Oh What A Night!

Yesterday Corey and Jack left to go to The Place to host the big Guys' Weekend for the men of my family. My dad, my brother, Corey, and Jack were there last night and our brother-in-law, Allan, was going to join them today. They were all excited about their weekend away... it is the first time that they have done this, it is almost the end of hunting season and Corey & Jack's father/ son weekends are coming to an end until next year,and Allan had only hunted once before and was really looking forward to it. Tons of food was bought and lots of warm clothing was packed.

I had a bad feeling before they left this time. I usually don't mind when my guys leave. I love that they get to go away and spend time together. But this time... I had a bad feeling. I was nervous for my Jack to be hunting with so many people. When he is just with Corey, I know that he is safe. Corey learned gun safety when he was in diapers and has been teaching Jack the lessons of hunting for several years now. With other, less gun-savvy, people going, I was scared. Accidents happen all the time. Corey assured me that Jack would be fine. He would protect him.

Around 11:00 last night I received a call. Static. Disconnect. Another ring. Static. "What are you doing?" I couldn't tell who it was - my dad, my brother... maybe Corey. Static. Disconnect. I had a terrible feeling. Another ring. This time I was really scared. I said, "Why are you calling me right now?!?" It was my dad. "Everything is going to be okay (Of course he said that. He always says that!), but we are getting ready to take Corey to the hospital." A moment of fear surged through me. Corey doesn't go to the hospital! He hardly goes to the doctor! Ever. After talking to my dad for a moment I calmed down. He described Corey's symptoms to me, and it sounded like appendicitis or a kidney stone.

15 years ago, we were newly married kids living 4 hours away from everyone we knew. Corey woke up in the middle of the night thrashing in pain. I called my dad... "What do I do?!?" He told me to get him to the hospital. I went to get a neighbor man to drive us there, and we went to the ER. He dropped us off, and I was totally lost. I had never been in charge of anyone like this before. I had never been in the hospital, myself, before. I had never seen Corey like this before. He was in such pain. I was scared. An x-ray showed that he had kidney stones and after some morphine was administered and laughs were had by all that heard Corey try to speak, we left the hospital with our little strainer and some prescriptions for pain meds... after Corey (and his morphine) reminded me to "not forget the wallpaper". :)

Last night the symptoms and the moans from Corey sounded the same as 15 years ago. I promptly got on WebMD and ruled out appendicitis and found a better description of the symptoms of kidney stones. Pretty sure that he was suffering from that, I was not scared anymore. I just wanted to be with him! I called my brother and my dad every 15 minutes or so on their 1 hour drive to the closest hospital then our phone calls and updates continued every 2 hours or so through the night. At 6:30 this morning I called and finally heard that he does in fact have a kidney stone, he is at my brother's house, he has meds, and he is sleeping. Thank God.

I have hated being away from him during all of this. I was ready to load up the kids and drive to Waco in the rain last night, but all of the guys said not to. Now I am chomping at the bit to leave to go round my little family up and bring them home to the safety of our house. I feel like a mama duck whose ducklings are not in a row. I want to gather them all up and take care of them.

Corey still has some pain in his future, but he will be okay. It's only kidney stones. {wink wink} Thank God for medicine!