The BALD eagle has landed..............

Well, I had just hung up the phone from chatting with Frank and Kelly in Ottawa Hospital, when the phone was flashing a message. Checked to see who was calling and it was a gruff old man's voice saying,..... "when ya get this message... come and get me, I am ready to go home". Well, I wasn't really sure if the Doctor said he could go, but I figured I better go anyway... just in case. When I arrived at the hospital, he was totally dressed, half packed and impatient as usual.
He is home... parked in his regular lazyboy watching his regular "WESTERN" station, and Mollie is on guard with one eye on dad at all times.

I can't believe I haven't updated in a week.....

so much for blogging every day. Ok, Chantal, here goes.

Grampa update.... he is doing fantastic. He is still, yes, still in the hospital, but he will be coming home on Monday. They are playing with his sugars and the meds that fix that, and they are happy with the chances. These things take time, to perfect the balance, but the good news is, they don't think they will put him on insulin and they have changed the pills to "easier on the system" ones. That means his kidney function is back to normal (for those of you who are not up on diabetics...their worst enemy is the kidney failure). So good kidneys is a thing to brag about when your a diabetic. Poor Dad, its all he can brag, since he has had every other ailment associated with Diabetic... blindness, heart trouble, circulation and even a little toe amputation.

So he is keeping busy, harassing the nurses, some I know from School. He banters with John his roommate since the beginning, and teases Johns wife Maxine. He is walking to the bathroom with not much difficulty, and therefore, enjoys the privacy of that luxury. Meals have been good, really, for a diabetic, he gets more than I would give him. He is enjoying the big fluffy white rolls he gets at breakfast, along with the jam.

We have prepared the house for his arrival on Monday. We purchased a small fridge and a small "easy to use" microwave and they are set up in his sitting room. He will not tackle the stairs for the first little while.

I have switch my daily start time to 8:30, and Linda Y will start at 8:00. Then at 8:30, Alicia will work for me for a half an hour, doing announcements, and phones. I will pay her out of my overtime that sits there and doesn't get used. This will give me an extra hour in the morning to make sure dad is up, and safely eating breakfast before I head to work.

KID update..... well, Michelle and Scott left on Tuesday to go back to school. Terry drove them down in a yucky snowstorm, as far as the airport, and Stephanie went along for the drive and was good company for Terry on the way back. I spent Tuesday supper, with dad, and then off to curl. Stephanie stayed just until Wednesday morning and hit the road by bus, right from Kingston, since it was getting too hard to get her to the airport. She is a really trouper and didn't mind the ride at all. She is never bored, and always keeps busy no matter the situation.

Scott has received word that he was hired for next school year to be a "TECH NERD" for the university. I think he is general tech support to the kids with their computers, and answers the HELP line. Great job for him, as he is a natural at these things ( I seem to be surrounded by natural techs) So, the new quest for both Scott and Mick is summer jobs. Both have leads, and with fingers crossed, they will turn out well.

Stephanie has her summer job in place, as long as summer government grants are approved. She also hopes to go to Mexico for another type of archaeological dig or study. She has applied for funding... and that will be what holds her back from going.

March break is here. My plans...some medical appointments on Monday... Tuesday.. a facial and eyebrow shaping (both are firsts for me). Wednesday, a yummy lunch date with anyone who is not busy. Not sure who... but I will keep you posted. Thursday... off to Bridgetown for a pub date with Lynn W, and anyone else who is around that area. Friday... Lunch out again, with any other takers. The rest of the week will be just around the house, finishing up some projects. Debbie and Brian, left today for Cuba. Patty Casey left for Italy yesterday. A few from School are off to Europe, cruises, Florida and other warm destinations. My Sandra and her kids are in Disney right now. Its a perfect time of year for warmth, when your just so sick of the cold. Mollie and I went for a long COLD walk this morning and I wore my Nike pedometer to pump up my mileage on my website challenge with my sister. But until I go for another 3 km walk tonight, before 11pm, she has beat me. But I just couldn't fit is all in this week. But I am going to issue a MARCH BREAK challenge to her... hee hee hee... not sure what it is going to be... but I am sure I will win it.

8"x 8" Curling

Well, I had two visits with dad today, and he finally got his TV. He totally enjoyed watching his curling even though he is watching it on an 8"x8" TV. He has headphones too. So he and his roommate are each watching the games, with their headphones on and hollering to each other about what is going on. Its quite cute, really.

Dad seems more tired today, and yet he didn't get up to walk today. The Doc told him to take his time. So he is. They are playing with all kinds of medication changes, to help ease some of the stress of his kidneys and so I think the changes are tiring him out.

