Accidents Happen

Please take a moment to read this.

Tonight, I was in my first car accident with my mom. We were going to Snellville to get my hair cut, and we were merging from River Drive onto Oak Road by QT. A young girl, only 18, was trying to merge into the same turn lane as us without looking. She side-swiped my mom's Lexus, and me never having been in a car accident had a million and one thoughts running through my head. "Is she going to try and flee?" "Was she texting?" 

But no, she wasn't on her phone, she just didn't see us.

Everyone makes mistakes, right?

ABSOLUTELY. 

Out of complete anger, I laid on the horn for my mom as a "Hey, you just hit us…", immediately realizing I was wrong in doing so. The young girl pulled into Advance Auto Parts and we followed, and she quickly jumped out of her car sobbing.  The poor girl is in her first year of college and it's just her and her mom. Her older sister passed away at 23 from a brain tumor, and her father passed away as well. 

My mom asked her to call her mother, and she was afraid and didn't want to. Nevertheless, she called her mom and she showed up about five minutes later. Trying to occupy their minds, my mom started talking to them, and she found out that the mother went back to school for a nursing degree to become a nurse to support her and her daughter. Props. Seriously, I applaud her. The girl was still sobbing and scared out of her mind, as she had previously been in a car accident a very short time back, bringing her close to death. The entire time, my mom stayed calm and hugged her and the mom saying "Everything is okay. Please don't worry." She was able to share her story about her journey with Wegner's disease, chemotherapy, and dialysis as well, fascinating the mom who is a nurse.

The police officer showed up, and it turns out the young girl didn't have shoes or her wallet or her license. Only her mother's debit card to make a quick Taco Bell run. The officer was very kind and let that slide, noticing her state of disarray. He took down information and my mom continued to chat with them. As it turns out, I went to school with this young lady last year, and she was as kind as could be. In all reality, what a small world we live in. An unfortunate incident such as a car accident actually allowing  people to become closer. 

The moral of my story is be kind always. One thing I need to work on is my temper and self control, and learning not to anger so quickly and make assumptions. My heart is in shreds right now, and I wish the best for them. 

I am lucky enough to have a mom like  Karen Twomey, who is SO kind and generous. Even though being hit wasn't ideal, it's a huge blessing in disguise for the young girl to have hit my mom and not someone else who could have dealt with the manner much more inappropriately.  The world needs more people like you mom, and I only aspire to be as amazing as you are one day. Thank you for teaching me tonight what it means to be kind, and I am so beyond thankful that nobody is hurt. What a miracle. 

Catching up with the Twomey Family

It's been such a long time since I've made a post on the family blog! I'm a big blogger on my personal blog but I'm going to try and come back to family blogging!

This is Joseph, and I'm the middle child in the Twomey family, age sixteen. Daniel is fourteen and Shannon is twenty four! I am the one who runs the blog and updates things. I know from insights that people are still viewing the blog and I apologize for my lack of updates. I believe the ast update I made was after Mom's surgery to get her catheter out!

Currently, Mom is off of chemotherapy and she has been for a while. This is a huge relief and blessing at the same time for her. She has dialysis that was three days a week, but as of last week has started to be only twice a week, which as of now if Tuesday and Saturday. She is going to be moving to dialysis on Monday and Thursday in two weeks so she will have a free Saturday to do family-oriented things. 

Things around the house have been pretty normal but of course very stressful with the school schedule and medical schedule for my mom. School five days a week, hours of homework every day, extra activities, my production and tech work at Grace, and more! Staying busy helps keep my mind off of things for the most part though. 

That's a quick cap off of what's been going on! Nothing major. Just a pretty slow and laid back schedule. I am hopefully going to start blogging via iPhone soon to bring updates more often since I don't carry my laptop around. You can probably expect bi-weekly posts from me now. If you want to get in touch or email me, go for it!
twomey.joseph@gmail.com (Primary)
twomey.joseph@me.com (Apple, secondary)


I hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving and everyone is doing well.

Love! 
         Joseph

Surgery 6/27/2012

Mom's surgery was scheduled for today at 11:00 A.M., but there were complications with another patient's surgery before her. Her surgery was delayed for a number of hours and was not until about 4:00. She went into recovery for two hours afterwards. The surgery went well with no problems! Her arm will be sore for a while from where the fistula was put in, but she is taking pain medication for that. She will be coming home tomorrow to have full recovery here at home. Her port will not be usable until it heals completely, in about two months. We appreciate all the prayers for today and for everyone thinking about us! God is so good!

