January 29, 2003 11:09 pm

Dad's Surgery

Two entries today to catch up on this busy week.

My Dad has his surgery Monday and I was up there (Dallas) from Saturday night until last night (Tuesday) to help shuttle my Mom the 50 miles to the hospital and stay to visit Dad. I finally found out exactly what the surgery was. It was a diskectomy and fusion of the cervical bones in his neck. They had been putting pressure on his spinal cord and causing him pain and weakness and numbness that was getting worse.

Monday the very handsome doctor did the surgery and it went better than expected. He was pleased with the outcome and by Tuesday Daddy seemed well on a path to a quick recovery after maybe 10 days in rehab (which he was fighting, he just wanted to be home). I left yesterday knowing he was doing well and was in good hands.

This morning my sister called at 7 a.m. to tell me something happened in the night and his neck had swollen from some leaking fluids. He was unable to swallow and there was the possibility that it could cut off his air. The doctors went back and did emergency surgery this morning to correct this. Daddy is fine again, but not nearly as good as he was. He is now also in ICU and may not be in rehab for several more days. Poor Dad. He hates the hospital.

While all of this was going on, my older nephew got stabbed in the hand with a switchblade knife at a church function. He didn't seek out any doctor attention until about 12 hours after he was cut (the stabbing was unintentional, boys just being boys). Now he has lost some feeling in an finger and can't play his clarinet. He thought his finger was on the key of the clarinet, but it wasn't, so obviously he has lost some nerves. He may have to go to a hand surgeon to fix this problem.

My weird aunt and cousin were there for the surgery Monday. They are so weird. They were to meet us at 6:30 so they could see Daddy before surgery. They showed up at 8 a.m. just as he was being wheeled away to the operating room and was higher than a kite. They said they didn't get their wake-up call and they woke up at 6:30. They were staying near to the hospital. Doesn't an hour and a half seem a little long to get there? Of course, they had both fixed their hair beautifully and were dressed nicely. I guess getting ready and looking great took precedence over hurrying up there.

Then, at the end of the day my aunt called her weird daughter to report to her. The daughter dumps all the details of her crappy marriage (the third) on my aunt. I cannot imagine dumping on my mother is she were in the hospital with her sister or brother. It didn't bother my cousin, so now my aunt is all upset and ready to kill the husband. I wish I had been strong enough to say, "My mother doesn't need to hear all this now, save it." I wasn't. But my mother was strong enough to say, "Don't say any of this to (my dad). He doesn't need the worry." I would disassociate myself with that family 100% if it weren't for my dad and my grandmother and their need to be connected with them.

So, tonight I worry more about my dad and about my mother getting no rest. I know that all will be well soon, but I expect I'll be back up there again this weekend to help spell them a bit.

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Older Entries
Book Club - Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014
A Good Saturday Ahead - Saturday, Jan. 18, 2014
Back to Work - Monday, Jan. 06, 2014
The New Year Arrives - Wednesday, Jan. 01, 2014
Engaged - Monday, Dec. 30, 2013
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