From Bad to Worse

To say we had a TERRIBLE weekend would be an understatement. As I write, Kelli, Georgia and I are in the hotel in Lacrosse. Kramer is in the hospital next door. It was the longest weekend of my life.

We had fun plans for the weekend. We were going to host a baby shower for my side of the family on Saturday at our house and baptism for Gannon on Sunday. BUT..then we had predicted snow. At one point they thought maybe 6-10 inches. Well that cancelled all of those plans. We all ended up a little relived after we did. We’ve had a full plate lately and having a weekend that was now plan free seemed like the bonus we needed to get recharged for the final leg of my testing and Kramer’s final leg of radiation and chemo. That wasn’t to be. We are all more tired than ever.

Saturday morning came and looked promising. Kramer and I hung out, and even went to a garage sale in the morning. About 2:30pm that afternoon, he went to the basement to take a shower. When he came back up he said, “Something is weird. I feel like if I twisted my head just right, my head would fall off.” I thought that was the weirdest comment ever. About 3pm he had a terrible headache. I didn’t like it and called Kalissa asking she come over and check him out. We gave him extra pain meds and didn’t think anything of it.

Kalissa went home and by 6pm, she was at my house again and we were packing up and loading Kramer into the truck with him and I headed to the ER in no time. We ended up at the local ER in Decorah. It’s the one Kalissa works at. We knew he needed some bigger gun pain killers. Something was off and the headaches were terrible. After a CT scan of his neck, lots of pain meds and a soft collar for his neck, we were sent home. We had our first blow of bad news. Kramer has cancer in his C2 vertebrae and it’s eating away the bone. His scans were sent to Lacrosse. Doctors consulted. It was okay for us to go home and consult with our doctors on Monday to get a plan. He could up his pain meds. We were devastated. All the uncertainty of not having a plan were back. All the ifs and worries were back. We were so close to a finish line and now, here we are at square one.

Kramer made it through the night. He made it through a couple hours that morning. Kayla hearing the news that things had gone bad came home and started helping. She was amazing. By 10am Kramer couldn’t do it anymore and we were back on the road this time to the Lacrosse ER. It didn’t really happen as easy as that sounds. Phone calls to on call doctors…over night bags being packed and remember my diet so I can take my testing. We needed to pack for me as I can’t eat anything in a restaurant.

Two hours to Lacrosse to the ER. Two hours in the ER. Pain meds on board and now Kramer had a new hard collar to support his neck more. The ER doctor consulted everyone. All of his CT scan from the day before were looked at again. No one was thinking this was something that couldn’t be handled on Monday. Kramer didn’t think so either…so back home we went..another 2 hours.

When we got home the house was amazingly clean. Kayla had stayed and made it shine. Laundry was done. Just what we needed to be able to enjoy a night together. Kramer was up for some ice cream so we invited Kalissa and Craig over and had ice cream and brownies that Kayla had made (I didn’t..everyone else did) It was as close to a family meal as we’ve had in a long time.

Kramer was pooped so to the living room he went. His neck collar was getting hot and sweaty so while Kalissa and Craig were there, he took it off. He leaned back in the chair and screamed. The first words out of his mouth were, “I don’t know how we’re going to get me in the truck.” No one knew what that meant. No one knew what to do until someone said, “To the ER?” and Kramer said YES.

Thankfully the overnight bags were still packed. We grabbed a few more things. Craig turned the pickup around and backed it into the garage so the passenger door was closest. Then we started the task of trying to get Kramer to the truck. Something was terribly wrong. We all knew it. A talk of the ambulance..then finally we decided to try it. Craig held traction support on Kramer’s head/neck. Kalissa and I held and supported his arms…Carver held the door. We made it to the truck but Kalissa was now in the backseat holding traction on Kramer’s head. Off we went. This was serious. We all knew it was really serious and URGENT. We went to the local ER.

After lots of pain meds and another CT scan we found out that Kramer broke his neck. The C2 vertebrae didn’t make it.

He took a ride in the ambulance to get to Lacrosse. Kelli, Georgia and I took our truck. We got to the hotel at 1am…Thankfully Kelli and Georgia are sleeping. Me. Not.

I’m off to put some clothes on and drag myself through another day. Kramer needs me and we all need a new plan. Surgery was vaguely discussed as was a long hospital stay. I’ll let you know more when I know more. Right now, our family is hurting.