Matt and Kristin: Grandma's Surgery

I went home at the end of September for my Grandma Anne's surgery (on Oct. 1). Unexpectedly losing my Dad after his surgery makes our family a little surgery shy. I just wanted to be close by to be with my Grandma and be able to help and support my mom. Matisyn stayed here because she couldn't have handled all the time in the hospital. She went to different houses in the day and stayed with Matt at night and over the weekend. She missed her Mommy, but she had so much fun getting to go to the Dinosaur Museum and play toys with Daddy, and play at her friends' houses. She went to Megan's two days (one for cousin David's four year old birthday party), and spent the other two at Lisa's and Amanda's. I so appreciate every one's help to make it possible for me to go. I have great friends!
My Grandma avoided telling us about a tumor growing in her leg because she knew she would have to have surgery. It ended up weighing 8 lbs. by the time they took it out and spreading from her knee to her groin. I named him Winston Lewis, our little baby boy! I can't believe my 120 lb. Grandma was carrying that thing around in her leg. She was pretty nervous, as were we, since she is 88 years old. Since it was so big only Stanford and San Francisco had surgeons that could do it. We were at Stanford. Everyone was wonderful with her, and I'm still in awe of how tough my grandma was. She didn't even use pain medication. I think I would have used the morphine button! Everything went well, no cancer, and no apparent problems from surgery. She's home now attempting to recover. I'm sure it will be a slow process, but we're all happy to have it out and have her home safe. We stayed up by the hospital for a couple of days and then came home to my parent's house the other couple of days. I'm grateful I was able to be there, it's really hard to live so far away, especially for the big things like this.
Emilyn went with me, and was actually an angel through the whole hospital experience. Grandma was in the intermediate ICU so she couldn't go in with us. We took turns going in to visit with Grandma and entertain Emilyn. She liked to walk up and down the hospital halls in the stroller. We used a lot of antibacterial stuff! By the time we got to mom's house she had had it, but it was ok. We just did some projects around the house and took it easy to give her a rest. It was her first time flying, and she was a pretty good companion. It was hard when she got tired because she likes to be in her bed to sleep. She would fuss, but eventually took a short nap on both legs of the trip, and was happy as long as I was bouncing her, talking to her, and showing her lots of different toys. It was nice to have some time to spend with just her, even though I missed my Matisyn.

In the Oakland airport after her first flight

In the waiting room at the surgeon's office, I think Emilyn did a good job distracting Grandma Anne from her worry about the surgery the next day, and Grandma got big smiles from Emilyn with her watch the hand go up and down game!

Had to capture the straight line of hair on the back of Emilyn's head. People can't help but ask if I cut it to get it that way. I didn't in case you're wondering!

Hanging out with Aunt Linda and Grandma Karen, just one of the girls!

Showing off how she can sit up by herself now. She's so proud.

Emilyn has taken to pulling things off the table, anything including full plates of food or full glasses of drinks. Dinner was interesting this trip. She was very helpful at keeping the table clear. She is very interested in food now and wants to grab at everything and shove it in her mouth.