The last 36 hours have been a whirlwind. Mom had surgery yesterday morning. Doctors went in to remove a benign tumor from her parathyroid, but ended up finding a 2nd tumor! It was "hidden" and so the doctors literally had to search for it to find it!
On Monday night, I called Mom to wish her luck and she was telling me in a little more detail what the doctors were going to do. I said, "Mom, who is staying with you overnight after your surgery?" And she said, "no one! I'm going to take care of myself!" Um....no. I went into a slight panic. Being in Virginia, not having a ton of money to just buy a plane ticket on the fly, and no knowing whether or not I could get off work, I was a little stressed.
I decided to fast on Tuesday. Fasting is something we are encouraged to do in the LDS Church to bring us closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We can fast for thanks, for answers to our questions or problems, for faith, to help someone in need, really we can fast...for anything! I just prayed to know how Mom could get the help she needed in those couple of days after surgery! She should not be by herself!
Tuesday morning, I was talking to a teacher about the situation and the thought came to mind, "I bet I could get a flight out to California today! I wonder how much it would cost..." I checked Southwest, $550. Not bad. Then I started thinking...what if I could find a flight using my miles and pay for half in miles and half in money...I think I could afford that. I looked on United, and it would be 25,000-50,000 miles, depending on when I fly...but 2-3 stops! EEK! I looked on Delta. Several flights for 25,000 miles! I found one that would leave at 5:30pm on Tuesday (last night). I booked it to stay through Thursday but was able to change it to stay until Friday. I ran around during 1st period tracking down administrators to get permission to leave. They didn't even hesitate..."Marla, just go. Take care of your family...take the rest of the week." So the rest of the morning was spent doing sub plans, paperwork, logistics, and grades were due! I finally left school by 12:30pm. I went home, cleaned our apartment (as much as I had time for), packed, and left for the airport.
At the airport, I bumped into the Lone Peak High School chamber singers...that is where I taught high school! I saw one of my dear co-workers, Kathy Taylor. It was a brief, but very fun 2-3 minutes that we had to quickly chat before she boarded her flight.
At the time my flight was supposed to board, an announcement came over the PA that there was a mechanical problem....every time I've been on a plane when there's a "mechanical problem," that flight never took off. I looked at alternate flights in case we were delayed past my connection. But the flights started disappearing...so I just decided to jump on another flight so I could get home. At 5:45pm, I changed my flight to a 6pm flight to Atlanta, and then Atlanta to L.A. Luckily the gate was right next to mine, and I walked to the counter, picked up my boarding pass and got on the plane.
In Atlanta, I found out that my mom was staying at the hospital...so I arrived at the hospital at 1:30am (4:30am Eastern time). We are still at the hospital waiting for the doctor to come check to see how she is doing.
Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers...that is evident from this experience. Everything fell into place and SO many people helped me be able to make the trip out here to help my mom.
Chris has been so amazing through this. Yesterday morning I told him I was scared, and he just hugged me and told me it would be ok. He is home getting some packing done, in the middle of baseball season, so we can be ready to move next weekend. He has checked in with me...he's just been a sweetheart. I'm so blessed!
My mom is supposed to rest her throat over the next couple of days. You can email her and text her, but no phone calls until Friday, please!
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