Andrew.Mandy.Brighton: A sad day for my mom continued... (graphic pictures)

I am not going to comment on any of these photos, there is not too many words to describe them... here is the story. I called my mom and she was crying- this was the reason why. My mom comes from a family of smokers, her mom-my grandma- has emphysema and some other breathing problems where it is hard for her to even choke out a complete sentence. It is sad, but they choose to do what they do. my aunt just like my grandma has (had) breathing problems as well but continued to smoke. What came about was that in these pictures she started out on life support-the ones with the tubes of course. Here is my rememberance of what happened. When me and my mom entered the hospital I felt queasy, I hate death actually i hate seeing dead things. We were directed to the room where a "meeting" about my aunt was being held. I kid you not it was something out of a movie or some type of a tv show. the hospital staff was "expecting" us and they ushered us into a room full of people that i didn't know, doctors, nurses and family. As soon as i sat down they proceeded with the talk of nerve endings, brain dead, coma, and no brain activity. When we were about 6 hours from the hospital we were told that the results from the cat scan were negative for any brain activity-if that were the case they were going to pull the plug. Ugh! The doctor said that the life support was giving her 12 respiratory breaths per minute and she was doing between 5 and 6 on her own but that she had absolutely no brain activity, but SOMEWHERE in the very back lower part of her brain she was alive and it was working but that she would NEVER come to, recognize or move a single part of her body again. What do you say to that? I could do nothing but look at the floor because I literally was to throw up all over my boots. After all, the decision was made to pull the plug- the doctor said that every patient is different and it all depends on "their" will to survive on their own without the life support-forgive me when i say i am confused, but I think that life support means "LIFE" and not will support- anyhow, she continued to say that it could take as little as 20 minutes or even a few weeks. Since my mother or I had not seen her they took us into the room to see her before and while they were taking out all of her tubes... It was sad, what mad me the most sad was my grandmother. Me of being LDS faith I know and understand death and why it happens and i know that families are forever. My grandma just kept crying and crying (and I know it is sad) but she just didn't understand the reason for it and she kept telling us if she would have got there a little sooner then she would have been able to save her and that she would still be alive. My aunt was diagnose with severe emphysema but she did not tell anyone, she was taking abuterol treatments on a REGULAR basis, she could not survive without it, on top of that she had asthma. The morning went something like this. My aunt called my grandma to see if she would go pick up her abuterol medication from the store, grandma says yes and to let her know when the medication was done. Grandma never gets a call from aunt diane, she calls the pharm to see if it was picked up-negative...called a friend to see ifshe had gotten it for her-negative. Grandma goes over to aunt diane's (which is in walking distance) and knocks but gets no answer, bangs on the house with a rock, dogs were barking but no answer from Diane, she goes home, makes a few more phone calls and goes back over and calls the cops. they finally break a window and the cops help grandma into a window. Other problem was aunt diane's door was locked as well, as soon as they get the last door open they found her body. The paramedics worked on her for what seemed like hours grandma says until someone called out that they have a pulse... The rest of the story is what i already wrote. Watching my aunt die was horrible and it made me sad to have to see my family in such hurt, i wish i could have just made them understand death a little better and it would have been easier on all of them. The next few days were spent packing up stuff and listening to stories about the family that we don't get to see too often. I wish that everyone had the understanding of the gospel and what it does for our lives. i am truly grateful to have the gospel and know that I am part of an eternal family. i must say that the chaplain of this praticular hospital was VERY touchy and it creeped me out because the last thing i want to have happen while i am watching my aunt take her last breaths is to be touched by some unknown man, it was weird. I hope that the rest of my family in Oregon can find peace after everything that happened with my Aunt Diane. She will be missed.

Previously I blogged about my mom's sister dying... My mom took her vacation from work and we set off to Oregon, due to plane tickets being 450 each for spur of the moment we decided to drive... I have more pictures of my aunt that i will post right above this but they are a little graphic and I wanted to also blog about the rest of our trip. so here are the pictures:) enjoy.

This is a REAL picture that i took... I think it looks fake, like something off of a post card, This is Mt. Shasta. It is SURREAL in real life, not sure if any of my blog readers have been there but it is such a pretty place. this was one of the perks of driving the way we drove.

What i DID love about Oregon is that you don't have to pump your own gas, yes the gas is a little more expensive, and it is ILLEGAL for you to do it yourself, but trust me it was COLD and it was nice to have it all done for you.

another reason why i LOVe oregon is because it has these HUGE trees all over the place. It reminds me of Christmas.

And buildings like this, the Prinville courthouse... we don't have any of those cool things in Arizona like this. Instead of water in their fountain out front, they had tree branches because the water would just freeze, it was cool.

This was somewhere in Bend actually, we drove by and saw it and had to turn around to take a picture.

A closer shot,

Andrews fav picture out of all the ones i took

This scared me-BAD! When we had to leave, we left in the middle of all the horrible storms, ALL the way from my house up to the shasta mountains it was pure DOWNPOUR! then from then on up to Bend it was snow... this picture was taken on the way home when it was REALLY bad, I could only go 25-30 for HOURS! It was a LONG ride home.

This was my aunt Dian'es house... the window that you see that has that boc spring by it was the window my grandma had to go through to get into the house. Sadly this house is not even as big as my upstairs loft, Pretty sad it took so long to get inside of it.

Aside from all the commotion going on, me and my mom found a little time to check out the town of Prineville, it had been 14 sum years since we had been there. This tree was free but you had to haul it away-problem was---? It was HUGE, but really nice.