Thursday, June 30, 2011

lame!!!

It's 11:45pm, I'm just getting home and settled in from dance class, and I can't tell if I'm staring at this blank blog screen because I am exhausted, or because I am having a sugar-coma from Ben & Jerry's I just ate.

Probably both.

And I've been staring at the screen for ages it seems, and I cannot seem to get another sentence out....hahahahahaha.

Probably not funny to you, if you are reading this. It's lame! I know! But to me it's hilarious just how brain dead I am.


Let me try again tomorrow. EARLIER in the day. Sheesh!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

vintage me.

Again. Because I'm exhausted.



I think I was around 14.
Same age as MyFavoriteKid now.
SCARY!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

the little sump pump that could (?)

Very intense and unseasonal rains here today. The weather dude said this year marks the wettest June since 1884! Gah!

It's also the first year for either one of us owning a home with a swimming pool...and a pool that now dons a pool cover, no less (read as: the cover fills up with water and gets weighed down, potentially ruining it at a great expense).

It was about seven or eight hours into the downpour when I realized that neither one of us had remembered that during the rains we are supposed to throw this miniature sump pump thingy out onto the center of the pool cover, and it is supposed to be connected to both a power cord and a drainage house so the water can be sucked off before you damage the rather expensive fabric of the pool cover. I drove over there panicking most the way about it, and within minutes of being out of the car and in the backyard, there I was: the one-legged wet-rat lookin' lady dragging hoses and power cords around in the mud, on crutches....using one crutch even (while balancing precariously on the other, while standing in a puddle) to push the sump pump out into the center of the pool cover.
Hahahaha.


Look at the poor little pump! Almost entirely submerged! Eeep!!

So there I was, in the downpour, attempting to pump water off the cover and into what we call TheBack40 of our yard (which as far as I'm concerned really needs a duck pond. And ducks.) And I'm hopping back and forth between the pool TheBack40 in the pouring rain making sure the whole thing is still working and that the pump is not drowning itself. (And let me mention that the insulation subcontractors were back there working on in-law unit which is right next to the pool, and they even waved hi to me, but didn't bother to gimme a hand. Asses. Although I guess I deserve it, given I always fight so fiercely for my independence.)

Anyhow. I think the pool cover is gonna be okay. TheMostImportantGuy is gonna take a closer look at it when he gets home tonight.

I really do not want to be the type of person who sticks little checklists and reminder notes up all over the place, but....I think until this new house becomes routine, I might just need to do that!

Monday, June 27, 2011

vintage me

With headgear.

(that's mom trying to make it okay LOL)

ugh.

I'm guessing about 6th grade?
Maybe 7th.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

tired

Tired, so tired, from moving this weekend....and TheMostImportantGuy did even more of the work than I did (lots of stairs for him!)

Early to bed. More later. xo!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

snaps on saturday



Wasteful. Sad. Yet so funny. LOL

Friday, June 24, 2011

before and....wip?

Can't really call it a before and after shot, because it's not done....it's a work in progress.

Goodbye ghetto man-cave...

Hellooooo "sunroom"/dance studio/meditation room....

Looks even better in the daylight, but I was so excited, I just had to show you. And the altar is a cardboard box covered with an old sheet...hahahaha. I am putting together something custom to replace that.

So. Much. More. To. Do.
And so EXCITING!!!!

We had a little sip of champagne tonight, but no late night parties because I really want to go to Saturday morning practice at the zen center tomorrow (haven't been in ages), and I have to get up at 5:30am to get there.

But perhaps more celebrating tomorrow ;-)

Thursday, June 23, 2011

out out out !!! in in in !!!

After four months, "Phase One" of the renovations on the new house (the main house) are finally done today. Even though construction will continue on the in-law unit, and even though our handyman will still be coming in to do a-little-bit-of-this and a-little-bit-of-that, and even though there will probably be things being done to the exterior of the house, the big stuff inside the house, for now, is finally over...and it's over enough that TheMostImportantGuy can start moving in.

For the last week or so, every time I walk through the place to check on things, I walk past the painter's buckets and boxes and tarps full of whatnot, and I keep finding myself wanting to yell, "OUT OUT OUT!!!!!" (Well, actually...I don't find myself wanting to yell it---sometimes I actually do yell it. hahahaha.)

