THE HOSPITAL

From rain comes rainbows
Another week lost in the shuffle.

Last Monday my brother was admitted to the city hospital through Emergency. They kept him in a special care unit under constant observation; his blood pressure and pulse were sky high, and they feared another stroke. Every now and then an orderly would whisk him away for some test, or another scan. He figures that he has been through each machine in that hospital at least once.

We met the doctors on Thursday, who were satisfied that his vitals were stable enough to operate. They explained the procedure, warning us that his tumor has grown 2 cm. It’s the first time I’ve seen my brother’s tears…just for a minute… since this all started – and I believe it was more anger and frustration than fear. It has been so long since he was supposed to have had this done; of course the tumor had months to grow!

We don’t know why they decided to do a head scan on Thursday afternoon, but it was done. Friday morning, just before he was to go into the operating room, they came to see us again. An aneurysm had shown up on his brain, so anesthesia could no longer be considered. There would be local freezing, the procedure would be unpleasant…but would not last long. Later, when it was over, my brother told me he had never been through anything so scary. They cut a hole in his windpipe, and pushed down a tube to grab the chunk from his lymph node...all this while he was awake and aware...and certain that he was going to choke to death. But it was successful. Because of the long weekend holiday in Canada, the docs put him on an antibiotic drip and told him they would see him on Tuesday…today.

Each day since he has been there, doctors have come in saying they had to verify one thing or another, and would be back to discuss it with him. Because his pain medicine is so strong, he doesn’t take in all they tell him. Sometimes they would pass by just around 8 PM. The problem is, one never knows WHEN, so we spend hours waiting…and waiting. Most nights I was arriving home around 9 PM…sometimes later...but my grandson was still here for Grump, and Line was holding the fort at the office, and there was no scramble to keep him safe from a tornado as happened in Joplin, and for that I am extremely grateful.

Each night I had some work for the business that needed to be done when I got home, of course, but I wasn’t sleeping anyway. Working keeps one from thinking too much – a good thing. I did visit Blogit now and then, and my brother, who hates the beeping machines, got a real laugh from Kabu’s post about Wiley tearing the machine wires from the wall. How often Bird has threatened to do just that! He was quite envious of our friend, Wiley, LOL!

I’m off to the hospital again. I have no confidence that we’ll know anything more today. I can’t count the days we have spent anxiously waiting for results, and then anything we are told is never conclusive. We still don’t know on which foot to dance.

BUT – I do know that one day we WILL dance again, and that thought makes me SMILE. I am sending it out to you, and could use one of yours if you could send it back my way!!

Luv from the Bush in Quebec