Tonight’s title comes from a spot about 3 inches (about 7.62 cm - yes, je me souviens) above and to the left of my laptop display. I’m on a flight to Seattle, which is where I’ll be working all week - flying back to San Francisco on Friday night.
[Update: This was composed Sunday night, but posted Tuesday night, after Em rebooted the (yes, it died on me again) web server for me. Blasted web server...]
I’m sorry to have been so flaky of late. It’s not a good thing generally, and in this instance may have caused concern among some folks… Arnon even *called* me (remember telephones?), and I haven’t called him back. Nor e-mailed Reb, nor Al Yates (welcome, Peaches). Nor have I sent e-mail to anyone else, really… It’s just been a weird time, and I was in several different bad moods for a while. Pity poor Emylene. Yes, even more than usual. I’m feeling a bit better now, so here’s a long-overdue update from 39,000 feet (about 11.89 km - okay, okay, I’ll stop now).
First of all, my dad is back in Toronto, at North York General Hospital. The good news is that he’s there, he’s stable, and since the last time he was there (when he had a major stroke, about 12 years ago), the place has been totally revamped, and now boasts a pretty state-of-the-art critical care center. The bad news is that the trip almost killed him - it turns out he wasn’t QUITE ready to be moved, even in a well-equipped and well-staffed air ambulance. He bloated up, gained fluid in his lungs, lost blood pressure and respiration. Basically, he came very close to the edge, but some amazing emergency care on the ground pulled him back. It was a pretty scary experience, even just to hear about by phone. At least my brothers were there with my mom, so she didn’t have to go through it alone. Plus, they have cell phones (Mom does not), so they were able to keep me updated.
It’s been a long time - I never did post about the *second* time we almost lost my dad (the initial seizure being the first). That was about a week ago, when he pulled out his traceotomy tube early one morning. We don’t know why, but he did. He was pretty out of it, so it may have been some semi-conscious reaction to the tube in his throat (”tube lodged in throat - must pull out”). Who knows? But it resulted in a “Code Blue” emergency, and a lot of excitement (the bad kind) at the hospital. As it turns out, a doctor was able to pop it back in pretty quickly, and it seems there was no permanent harm done. It was a nasty setback, though, since they’d been making good progress weaning my dad off of his ventilator up to that point, and that had to stop until they were sure he was stable again, by which time (pretty much) he was slated to fly back to Canada.
Anyhow, the important news is that my dad survived these ordeals, and is once again getting (slowly) better. He’s also (mercifully?) sedated most of the time, since his pulse and respiration still get a little erratic when he’s too awake and active. I imagine that as those vitals improve, they’ll wean him off the sedation, and eventually resume work on weaning him off the ventilator entirely.
In unrelated news: I’ll post from Seattle during the week with some unrelated (to my dad’s situation) news. This will include the nice weather we’ve had lately in San Francisco, the fun (yes, fun!) things Em and I did, places we’re going soon (hint: Cost Rica), movies and live performances (hint: Robin Williams) Em and I have seen lately, cool web sites and utilities, and all that other mundane junk. It seems dwarfed by what’s going on with my dad, but it’ll be good to write about the trivial stuff again…
Thanks again, to everyone, for your support. I heard and read all the kind words - even though I was too flaky to reply - and they really made a difference. You folks are sweet. And don’t worry - the ride is sometimes bumpy, but I’m seated, and my seat belt is fastened securely.
Quickly: My dad is stable, and improving slowly. No bad news on that front, which is good news in itself. Our thoughts go out to Judy and her family - I’m sorry to hear about your uncle, and hope he’s doing well. More news and posts (and photos!) when we get back from Costa Rica in about a week!!