Memories

Life has day's that are good for different reasons. You don't always know how you are going to deal mentally with the challenging moments either. Today we had a memorial service for my uncle and I didn't know how it would be for all of us dealing with the situation. From the get go I made sure to keep perspective on the age of my uncle, (86) and that he had lived a great and fulfilling life. There were cousins, an uncle, nieces and nephew's, lots of friends and neighbors of my uncle, all celebrating his life. Throughout the whole service I drew strength from being in the company of my wife, children and our extended family. Our family had always sat in the same place in the church and today was no exception. I had a proud moment when my two older sons and their girl friends joined us. It was cool to have a pew full... The whole thing was SPECIAL, the singing, the music, and the reflections of their time spent with my uncle. I thought about my parents through the whole thing. How would they have felt about the service and what they might have presented too. I felt great about the whole thing. All the siblings that had preceded I am sure were standing with Bernard today too. So many people asked how I was doing. My normal response is "I am happy to be here and I'm doing great"and I truly believe it.
It's going to be a intense weekend for sure. This memorial service and the reception following on Saturday and on Sunday we are going to a benefit for another town resident who has cancer. I wrote about the "pie lady" before, its her father. (See late last year) Stay tuned and I'll tell you how it went.

hospital part2

We were talking about my uncle, who's now in the hospital. We went there later that day for support. Maybe there's support/strength in numbers, I think there was 8 people sitting around waiting for report of the progress of the clot removal. There was an obstruction in the carotid artery, so they couldn't get to the one in the brain. I told you before that I am comfortable in that hospital for some reason. Even if the situation is not great, for some reason it's been a good place for me. Another day later, I stopped by again in the ICU and I think I almost needed a number to get in the room, I was person 11. He's still under sedation with some brain swelling and a little temp. Nobody knows what the future will bring and we are keeping all of the parties involved in our prayers.... I think it has been a little comforting for all my cousins to see me there when most of them visited me when I was laying in that bed not knowing they were there. It's been good for me just to see what the situation, the room, and the people must have looked like. It's almost deja vu and I'm sitting there watching what's going on. I feel I have it together for now, but life throws some stuff at you for sure.

Rescue

I don't know how to address the web, but maybe "the world" might be good. Yesterday morning, a fire department experience again became part of my life experiences again. The pager went off again and listening to the address, we were on our way to my uncle and aunt's house. We get there, the front door is wide open, a neighbor is in the house and I find my uncle on the floor in the bedroom breathing but not moving or talking. The neighbor said she wasn't ever so happy to see someone. Other firemen began rolling in each doing his or her thing, more or less the same procedure we've done many times before, but this time it was my uncle... You still need to do what you are trained to do whether or not you know the person or not. We moved him to the backboard, he indicated he wasn't comfortable there and we moved him up to a chair. He was still not talking and it was beginning to look like a stroke... The ambulance crew arrived, did their thing, and suggested they go to a city hospital, then rolled out. We did everything we can and or know how to do, but to many times you think is it enough? Realistically I think he made it to the hospital in an hour and a half, not bad for a group of trained volunteers with a hospital thirty miles away. I talk about the hospital experience tomorrow.

The fence

The tree saga continues.... We had a great idea after the county got rid of the trees in front of our house to put up a fence. We hired a tree service to grind the stumps again seemed like a good idea. It looked like he did a good job when he took them down a foot more than the diameter of the stump. Well then we cleaned up the mess and took a tractor mounted rototiller to the whole area to smooth out our lawn. Well now you couldn't see where exactly the trees had been which presented a problem. We started digging a hole for the first fence and what do you know a root... Well I cleaned it up alittle then took a chainsaw to the root in the ground. I didn't now what else to do. The root ended up being about 8-10 inches around after I cut a hunk out of it. That took a couple of hours for one hole, too long and I was tired. The next day we did a couple three more, then the next problem presented itself. In the fifth hole about a foot down we ran into a piece of concrete on the road side of stumps. Were did that come from??? My brothers have an air compressor and a jack hammer, so we broke that up. It looked like a curb that was about two feet down from the road level. It had to have been there more than 50 years. I didn't want to believe it then we moved on to the last hole. And you guessed it about a foot down under the dirt concrete again. It was beginning to get old you know. Jack hammer again and some small pieces of root and we got the last one done. Three days to put up a rail fence the length of our house, a good thing I wasn't getting paid by the hole. Well I will still win over the tree that got me next winter when the pieces of wood from it heat our house. The new fence did make a nice mother's day present..

