Mike and Chris

Helen's brother, Mike, and his wife, Chris, have been going through a very difficult time. About a month ago, Chris was about due to have a new baby, when Mike had to have emergency kidney surgery. Unfortunately, a mass was also discovered on the other kidney. Because of Chris's condition a plan was hatched to allow Mike a few weeks of recovery, have the baby and allow Chris a few weeks of recovery for the c-section, and then Mike would undergo surgery on the other kidney.

Mike had a few weeks of recovery before Chris delivered beautiful baby Brooke. With help from family and friends they were making it. But, on Monday of last week Chris had a seizure in her sleep. She was rushed to the hospital where it was determined that she had a ruptured brain aneurysm and then put on a Life Flight helicopter to another hospital. The doctors also discovered another unruptured aneurysm. She underwent surgery and the prognosis is good, although she is not out of the woods and the recovery will be long.

Mike is trying to handle as much as he can and still recuperate himself and try to run his business. Family and friends have been helping. The family has been passing Brooke and her big sister, Lindsay who is 2, around. Helen and I watched Lindsay a couple nights last week and then had both girls this past weekend. We got lots of shocked looks in the neighborhood when we showed up with 2 little girls all of the sudden. It brought back the old days of early morning feedings and diaper changes.

The girls were great and they're holding up well, in spite of everything. Mike came by on Sunday and visited along with Helen's parents who were taking the girls back home. Helen's brother, Paul, and his wife, Agatha, are going to keep baby Brooke and Helen's parents are going to keep Lindsay. We'll probably be on weekend duty for a while.