What is the meaning of....FAMILY

What is the meaning of FAMILY? I don't know about the rest of you, but in my family, we have this family mission statement that basically says, in a nutshell, that we support each other, care of each other and look out for each other in every way possible. My parents always taught me and my brothers that your parents and siblings come first until you have a spouse and family of your own, who will then be first when it comes to family.

Last night, I received a phone call that my mom was in the hospital. She has had back problems for quite some time and it started to effect the way she walks, the amount of time she can sit, stand,etc. She has been in pain 99% of the time for several months. Last week, she went in for a MRI and yesterday went to get the results. Now here's the part that gets very unclear for me...she was given an epidural for the pain and the pain got worse, then was given more pain killers which made her sick. She also couldn't put any pressure on her legs. She was taken to the emergency room, then admitted into the hospital. I told my brother that if I was needed at home, to let me know and I would be there...though he didn't even have to tell me to come home, I was already preparing and packing. This morning, doctors decided that it would be best to do the back surgery that is needed to relieve my mom of the pain she has been in, so today my mom had surgery on her back. I'm not quite sure what they did...I do know that they compressed a nerve and also had to cut out cysts that had formed around the nerve. They did something to three vertabrae that involved three titanium screws and some type of bone graph around the vertabrae. The surgery went well and she is now in recovery. The only concern now is how to help her handle the pain. She has had some type of reaction to everything the doctors have given her, so I'm not sure what will happen with that. Last night I was a little nervous for the situation, and when I called a couple people to just get it off my chest, they blew it off like it was no big deal. Thankfully, a family of a current soccer player and two former students (yes, I've had three of their five children so far) lives just down the road and took me in at 11pm last night, fed me, nurtured me, the whole bit. The dad also gave me a priesthood blessing which immediately calmed me down. Let me put it this way...coming home was the right thing to do.

Today, I taught my classes then I left school at 12:15. My T.A.s were instrumental in helping me get everything prepared for a substitute and my drive home. I brought my laptop to school and my first period T.A.s put a couple music CDs together for the drive, while my 2nd period T.A.s looked up the weather for this weekend and next weekend, mapquested the hospital for me, and straightened up my classroom (they also saved half their bag of Reese's Pieces for me to eat on my way home!). From school, I drove to Provo to get my car serviced, then made the drive home. I was going on four hours of sleep and got a little more tired than usual. Thanks to several people who let me call and chat so I would stay awake, and a special thanks to my friend Sheldon, who stayed on the phone with me for the last two hours of the drive so I wouldn't fall asleep, I made it safely home and will head out to the hospital tomorrow morning.

I will be here for 10 days to take care of my mom when she comes home from the hospital, and then Kevin will fly in the weekend I leave and take over. The reason I didn't fly home was 1. too expensive for a last minute trip...and 2. with all the driving to and from the hospital as well as the different errands that will need to be run, I thought it be better to have my own wheels than rely on someone else's! The drive actually helped me unwind, release some stress and prepare myself for coming home. My family is all pulling their weight in one way or another to help my mom through this. She will be laid up for weeks and for the first 2-3 weeks she is home from the hospital, someone needs to be with her 24/7.

So here is the reason for my question at the beginning of this post...I had a few people actually question my decision to come home by saying that my brothers and sisters-in-law should handle it and not me because I am out of state...now I can understand if I were married with children, it would be a little difficult to drop everything and come home to help ASAP. I'd have to plan a little more before actually making the trip...but when I'm single with a job that allows me to take time off work when needed, why not come home and help?! Why not be here for my mom and relieve some of the stress that is being put on everyone else? What are these people thinking?! What are families for?!?!