Doctors - final

It's good time in your life when after seven months you can shed all of the doctors, and therapists and try to go back to a more normal life. Finally, this week I had the last follow-up visit with the hand specialist. He did another office x-ray of my pinky finger and said that it looked excellent. He had me make a fist and I can curl it almost as far as the left hand. I have more movement than he thought I would ever have, which is a great feeling too. I know you don't want to be a regular at any doctor's office, enough so that the nurse recognizes you and calls you by your first name. I am glad that I don't need to go back there again, but they really have been great.
A week ago, I had a normal physical with my new primary care doctor, the same one that my wife and son see. I had been going to this clinic because their hours fit my schedule better, but after the accident they seemed out of touch and the the whole thing seemed a bit above them. So, I switched to a doctor that had asked about my condition several times and I felt comfortable with. Well I was telling him about my finger tips on my right hand tingling and he suggested I get an EMG. It's just a nerve test to see if all of the pathways are unobstructed and that everything is working like it's supposed to. It's been kindof funny, because the neurologist thought it was a hand problem and the hand specialist thought it was a brain problem. A family friend, that's also a neurologist, did the test and she didn't find anything wrong. She thinks that any difference is from swelling and will improve in the next six months plus. The two appointments were right after each other, so I had her report to give to the hand specialist too.
People have asked if I am 100%, well are any of us? I am working, driving and loving my family and that is what matters today. I am doing everything that I want to do and yes I still have some "quirks" and I am still getting closer to that 100% every day. But for now without any doctors in the picture and yes September 25th does seem like a long time ago.....

trees

The tree saga continues. You know that tree that got me, well we wanted them cut down..... There has been a beautiful palliated woodpecker creating havoc in the tops of them. They are rotted enough that there must be some grubs etc. living in the limbs and he is making some large grooves( 1 foot long x 2") to get at them. The resulting wood chips were everywhere and I am sure that it is weaking an already bad situation. Well the county, who has decided that the trees are theirs to deal with, hired a tree service to assist them in removing them. The tree service had a boom truck to reach the limbs and three guys with saws and the county had maybe seven others to watch traffic and pick up the mess. They did a good partial job. They left about seventeen feet of trunk still standing, which looks really weird. They assured Carole that they would be back to finish the job, we'll see, I hope soon. They did leave me some nice firewood for next year and some mulch. It was fun to watch, they private company guys no hard hats, the county guys all hard hated up. I think probably we will have to grind the stumps ourselves and then we have discussed putting up a nice post and rail fence where the trees were. We will see what kind of a mood moves us when the trees are completely gone. I'll try to put up a picture of our lovely trunks.

Don't blink

Life passes by or goes on whether your ready or not. I am on the rescue squad with the fire department and this morning was one of those days that's part of life. We went to a neighbors house for a difficulty breathing which turned into a full arrest when we arrived. We did CPR, myself and a couple of others, but there was never a shockable rhythm for the defibrillator is shock off of, so we continued. I got to drive the ambulance to the hospital while some others worked on him. I've driven before, but it's still an experience driving someone else's vehicle, especially an ambulance, when the owner and a crew are doing their thing in the back. We got to the emergency room, they continued were we left off and some time went by, then the doctor called the person dead.... It's the way it goes, you work on the person for an hour and then a doctor has to make the decision whether to keep going or not. All of this happened before 6:15 am. I don't want to dwell on the call for us, but the good things surrounding the person.
This guy was the best friend of my father when he was alive. He was the best man at my father and mothers wedding many years ago. George was the patriacrh of a large family that has lived up the street for as long as I can remember. The family had seven kids, four boys and three girls, and it was always a fun time. My two brothers and myself went there regularly and the best thing was you could always get a decent kickball game going with two equal teams. We usually spent New Years Eve at one house or another, as we both had dairies and our daily schedule was pretty similar. My parents played alot of cards there too over the years. Four of the remaining children have families that live close-by, a real tight knit family. They were there when my parents died and when I was in the hospital too and I'm glad I could be there when they needed it. I feel good about our actions, but you always wish you could have done more... So, I'm falling back to the old adage, you don't know what tomorrow is going to bring so savor today.