It's not that I have anything against the painter. It's just that he's just the last dude working this phase of construction, and...I WANT HIM OUT! OUT OUT OUT!!


I did arrange for a little special something to be brought IN IN IN to the new house, though. "He" arrived this morning in a FedEx truck (gee, he is soooo versatile, and he is such the worldly traveler LOL):


It's a new statue of Buddha for the house :-)

One of the first things I plan to do at the new house....hopefully tomorrow, with any luck...is to re-establish the practice area in the sunroom studio. If not tomorrow, over the weekend for sure. I have to see what sort of mess the paint crew left behind and how long it will take me to clean up.

I don't need "stuff" around me in order to practice. Meditating is more of an inside job, eh?? But I love having a dedicating practice area, and I am really looking forward to putting our little space back together again, and oh my....may I remind you that the sunroom studio will also give me a place to work on dance stuff?? And can I now tell you that over this summer, KarenTheDancingLurker and I are turning our regular dance class time into something more like a performance workshop series, so that by late summer/early fall, we'll all have new solo works to present....and now I will have a place to rehearse them outside of class??!! Squeeee!!


By the way, one of these things hold a candle to the fact that TheMIG will be moving into the house, mind you.... because that is just the biggest (and best) deal of all :-)

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

I am a big pile o' sadness today, and I am just working on feelin' it and being present.

I have decided to let go of some of my volunteer commitments, and it's bringing up all sorts of emotions.

Two of my volunteer commitments are at convalescent hospitals that are down in my old town, the one I lived in 4 years ago, and I never gave up the jobs when I moved up here. One of them I refer to as visiting "The Ladies". For this volunteer gig, I was originally brought in to run a knitting group, but it didn't stay that way for long. Most of the knitters in the group quickly passed on, and in many cases, it turned that a good portion of them were really only at the facility temporarily for rehab. Some of The Ladies had knit at some point in their lives, but weren't able to knit any longer for health reasons, and some of the ladies who could no longer knit really did not want to be there at all. They were just sort of wheeled in there because of the state requirement to get every resident out of their room and into a daily activity.

Week after week I would show up with my knitting, and a bag of supplies for the ladies, and even some efforts at group projects....but really I was often in a room with a whole bunch o' people that didn't care about knitting (even a few who no longer cared about anything, really....some were not even in the alert category). None of us were having much fun. Sometimes one of The Ladies would call for a nurse and ask to go back to their room because they didn't want to be there. Yay.

After a year or so, I finally got the activities director to work with me to change it to an entirely different activity. I would come in once a week, and The Ladies and I would sit around loooong table. I would hand out magazines, and The Ladies would flip through them, kind of the way you might do it when you scan a magazine at the doctor's office. I made it a requirement that The Ladies would get pastries and coffee. After they settled in a bit, I would still show them what I was knitting, and they'd always oooh and ahhh, and then I would tell them stories about whatever was going on in my life...sometimes showing them pictures of things, like the new house, or MyFavoriteKid. I would then read bits of the newspaper to them, or maybe a short story, and then....before then end of our time together, I would go around the table to each one of them (it grew to be about 20 of them) and spend a couple of minutes chatting with them individually while the rest of them finished their magazines. One by one, I'd read each lady who wanted it their horoscope, and then we'd talk about how they were doing, and then they could either get a hug or a handshake from me if they wanted one. Some asked for both.

I always felt better every time I left, and for the ones that were still of right mind, they'd always look at me in the face and thank me for coming...even if their lips didn't work so well anymore.

And now I really need to stop going.

Between the visiting time, and the commute, and gathering of supplies and whatnot....well, I just need to divert that time and energy towards my own family right now.
Charity begins at home.

It kills me to say goodbye to The Ladies.
It's like telling your grandma that you are moving away and wont be able to visit anymore.
Except that it's like saying that to twenty grandmas, and it just makes me want to cry.

