Surgery and the Third Floor

I’ll be scarce again for a while.

At 5:30 yesterday morning, I took Pop in for surgery. It went well, according to the surgeon who called me in the waiting room immediately afterwards. Got home ’round 4 in the afternoon. It was scheduled surgery to remove a part of his colon that “was diseased”. I don’t know all the specific details, Pop kinda talks around stuff like that usually. He’ll be in for five or six days to recover, then probably 6-8 weeks at home of not being able to do much.

I wanted to get a nap, lay down and work out some of the stiffness that waiting rooms invariably inflict, but it just didn’t happen. Lots of family and friends to call and from whom to answer calls and questions. I may have mentioned in passing once or twice on this blog how much I love the telephone, so as necessary as that was, it was a fairly excruciating duty piled on top of the physical pain. I just kept telling myself that it’s not about me, it’s about Pop. Being the eldest and geographically closest of my siblings has it’s perks, but it also has its responsibilities.

Suck it up, wus. Make the calls, take the calls. Sleep later.

Fitful sleep last night. No rest.

Jane (the wife, not the sockpuppet) got called to work on an emergency last night, worked late. I got up early to take over student delivery service. Both to school, both on time, lunch in hand for the elder. The younger buys lunch.

Complete sentences are in and out of my reach, and although that usually drives me insane, I’m too tired to care much. It comes as it comes.

My eyes are crossing. Shower time, back to the hospital, minimal coffee input. Photo credit is too much work right now, maybe fix it later. (Somebody remind me to do that.)

Also, I need to make subcategories for Pop and Aunt Helen. Been meaning to do that for a while.

We really should just rent a family room at the hospital, and keep it on standby.

I have to shower and suck down more coffee before I go, I can’t drive well like this. (Don’t drive like my brother!) (Allusion to Click and Clack.)

I ran into my cousin this morning on the way to the middle school (me, not him. He was going to work.) He scolded me for not taking better care of my car. I love my car, I just don’t have the will right now.

Wow, this post sucks. That’s going to annoy me for a long time. I’ll write a bunch of posts later this week to push it off the front page.

Why are the waiting room chairs so damned uncomfortable? They need to do something about that.

On the bright side, it’s going to be 78 degrees today. On the down side, I’ll spend it inside the hospital.

I am so not publishing this post.

Eh, what the hell.

Family Updates

I know it’s rare that I post here more than once or twice a week, so I’m hoping I don’t cause any cardiac issues for anyone.

I just thought you’d like to know what’s been going on in the FCD family.

So Where Were We?

For starters, I’m beat.  I’m drained, kaput, exhausted, running on empty.

But enough about my I.Q. …  🙂

Seriously, here’s where things stand (for those of you keeping score) –

Wife Jane – Love her heart, she’s up and around this morning, cleaning the kitchen and just brought me some coffee.  I’ve got a massive headache either from lack of good sleep, lack of caffeine, or just general stress.  Wait, this wasn’t about me, was it?

Wife Jane, Take Two – So she’s doing better, but still sore as hell.  She’s up and about though, and handling problems at work by phone.  She’s still walking like me, but she’s improving.  I’m really glad the Crippled Old Man Shuffle looks to be temporary.  It’s not very attractive.  🙂

Daughter KaylaFace – Driving all over town at her second drivers’ ed road class yesterday.  I am so very proud of how well she’s doing I can’t contain it.  And despite the fact that we all know how long they’ll last, I really do appreciate all the promises she’s making about taking care of a lot of the driving errands for me once she’s loose on the road.  Makes me feel old though, and I damned near cried when I went to pick her up after lesson number one.  I hadn’t expected them to leave the parking lot of the high school, but when I arrived they were nowhere to be found.  After about five minutes, she pulled the car into the parking lot and parked it right at the front doors of the school like she’d been doing it all her life.  They’d been out cruising the neighborhoods.

