The Snowman Cometh

While Lisa & Jackie created virtual snowmen Shelby, Rhiannon, and Clint toiled away at a life-sized model. I thought the similarity between virtual and actual was remarkable.

Home Sweet Home

I never realized how forested my home was until I moved here to the desert northwest. I eventually came to appreciate the beauty of this area, and I stopped missing the green of home.

But during those weeks back home during my dad's illness, I was confronted with the incredible beauty of my childhood home.

This backwoods road is where I used to wander as a child when I wanted to be alone. I used to meander off into the woods and play games of pretend for hours.

New Year's Day

A snowy dawn on New Year's morning.
It was so beautiful.

I love being in the mountains in the snow.
What a perfect way to start the New Year.

What I Did This Weekend

I had an unfortunate run-in with a windstorm and my garage door on Saturday night. This is the same door whose claim to fame is shattering Gillian's thumb two years ago. This time, my finger was the casualty. A sudden fierce gust of wind slammed the door on the last three fingers of my right hand. It ripped the nail of my middle finger out--intact---, lacerated the nail bed beneath, and folded the tip of my finger back to expose the bone, which was crushed at the tip. Nice, huh?!

Did I mention we were in the middle of fighting a would-be chimney fire when all this occured? So I waited, finger in ice water, for Clint to get the chimney problem under control, called my brothrr over to watch the kids...and make sure the fire stayed out, and headed to emergency, a place I vowed never to return to. I had to face the fact that my finger would need a repair job beyond that of self care.

Kadlec did a great job, and they were very nice (my only other ER experience was at KGH...they were not nice). They removed the part of the nail that was still attached, and then reinserted it to act as a protector for my nail bed until it starts to heal. They sewed up my fingertip, and I was good to go. The doctor says I will lose the nail, it will take about a year to grow a new one in fully, and he can't say if it will grow normally...it may not. I'm just glad I've got my whole finger.

Today at my followup I got to see it agin. It's a little Frankensteinish, but I can live with it. The follow up Doc saw no signs of infection (they had expressed concern over the possibility of infection to the bone), so I'm happy.

I wanted to come home and get back to life as normal. I've got too much to do to be laying around. But the pain pills made me so nauseous I spent half the day in bed, and then when I feeling returned to my finger, the throbbing kept me from wanting to move much at all! Now, 48 hours after the injury, I'm able to do a little typing without too much discomfort. Yeah!!! I'm back on my blog!!!

Numbers

Percentage of men who survive testicular cancer 95
Number of guests at Dad's memorial 94
Number of years my dad lived 66 and 364 days
Number of Hours I went without sleep 45
Number of Days my Dad was ill 38
Number of Hours to drive to the hospital 12.5
Number of Days I spent with dad while he was sick 11
Percentage of men over the age of 50 who survive testicular cancer 10
Number of Days of Cemotherapy 7
Number of Doctors involved in Dad's case 6
Number of times his diagnosis changed 4
Number of times Dad was admitted to the hospital last month 3
Number of electrolytes his body couldn't assimilate after chemo 3
Number of trips I made to California 2
Number of tears he cried when he knew he wouldn't make it 1
Number of times I've cried Too many to count

I miss my Dad

More Bad News

My dad is in the hospital with pneumonia. Thank goodness my sister called him to say hello. He had been sick with a cold or flu, and told her he hadn't eaten in two weeks. He was having difficulty breathing and sounded confused, even delusional. My sister lives 9 hours away from him, so she called me (I'm 13 hours away), in a panic because she couldn't reach my other sister, who only lives 2 1/2 hours from Dad, to ask her to go check on him. I was able to contact Alesia, who dropped everything to drive up and visit my dad on Saturday. He had lost so much weight and was so confused and out of breath that she took him to the hospital emergency. They decided to admit him for testing, and to monitor his breathing. He's been subjected to every test imaginable, and more.

This is what we know so far. My dad has emphysema. It shouldn't be a suprise, since he is a lifelong smoker, and has had a bad cough for years. But he goes to the doctor regularly, and has never been told that before. My dad also has asbestosis. This is a big surprise. Apparently he was in contact with asbestos materials in the 25 years he worked at the winery. Both of these diseases are incurable, and result in difficulty breathing.

Dad also has a hard glassy sustance in the lymph nodes between his lungs. They don't know what it is. The possibilities mentioned are cancer, lymphoma, tuberculosis, and advance stage pneumonia. They will have to transfer him to a larger hospital. This one is too small to perform the testing procedures that will be necessary to determine what it is.

I need to go see him. But if it's only going to be a short hospital stay, it would be best to wait until he's home, so I can take a turn caring for him. Today they will do a preliminary test to determine where to send him for the testing. It's so hard to wait. It must be even harder for my sister Alesia, who left her kids home alone to come care for my dad, and brought only 1 change of clothes because she didn't know she would be staying so long. She can't really leave, because Dad is too confused to talk to the doctors about his condition and what's going to be happening.

Bad News

Yesterday one of Clint's employess cut off his thumb. I can't stop thinking about it. I feel so horrible. I know it's not my fault, but I feel so...responsible. He was on our job, working for our company. I feel so badly for him. He's only about twenty three, and now the rest of his life will be altered.

They couldn't reattach it. Clint had to take the saw apart to get the thumb out, but the blade had damaged it too much for it to be useable. Clint was amazing. He handled the whole thing so well. While his other workers were still thinking the whole thing was a joke, Clint was doing everything he could. He determined that the thumb had been sucked up into the saw, cut the cord to the saw, grabbed the saw and Jason, and drove him to Kadlec. He kept his cool when another driver, angry that Clint had passed him illegallly, followed him on the freeway, passed him, and cut him off. He kept his cool at the hospital, where he turned Jason over to their personnel and then immediately started taking the saw apart so he could retrieve the thumb without damaging it. He kept his cool when the nurse took one look at the thumb and said "Oh that's no good; there's no point in putting it on ice." Clint insisted she put it on ice anyway until the orthopedic surgeon could make a determination. He even kept it together when the surgeon pulled him aside and examined the thumb with him in detail, showing him why it was unlikely that they would be able to reattach it.

Jason is recovering well. He's trying to adjust to the situation. He's thinking about things he loves to do that will be more difficult, like motorcyling. The only small mercy is that it was his left thumb. He's right handed.

We need to get out of this business.