Some of them have just touched me so deeply, and it's also killing me a wee bit that I was never able to capture some of the magical moments I had there. Like the lady who would never talk to the nursing staff, and the nurses even said she wasn't able to speak....and yet I knew that she was from the Phillipines and lived in Chicago and used to love high heels and lipstick. She was a Leo.

Don't get me going again.
I've been weepy all day.

The truth of the matter is that I really don't have many friends....well, I mean, not friends that I see in the flesh all that often, I mean....and honest to god, some weeks these ladies were just about my only contact real physical contact with the outside world. Not seeing them anymore is really going to reduce my circle.....and not to blow smoke up my own arse, but I also know that my not being there is going to reduce theirs, too. I used to use the newspaper stories to get them talking around the table to each other, and we'd all tell stories and laugh, and they'd talk about days gone by. It was special for all of us.


I'm also having to make some changes to the second volunteer commitment....but I'll write about that another time.
I'm just too sad already to continue tonight.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

so close

Wow, it's so hot here the last couple of days. 94 degrees today!

The painter was supposed to be done at the new house last Friday. Today he said he'd be done by Thursday.....but now tonight we have also tagged a few blips and things that need to be cleaned up here and there before we hand over the check. I hope it doesn't slow him down any.

If all goes as planned, Friday is cleaning and reclaiming the space a bit. TheMostImportantGuy moves in this weekend. The guy with the window coverings did his thing today in the two rooms we had special orders for (the master bedroom and the sunroom/studio). Sadly, one of the blinds was not cut properly, so he'll be back in a week or two with a correction.

There will still be the remodel of the in-law unit going on in the back, but I cannot wait to have people out of the main house so we can enjoy it.

It feels like it's been foreverrrrrrrrrrr.

Monday, June 20, 2011

mt laundry

It feels like the last two days have been about laundry, and only laundry. It got kinda backed up around here, what with almost 3 weeks of hospital visits, promotion events, and then my being sick.

But of course, it isn't really just about laundry around here. That's just me avoiding writing about the tougher stuff. Running out of underpants it so much easier to write about LOL.

What's tough is that change is in the air. I am in the process of re-evaluating my schedule and my commitments so that I can be of more help to my folks.....and then I'm also aware that there is going to be some sort of shift real soon here because the new house is just about ready for TheMostImportantGuy to move into it (in fact, he's aiming to be out of his old place by next weekend).

Change is in the air. It's not good, it's not bad, it's just change.....
but it's causing me to address the fact that I'm more a creature of habit than I realized I was.


Laundry will be done today.
Maybe tomorrow I will write more, and not about dirty socks.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

this particular father's day

I stole that shot of me 'n dad when he was in the ICU (there was a "no cameras allowed sign"), but I just had to take it 'cuz I for a couple of days there, I feared it might be the last photo I might be able to take of him.

Several of my closest friends lost their fathers this year (TheMostImportantGuy's dad included). It's been a tough year within my circle.


-----
Sent from my iPad

Saturday, June 18, 2011

no snap saturday

Today was great, and I forgot to take any photos.

I woke up early with....drumroll please.....no pain, and no headache. I did the grocery shopping super early and beat the crowds, then came home and made breakfast for MyFavoriteKid and TheMostImportantGuy. KarenTheDancingLurker (my co-dance teacher) came over and we took care of class business, then I took her on a tour of the new house, and then back again to my place where I made a killer cheese and fruit plate. Gore-mette, it was ;-)

The rest of the afternoon was lazy, and then in honor of my dad, we watched the movie Groundhog Day....because every morning that I visited dad while he was in the hospital, I'd ask him how he was and he'd say it was Groundhog Day. One day he said that to one of the doctors and the doc didn't get the reference. The doc thought my dad was slipping mentally and really believed it was February (Doc: "Nooooo, Sir. It's JUNE, Sir.". Me: "Doc, he's making a joke about a movie where every day the main character wakes up and lives the same day over and over and over.". Doc: "Ok, sure" *raised eyebrow*)

The only little bummerz of the day have come when dealing with the other little hospital patient, the chihuahua...of whom I do have a photo of, but it's a little graphic-gross. It's a little hard to watch her, she so gimpy from the surgery and loopy from the meds.