She’s a little worried about today though.  They’re learning to park.  Residential neighborhoods?  No prob.  Two lane highway?  Piece of cake.  Rush hour traffic on the four lanes of U.S. 17  through town?  Walk in the park.  Put the car between two yellow lines in an empty parking lot?  Scary, apparently.

?

Pop – Probably coming home today.  He was up and around yesterday, with the physical therapist in tow.  She brought a walker with her for him.  He laughed and told her I needed it more than he did.  He was right.  Put the lady on his arm and cruised off down the hall with her, leaving the walker in the room.  He’s still a working carpenter, and intends to go right back at it.  Good for him.  I should be in so good a condition.  I believe they’ll be prying his hammer from his cold dead hand long after I’m worm bait.

He said they did two “brain scans” on him.  From what I could gather, one was an EEG, and the other an MRI maybe.  Doc says that it may not be his middle ear after all, but an after effect of a mini stroke he seems to have had at some time in the past.

If I know Pop, he was probably on a roof or something and just ate a Tums and went on.  “Stroke?  Nah, indigestion.  Gimme another truss.  I don’t have time for a stroke.”

Fuckin’ Ironman.

Two Separate Trips To The E.R. Today

My father collapsed right about noon today. I was in the middle of some posts for UDoJ that would be time delayed to give me a fighting chance to post over here. Needless to say, I dropped and ran. Hence the relative silence.

Pop’s had an aneurysm in his aorta the docs have been carefully watching, and of course that was my first thought. Since he made it to the E.R. still alive, I pretty much could rule that out, thank the FSM.

Then I was thinking stroke, because chest and arm pain wasn’t involved. After several hours of tests and cat scans and all that jazz, they determined that its probably some weird problem involving his middle ear. That’s where the little gyroscope in your body is that controls balance and direction. So they’re thinking that it went haywire, sending him into a mad shock of vertigo. The dizziness put him down. Major scare, minor problem relatively speaking.

Ok, ’round 4:30 they get him settled into a room upstairs, they’re keeping him for observation overnight. I called all the family to let them know he was OK, and talked to the wife on the phone who was running errands.

Kayla’s partner didn’t show up for drivers’ ed, so she has to wait until tomorrow to start.

I got home, hung up my jacket and keys, kissed my son, pet the dog, and let out a sigh of relief that the day was nearly over and I could relax. Took the meds I’d missed and was just about to lay down. I’d been in the house maybe five minutes when the phone rang.

My wife is hysterically bawling on the phone, some young girl had rear-ended her. Right back out the door. Kay’s OK, but Jane looks pretty rough and she’s in a neck brace. I watched as the paramedics extricated her from the car and strapped her on a back board. Kay was pretty upset. Of course I had to hang around waiting for the State Trooper to show up.

He was quick and professional, helpful, and let me go to the E.R. as soon as he could, promising to meet me there to take my wife’s statement. He did show up, took her statement and Kay’s and told us there would be no problems with the insurance company, the other driver was 100% at fault. (I should say so, Jane was stopped at a red light!) Our car was barely scraped, the other driver’s was a wreck. She had hit Jane still going so fast that her front end slid right up under our car and just scratched the bumper and tailpipe.

We’re home now (except Pop), and Kay is fine, Jane is badly bruised and sore. Personally, I’m worn out.

G’night.

Untitled about my Father

I walked along the shore,

Thunderous crashing of surf,

against the rocky cliffs below,

Cold wet spray of water

against my face,

Salty smell of the mighty Atlantic

burning in my nose.

Out over the water

I could see the proud ships

of my homeland’s navy

Coursing through the waves.

I sat upon a rock

and thought a while,

Remembering times

when I was quite young

And my father brought me here.

I miss my father.

We were great friends,

He and I.

We still speak,

every few weeks.

I drive the many hours,

Once or twice a year,

to see him,

hoping to recapture that something

That doesn’t seem

to still be there.

L.

10/4/95