Looks like Vacation but WASN'T Vacation

On Friday July 27th while watching the opening Olympics, we had gotten word that Jeff's father had to go to the emergency room twice in one day due to unstable blood pressure and pacemaker difficulties and by the following Wednesday, it was clear we needed to get up north to check on him.  So last Thursday morning early, Jeff, Tyndell, and I packed up the car and headed to Atlantic City, NJ to see Dad in the hospital and just being honest when we left...we didn't know if we were reacting to "the call" or not.  Thankfully, Charlotte is closer to the Ahrens family now than South Florida so we were all able to go, otherwise, it would have been a last minute plane ticket for just Jeff.  We arrived pretty late on Thursday and were able to see Dad A, but didn't stay too long since everyone was tired, including Dad, who had had several procedures/adjustments in the preceding days.  We went back to the hosptial on Friday morning for a visit and he seemed much improved, however, his pacemaker still wasn't working quite right.  I'll probably butcher this explanation, but his case is complicated by a bone marrow cancer. He has Multiple Myoloma which produces extra proteins in his body, and those proteins "attack" his heart and build up extra tissue on it, making it slowly "harden" for lack of a better term - this hardend area on his heart is called an ameloid.  The new pacemaker he received last week has a difibulator on it, but given the ameloid presence, the difibulator is having a hard time producing enough shock, when needed, to be received by his heart to keep going.  So there was little to do on Friday but wait for a Doctor's opinion and there was only so much waiting Tyndell could do outside ICU, so we took her to the Ocean City, NJ boardwalk for a couple of hours to burn some energy (first pictures posted above)....it was a nice break and Jeff and Tyndell got to experience the Castaway Cove rides while me and The Captain hung out in the heat and took pictures.  When we were rided out, taffy'ed out, and sweated out, we'd gotten a call that Dad was being released so we went back to the house to pack things up and go pick him up at the Atlantic City hospital to go back down to Delaware to transfer him closer to his doctors at the Cristiana hospital.  Unfortunately, we found out during check-out on Friday evening, that Medicare wouldn't pay for the transfer/readmittance so soon after release so he had to wait around for a doctor's re-evaluation the following week.  So we took him home, got some dinner together along the way, and went to bed trying NOT to think about why he wasn't readmitted in the hospital, even though it seemed like what should have happened.  Patience was key here.  On Saturday morning, we woke up and mainly just tried to help out around the house, including keeping Dad from doing too much (he is famous for NOT sitting down, even when he should relax)...Jeff and Debbie did some yardwork and I made breakfast and then we watched Olympics, went through pictures, and tried to take it easy for the afternoon.  Debbie and Chris took Tyndell to the pool for the afternoon too so that was a nice outing for her - she loved swimming with her cousins and spending so much time with them, which is pretty rare.  That afternoon, Dad had the idea that we all have dinner and go to Longwood Gardens.  Most of us thought it was a bad idea for him to do too much, but agreed since he was so excited about a light installation on display (check out Bruce Munro - I posted a link on my facebook) that we would go as long as he went in a wheelchair and didn't walk and overdo it.  Hello?!  He DID just get out of the hospital and was supposed to still be there, but that's Dad - just wanting everyone to have a good time together and stay busy.  So we made dinner at home and then all went to Longwood for the exhibit, which was honestly IN-CRED-IBLE (as Dad would say) and beautiful (see second group of pictures posted above).  We had decided that there wasn't much more that we could do up there until they heard more from the doctor, so we would leave on Sunday morning to drive back to Charlotte and get back to work and school.  Jeff suggested that Mom borrow an AED from their church until they could get him evaluated further and determine next steps, which luckily, they were able to do.  On the way back, we stopped at Luray Caverns in VA (third group of pictures above) for a break in driving and got to see all the cool stalagtites and stalagmites that Jeff and I remembered from childhood trips.  It had been forever since we'd been there and I think Tyndell liked it but was so tired from the weekend, we didn't linger too long and got back in the car to finish the unfortunately rainy and traffic-riden drive home.  Jeff was a major trooper to do all this driving, put up with a 33-Week pregnant crazy women who needs to pee all the time, and Tyndell yelling, "I don't like that song!" or "Where's my DVD?!" all the time. 

On a lighter note, favorite Tyndell quote from the car trip:  Jeff to Tyndell on our way out of Charlotte on Thursday, "Look Tyndell - it's Lake Norman."  Tyndell:  "Whoa!  That's a LOT of Normans!"

On a sweet note, favorite Tyndell moment/intuition (I think I've mentioned her 6th sense to many of you - she can pick up things very heavy and say just the right thing sometimes) from the trip:  Tyndell to Dad A when she saw him in the hospital with all the wires/tubes hooked into him, "Grandad - you have tubes on you just like I did when I was a baby."  Tyndell knows her birth story and how she was born 5 weeks early and had to be in the hospital and we've shown her pictures.  We are very upfront/truthful parents, or at least we try to be b/c she wants to know the truth, not a dumbed down version.  When she said this, it was like she was saying - "You'll be fine.  I went through it and now look at me!"  Kids can be so precious and say just the right thing at the right time.  I'm so glad she was there this past weekend to say that. 

So I've posted this very frank detail of this trip for a couple of reasons - this blog serves as a journal for Jeff and I to remember when events occurred, but also, I ask that anyone who reads this, whether you know us well or not - to please keep Jim Ahrens aka Dad A in your prayers. He has a very complicated medical case/history and he's a fighter! Fighters need prayers and prayers work so please keep it coming. We have appreciated all the concern over the past week and even though this blog post may look like it was a vacation, it was very emotional. We luckily had lots of great family time as a result and Dad A is feeling better, but his case continues too.

NOTE:  A few hours after I originally posted this blog entry, we got word that Dad A had his appointments moved up earlier in the week and his electro-cardiologist was pretty upset he was released from the hospital last Friday (as we were) and readmitted him to the Cristiana hospital near their home.  So - he currently being monitored and will receive some testing this week to determine if any blockages are affecting the function of the pacemaker.  Hopefully - we'll hear some resolution and again, thanks for everyone's prayers!  They are amazing.