Well, since I’ve only given information about this in short Facebook Updates, I figured I’d dust off our blog, and actually give you a better idea about what has transpired in our world these past 7 days.  Plus, it will probably be good for me just to walk through it myself.  Though its only been a week, it feels like we’ve just lived through two lifetimes.

Last Tuesday I received a call from a friend of ours that said Amy was experiencing some pain, and needs to go to the ER.  I didn’t ask too many questions at the time, just dropped what I was doing, jumped in the truck and tried to remain calm and pray while I drove to meet her.  When I arrived, Amy was lying down, but was conscious and alert.  She had experienced some stroke like symptoms that mostly resolved themselves within short time, but had some significant pain.  We called an ambulance and they strapped her down to a c-spine board, and transported her to Oroville’s ER.

The ER Doc was great, and everyone was relatively calm given the circumstances, but we were definitely on edge.  They wanted to take some routine precautions and run a CT scan just to make sure everything was okay.  We were hanging out in the ER exam room trying to make light of the situation, and talking about how this means we probably weren’t going to go see the Transformers movie later that night.  We were absolutely not prepared for what was about to happen next.

The moment the Doc walked into the room, I knew things were about to change.  She grabbed the chair and told me to sit down (not a good sign).  She said the tests came back positive, and that Amy was going to need to go to another hospital to get the treatment she needed.  I followed her out of the exam room to ask more questions.  “Do you mean she needs to go see another doctor sometime this week, this month, this year?”.  She looked up for a moment and told me that she was ordering a helicopter and that she needed to go now.  The look on her face alone filled in all the necessary details about how serious this was.

That’s when everything went into extreme slow motion for me.  “What did she just say”, “what did she mean”, “are we really here”, “is this really happening?”.  Trying to get our head around what was really going on, Amidst the chaos, Amy and I were trying to figure out whether we have the kids come before she leaves.  We were told that it would be good for them to come before she goes.  That’s when it felt like an Elephant just sat on me.  “I can’t believe this is really happening”.  Loosely holding it together, I had to get on the phone and make the call to Amy’s mom and sister that they needed to bring the kids down now.  I can’t even begin to describe with words right now how incredibly overwhelming it was to be saying the things I was.  Even though it was never said explicitly, everyone understood that we had to get the kids here because they might not see mommy again, something noone should ever have to think about or do.

The next hour felt like an eternity.  Watching our boys walk into the ER, unsure about why they were there and what was going on.  We were trying to maintain composure so that we didn’t add to their fear, which I felt like I was able to do as long as I didn’t have to look anyone in the eye or answer too many questions.  We held and kissed little Addie, and the boys asked some questions, but it was as if they knew just enough to know that this wasn’t good, and didn’t want to ask too much.

We sent the boys on their way just before the flight crew arrived ……