There was a day-long retreat at the zen center today, but the dog is in the stage of needing 24/7 supervision and medicines and compresses and special food and needing to be carried to the water dish and carried to the potty area....so, oh well.

But today was a good one.

-----
Sent from my iPad

Friday, June 17, 2011

not

Still not back to Freebie-Fridays.

Today I was too busy with No-Fuzz-On-My-Butt-Friday.



Pooooor Teeny.

She had really bad floating knee-caps. We weren't going to do anything about it because a) it seemed sort of ridiculous to do all that for dog, and b) even though she walked with a little skip, it was cute, and it didn't seem to bother her. That changed a week or so ago, though. She had several days where she couldn't sit, and when she tried to, she'd tip over. She was also hiding in all the dark corners of the house with a mopey-face. It was sad. So surgery it was.

I can't even tell you how much shit is on my plate right now....LOLOL.
I'm laughing to keep from crying (although I did cry about yesterday for a few).

There's the Dad stuff, the dog stuff, my own bout with pain (back is on the mend! but a migraine today! woot!). I have two structures being renovated by two different crews (main house and in-law unit), and all the contractors seem to be showing up with their own behavior issues. One of the co-teachers of the dance class I teach has retired, so the two of us that are left are taking stock and working on a game plan. I've got the kid out of school, creating a break in the routine. And meanwhile I am trying to reassess my life a bit and see what commitments should stay and which ones need to go, because it is clear it is time for a shift.

I'm sure it sounds like I am complaining, but really, I'm not. I'm just trying to state the obvious here so that I can assess the situation and deal with things accordingly.
Things are just beyond high-maintenance right now!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

it's been forever since there has been a real teehee here at amputeehee, huh...

Well, here's one for ya'.


Let's all go to the lobby....
Let's all go to the lobby....

(from a commercial about being able to watch tv on your handheld device while waiting at the DMV)

Let's all go to the lobby....



Hey.

Did you ever notice that Mr.CornDog was an amputee???!





Me neither.

TeeHee.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

pain

I'm not sure what I have done to my back, but for the last 48 hours, I've been in the most excruciating pain of my life, I do believe. I can sit okay (dull pain), but when I try to stand, or even worse, take a step with crutches, I can barely straighten myself up or take a step forward.

I've been stretching and doing the ice-pack thing, and mostly watching myself react to the constant buzz of discomfort. It is so amazing to see how little room there is my brain when it's already full with something I'd rather not even be there!

Tonight I was driving (sitting! it's okay! it's getting out of the car that's the problem), and I had one of those squishy therapy ball things jammed up behind my back, and I literally heard something pop back into place. That was about 4 hours ago, and things have been slowly improving ever since. I'm not sure what was out of whack, but you can be sure I am mentioning this at my physical therapy appointment next week. Sheesh!!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

vintage me



In 10th grade, believe it or not.
Hey, at least I made use of them legs while I had 'em.

hahahahaha

Monday, June 13, 2011

close

I have worried about this since the day we moved in 4 years ago.

There's my house (the light blue one):


And that big patch of black on the empty hillside behind my house was made by a fire yesterday!

YIKES!!!


I have to wonder if there were some shennanigans going on up there on that hill yesterday. From about 5am, and running every 10 minutes or so, all day long, my dog Riley was in the back yard barking like he was going bananas. Every time I looked around, I didn't see anything. But I swear that a couple of times it smelled like someone was smoking grass (and not the grass growing on the hillside, if ya' know what I mean).

All is well, no damage to any of our homes. Thank goodness it happened on a Sunday afternoon and all the neighbors were around to break out their hoses and call the fire department!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

best and worst (and uber-worst)

WORST:
I started coming down with a head cold last night. I had to stay home in bed and miss a fun concert that TheMostImportantGuy and I had tickets for. I used everything in my arsenal to stay ahead of it (including defrosting the emergency ration of mom's chicken soup that I was saving in my freezer), but I felt worse by this afternoon.

BEST:
I finally found a good chinese restaurant in our area, and I just had the best woton soup I have ever had in my life. It was looooaded with sliced garlic and there was lots of ginger in the wonton filling. I swear it is helping.

