a bigger surprise than the baby

This is Grace. Z and I will be typing moms blogs for the next month or two. As previously mentioned mom came to Saint George helping Liza take care of EdiAnne and her family after baby EdiAnne came a month early. This happened the following week after.

 On Monday afternoon, Mom was typing back in forth with Quayd. They were discussing what time we would be able to face-time him on Christmas day. She was upstairs in Liza and buddy's guest-room. Mom had folded four lovely blankets and stacked them next to the bed. She was planning to make a little special bed for Aylabelle to lie down next to her in the night. When she got up to go downstairs, she turned away from the computer, forgetting the blankets below her and tripped... A really bad fall.

Buddy and Liza came running after hearing the giant thud above them. Their next door neighbor, who works in the ER came racing over to help mom. They gave my mom a priesthood blessing and then spent fourty minutes trying to get my ma down the stairs and into the expedition. (SUV)

They admitted mom to the hospital immediately because of the breaks and injury. When they arrived in the emergency room, they performed a very difficult assessment, with poor x-rays. Ma had completely dislocated her shoulder and had a few broken bones. Basically the ball of her Humerus had snapped off!  They sedated her and tried to put it back in, but there was nothing left for it to hold. So mom was awoken to the news a few hours later, that she would be having a complete shoulder replacement surgery. The next decision was when and where!?

If mom had the surgery in Saint George, it would mean possibly not making it home for Christmas, to us, it would mean that she would have to do a lot of recovery on her own or at the hospital. It would mean Liza would not be too able to help her while supporting my brand new niece with jaundice, and having buddy to help ma and Liza and work at the university. If ma chose to have the surgery in Logan, getting her up here with that kind of pain would be excruciating and intolerable. Z, Dad, and I all pretty shocked with the news felt like like it would be best for Ma to have the surgery there and risk not having her home for Christmas.

Moms surgery was the next afternoon and it took four hours. She has an eight inch incision, (yes she is right handed, sadly!) across her right shoulder and down her arm. She doesn't remember a whole lot but the one thing she remembers most is how helpful Buddy was to her. He held my mothers arm for almost about two hours in the same position, without letting go once! My ma still cries when she thinks of what he did and how wonderful he was. (We're very thankful for Buddy) He needed to be at work, or with Liza and the baby, but he was with my mother. making sure she was ok, being everything she needed.

Buddy came up with four options for having us all together for Christmas. The one that worked out best was my Dad driving down with buddy's Ma and her friend to Saint George. Sheree and her friend already planned the trip to Saint George, so it was perfect. My Dad was very sad to not be with my mom at the time, it was killing him. So it was good for him to go. To be with her, care for her, and take her home to us. On Wednesday dad, Sheree, and her friend made it to the hospital. Both Liza, Buddy, the baby girls and my Dad made it the hospital at the same time. Mom had her "I can't believe this has happened" melt down when she saw dad, but she was so relieved to have her best friend (Dad) at her side. Z and I stayed home alone to help prepare for moms homecoming.

On Thursday, Ma and Dad drove in six hours of blizzard weather until they were almost to Provo, the next two hours were flawless. The drive was REALLY rough on Ma. Every bump on the drive felt like Mas stitches were being pulled out. Lots of tears, lots of patients, lots of snow. It was a long day......

Z and I were so excited to have Ma back home in a few hours. We prepared the house to look as she would like it. Not that it was not like that when she was gone... ;) Hehe! But the house was spotless, and we waited on the couch for her arrival, not completely sure what to expect. We were going to go to the traditional Corbridge Family Christmas Party, instead we decided we would stay home and wait for our Mothers arrival, with Dad. When I first saw Ma, I wanted to give her a hug so bad! But her shoulder would hurt and i knew that. So we gathered around her and put all the luggage and presents away. I was glad to have Ma home, it felt like everything was ok again. As soon as she walked into the house she cried and said "It was so good to be home." We all cried with her, tears of joy. We all missed her so much and were glad she was home with us again. Its not Christmas without her.

Mom has slept most of the time since she has been home, sleep is the best thing for her right now. The doctors told my mother that the intense pain will stay for three weeks. Our close neighbor is an Orthopedic Surgeon and he will do the follow up. Ma's Saint George Surgeon even knew him, so he was fine to trust our neighbor with the follow ups in Logan.

Tommorow, we all will be spending a quite Christmas morning here with our family. Quayd will be face-timing us sometime during the day. There may be a few amazon boxes that Dad may put under the tree tomorrow. but that's just fine, we are big girls now.

Mom has counted so many blessings. When she is awake she is looking for the blessings in this. She had a full week to help Liza with the baby before the accident, Buddy's amazing care, a wonderful surgical team in the hospital, so many friends and neighbors and family's have reached out to our family, and she is just so appreciative to Dad, Z and I. Z has sort of took over the house, I have sort of been able to help for moms physical needs "Mommies Little Helper." her nurse, and dad is working so hard to make her as comfortable as possible. Were a great team! Prayers for Ma would be appreciated. Thank you again!

On a personal note I have also been able to look for the blessings that come from moms experience. Our family has grown a little more closer and understanding through this, Z and I both have tooken the Christmas traditions and the Christmas spirit more personally through this. We both realized that Christmas is way better with family, and it is such a blessing to realize how important it is. Sometimes things don't go as planned, this really opened up our eyes to that. I have learned to be quite hospitable and understanding to mother, and to try and be her every need. I plan to stay home and just appreciate my family. Those are a few of my blessings and they're a few more to come. In many bad days or experiences I have learned that bad things happen for a reason. I also know that good things happen for a reason, and that some good can come from it. So I will close with that. 

"Bad things happen for a reason, but some good can always come from it, if you choose to look for it."