Stop the World!!! or at least slow it down. Here we are into our 3rd month of a new year and I have no posts since May 2009. Slipping here.......

Let me say that my journey to this day has been one hairpin turn after another. To start from today, here we are in Halifax Nova Scotia - a city I did not dream I would be in in 2010. This was scheduled for a different year! But here we are, still in disbelief of why we are here.

Last Thursday April's grandson, Zac (19 yrs), was sitting in the living room at home in Fredericton NB, watching the Olympics with his little sister, Payton (13 yrs) when he coughed....and he started spewing blood from his mouth and nose. Payton, our heroine, instead of screaming and getting hysterical, calmly walked to the phone and called 911 for an ambulance. This brilliant move probably saved her brother's life.

The doctors at the Fredericton hospital assessed the problem, could not get a scope far enough into the lung causing the problem to find the reason for the bleeding, so they medivac'd him to Halifax hospital where there are better doctors and much better equipment (blame the government for this slight oversight to upgrading the hospitals across Canada).

They have stopped the bleeding but discovered a hole in the lung that is allowing air to excape into the thorasic cavity. His body is so swollen he is almost shiny. At this point, Zac is in a coma, hooked up to 12 different apparatus including oxygen. Yesterday the dr.s tried to lower the O2 levels to 75% to see if Zac could breath on his own and maintain a steady level of O2 in his system. Not to be at this time, so they upped the levels again. More exrays, more CT scans and on and on it goes...

So, how did we get here? Go back to last Friday. I was in Puyallup at the Sewing Expo show with my friend and April called me saying there had been a post to Facebook letting Zac's friends know where he was. She was understandably upset. I got home on Saturday evening, called Sherri (April's daughter) to get the latest. I asked if we should come down to Halifax but she did not think so right then. Sunday morning, around 7AM, Darren (April's son-in-law) called and asked if we could get down there asap. The prognosis was not good and Sherri needed her mother.

And guess what? It is the last day of the Olympics and there are no flights available for a hundred mile radius. Monday was no better because everyone had made reservations to get out of town after the big party in Vancouver. Finally WestJet had two spaces left on one flight to Halifax and I got them but they were not until Monday evening 6:15 Pm arriving in Halifax at 7:40 Am on Tuesday. I grabbed it, paid for it and started packing.

The rest of Sunday evening was calmer because of the impending flights and we knew we could get to Halifax.

Monday we were told to be at the airport 4 hours before the flight because they anticipated it to be a record-breaking day for airtravel out of YVR. We arrived around 2 PM, were the only people in line to check in and whipped right through with still 4 hours to spare until flight time. So we had a bite to eat, wandered around the airport in and out of stores and finally decided to go to the waiting lounge through security. Again, no crush of people, just a leisurely stroll through security and then to the Olympic store in there. No deals but we did find several items that we brought with us to give to Payton and Zac when he wakes up.

Walking along the corridor to the gate departures, I noticed on the notice board for arrivals and departures, our flight had been DELAYED !!! This added another 2 hours to our already long wait. Now we were scheduled to flyout at 8:38 PM pst. This is 9:38 pm in Calgary and we were arriving around 10:50 pm mst. Our connecting flight to Halifax was scheduled for 11:20pm take off. Yikes, this will be close.

We did make our connector (because the pilot delayed the departure otherwise he would have been flying with a half-loaded plane). And we made it to Halifax, me with no sleep since 7:00 am Monday morning. I was still able to function. I had rented a car so we picked it up and drove to Halifax Victoria General Hospital.

Zac was still in a coma, and Sherri and Darren were in tatters and very glad to see the reinforcements arrive.
We left the hospital around 1 pm to check in at the lodge we were staying in and get some sleep. 3 hours is better than nothing. So we managed to sleep from around 2 pm until 5 pm up again, walk over to the hospital, leave and search for food. Decided on the grocery store for quick warmups in the microwave and back to the lodge......Now that is another story completely. In the end we did get our food heated and we had supper. Bed came early for me.....around midnight. At last, a bed and sleep.......

Today, Wednesday, there is no new news but I will keep posting as it comes in.

I am off to the hospital, to meet up with April and Sherri. I shall return with, hopefully, better news later today.