Busy, Busy, Busy...

I was feeling kinda bored late last week. Crappy weather, nothing much going on... That changed on Saturday morning with "action stations" sounded about 9 AM when mom called to tell me that there was "a problem." Overnight dad had started to show a considerable amount of blood in his urostomy pouch. So I immediately legged-it over to see what was happening.

After a consult with the home care on-call nurse, we were off to the ER for about five hours. His blood work didn't show any problem - so late in the afternoon we returned home with instructions to cut-out the nightly dose of blood thinner. Hope for the best...

The following morning was much worse...and he was feeling very weak. So another consult with the on-call nurse and this time transport by ambulance to the hospital. A REALLY long day with more blood work and a CT scan. Consultations with a radiologist in Minneapolis and a couple of urologists in Anchorage. More medical head-scratching. Ultimately the decision was to admit the old boy and wait for an exam by our local urologist upon his return to Juneau Monday morning.

Yesterday the bleeding had subsided although not yet stopped. Dr. Singsaas came in early Monday afternoon and said he'd like to take a look inside dad's urinary tract but could not effectively do so while he was still bleeding. So dad remains in the hospital and we'll see what's what today...

The good thing about all of this has he has no pain and says he feels "fine."

On Sunday I felt my vacation slipping-away. Yesterday I was a little more hopeful - the best outcome will be that he simply has to quit the blood thinner medications and will be back to what passes for "normal" albeit with an elevated risk of heart-attack or stroke due to the blood clots in his legs. Stay tuned...

In other much more positive news, I spoke to daughter Amanda for the first time in a long while this weekend. The season is over at the Paul Newman camp and she has been hired at another camp near San Bernardino. Apparently its a recreation camp for rich kids in the summer and an outdoor education facility during the school year. Kinda an Inland Empire version of "Sea Week" here in Southeast Alaska.

Here's the link: http://www.paliinstitute.com/

Amanda will be teaching a variety of subjects including rocketry and something to do with reptiles - they apparently have a number of live specimens. Part-time rocket scientist and part-time snake handler. I like it. She will be working at the institute at least until December...

Well duty calls...I'm off to the elders and then the hospital. Dad will be waiting for his home-brewed coffee and a slab of my carrot cake...