didn't go away and around 4:00 am I started throwing up and feeling very sick as well as the burning stabbing pain of the stone.  By 10:30 am, Tosha drove me to the ER in Tacoma, about 25 minutes away.  This was the same hospital that Ava was at just 2 weeks ago--a weird coincidence which gave Tosha knowledge of where to park, etc.  It was a miserable ride for me, but I think it was harder for Tosha to have to drive and also watch me be so sick.

Let me say that the people we met and who worked with us at the Tacoma Hospital were all great and super friendly and kind---but their ER is a very "interesting" confusing place, especially if you are sick and out of it like I was.

I wish we had pictures to help explain the layout but words will have to do.  I had grabbed my wallet but brought nothing else as I expected medications and to be sent home.  Tosha wheeled me to registration, they took my ID and insurance card and then we were sent to Room D to see a provider (they don't call anyone doctors anymore it seems, because there are so many different types of medical personnel) for triage.  The ER had two separate waiting areas joined in the middle by the registration desks.  The triage area was behind a door on the side of one of the waiting areas.  As you entered, there were five curtained areas--A-E and then one single room F where you sat to wait.  Within a few minutes, the nurse had taken a bit of a history and they had placed an IV for medication and gave me something for pain and for nausea. Since I have neither an appendix or ovaries, she said it is highly likely that it was a kidney stone, but sent me off to get a CT scan literally within 3 minutes of entering the triage area.  That was amazing.

We then came back to the triage area where you could see and hear everyone coming and going.  After a short period of time, they took us back to the waiting area--in fact to the far side waiting area which was much quieter and said to wait and someone would call us to come and speak to a provider.  After another not too long wait, they called my name and directed us to some glassed in "rooms/niches" at the end of the other waiting room.  Literally the rooms were totally glass so you could see everyone in the waiting room and they could see you as we sat waiting for a provider to come and discuss next steps.  It was an odd feeling.  At this point, I am still in the clothes I came in and Tosha is wheeling me around in a wheelchair. A new provider came in and told me that yes, I did have a kidney stone, and they were going to keep me for awhile to stabilize my pain and nausea, but I needed to wait a bit for a bed.  And after another short wait, I was finally moved into an actual ER bed in a room with actual walls and a glass door.

I am not sure how long that all took.  Tosha might know.   It seemed like we were moving around doing stuff pretty quickly but it was just an odd cycle in and out of rooms. And the glassed consulting niche in the ER will always be memorable.

Later that evening, they decided they were going to do surgery the next day and hopefully laser the kidney stone.  They gave me the option to go back to Tosha's or stay and I opted to stay.  My body was not ready for another drive to their house and then back again for surgery.  It was a good option since I sill wasn't keeping things down anyway.  IV pain and nausea medication was awesome.

One sweet experience occurred Saturday night. Tosha was able to reach the full time missionaries in their area who reached out to the missionaries serving near the hospital and they came and gave me a priesthood blessing.  I think this might have been the first time in my life that I received a priesthood blessing from people I didn't know at all.  They were so young and so kind.  They handle everything exactly right.  The young elder who sealed the anoiting of oil and pronounced the blessing did so in a very deliberate and thoughtful manner.  He didn't just say the common phrases, but seemed to seek to say that God wanted him to say. Gary and my dad both give blessings like that and it made me feel comfortable and confident in the things he said. Twice he said in different words to not worry about complications, that the Lord is mindful, and promises to send me peace if I seek it--even in the complications. Now, I am not one that worries much about "complications," but I thought about that a lot that night and what that might mean for me and what I was experiencing. More about that later.

So, I missed my flight, had to cancel my 5th Sunday presentation (well, postponed until September), and spent Saturday night in the Tacoma General Hospital.

Not my plan for finishing my trip to Tacoma.....

Tacoma Trip-Day Two and Three

Just normal "grandma" heaven--nothing major organized, just hanging out, having conversations, reading books, sharing moments and having yummy pizza for dinner! (And some of that with Tosha and Austen, as well...not just the grandkids.)

Thursday morning the three of them joined me for my morning walk on their bikes.  Of course, we stopped by Carter Lake to watch the ducks for a few minutes.




They traveled a bit faster than I did, but did a great job in stopping and waiting.  I enjoyed the beautiful trees and the many wildflowers along the trail that we took.

Ava
Another stop at a playground to exercise some different muscles...

Niki

Ava




Cooper

Niki
Back home, we built with the maga-tiles which are quite fun to work with.  My kids would have loved them when they were little, too.

