I guess with wishing all my xanga buddies a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I am thankful today that my dad is still alive and fighting. Now I guess it’s time to go back and fill in the blanks…

October 7th -

My dad, who is 76 but still chopped, split and stacked 3 cords of wood, went white water rafting, and rides a motor scooter all around town – my healthy, strong amazing dad had a stroke. I headed down that night. He was doing pretty good, talking, walking and trying to leave the hospital. The next day he had a major seizure. Not so good after that. During his seizure my mom (who survived a heart attack 2 years ago) started having chest pains. They took her in a wheel chair one way and my dad, unconscious and with a crash team, another.  Until then that was one of the worst moments in my life – trying to decide who to follow.

At any rate, dad came around and mom was fine after a nitro and an aspirin. He couldn’t walk and was disoriented but was alive. On Sunday he was doing pretty well and I decided to come home.

Monday morning I get a call that my dad is having swelling and bleeding in the brain. They are going to life-flight him to Las Cruces. In the end they flew him here to Albuquerque, which was a blessing. I went and met my sister half-way and picked up my mom. Meanwhile, my family headed to the hospital to be with dad when he got there. They got verbal authorization from me via the phone to do emergency brain surgery. He had a craniectomy – where they removed part of his occipital bone and some of the brain that was dead from the bleeding. They installed an external drain to relieve the pressure and monitor the fluid.

He spent a week and half in UNM hospital in ICU and SAC.

From there he moved to a rehab hospital. He was still complaining of headaches and just wasn’t feeling well. He was there 3 weeks – and that was a horrible experience and we are considering our options – definitely we need to file a complaint at the least. Lets just say that he left there in much worse condition than he got there in. He was taken by ambulance on the 6th with low oxygen levels. He coded in the ambulance. When we arrived at the hospital they got permission to intubate him, and asked if we wanted him resuscitated if his heart stopped during the procedure. It was traumatic. We were allowed to see him before they did the procedure. While we talked to him, he started calming down and his oxygen levels went up. They didn’t have to intubate him in the end. He made it through the night. They moved him to Neuro Sciences ICU. They discovered he had meningitis caused by Staph bacteria. He had a blood infection and hydrocephalus. They did another surgery to remove the mass of infection in his surgery site. They have had lumbar drains, IV antibiotics and a host of other things done.

He is hanging in there. He lost 15 pounds in two weeks. If the antibotics don’t work… well we’ll deal with that when and if we get there.

Everyday I get up, go to work, go to the hospital from work, come home eat, and then fall asleep exhausted to get up and doing it again in the morning. I forgot to mention, hubby was gone until Monday, so it’s just been me and mom and the girls.

I’m thankful that they moved dad here, that mom could stay with here with us and bring her dog. I had just converted my crafting room to a guest bedroom, so it worked out well.

Dad’s not here at the house with us this Thanksgiving, but at least he’s HERE.

For those of you who made it through this novel – my apologizes, I just needed to get it all out.

I’m thankful for my family, for my dad’s life, for all my friends who have been so awesome and supportive, for my husband who is sharing the load, for the ability to provide a place and support for my mom. So even though this year’s celebrations are very bleak – there is soooo much to be grateful for!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!