Stay At Home Dad

Jakes friend Steve came in town this week and Jake took off work while he has been here. With a friend in town you would think they would get out of the house and do something fun…mine finding, quail hunting, adventure seeking( some of the things Jake mentioned before he came). But since he has been here they have sat at home all day and played risk on the computer while I have been slaving at our job(aka on the internet,watching movies, and crocheting scarves). I came home last night and the first thing Jake said to me is,”Are you sure you don’t want me to be a stay at home dad? I could really get use to this.” I laughed and said no way.

Fall is here

Fall is here.  This is my favorite season of the year. The weather on the South Plains has been typically mild (Sunny, mid 50′s in before sunup and low 80′s before sundown.)

The days are getting shorter as the sun goes down earlier and earlier everyday. The leaves are just starting to yellow and lawns are nearing their final days of green. Canada geese have not yet filled the pond across the street, but the grackles have arrived and are filling the trees in the park.

Funnel cakes, corndogs, and fresh squeezed lemonade. Bright lights, fast rides and blue ribbon winning livestock. The South Plains Fair is packing up just about ready to leave town.

Students have returned and Tech is back in full swing.  The Red Raiders are 3 and 0 and after last night are ranked 8 in the nation.  Go Red Raiders!

Soccer practice and homework fill our nights. That is, until prime time TV.  The new fall season of all our favorites has begun. The Office, Survivor, Lost and of course Sunday night football. Go Cowboys!

Half the seasonal aisles at the markets are filled with all the usual Halloween acroutements, the other half are filling with Christmas. Our costumes for this year’s haunt are already picked out.  Pirates all around. Can’t wait to hand out treats to all the little ghosts, goblins and ghouls who knock on my door. Before I know it, I will be picking out our holiday turkey and baking our traditional pumpkin pie.

Wobblies are gone

While I still have this bandage covering more than half my face, the wobblies seem to be gone. This means that the primary limitation to my getting around is limited to having only one eye with uncorrected vision of something on the order of 20/400. There are also some pain issues that preclude quick movements. (If my grandson accosts me with his light saber, I will definitely have to rely on The Force to defend myself.)

Saturday night, we took advantage of this new freedom to walk down to Joe’s Italian Corner for dinner. This place is run by Joe himself and his family. Food is nicely prepared and well presented. Serving people dress the part, and Nancy thought they ought to be in classier surroundings. But then they would have to charge more.

We wanted to try Joe’s on the evening of Ike’s arrival, but the place was closed down. And they didn’t get power back in the first week after the storm. So Saturday night was a treat. The portions were ample, so we came home with an afternoon meal for Sunday.

It’s a glorious morning in Houston. Morning temperatures in the sixties. I’m waiting for a negative reaction to one of my medications (I should own stock in Walgreens?). If the reaction isn’t severe, we will walk over to Memorial Park.

Again, thank you all for your prayers, your thoughts, your expressions of care and love.

Surgical success

The news from Houston is mostly favorable — a successful surgery followed by consuming thirst and a healthy appetite and supper in the evening.

Earlier in the day, Dr. Gombos and team took a little longer than they expected, but they removed the eye without any rupture. That means the tumor was contained within the eye, the best case scenario for my situation. Pending confirmation from the pathology report, that means I should escape the need for radiation therapy.

The bad news is that the curse of Corvallis claimed the Trojans once again. Except for the third quarter, USC did not look like championship material Thursday night.

USC’s loss notwithstanding, I spent a reasonably comfortable night in “P8,” had a nice visit with Dr. Gombos on Friday, and have two appointments for next week. With luck, we should be able to spend most of the second week of recovery in Lubbock.

We reported early to surgery check-in, and shortly after our arrival, little Rachel, the 5-year-old with leukemia whom we met the day before arrived to check in for her bone marrow transplant. This time, Rachel had a sizeable retinue that included her parents, an elegant woman wearing a headshawl and angle-length dress (grandmother?) and two other children about her age. The three children walk-skipped into the waiting area hand-in-hand, smiling broad as a summer day, eyes all sparkles. Rachel had brought her own angels to the party, and there was enough joy to share with all the company.

Prep for the operation went smoothly. They found a vein on the backof my left hand on first try, and got the i.v. going. (Nancy discreetly turned the other way.) The last thing I remember is that she was heading out to do a few errands, and I had at least two attendants and an anesthesiologist.

Recovery is a fascinating place, if you just listen to all the things going on. There was an older woman in the partition next to me whose name was Hilda. As her daughter coaxed Hilda toward awareness, she threatened to “go get daddy,” and that seemed to do the trick. Hilda began answering all kinds of questions. Then there was this other fellow who had just had a brain tumor removed. He was a rather testy individual who used strong language in responding to those trying to bring him around. Nancy later observed “how far we’ve come” that someone fresh out of brain surgery could be “so responsive.”