Cooper was busy using his tablet to find pictures of the weapons in a video game he likes.  Then he would use lego pieces to recreate the tool/weapon as close as he could.  He is an excellent lego builder.



No picture of Thursday night movie night where we had popcorn and candy (and no parents were home.)

Friday, Cooper opted out of the morning walk, but Niki and Ava joined me, walking the whole way with me.
Reading my sister Valerie's book-- "Little Bear's Turn" with Ava.  Niki is also interested in being an author so he was very excited to talk about my sister, the author.
Tosha had to work on Friday, so we had another quiet night of neighborhood fun.  Austen and I sat outside talking with neighbors while the kids played up and down the street with other kids.

Ava had begun working on this cardboard house and brought it out again to work on it.  She brought out a large container of markers, tape, and three pairs of scissors.  When I asked her why she needed three, since you can only use one at a time and it wasn't like they cut differently from each one.  However, she knew better than I---in a very short time, she had some helper builders including her brother and the neighbor.  They worked together in a great example of cooperative play as they made mailboxes, a firestack and other additions to it.
Niki was mostly involved in playing basketball and other physical activities although he did take some time to do some drawing.
While we went in for dinner, the neighbor boy had taken the box to his garage to work on and then after dinner, he brought in back to their garage and they kept on building, drawing and playing.  I love watching kids play together and with such delight.
As I knew it would be, the time had flown by so fast....but it was a sweet uncomplicated time together and I hoped that they would remember those little moments, too.

Plans were made for a birthday breakfast celebration for all of them on Saturday morning. Austen had just the place picked out to go. I tucked them into bed one more time and climbed into bed to read my scriptures and to finish a book I was reading on my phone.  It was a good day!

Tacoma Trip-Day ONE

The purpose of this trip was to watch the kids on Thursday night, because Austen and Tosha had to "volunteer" as security for a concert in Seattle as part of a fundraising group for an upcoming Base "Ball." I mentioned it in a prior post related to booking the tickets and how I couldn't make it work to stay through Tosha's birthday, but felt strongly I needed to be home Saturday night for some reason--ring any bells from prior posts.

So, I flew out on Wednesday morning--
An art display in the baggage claim in Seattle-
If you are missing your luggage, you might want to check here!!??

Finally, after our several trips to Tacoma, we finally were able to arrange to visit Tina and Vic Berger who live up in Snohomish.  They were our good friends from down the street here in Syracuse.  They moved up to Washington in 2020 as Vic's job required him after years of working from home to now be within an hour of the main company offices--crazy in the middle of a pandemic year.

Tosha picked me up from the airport and we headed north to their home which was another 1 1/2 hours away from the airport (and about 2 1/2 hours from Tacoma where Tosha and family lives). We had the best visit with Tina, VIc and Jessica and her two daughters who are 10 and 8.  The kids basically swam in their above the ground pool from 2:30 to 8:30 pm except a quick break for dinner and some jumping on the trampoline.  It was fun to watch them play.

And the conversation was even better.  I loved reconnecting with Tina and even with Vic.  They have a beautiful piece of property up in the mountains and a house with a total wrap around deck.  They recently redid their kitchen and it was great to see their fun art work and the pieces of pottery that Tina has made.  It was all just a perfect afternoon and evening. 

Tina and I
I love that about people.  You can step right back into comfortable conversations and feel right at home even as time continues to pass us by.  We will do it again sometime.  It was good.

But somehow I left without pictures of Tina's amazing work!  She is an excellent potter.




 

The Neighborhood Park

On Tuesday (June 24), I was feeling prepared enough for my trip to Seattle the next day and my upcoming presentation on Sunday, to make a quick park visit with the Utah grandkids.  The weather was warm, but not too hot and it made for a fun break in the middle of a busy week.

This is a park in their neighborhood, so we were able to walk to and from their house which made it easier.

Liam---swinging the girls

Ezri--taking a break in the shade
Zander--a pose to ponder
Alex--on the top of the world
I think they rode this around with Jena and I pushing for 10 minues.  They figured out their water bottles could fly off depending on where they put them on the circle.  Watching kids figure life's little mysteries is fun business.
Life is good at a park
Carter--the only singleton picture I got of her for some reason during this park visit.

Ezri playing music
And Alex again with hair flying as she spinned one of her sisters.
Nice break...then back home to finish my visual aids for Sunday and to pack my suitcase for the trip to visit Tosha, Austen and family.
 

Accidentally "Twinning"

in our Grandparent Bluey Shirts!

But sometimes getting Gary to pose is impossible! (Besides being Bluey, they are super soft t-shirt and I love to wear mine---even though I don't present myself as a grandma that gives my grandkids everything they want.