June 2012 & Surgery 6/27

[Post written by Karen]
Summer days are passing us by, sometimes rather quickly, and other times dragging it's feet. We really aren't in a hurry about anything. After all, isn't that what summer is all about? We should speed up the summer reading schedule a bit so the books can be put away. It's not on the boys's list of favorite things to do. 
I have just been keeping up with the schedule of dialysis three days a week and chemotherapy every three weeks. I have tolerated chemo fairly well and I am thankful for that. I missed one chemo session because of an extremely low white blood cell count. I received an injection to boost my white blood cell count which has helped. The only side effect was my bones ached pretty badly for a couple of days. 
I am having surgery in the morning at St. Joseph's Hospital to put the dialysis fistula in my arm. This will be a permanent access for dialysis and takes two to four months to heal before it can be used. I'm not looking forward to it, but the temporary one in my chest is just that, temporary. It is not the most ideal way to do dialysis and can easily become infected. The doctors want it gone and so do I!
We are all still trying to adjust to life differently now. Our days have been filled with constant appointments that have taken the place of other things on the calendar. We are thankful for the days when the calendar has a day or two with nothing on it. God has really blessed us with so many friends that continue to help us with transportation, meals, and lots of support. This has been a great source of help for all of us. Thank you for your prayers for our family and we pray that you are having a wonderful summer with your family. 
We will keep you posted on my surgery tomorrow (both on Facebook and the blog). Thanks again for the prayers! It is my constant reminder of God's love and provision through you. I love you all!


[Message from Joseph]
The blog will begin to be updated more frequently now with news, updates and photos both on our blog and on my Facebook. Thanks again!!

June 7, 2012

Today was another dialysis day. Dialysis for Mom is on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. It takes some of the weight off her from fluid buildup. It makes her feel "better" you could say, but she does feel tired and more worn out afterwards. She also has chemo tomorrow at 1:00. We had a "do nothing day" today where we hung out with friends and sat around. Mom got some new flowers for the backyard which we planted tonight and filled up the pond in our backyard. We wanted to go out for dinner tonight to get out for a while, so we're going to Red Lobster for dinner and then coming back home to do something tonight. Summer can be fun, and it can be boring.
We want to know - What is the best part of summer! Take your vote to the right and let us know. 

June 1-6, 2012

Sorry for our lack of updates and news. Summer 2012 has been a busy one so far!

We have been having a fairly smooth summer so far. Pool, video games, tv, family time, and outdoor time. It's nice to be able to relax now that everything is calming down for us. Dialysis days are still hard for her. She starts out fine, but comes home tired and weak. She cannot drive on dialysis days for safety reasons. She did drive for her first time in about 2 months this past  Monday, June 4th. That was awesome for her! She said she felt confident and like she hadn't missed anything. I'm starting to drive more too now that summer is here. Learning to drive isn't fun, but it will be worth it one day. Mom has chemotherapy on Friday at the cancer center near St. Joseph's. She will lose more hair from her chemo. Her hair is thinning more and more, especially  when washed and dried. She still has her dialysis port in her chest until she gets the fistula put in her arm. We don't really know when that will be, or when she will be able to stop having dialysis. Most of her bruising from the hospital is now gone, which is great. She is definitely more independent. She takes care of herself almost completely, and we help her out with chores and house-hold tasks.

I'm going to try and be updating this more throughout the summer, and I'm going to put some summer pictures up. We still appreciate the prayers very much and this is a part of what keeps up going. We love you all and we do think about you! Until the next update,

Joseph

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

James 1:17 ESV

This is what happens when Mom gets out of the house:

I LOVE taking pictures. We went out tonight shopping for stuff Daniel needed for his D.C. trip. These with the glasses are from Dollar Tree trying on sunglasses. The others are from Publix.

Are these my style?

Ozzy Osbourne

Confused?

I'm stylish.

I'm an angel...

PINK?!

Uh... Where are I going??

What's this? Haha

The "Joseph is taking a random picture" picture.

New earrings?

HEY! Everyone look at me!!

What are we even looking for?

Dad: "Daniel, if you can't get a date, you can always get DATES in a can! HAHA!"
Daniel: "Really?..."

Wait! Let me get some flowers!