Tomorrow I get to go to the hospital for the morning and play the "watch for the Specialist" visit game. The nurses said that the Dr can be in anywhere between 8am and noon. So I am totally there. John, Dad's roomie, is also waiting for a visit from the same Specialist. Should be interesting. This guy is the one who has made all the changes... and the hospital visit has become more about regulating the meds than the knee, now. That's ok, I guess. Good time to make those changes.

I did my third walk/run tonight and went 4k+. My sister has challenged me to a distance race via the internet. As a little gift, she sent me a Nike+Ipod pedometer and it syncs into your Ipod and also to http://www.nike.com/nikeplus/ and you can track your progress. As of today, I have run 10.6 kms and my sister has run 9.3. Of course, tomorrow she has a 4k scheduled so she will surpass me again. She also runs the whole 4k, where I break it up with walks too. But its fun to keep track. And when you finish your run, Lance Armstrong's voice comes through my Ipod and congratulates me on my best run yet! That has happened twice to me this week. So it is good incentive to run a little farther than your last run!!

Michelle and Scott travel back to Antigonish tomorrow evening, via "DADDY" and the bus. Stephanie is staying one more day, although she has left her two cats behind in the care of a "shady" character, she doesn't approve of, and is now worried about them. If she didn't have a dentist appt tomorrow, she would probably make her way back tomorrow. Pretty boring here, really, when Michelle, Scott and Grampa are all gone. Terry and I are at work. So, by Thursday, it will be pretty boring and lonely here with just Terry and I and the pets. Breaks my heart, really. ugh. Who would have thought I would "empty nest" for two kids and a 77 year old man. ugh. Sad existence really. Mollie, will be suicidal my Thursday, when all her best friends are gone. She really misses the 10pm ritual that happens EVERY night- ..-SNACKS with papa

What a difference a day makes...

Just got back from the hospital and Dad is looking like himself again and totally painfree in his knee. He slept great last night, and so did I.
Dr. Siva says he can go home on Tuesday, once he is up and walking, which will start today. They will take it slow, like up and sitting first, and then up and walking, etc... Yippeeeeeeeee
Gotta go to church... teaching today... and thanking God today, for all the wonderful people who work so hard in the health care system.

Curling, Fondue and Beans

well, a Grampa update. Dad is resting comfortably but not happily at the hospital, with an arthritic knee. Dr Siva saw him today with the good news that it is not an infection... but rather a blah blah blah kind of arthritis that is pretty nasty. She gave him a cortisone shot right in the knee and he is to rest for a few days. The down side is that they are now playing around with his medication, and it is leaving him rather out of sorts. But, hopefully in a couple of days things will stabilize. He is not happy being there, and is confused at some moments and not at others.
Tomorrow, I am going to arrange for a TV so he can at least listen to the curling games, as he won't be able to see the screen as it is pretty tiny. Its so friggin boring in that room. His roommate is a gentleman with some breathing problems so he is pretty noisy (especially when he is asleep) and that is a pain. But I have a feeling now that dad has less pain, and is able to get some rest, he will have a much better sleep. Of course, the better he is feeling, the more annoyed with things he gets.

In celebration of all three kids home, Scott has treated us to a beautiful meal tonight. It is being prepared as we speak. A Beef and Shrimp fondue with his mom's fantastic holandaise sauce. Michelle made a salad, and we will have a chocolate fondue for dessert. Sadly, poor dad had beans and chicken noodle soup for supper, but when I left him, he was resting fairly soundly, ready for his normal after supper snooze.!!

I will pop in and see him early tomorrow morning, and then again at noon. Michelle is anxious to get to see him before she goes.... if I can convince her to go. That is not working so far, but once she visits and sees that he is good, she will feel better. They did get to chat on the phone today.. and that helped. Although he doesn't want visitors at all, I can't hold back the tsunami called Michelle.

Anyway... its getting better each time i visit, so I am looking forward to tomorrow....

Time Stands Still

...when you in a hospital. Poor Dad was in such utter pain with his knee throughout the night, that he had the unfortunate pleasure of having an ambulance ride to Solders Memorial Hospital yesterday morning (7:00am). That was pretty upsetting for everyone. Out patients was a very long and tiring event, and finally at 4:00 in the afternoon, they admitted Dad into a room on medical floor to get some drip antibiotics and to be observed for the night. They think he may have an infection in his knee joint and the doc drained off some of the liquid that was causing all the pain. We will know today if the antibiotics have made a difference by today.
A little something to say about Nurses......oh my GOD, the are working so hard. They are a special breed of people. We met several nurses yesterday and LPNs (not sure what that means) and they were ALL amazing. Every one of them had a truly caring attitude towards my precious dad, like he was there dad too. How can they do that when they have just met him. The Outpatients nurse was Melody Palmer Morse and she was so caring, and really was concerned for Dad and originally, he was to be kept in outpatients on an 24 inch wide stretch bed in a room with 4 other beds that would be busy all night with "emergency" patients. But she was insistent to the Doc that my dad needed to be somewhere where he could rest and have time to heal. Sure enough, and I don't know how, she found him a bed upstairs on the medical floor. Which felt like a hotel when we got there. Dad said the bed felt like was in a double. And he had controls to put it up and down and all that. Oh, and when we got to the room, you should have seen the three nurses who stripped him down and dressed him in a Johnny and did the assessment. They were totally sweet but yet tough enough to stand up to his sharp comments (all in fun) and they gave it right back to him. I felt pretty good leaving him in there caring hands...

