G'Ma Evelyn

Can everyone tell we are catching up on the blog? It's been a stressful few weeks and honestly keeping up with the blog just wasn't at the top of our priorities.

This post has been several weeks in the making.... Tonya's mom gave us a big scare.



G'Ma Evelyn, She's a tuff 'Ol Bird for sure! She is an ornery fighter and we are so proud of the progress she has made in the past few weeks. A little background here might be helpful for all of you that did not live these past few weeks with us. The middle of January, Mom flew to Dallas/Ft. Worth to spend time with her sisters and brothers and then the plan was to come up here for a few months around the 1st part of February. Then Christopher & Heather set their wedding date, the 28th of February, so Mom's plans changed a little. She would stay in Ft.Worth until the middle of February, go home for about 10 days, then the Whitfield clan would fly from Houston after the wedding with a change of planes in Albuquerque, Mom would fly out of Amarillo with a plane change in Albuquerque where we would all meet and get on the same flight to continue on into Seattle on March 1st!

A few days before mom was to fly back home from Ft. Worth she begin to feel a little under the weather. She said she was retaining fluid in her feet "because she'd been eating salty food'; she was having trouble sleeping, 'because her back bothered her". The night before she left to fly home was a bad night for her, she was having trouble breathing so she tried to sleep in a chair and she was talking out of her head. By the time she arrived in Amarillo and Tonya's brother Waudell picked her up at the airport she was a very sick lady. Waudell wanted her to spend the night with them but she "just wanted to go home and sleep in her own bed".

The next morning she did not answer the phone, Tonya called, Waudell called, Aunt Fern called and no answer; we were terrified! Tonya called her brother Waudell, he said he was on his to mom's house and would let her know what he found out. The next call we received from him was that she was so weak she couldn't get out of the bed so he had called the paramedics, her blood pressure was extremely low and they were taking her to the hospital in Borger. Once they arrived at the emergency room they diagnosed her with pneumonia and wanted to admit her but they did not have any available beds and were finally able to locate her one in Amarillo. By the time they admitted her into a room in the Cardiac Care Unit of the hospital in Amarillo it was nearly 9:30 pm, over 12 hours since Waudell had first arrived at her house.

The next several days were hard for all of us. Tonya wanted to travel to Texas in order be with her mother and brothers but they thought she should wait a day to see if the antibiotics kicked in, so we waited. By Saturday Ronney & Waudell decided if there was any way that Tonya could come home that she probably should. (SIDE NOTE- At this point we are 1 week from Christopher & Heather’s wedding; that post to follow). We started scrambling to find a flight to Texas as soon as possible, and change airline tickets for existing flights… at 3:15 am on Sunday morning she got a call from her brother, Ronney. He had just received a call from the hospital, Mom had gone into A-fib and a breathing tube had been inserted. Tonya arrived in Amarillo about 4pm on Sunday, February 22.

Tonya spent the next several days in the hospital. The hospital staff brought in a roll away bed so she could sleep in the room with her. Due to the breathing tube, Mom was not able to make a sound at all, not even a whisper. She would try so hard to make us understand what she wanted, but we couldn't understand…. It was heart breaking for her and us.
On Monday afternoon they began to wean her off of her breathing tube, so we all worked with her reminding her to breathe deep so that her oxygen levels would increase. By this time our mom is working hard to do everything she could so the tube could be removed. She hasn’t been out of the bed since Wednesday, and is really weak and just wants out of that hospital bed; she was still in the CCU of hospital. The hospital staff removed her breathing tube Monday night; they will wait until Tuesday to remove her stomach tube. Our mom is rock star!

Tuesday morning she woke up about 4am and felt restless so we had the nurse move her to the chair where she sat for a couple of hours which included eating breakfast. Mom was still really weak and not able to stand or walk without help, but she was working as hard as she could to regain her strength. Physical Therapy came Tuesday afternoon and got her out of the bed, and helped her walk to the chair. She sat in the chair for quiet sometime on 2 different occasions as well as on the side of the bed.

Tonya stayed in the hospital with Mom until Wednesday 2/25, as long as she could and still get to Houston in time to take care of the wedding cakes and other wedding prep.

Mom was released from the hospital on the afternoon Sunday, March 1 after 10 days. She and Tonya stayed at her house and things went well. Her appetite increased and she would walk around the house with her walker; she's was still weak but regaining strength each day.

We have encountered bumps in the road with her new medication routine and apparently an unknown change in her insurance that we were not aware of, but all seems to be working out. Tonya’s brothers and sister-in-laws were wonderful, making sure they had everything needed.

Mom continued to improve so that they were able to fly back home to Seattle on Sunday, March 8. Currently Mom plans to stay for an indefinite period of time with us.

Considering that Mom has congestive heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, legally blind and 89 years old, Mom is doing great! Most of us can only hope to do half this well when we reach that age. Thanks to everyone for their continued prayers and support.