UBER-WORST (and I usually never end "best and worst" with a worst, and definately not an "uber", but....):
Dad is running a fever, and they want him back at the hospital tonight :-(


-----
Sent from my iPad

Saturday, June 11, 2011

snaps on saturday



Progress on the in-law unit.
Let the frames begin.

Friday, June 10, 2011

the best kind of free on a friday

real life situation:

*ring ring*

Hello?

Hi.
Dad?!!! Does this mean you are a free man??
Yup.
Yay! Are you on your way home now??
Yup.
You must be so happy...
Yup.
Dad...are you crying??
Yup.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This has been the longest 17 days ever. It feels like it's been a month.

I know I haven't been giving up much information here lately, but this last week has been INSANE. There have been up to 3 different crews at times working on 2 different structures at the new house. MyFavoriteKid had a slew of end of year performances and promotions and activities, plus he needed a good dose of my mad parenting skills when he got himself on restriction. The little chihuahua has needed to go to the vet (surgery next week, more on that soon, I am sure). And then of course, my dad.

I had to due a bunch of research about my dad. And I needed to be at the hospital daily because I really needed to hear the poop from the doctors myself, and because I really wanted to support both of my parents as best I could.
(I wonder how many times I can say really and really mean it LOL)

My dad, it turns out, is MrOneInFiftyThousand. My dad has Microscopic Polyangitis, which is a type of Vasculitis. The general gist is that my dad's body is creating antibodies that are attacking his own blood vessels. For my dad, this first appeared in his kidneys a few months ago (although it was believed to just be plain ol' kidney failure), and then it showed up in his lungs a couple of weeks ago (when it was first thought to be a heart attack or something). One of my dad's many specialists told me that my dad's case was pretty much the talk of the hospital there for awhile, because they just couldn't figure it out.

Dad has been looking great the last few days. He's made a real solid effort to get strong and to follow orders and to do his exercises and get strong so that he could go home instead of being shipped off to a rehab facility. He is going to be on some seriously harsh drugs for awhile, and he is going to have weekly doctors visits and blood tests to monitor the levels of things he is on so that they can taper it down as quickly as possible. He had a fair amount of steroids pumped into him to get the inflammation off the blood vessels, and now he's on immune suppressants as they try to get his body to stop manufacturing this antibody.

In other words, don't sneeze on him.

He's got so many meds, and so many changes to his meds, that my mom and I spent at least and hour and a half tonight making charts and surrounding ourselves with bottles and labels and post-its and trays of those pill sorter-organizer things, because they all need to be taken at various times of the day. I'm sure that they're going to be rearranging his meds regularly for then next few months, too....so it's gonna be crazy trying to get it just right. We also spent quite some time working out what he is allowed to eat or not eat. I mean, wtf does it mean when one section says, "eat lean proteins," and the next section says, "limit legumes"...?? Seriously???

Mom's been a rockstar, but we're both beat and borderline crabby (well, I actually just crossed that border into flat out irritated a few minutes ago). I think we could both use a glass of wine and a box of kleenex soon....once we have time to fall apart.


So great to have him back.
When I left my mom's tonight, he was all tucked up in his own bed with his blanket all up under his chin. He looked like a little bug in a rug.


Thanks so much for all of your love, support, prayers, and especially the laughter.
I am positive it has all made a difference.

Thursday, June 09, 2011

vintage me



You know what's funny....
I'd say about 90% of the time I use my laptop, I'm sitting at the dining room table.

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

gah.

I have way more to say than this, but I am totally out of time.




Strawberries out of those little pots I threw on the the patio at the new house. I smuggled them in to dad at the hospital for a treat.

Today was hectic. Three different crews working on the new house (painter, glass repair guy for that broken window, and the guys renovating the in-law unit). Also had to deal with the pool cover company. And many many details from the docs about dad. And then tonight was MyFavoriteKid's 8th Grade/Middle School promotion.

I cannot believe he is going to be in HIGH SCHOOL (and he's now taller than me, too).

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

perfect time for best and worse

I am so overloaded with information right now, I'm going to need to keep it simple on the blog here tonight so I can try to give my brain a chance to process it all.