Someone once said, “You can’t direct the wind, but you can adjust your sails.” It’s a great day for sailing and adjusting our course.

Operation scheduled

Ten a.m. Thursday, Sept. 25. Third Floor F Elevator. No food after midnight. That’s the bottom line for the two of us.

So, you spend an entire day meeting with doctors, nurses, physician’s assistants, clinicians, medical students … watching other patients, listening to their stories. Two five-year old girls, cute as buttons. Strangers playing with each other. One of Russian-Libyan extraction. The other all Texan. One with leukemia, the other with a mysterious malignancy in her foot. Parents bravely discussing ways to tell children about diseases the parents fear and the children accept.

Old men, their wives and children fighting to keep some measure of normalcy in their lives. A large, older woman walking with a cane, clearly in pain, but smiling as broad as the south plains and spreading sunshine everywhere around her, a perfect picture of courage and love of mankind. Persons bald from radiation, some wearing masks to protect themselves from germs.

It is a fascinating cross section of humanity.

Ninth floor, sixth floor, second floor. Ophthalmology, anesthesiology, lab work. Physicians and staff? Certainly the lead players are at the top of their games. Best in the field. Intense men and women. Scholars and practitioners at the same time. Supporting cast efficient, focused and patient-directed.

Out at the airport, “are you involved with MD Anderson?” the man checking in our rental car asked. He was reading the label on my baseball cap. Then he proceeded to extol the center, and in the course of our conversation he revealed his wife worked there.

So, we move toward our operation, confident that we are in good medical hands, blessed by the prayers and caring attention of hosts of friends, angels, family and others.

And last and first the love of God.

If your mother says …

God bless Mike and Fawn Read, angels of Sugar Creek. Late at night, when no other lodgings were available, they opened their home Tuesday night.

Truly, vacant hotel rooms IN Houston are about as plentiful as dry property on Galveston Island.

Having a certain knowledge of conditions in Houston, having spoken with people there, and feeling  somewhat skeptical about the room reservations we had made on Saturday, I tried calling Howard Johnson’s on South Main a couple times. Busy / not working. So Monday, I called the “Mother ship” … Wyndham Hotels.

They couldn’t get through to the hotel property either, but they assured me my confirmed reservation was bankable (Merrill Lynch, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Behr Sterns?) and the room would be ready for us when we arrived Tuesday night.

I think some Midwest editor once said, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”

We noticed on the flight into Houston that there were a lot of dark spots around town. Southwest Airlines got us to Hobby Airport on time. We grabbed our bags and caught a cab. Didn’t take long to get to the hotel — which was dark. Scented candles placed at strategic locations throughout the lobby might have spawned sixties-era flashbacks, and the long-haired, thinly-built night clerk introducing himself and extending his hand did not disabuse me of the impression. I was SURE he was barefoot, and San Francisco was having a heat wave.

Wait a minute. This was Houston. Our cabbie, with meter running, took us to one hotel after another. I telephoned two for which I had numbers. The story was always the same — no rooms, nothing open until October.

Enter Mike and Fawn. They had offered us their spare bedroom. It was after 9 p.m. when I called Mike and asked if their offer stood. “Come on out,” Mike said, and gave directions.

After some discussion, we decided to go back to the airport — the only place likely to have rental car agencies open — and to rent a car.  Our cabbie, an angel (as Cil calls them) from Ethiopia, was ending his shift. His home was off the Southwest Freeway (which goes to Sugar Land), so he offered to lead us through the downtown traffic and get us going in the right direction.

Mike waited up for us, talked us through the final turns to his home, and conducted us to their spare bedroom. We talked about our appointment time in the morning, and he suggested the best strategy for getting through the traffic on time.

Nancy and I knew of a public parking lot, paid the six dollars, and looked forward to the first meal we had had in about 20 hous. She suggested we check with the Best Western, which had no electricity when we left and had about a foot of water in their below-street garage. We asked if they had a room. They did, but they had no elevators.

We took the room. After our day at MD Anderson (next post) and a tour of the hotel, we decided to stay at the Best Western for the duration. We are in room 322 at Best Western Plaza Hotel and Suites at Medical Center, 6700 Main Street, HoustonTX 77030. Phone 713-522-2811.

Thank you all; lodging found

Wow! It is so nice to have so many wonderful people caring for us! In our “no room at the inn” entry, we were trying to keep a humorous outlook on a situation that had some desperate fringes to it. So many of you have responded with suggestions, schemes or offers that once again we feel incredibly blessed.  We do believe we have a solution. But first, let us share ….

