Yesterday, the 21st was an extraordinary day.  Like an "emotional rollercoaster".  Since I haven't gone to bed yet, I will refer to it as today.  It still feels like one L-O-N-G day!!!  I have felt a strange mix of emotions I really don't know how to describe.  I guess the only way I could deal with it was by writing about it in my blogs.  I also have a MySpace account with over 90 friends, so I was a bit busy answering emails and I was also on the phone.

 

It would probably make better sense to someone who might be reading this if I started here from the beginning, though I keep messing up my typing I am now so exhausted (and trying to get over the stupid flu and cold sore viruses probably due to the prolonged stress I've been under).

 

My long-time family friend, Doris Dinda asked that my parents and I come visit her in the hospital on Mother's Day weekend.  She has been like a Grandmother to me since I moved next door to her when I was in Kindergarten (6 years old).  She came to my Birthday parties, school events, and my Graduation just like my Grandparents, and I saw her every day when she came over to swim during the summer.  I could hear her sing and play the piano through the open windows.  She was always cheerful and doing "the Lord's work" with her volunteerism at the nursing homes and at Church.  She never complained or said anything bad about anyone or anything, not even when she was in excruciating pain when she was dying.  She figured that things were God's will and would happen in His time.

 

She had gotten a cut or sore on her right foot that had been looked at by her doctor not very long ago, which eventually turned gangrenous due to lack of circulation.  She had to have all but her big toe removed on her right foot.  She had to have more removed after Mother's Day, and they didn't know if she would make it through the anesthesia.  We saw her on Mother's Day at her request, and she said she was ready to "go" if that was the Lord's wish.  She had seen and done everything she wanted to after she took an Alaskan cruise by herself probably ten or more years ago (her husband and sister died some years before).  She was in excruciating pain when we saw her but she didn't led on, and leaned forward to look at me and kiss me anyway.  She seemed in good spirits, though she appeared somewhat frail.  She managed to make it through the amputation, which took off her entire leg up to the hip.  She was in worse pain thereafter.  She already had another gangrenous sore on her other foot developing.

 

About a week later, the gangrene had gotten into her bloodstream already and her bowels burst.  This means her colon had ruptured holes in it and the contents were leaking poisons into her abdomen.  They knew they couldn't do surgery as she only had a 5% chance to survive, so she was sent to Hospice care where she could be kept more comfortable.  Since the amputation, I prayed for her and asked that others pray for her and her family.  She died the day after being put in Hospice, 3 days after the rupture happened.  I have thanked people for praying for them.  I ask for continued prayers for the family who is still in shock over this sudden turn of events.  Thanks in advance.

 

On a lighter note, my cousin and her husband (Jennifer and Marcus Chambers) had their baby today, the day I began mourning for my friend.  It is weird feeling loss/relief at someone's passing and joy regarding good news at the same time.  They had been trying for years, since my cousin has advanced stages of endometriosis.  This was her last chance at having a baby, and she had miscarried in between her first child and this one.  Both her children are miracles the experts weren't sure she would ever be able to have.  She had to have an out-of-state surgery in order to temporarily correct her insides in order to have her first one.  I don't know yet if this one is a boy or a girl yet.  She had a planned c-section. 

 

I look forward to "normal" days...