Perfect time for best and worst.

worst:
Dad's biopsy came back and it's looking like he does not have the easiest-of-the-peasy diseases to deal with. They had narrowed it down to three, and for the last several days, they were saying that the blood tests trickling it were showing that dad probably had the one of the three that just happened to be the easiest to deal with. This evening that all changed. The doc sort of dropped the little mini-bomb by saying the biopsy results were in and things are more complicated, BUT he also didn't give the full details or treatment options, because hey...."we'll discuss that when we see you tomorrow" (in other words, it's kinda like telling someone they have cancer, but not what type of cancer, and not if it's stage 1 or 4 or somewhere in between. That's where the doc left things tonight. Awesome. Great night of tossing and turning for all of us involved. Ass.)
Mom is beside herself, Dad is practically writing his own obituary, and I'm over here researching the variables and compiling the list of "what to ask your doctor", and I'm also trying to remind everyone, including myself, that all the worrying in the world tonight is not going to make the answers that we will get tomorrow arrive any faster.
Stay. In. The. Moment. (*ohm*)

best:
All of MY test results have now come back, and I aint got NOTHIN'.
The nerve conduction study on my arm that hurts shows that the the pain in my hand is not from nerve damage (good), and the x-ray didn't show any unusual degeneration (also good), so now I'm off to see a hand therapist. My standard internal girly tests were negative, and most importantly, my mammogram was clear (woot!!--I was worried about that, because I have a fibroid that changing a bit....but it's just a fibroid). My doc also ran the gamut of bloodwork tests, and every single result was right up the middle in the normal range.

I am healthy and well enough to be of support to my family.

This is good.

Monday, June 06, 2011

for my audobon society readers...

Can any of you folks out there identify this bird?


(as seen on the steps of the new house, during Sunday's drizzle)



I've looked through my local bird guides, and I can't figure it out!

She looked like some sort of grouse or something. Whatever she is, she was one very round bird, I tell ya'...getting ready to drop some eggs, maybe?? She actually looked like one of the Angry Birds, now that I think about it...hahahaha.



San Francisco Bay Area (North), we are.
Any ideas?

Sunday, June 05, 2011

i....uhhh....

....can tell that I'm trying to take a mental vacation when I catch myself watching hours and hours of really. stupid. television.

First it was few episodes have to do with something about people getting over crazy eating disorders, and now it's something about some polygamous family.

I never watch this crap unless I am really trying to escape.




I want to thank you all for the comments. Every day you guys have made me feel supported and loved and understood. I really cannot thank you enough. If you were here, I'd hug you all....but here's the best I can do from here:
**hugs!**
;-)

Saturday, June 04, 2011

snaps on saturday

The in-law unit. Gutted, and being prepped for its complete transformation.

-----
Sent from my iPad

Friday, June 03, 2011

vintage me. and dad.


Not a Freebie-Friday (again. sorry. consider that on hold until I get my head together).

They still don't know exactly what's wrong, and the results of the biopsy wont be back until early next week. They have added a new possible disease to consider though: drug-induced lupus, thanks to some medication he should have only been on for a short period of time that he's somehow been on for years.

I wanted to post something nice about my dad tonight, hence the photo, because quite frankly, I'd really like to bop him in the nose.

Dad's getting stronger, and they're getting ready to move him out of the ICU....but getting stronger for him means that he's now well enough to exhibit horrible behaviors. He's a royal pain in the arse when he gets like this, and we're all too familiar with it because he pulled this routine when he had his stroke.

He thinks my mom (and me now, too) are conspiring against him, we're "in on it", and we're "commiting" him to the hospital. He's telling my mom all sorts of nasties like he wants her to leave and that he doesn't care if she comes back or not. He's pulling at things that are plugged into him and he's ripping things out that he shouldn't be, and last night when I walked into his room, some dumb-ass nurse who wasn't breifed had given him a phone in is room and he was making calls to rent a car so he could leave. (?!!) Forget the fact that he has no pants. Or a wallet. Or a brain.

(sorry, I am so pissed)

I love him dearly, very dearly, but this my friends, is crap...and it's really hard to tolerate. It's all drug induced malarkey, we know that, and he probably wont remember any of this once he gets out. But it hurts, and it's really hard to take.


