Pull Tight

Deja Vu This morning as I was driving between client sites, I was listening to the local public radio station. There is pledge drive running and although we probably contribute an average of about once per year, I mostly listen to another station during these fund raisers. The radio shows during the fund drives, however, are usually especially good in between the pleas for money so I was tuning in every few minutes. The part of the show I caught this morning was an interview by Terri Gross with a psychologist, Dr. Dan Gottleib, from Philadelphia. He was talking about his practice and his books. While he was very interesting, the most intriguing part of their discussion was the story of an automobile accident he in 1979. While driving on the Pennsylvania turnpike about an hour west of Philadelphia, a wheel came off a truck, also traveling on the turnpike, and landed on top of and crushing his car. His neck was broken and he was paralyzed from the chest down. He went on to become ...

Dad continues to improve rapidly considering the extent of his injury. He will possibly be coming home in the next 2-3 days. He is walking around the hospital floor with minimal assistance, with a walker that he is actually not using. All his tubes, IV lines and oxygen were removed today. I jokingly suggested to him, he should work with the physical therapist on stepping high enough to get on a farm tractor.

01/24/06 Some Dogs I Have Known One of my coworkers was talking about his 2 border collies last week and I have been thinking about dogs. Nancy and the kids will not find it unusual, as they think there is some link between our canine cousins and me. Speculation at our house is, in one of my previous lives, I was a dog. Sometimes I tell our dog Shooter he would have to increase in value to be worthless. His reward for this observation consists of trying to lick my beard. Dogs always seem to like me, even strange ones. It is worth mentioning that sometimes at home I am referred to by the pet name of D. Dog (short for daddy dog I think). A few years ago we were walking through the airport in Newark, New Jersey when we saw the security dog coming towards us with his very own airport security man in tow. I have no idea if this was the bomb sniffing dog or the drug sniffing dog. Anyway, we were stopped for a minute before going through the metal detector. The dog stopped lo...

Sunday 4/16/06 Dad entertained Austin and me, yesterday, with stories from his Navy experiences in the 40s. He continues to improve. His doctor this morning told us, he may go to a regular room today, depending on one set of lab results and the availability of a bed (hospital is really full). It will be good to see him escape ICU. Mom has become the matriarch of the ICU waiting room. I think she knows every patient's story and all of their visiting family members. The other families will miss her when she and Dad go another part of the hospital.

Dad seemed much better yesterday and this morning. Lung cultures are still negative, Sodium is back within normal range and vital signs look good. He is much more like himself after changes in medication. He smiled at a couple of bad jokes by the ICU nurse and me. Mom is going home for a few hours today for the first time since the accident. He is still in ICU, but we are optimistic he will be in a room soon.

Written 01/19/06 Cars and Neckties A much bigger company purchased the little company where I work. I went from an 800-person company to one with over 26,000. It seems like I am 20 times busier. There are a lot of new systems and procedures to learn. I am just beginning to catch up with life a little. With the new company, I will be getting a company car; Buick Lacrosse, I think. For the last few months I have driven our family car, a Chrysler Pacifica (a crossover SUV). It will be nice to have someone else (the new company) picking up the entire tab for my car. Although the Chrysler is much more comfortable and versatile than the Buick will be, the Buick will have a unique advantage for seeing my first client everyday. For the last almost 20 years, I have driven regular cars for work almost exclusively. Because most often my first stop is at least ½ hour (and sometimes much further) from home, I don’t put on my tie until I arrive at my initial destination. Then ...

I spent the night at the hospital last night with Dad and Mom; my sisters have spent the other nights and that has been very good for Mom. Mom hasn’t left the hospital for more than an hour in the last week. Dad seemed uncomfortable and restless most of the night. He is getting more aggressive respiratory treatments starting today. These will sometimes involve a nasal tube. The goal is still keeping him off a ventilator. The report this afternoon - he was not nearly as restless after a change in the pain medications and he took a few steps aided by a walker. Still no word on when he might move from ICU.

written 12/15/05 I am making a quick trip to out of town tomorrow to see my one of my biggest clients. Actually they are the biggest in more than dollars spent with my company. Of approximately a dozen people working in this lab, the smallest is probably 50 lbs overweight. I need to take them something for Christmas. After thinking of what they might like I settled on cookies. I don’t think anyone in this group ever passed up a good cookie. The best, biggest, tastiest and highest calorie cookies to be bought are possibly the chocolate chip cookies from the Doubletree Hotel chain. While visiting clients in Dallas today, I stopped in to pick up a couple dozen at a Doubletree on the LBJ freeway. Because of Lauren’s accident (see Groundhog Day blog entry), I am driving a rental car from the insurance company. It is a new silver nondescript Camry. I came out of the Doubletree talking on the phone, adjusting my sunglasses, balancing a tray of cookies and fumbling with my car keys. I...

Just talked to Mom and Sharon. Dad's heart rate seems to be in control today. And he ate some breakfast this morning after eating almost nothing yesterday. His primary Dr from the ER, said he will be using a walker today. He will be getting salt tablets to increase his Sodium. I remember when athletes and manual labor workers used to take them before sports drinks were available.

The meds helped Dads perspective on life by Sunday evening and he is again thinking he going to recover. Sunday night his heart rate went to the 170s, but with the cardiologist recommended treatment Monday evening it was back to normal. The main short term concerns are keeping his lungs clear and correcting a low sodium. He was up taking a very few steps today and will be again tomorrow. He is probably looking at quite a few more days in ICU.

Dad is really down today. Perhaps it is a combination of his age, the pain and the medications. His vital signs all look good and his lungs are slightly better per the ICU nurse, but that isn't doing anything to lift his spirits. He is being started on meds that should make him feel better. More later.

Dad was up sitting in a chair in his ICU room this morning. The main concern for the time is preventing pneumonia, the most likely severe complication. He is getting regular food (maybe that is overstating hospital food), although his appetite is not good. He is starting on a nutritional drink today (even worse than hospital food). As his appetite gets better, we will bring in food. Mom and I looked at his chest X-Rays with the ICU nurse this morning. You can see the increased congestion in his lungs today as opposed to when he arrived at the hospital on Wednesday. It is good his lungs are as clear as they are, but he still may not avoid going on a ventilator for a few days. We also learned that there are more fractures than we initially thought. He has fractures in his shoulder in addition to his collarbone. By looking at the X-Rays, I would guess the tractor knocked him down. The rear wheel went up his right side breaking ribs laterally. The wheel continued over his shoulde...

Nothing Runs Like a Deere Yesterday while working in Fort Worth, I received a call there was an accident on the farm and Dad was on his way by Careflight helicopter to Harris Medical Center. He had been in a tractor accident. I was in the parking lot next door and came directly to the ER. As I arrived at the ER, I received a call from my brother in law, Ken. It seems that while Mom and Dad were moving hay from a field to near their house, Dad was run over by the tractor. Being the first to the ER, a security guard escorted me to a family room and immediately one of the hospital chaplains came to see me. He had just come from seeing Dad. He said Dad was alert and on his way for a CT scan. He told Dad he would pray for him and he said Dad thanked him. I refrained from telling the Chaplin of the study just completed about prayer. It seems that patients who know they are prayed for in fact may have more complications than patients that do not know. Mom gave me the story of what h...