Almost as soon as we posted the message, Mike and Fawn Read, who live in Sugar Land, offered their spare bedroom, noting “we’ve been PROMISED that we’ll have power by Monday.” The Read home is about 20 miles down the Southwest Freeway from the Medical Center.

I called the patient travel services at MD Anderson, and the folks there gave me a couple of suggestions, one of which was to “keep checking” (more later) on line and with hotels directly. 

Saturday I got two e-mails and then a phone call from cousin Chris Trusty in Honolulu, where, as she says “we know a thing or two about hurricanes.” Chris does her share of traveling, and thought that her gold premiere (or something like that) status with a well-known hotel chain might help her find something. She expressed some surprise that the her hotel system concierge could not find any rooms either.  Undaunted, Chris started plying her VRBO (vacation rentals by owner) connections, and actually made a connection for us north of town in the Woodlands.

Saturday night sister-in-law “Cilly” sends an e-mail  with an RV solution spelled out in some detail about how long you can get along with your own water and gas. 

Our solution: We will be staying in a Howard Johnson hotel on South Main near the Astrodome. It’s not my first choice of hotels or neighborhoods, but it will do. We had to make three separate reservations (and three separate rooms) to cover the entire time we will be there. The third reservation was for Sept. 24-26. We did this on a “Priceline” type of site called Hotwire. You do not know the specific hotel you are getting until you have paid for it. You are told (in this case) it is a “two star” hotel near Reliant Park / Astrodome. At the end it turned out to be the same hotel our at which our other two reservations were. It appears that Saturday mid-morning they were the only game in town. 

I suspect more rooms will become available as the week proceeds, but we are “locked in” now. We will be there for the duration of this trip.

TTU Classes covered? Couple ideas.

Lil Bro:

Assume they have things covered at TTU? Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

Pretty “rusty” and not comparable to your accomplishments, but do have some credentialing and knowledge of basics of most J subjects. Even filled in subbing (1971-R.E.Law and Pub.Rel.class) @ Kilgore Community College.

We could hitch up and be there in three days?  Transfer my meds to Walmart/Sams somewhere.  Cil was going to suggest you could also rent or borrow an rv, put it in the Anderson parking lot for those couple of days if no facilities nearby and accessible ?

Checked for couple of Texas classmates (USC) but closest is College Station/Bryan, can’t reach closest one in C.C. on the Gulf, and still have a few r.e. friends in Longview, Tyler and Dallas/FW suburbs. Among NHHS grads is one with some family in Shreveport, another has family in Lufkin. Heard Rod Calderhead (CdM-NH56) is in AR. Guffy clan (distant Daly cousins) can be found all over OK, TX and MO. Sent an email for them to read your website. Impractical?  Well, something may click in case you get stuck in Houston with no place to stay.

Much love.  Keep tough,

Richard

A date, but no room at the inn

The operation is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 25.

As soon as we got that news on Thursday, I started working on the idea that maybe we could go home for a few days and pay bills, free the dog from the kennel mow the lawn, tend to some matters at the office, and sleep in our own bed for a few nights.

Southwest was totally booked up for Friday but had two seats on a flight through Dallas that would get into Lubbock Thursday evening. We scrambled and made the necessary connections. Had a late dinner at Rosa’s, unpacked, and crashed. Picked up the dog in the morning, started on the mail, and began making return arrangements.

Surprise! There’s not a hotel room available in Houston, as near as I can tell. Those hotels that have electricity and water (all five of them ) are full of service personnel — communications workers, electricians and such — from other areas in town to help get Houston up and running again. So I’m trying to get on a wait list, and Nancy is wagging her finger saying “I told you so.”

It turns out that we have to go back to Houston Tuesday because I have pre-operation appointments starting at 8 a.m. Wednesday.

Permission to proceed

The second reading of my CT scan is consistent with the first: “Spots” in liver (and elsewhere) are benign. That means we can go ahead with scheduling the operation to remove the eye. However, the doctors here want to monitor my spots/cysts/lesions closely; so that means a CT scan every three months in the near term. Those scans will be done in Houston.

Scheduling the operation is the next hurdle. Because of Ike, they have a backlog of cases. Operation will be no earlier than Tuesday, Sept. 23. We should hear later today regarding a date.

We did get better information on the surgery recovery process. For the operation itself, they will keep me overnight. They want to keep me “nearby” for a week under a compression patch. If the one week progress is good, they release me to go home and give me a referral for follow-up. Bruising and such should dissipate in 2-4 weeks. Some follow-up can be done in Lubbock. They then will want me back for another scan and follow-up in three months.

On the Ike aftermath report, more than half Houston remains without power. Traffic patterns in the Medical District appear to be back close to normal. We had breakfast at Cafe Anderson this morning. The area around our hotel remains without power.

So the plan now is to get the date for the operation. I really want to get back to Lubbock.

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