In amongst a long boring, yet interesting day at the hospital, I was in contact with home because Stephanie was travelling across the Maritimes on a bus heading home for March Break. She started her trip at 11 am and arrived home last night through the storm at 10:30pm. From Fredericton... ugh.. Poor Kid. But she is home, and as tired as I was, we stayed up and chatted til midnight, getting caught up on things... Michelle kept busy text messaging Stephanie on the bus (cheaper than phone calls on a cell) and when I got home, I was taught how to text message for when I am in the hospital today. Should be interesting. Dad is pretty insistent that he is coming home today... but I have other thoughts... we shall see.

Grey's ... where are you?

Chantal and I were talking today about Blogs and how fun they really are. I told her I could blog every day cause I have so many things to say.... but.... I figure it would drive everyone crazy and then no one would visit my blog... but then, that's OK too. So, Chantal, lets try and blog every day. (After report cards)

Grey's.... repeat. I had a long chat with my two friends (Shawnda and Betsy) who are the executive producers of the show. They talked to me for 27 minutes about the last show. (OK, it was the Podcast on Grey's) Great insight into the show, let me tell ya. They are hilarious... anyway, they let me know that the next episode is not airing until March 15th. This, I assume, is to help the teachers tonight finish up those last few report cards. Anyway, they talked about Meridith and her relationship with her mom, and Meridith was saved by Derek but she needed to save herself. She had to go through this "Wizard of Oz" journey to realize that everything she wanted she already had. They talked about the love affair between Christine and Meridith as true friends. They talked about Denny and his love for Izzy and how this affected Meridith. They talked about wanting to do a show just about all the dead people from the show. And they made lists of them all to see how many and they said there were too many to bring back. But when they made the list they narrowed it down to the 4 most important dead people. Anyway, it was a great listen. I listened at the gym while beginning my first workout with my new "hi Tech' Nike+Ipod Pedometer. http://www.nike.com/nikeplus/
My sister has challenged me for the next 10 days. She, who runs 5 km, three times a week. Ugh. But tonight, I ran 1 km, to calibrate my new pedometer, and the 3.5 km on the treadmill (with a few walking minutes in between). Its all calibrated on my iPod and when I plug it into my iTunes on the computer, it sends all my information to this website, and also to my "challenge" acct, that my sister can see. She is watching me..... ugh. so, to make the run more interesting, I downloaded the latest "Grey's PodCast" and you know the rest of the story.
Family News- for those interested
*Stephanie comes home tomorrow via bus. It was going to be via ferry on Saturday but the weather sounds just too bad for crossing the Bay of Fundy. So, she will spend a long tiring Friday on the bus. But as she said, it gives her an extra day home while Michelle and Scott are home.
*Michelle and Scott will leave on Sunday, to go back to St. FX. Michelle actually has a "staff" meeting on Sunday night at 9:00pm. Imagine. That is university living. I would be off to bed shortly past nine o'clock at night, and they hold most of their meetings at that time.
* Terry's Dad (see blog on Jan 31st) has been diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease, just a week or so ago. He is currently in the hospital and just received his first chemo treatment. He is sort of unstable as far as health right at the moment, with various things. Last week, fluid on his lung, and some leg swelling. This week he had a very rough weekend, and was admitted to stabilize just a few little things like "levels" of things. So, tonight he is resting in a private room, and has a virus which they are combating as well. This is so new to us, and Kelly, Terry's baby sister is our link to him. She has been keeping both our family and Kim (other sister) up to date on all the happenings and I know that isn't very easy for her.
*Stranger still, my dad has been hit with something rather suddenly today and has escalated into quite a painful thing. His knee has locked up, and is quite painful, and he is curled up in bed, unusually early, with chills and is quite sore. I had to help him out of his chair and into his room. I will be sleeping on the couch down stairs tonight (to his dismay) because I have a feeling that he is not going to have a good night.

Knock Knock.... Who's there..... TANK....... TANK Who? ......oh, your welcome.