Bay 2, Room 10

My sister and I went with our dad in the elevator this morning, and he and the nurse got off on the fifth floor at around 11:15 am for his surgery.

Around 4:15 pm, the surgeon summoned us to one of the rooms of the "day of surgery lounge" to inform us that the surgery went well. They did a triple, not a double, bypass but didn't deal with the valve issue since doing so would have put him in for another hour of surgery. With his kidney issues and being 83, they didn't want to push it. The surgeon related that he's probably had this valve issue for "fifteen to twenty years" and is doing fine with it. He also said that other than the "major blockages," Virg's "tissues looked good" for his age. I don't what that means, but it's sounds positive for his health in the future.

I was nervous going back there since they told us that the surgery would take close to six hours, and if the surgery started around Noon, then four hours didn't bode well. I'm glad to be wrong.

He'll be in the ICU for a couple of days and will then move to the heart care section of the U of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

We haven't got to see him yet, but we're going back over at around 9:00pm when visitor hours open back up for an hour and a half window.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Close to four years ago when I traveled to the U of Iowa Hospital to visit my mom after her heart surgery after Quinn was born of June 9, I didn't turn left when I needed to because of the shoddy signage here in the Iowa City/Coralville area.

I traveled to the same area today, and to my chagrin, I didn't take the left turn yet again, driving too far south, cursing the urban planners in this part of Iowa, and eventually turning around to the get to the confusing U of Iowa Hospital.

Virg has his surgery tomorrow. He'll have a double bypass and get a sketchy valve replaced if they can do so.

I'll try to write a message tomorrow to tell interested folks how it went.

Music Friday: "Alabama Pines"

So I came up here for my dad's surgery, which didn't pan out as I related in my last post.

Today didn't go very well. Instead of Virg going to a hospital, my sister and I took my mom to one. To cut to the chase because I don't really want to write much about it and I'm tired, she has fluid collecting around her left lung. At least she's lucid this time. She just needs to get the lung issue cleared up.

I had planned on going home tomorrow after my dad's change of plans. Now I'm back to my old plans on going home on Sunday.

So here I am. My dad didn't go to the hospital. And my mom's in the hospital.

So I give you, with no manner of smooth segue, Jason Isbell and 400 Unit playing "Alabama Pines,"which is the lead song off the new album. And here's Isbell playing it solo and acoustic at a radio station.

Road Trip & Tuscaloosa

I heard about the disaster in Tuscaloosa this morning when I read the news reports and viewed videos of the tornado that decimated T-Town.

But then I had to travel to Iowa because my dad's heart surgery was scheduled for tomorrow. As I got near Iowa City, my sister informed me that the surgery isn't going to happen because once they checked my dad's blood, they found the white blood count and kidney levels too high to do the double bypass. So we wait for about another month.

So now I'm here in Waterloo to visit with my parents and siblings for another day, and I head back on Saturday.

On the way up, I thought about my dad of course, but I also pondered the state of emergency in Tuscaloosa. It sounds as the tornado ripped right through the main thoroughfare in the city and just east of the Capstone. For all I know, the apartment where Mrs. Nasty and I first lived together as a married couple could be gone, wiped by the destruction.

Because of a city I love, it's been painful watching the news.

The picture below is of the Cedar Crest neighborhood right off 15th where our old apartment was/is.

How We Spent Our Thursday

I had plans for Thursday afternoon, but Quinn breaking the radius bone in his left forearm made me drop all that stuff. He fell at the daycare's playground, and when he broke his fall by putting out his arms, the left forearm apparently got the brunt of his weight, which bowed it out considerably as you can see.

The medical staff in the ER called it a "green stick" break, meaning that because little kids' bones are so rubbery, the bone will break on one side, but the other side will simply bend. The term comes from when you have a green tree limb and bend it, and it breaks on one side, but most of the limb bends without breaking.

Both Mrs. Nasty and I have never broken a bone [knock on wood], so this was all new stuff for us. Thankfully, Quinn didn't require surgery, but the "reducing" of his arm was strange on a couple of levels.

One of the sedatives he was given for pain is related to LSD, so when that drug went into his system, he went into this eery, stupified stare.

Then once he was fully out, the orothopedic surgeon simply took his little forearm and forcefully pushed on it to bend it back into shape. The "after" x-ray is impressive. It's straight as heck.

The poor little guy is in a soft cast right now, but he'll get a hard cast on Tuesday.

Happy Flippin' Anniversary

Mrs. Nasty and I had planned on going out for our eleventh wedding anniversary today, but plans went awry. Last night our son, Quinn, had all kinds of trouble breathing -- he was just really congested and working way too hard to breathe.

We have seen this before. Last time it happened, over a year ago, Mrs. Nasty took him to a clinic where the physician quickly told her to take the poor little guy to the ER since he was close to being in "respiratory distress." So this time she took him to the ER Friday night, they attended to him very quickly, and got him into a room to get treatment.

So today I spent most of the day traveling back and forth to the hospital with Hannah in tow, and thankfully we sprung him from Sarah Bush Lincoln late this afternoon. He's doing better.

The only good thing to come about this is that they now are pretty certain that he has allergy-induced asthma, meaning that "environmental factors" throughout the year will make it likely he'll need drug-laced steam treatment coupled with another prescription.

Our night out will have to wait til next weekend.