Things are looking really good today. His paralysis on the right side is gone and he even stood up. He’s able to eat and drink—oh he was happy about that as he hadn’t eaten since Sunday night.
They moved him out of the ICU tonight and into a regular room.
He’s been working really hard on saying everyone’s names and can say at least a nickname for most everyone and full names for some.
My mom and youngest brother have been at the hospital and have been sharing lots of updates and even some pictures. We’re hoping that now that he’s in the new room we might even be able to video chat. We tried this afternoon but my mom couldn’t get a good signal.
Mom gave me more information about how it happened. Pretty amazing. My dad swims every morning and so luckily people at the health club knew him The woman swimming in the next lane who sees him there often noticed him bumping into the lane divider and knew he never does that. He made it to the end of the lane and turned and was veering off to the side. She realized something was wrong and called for help. Dad later told mom he couldn’t stop swimming. So someone who was trained in first aid and CPR jumped into the pool and grabbed him and checked his vitals. His pulse was strong and his breathing fine. So he knew it wasn’t a heart attack. They got him out of the pool and called 911. Fortunately when they got him to the hospital he was alert enough to nod his agreement to the treatment, which requires informed consent. Very lucky since they weren’t able to get hold of my mom for some time as she was with a client. They were able to treat him within an hour and a half, which is evidently crucial for the medication to work. One of the guys who helped pull dad out went by the hospital to check up on him.
It’s really hard not to be able to hop on a plane to be there with them. But who would watch the kids? Dom would have to take off from work and he can’t do that right now. As it is my mom is supposed to come up later int he month while Dom goes out of town for a conference. Well, we’ll see what that looks like. Maybe my sister will come instead.
Anyway, thanks for all the prayers, everyone. They mean so very much.
Thanks, Sarah. I still wish I’d had time to unpack some of what I said, to tell stories rather than just making statements. But it’s kind of a treading on eggshells topic, isn’t it? I want to be fair to my parents and teachers, and yet to also share about my journey. I think they did the best they knew how and yet were often trapped within the structures they had inherited, they thought it was adequate and yet in retrospect it wasn’t quite enough. And yet I go there with fear and trembling wondering what judgments my own children may some day level at me. In short, I feel like I haven’t quite learned how to tell the particular stories I want to tell.
My daughter just graduated from the University of Dallas. She got such a great education. I am so impressed with that school!
So true, Melanie. I don’t write about certain things from my childhood and growing up for that very reason.
And I think sometimes, it’s in writing that I learn to tell them. A bit.
It’s so easy to slip into that mentality of faith as something to be learned instead of relationship to be lived.
I don’t think your answers are skimpy at all! I loved reading them and I’m glad you battled your distraction and shared them!