THE LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER VOLUME 150 MARCH 2023
Dear Readers,
The highlight of February was the Chief’s win against the Philadelphia Eagles - when despite having a sprained ankle, Patrick Mahomes led his team against the odds to win the Superbowl for the second time in four years! Even I, an avid fan, was very anxious about our ability to pull this off as we had lost a couple of games in the season that we should have easily won - think Indiana Colts - and had usually eked out a one score win - a lot of tense games for me! And of course I was transfixed to my television all day when Kansas City threw a huge Victory Parade to celebrate! How fitting that the NFL draft will be in Kansas City this April! .
In early February I received a very early morning call from Ava Claire to inform me that Jeremy had called 911 to summon an ambulance to the house. Coryn had collapsed on the floor, unable to move and having difficulty speaking. With my vast medical experience to draw upon I diagnosed a stroke and waited anxiously for a follow up call from the hospital to confirm my diagnosis but they ruled this out as the cause and thought it was more likely a heart condition. Of course my heart flipped thinking of my baby girl having her chest split in two so they could perform a quadruple bypass or even a heart transplant. My own heart was beating like a jackhammer in my chest as I contemplated the possibilities.She was released later in the day with no explanation of her illness but her symptoms continued. Coryn was feeling faint frequently, unable to focus on a screen , read or follow a conversation. After a few days of this she was admitted to KUMed and for four days she underwent numerous tests, including a CAT scan and MRI. Fortunately she did not have a brain tumor or multiple system atrophy which of course has taken the lives of two of our family members. But she does have a neurological disease known as Functional Neurological Disorder which she has been battling hard to overcome and thankfully she is now well on her way to a full recovery.
The day Coryn was admitted to KUMed Sheryl insisted on driving from Oklahoma City - where she had been visiting family - to stay with Coryn overnight in the hospital - Coryn was considered a fall risk at this point and was confined to bed - plus she was also tethered to a machine that was monitoring her brain activity through the many electrodes glued to her scalp!
Jeremy dropped Ava and Owen at my house the following morning on his way to visit Coryn at the hospital. Sarah and Sean suggested I bring the kids up to their house later in the day to enjoy some cousin time and hopefully keep them from worrying about their Mom too much! Ava Claire was thrilled to hold baby Cillian for the first time! That evening Jeremy asked that I bring the children back over to the hospital so that he could take them and Sheryl to dinner while I stayed with Coryn! Driving to KUmed certainly reminded me of the years I spent ferrying Norm to various medical appointments there. It took me a minute to orient myself to the closest parking garage because of all the new additions which somehow evolve despite the limited space!
Fortunately we found an open parking spot on the first level and were quickly in the hospital and taking an elevator to the fifth floor where Coryn was an inpatient. I have to say that I was amazed that Ava Claire and Owen were so confident about finding their way to their mom’s room after being there only once before! On exiting the elevator they immediately turned left and headed down a corridor, opening a door to the Cardiac Unit and leading me straight to their mother's room! That evening after Jeremy had taken the children home for the night and Sheryl was preparing to sleep on the sofa bed in Coryn’s room I left for my home but I made several wrong turns before I found the elevators. Thank goodness my grandchildren did not witness my confusion!
Coryn with a headful of electrodes - just like Norm on so may of his hospital stays!
The next day I headed to the hospital with flowers and candy and found myself circling the parking garage looking for an open space - which of course was on the very top level, exposed to the elements with a wind force threatening to blow my bouquet to smithereens! My visit was very fortuitously timed as a neurologist with a posse of medical students quickly arrived at Coryn’s bedside to evaluate my daughter. Fortunately the doctor had assimilated the fact that Coryn was a psychologist and I made it clear that I was very familiar with all things neurological since my husband had been a patient of theirs for many years.The doctor had a tentative diagnosis but ordered more tests to confirm his conclusion. That night Jeremy stayed with Coryn while Sheryl stayed with the kids so she could have dinner with them and see them off to school the next day. I planned to spend the night with Coryn the following day but was spared the ordeal of a night in the hospital when she was discharged later that afternoon.
Her work was very supportive during her absence, and once she felt well enough to return, another teacher in her district - who also lives in Lee Summit - volunteered to drive her every day until she could drive again. I am so happy to report that Coryn is now able to drive herself and is functioning well again with just occasional episodes of brain fog. In fact she, Jeremy and the children recently flew to Los Angeles to visit Marc and Bryn, flying out of the old Kansas City airport and into the new airport as its opening coincided with their return! An interesting piece of history in the making!