I've been somewhat hesitant to blog about all this stuff with my dad, because I know he reads my blog (when he can), and if he ever gets well enough, he might scroll back through all of this. I worry about him reading it and it upsetting him, because I really do not believe he does any of this on purpose, and I really don't think he remembers any of it. But I've just flat out come to the conclusion that this is my damn blog, and I need to process this, and well....it might not hurt for him to someday know the truth of went on behind his hospital-haze.

Thursday, June 02, 2011

here i am

Sorry for not doing my own typing yesterday...but thanks for understanding :-)

Here's the general gist with dad at the moment:

They have ruled out the more common and obvious things, and they are now on to testing him for strange and unusual “syndromes” (leave it to my dad to keep things simple). They are presently testing him for auto-immune disorders that affect both the kidneys and the lungs, or the blood vessels. Apparently this type of blood work takes a few days to do, but given the symptoms he is experiencing and the more superficial test results that are already coming in positive, they now want to do a biopsy of his kidneys so they have more refined information. Obtaining the biopsy results is going to take another several days, too. Meanwhile, they have given dad a little bit of This-And-That to stop the bleeding in his lungs, and because it’s helping, and because he’s been stable, most of yesterday was spent getting dad ready to be on less support (ie remove the ventilator).

Yesterday morning, by the way, I arrived at the hospital under the most beautiful of rainbows.

Complete strangers in the parking lot were talking to each other about it, and it just felt like one fat good omen.

When I got upstairs into the ICU, dad was looking great. They had decreased his sedation, so dad was able to nod his head yes or no if you asked him questions. The respiratory crew began to ween him off the ventilator, and he was responding fabulously. They wanted to have him spend the day with the vent still in place and "on low", so to speak, but with him doing most of “the breathing work”. Then the plan was to give him a rest at night having the vent take on a bit more of the work and re-upping the sedation….and then in the morning, they’d drop everything down again, and if he did well the 2dn time, they’d take him off the next morning (that being today).

Well. Unfortunately, Dad is not much for going with "the plan". I know it's not nice of me to speak ill of my elders, but that man is one horrible patient. He always is. He hates being in the hospital, and when he's there and he's on enough meds, he gets this kookie idea that is family is "committing" him or something, and all he wants is to go home. He sits there being all polite and nice-nice, but if you watch him, you can really see that what is he is doing is looking at what he's hooked up to, and where his clothes and the nearest door are. The second you turn your back, he tries to make a break for it.

We warned them.

At at 1 a.m. I got the call MrHoudini had ripped out the ventilator tubes and got the whole nursing staff into a tizzy.

I was so pissed. I had spent the whole friggin' afternoon yesterday with dad because mom had called and said he was agitated and she had to leave to take care of some things....and meanwhile, I was not taking care of my own important things (like, *ahem*, a birfday). I didn't mind one bit though, actually....because dad and I had a great time! He was so alert that we watched a couple of hours of CashCab and he would use a thumbs up or down if he had guessed right, and he smiled and tried to laugh a couple of times. It was great.

But I leave, and once I do, my mom goes back and he's treating her like she's part of some conspiracy to keep him in a hospital, and then when she goes, he's unplugging himself from everything!

I went back this morning and kinda wanted to bop him in the kisser (not really, just...well, you know what I mean)....and he looks right at me and says, "Hi! Look! They took me off the ventilator last night!" Then he asks me to open the door to the closet because he's just "wondering what's in there," and then is like, "Where's my clothes!!" Once again, plotting his escape.

*sigh*

Well, this afternoon he had the biopsy. I think now that that's done, he can have some solid food, and physical therapists are testing his strength and whatnot. I think in terms of the immediate situation, things are looking up. But if he has what they think he has, well....

We'll just cross that road when we get there.


Wednesday, June 01, 2011

MIG's birfday

MIG here. Carrot cake in belly. Beer. Some healthy stuff like eggplant, cauliflower, asparagus. Oh yeah, gin & tonic too. Girlfriend is cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Too much cleaning for blog posting. So I take time out of busy cake-eating schedule to help.

There, I have helped!

Now then ... apple cider!