Hey, everyone! Sorry I haven't posted since the 22nd of March. I just haven't been motivated to get online lately. As I've mentioned before, the only thing really going on in my life has been cancer. I was supposed to have my "big dose" of chemo today, but couldn't, because my platelets were too low. So, they just gave me the Herceptin and sent me home. Hopefully, everything will be good enough by next week.
So, April. It's been an interesting month for my best friend, Tammy, and her family. We went to a friend's house to hang out on Saturday night, and Tim and Kevin left in the truck and Tammy and I were going to leave in the Jeep. Well, by this time, it was about 3am or so on Sunday (April Fool's Day), and Tim dropped Kevin at his house and then went home. About 10 minutes later, Kevin called him and said he thought he was having a heart attack. After Tim left, his chest got real tight and started to hurt, he got clammy, and felt like he was going to throw up.
(Looking back, he'd made a couple of comments throughout the day that were a little unusual, too. He mentioned that for some reason, he couldn't find a t-shirt that fit right. They all just felt uncomfortable around his shoulders and chest. Then, at our friend's party, everyone kept talking about how good the chicken was, and he told me not to eat it because it wasn't sitting right. He thought something was wrong with it.)
So, anyways, Tim headed right over and gave Kevin 4 baby aspirins (he keeps them in his truck because he gets heart palpitations when he's stressed) and then rushed Kevin to Orange Park Medical Center. No sooner had they walked in the door, the nurse was getting a wheelchair and Tim was giving information to the registering nurse, and Kevin just collapsed. He flat-lined and they had to actually bring him back! So, Tammy and I met them at the hospital and got to see him just for a minute before they life-flighted him to St. Vincint's hospital, where he had to have a stint put into his artery. Apparently, the artery was 100% clogged and he was a "ticking time bomb" according to the doctor. They said that Tim got him there just in time and the baby aspirin is probably the only thing that helped him hold out until he got to the ER. If he'd collapsed any sooner, he probably wouldn't have lived.
Scary stuff!
THEN, Tammy and Kevin's neighbors don't like them (because when we were in Daytona last month, the dad punched his 15 year old daughter for protecting the 4 year old twin daughters from him, and she ran to Kevin and Tammy's house and their daughters let her in and called the cops), so the neighbors are mad and find the dumbest things to harass them about.
So, on Sunday night, the older daughter had a friend over, and the bumper of her truck was sticking out of the driveway a little ways, blocking the corner of the neighbor's driveway (they're in a culdesac). Instead of knocking on the door and asking her to move the truck forward, they start kicking the side of the house, beating on the door, yelling at the teenagers and Kevin's wife and cussing at them. THEN, they actually called the cops, trying to say that the teenagers started it! This was Sunday night, the first night Kevin was in the hospital.
Then, they thought they'd be cute and call child services and try to report the family. Their daughters are ages 16 and 17, but have both dropped out of school. Even though they're not in school, they both have full-time jobs and are working on their GEDs. Then, they said that Kevin and Tammy drink in excess every night in front of their "children." (People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.) So, child services actually showed up at the critical care unit of the hospital at Kevin's room! Fortunately, Tammy was walking out and he talked to her before Kevin every knew he was even there. So, they're going to be filing complaints against child services and against the neighbors for harassment. Right now, for Kevin's heart's sake, he doesn't know yet, though.
Oh, but it gets better! By the time we got Tammy back to the house on Monday night after visiting hours were over, we found out that someone had broken into their house and stole a bunch of stuff! Turns out, it was some people that the older daughter knew and had found out that she'd gotten paid and hadn't gotten to the bank to deposit the money yet. So, they broke in, let the dogs loose to run off, stole the money, and whatever else they could carry out of the house quickly. So, we were all up waiting on the police and the CSI guy until about 3 am this morning. Needless to say, Kevin doesn't know about this yet, either.
When it rains, it pours. I feel so bad for them! Fortunately, Tim has been a lot of help for Tammy while Kevin has been in the hospital. Him and his friend, Tom went over and put motion sensor lights and new locks on her house for her today. He's also helped out by talking to the cops and the neighbors and so on. Poor Tammy doesn't handle stress too well, so we're lucky that Tim's there to help, or else she'd be in a bed next to Kevin by now!
I guess that's really about it for now. The girls are doing fine. Carley's class is having an Easter Egg Hunt tomorrow that she's all excited about. Ash got grounded because she had a D on her report card in one of her classes. She's also upset because her boyfriend of 10 months broke up with her. So, we've had more drama lately than I can handle!
The upstairs is coming along very nicely. The stairway is drywalled, the bedroom is drywalled, the shower is boarded in and ready for a shower pan to be poured, the "toilet room" is drywalled in, and the bathtub and vanity areas are spray painted on the floor. The jacuzzi bathtub that will be going in is currently downstairs in the box in the dining room. lol! My house is nuts right now. The garage is full of a/c ducting, insulation, and drywall. The tub is in the dining room, and there are boxes full of stuff in the foyer.
So, WELCOME TO MY WORLD! It's never a dull moment down here, I have to say. I hope everyone else's lives are a little less hectic right now!
Love, ~Brenda