Ford Focus outside Marc's condo in LA
Jeremy took this photo of Bryn, Coryn, Ava and Owen in front of my 2005 
Owen with Gabby's dog 
Ava Claire and Jeremy toasting LA
A few weeks ago Kay invited me to Sunday lunch at Plate in Leawood while Richard stayed home with Alex who had suffered stomach flu in previous days. Within a couple of hours of our lunch Kay texted me that she was now puking! Of course I felt sorry for Kay but was terrified that I would be the next victim but most fervently of all I hoped that this had not been in my system and passed onto Sarah and Sean’s family. I knew I would bear the brunt of Sean’s wrath if this transpired.
Fortunately my immune system staved off the disease for almost a week - I passed on babysitting Alex on Tuesday but finally had him over on Thursday - when Lochlan and Cillian came over for a while too and then on Friday, while his four young cousins were here, as Richard’s dad- who usually watches him- was feeling unwell. At about four O'clock that afternoon, while Sarah was holding Lochlan, he suddenly vomited his lunch and a bottle of milk all over her, my carpet in the family room and my kitchen floor. Sarah dashed into the nearest bathroom to remove her clothes and Lochans while I found clean clothes for them and grabbed my steam mop and carpet shampooer as we adults all pitched in to clean up the mess! Sarah decided to take Lochlan and Cillian home while Sean , Emmy Lou, Liam and I ate my homemade Lasagna supper around my kitchen table. Sean immediately began to vocalize his fears that all four of the children would be puking simultaneously throughout the night and that he and Sraah would be trying to deal with them while probably puking themselves. Sean always envisions the worst case scenario but gets little sympathy from me as I always recall the time that we had eight family members simultaneously vomiting and had to share buckets! Norm never threw an ice cream bucket away after that experience and had them strewn through-out the house and in towering stacks in one of his junk rooms!
After I had gone to bed that Friday night I noticed that my stomach was feeling a bit queasy and realized that I had not had my usual robust appetite that day, having skipped lunch and eating only one small piece of my Lasagna for dinner. This was a blessing as within the hour I was sitting on the toilet with diarrhea running out of my bottom and vomit spewing from my mouth into the near at hand plastic bin I keep the children’s bath toys in! I lost count of the times I raced from my bed to the bathroom but my biggest concern was running out of toilet paper as earlier in the day Sean had removed all five rolls of toilet paper from my linen closet to the bathroom upstairs! He claimed that he was always running out up there while he was working! After each messy bout that required numerous sheets of toilet paper I would assess the chances of making the trip upstairs and back down to ensure I had enough toilet paper but feared both ends would explode all over my stairs on the way up or down ( that really would be a pain in the arse to clean up) and decided to stand in the shower with the detachable hand held sprayer aimed at my buttocks if my one roll ran out.
In the morning I updated Sean about my sickness and learned that Lochlan seemed to be doing better after several episodes but the next day Emmy Lou and Sean had both succumbed and late in the day Liam was sick too. Fortunately Sarah and Cillian were spared! Thank goodness it was basically a twenty-four hour virus but I am most thankful that Lochlan had puked before eating my Lasagna otherwise Sean would have accused me of giving everyone food poisoning!
Sarah and Sean recently lost their nanny and hope to make it through the next few months using a combination of maternity leave until mid April; then paternity leave for fourteen weeks;summer camps and my help !
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| My bed is a changing table for three! |
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| Lochlan getting diapers ready for me! |
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| 3 containers for 3 different sizes of diapers! |
Kay is scheduled to have her reconstructive surgery on April 7th and we all hope that it goes well and that she makes a speedy recovery. She has done very well with the recovery from her mastectomy and is fully focused on enjoying a cancer free life..
Our weather has been fluctuating between pleasantly warm and freezing cold. It seems that my grandchildren tend to be at my house more often on the snowy, rainy, cold and windy days when we are stuck indoors rather than the sunny, dry and warm days when we can play outside and run off some pent up energy. For those of you who read my letter online I have included some recent photos of the children interacting with each other. I take great enjoyment in being with them - except of course when one or more of them are throwing temper tantrums, having potty accidents or dumping water out of the tub during the many baths their messy eating necessitates!
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| Emmy Lou sampling the frosting we used to glue the marshmallows to gether to form snowmen |
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| Liam using candies to decorate his snowman! |
This mother hen wishes a Happy Easter to all my chicks - I look forward to having an Easter Egg hunt in my garden again this year so I can cluck over my more recently hatched chicks as they gobble up sugary Easter treats and go home to hopefully roost in their parents nests- while this old bird recover from all the activity with a glass of wine and a long night’s sleep!
Love from your tough old bird of a Mother who still struts her stuff and rules the roost - except when my grandchicks invade my nest, ruffle my feathers and place me at the bottom of the pecking order!
