Weekly Wrapup - First Week of March

One week about now, they were starting a surgery on my dad that would end up taking a total of 8 hours. The week progressed up and down from there.

So, here we are at the first week of March, which is rapidly moving along. How did we get to the third month of the year already? Regardless, this is my weekly wrap-up which I had started a couple years ago and then discovered not every reader out there is my friend. So, I may not be consistent every week and I may not share too much personal tidbits, but here it is: Our week of February 24-March 3, 2017.

Last Friday, my dad had a surgery to remove what began as skin cancer but moved into his lymph nodes and salivary gland. It was to take between 2 to 6 hours, but ended up taking a total of 8 hours from the time we said bye and left the pre-op room to the time we got an alarming notice that the doctor would like to speak with you. I was there with my mom and two sisters, and all of us thought the worst, hoped and prayed for the best. See, the hospital gave us a pager while he was in surgery. On this pager, they updated us about every 2 hours or so. The last update was alarming saying simply, "Doctor Would Like to speak with you!"... No, "patient is in recovery" or "surgery is going well" as in the last couple of updates. They then proceeded to put us into a private room where the doctor introduced each of us to himself before getting down to the bottom line. My dad had made it through, and they thought they got it all, but he anticipated 6 weeks of radiation and he could be released Sunday.

Sunday came, and my dad couldn't be released because his blood pressure dropped to 40. They got that stabalized only to discover his sodium was super low.... Didn't mention that they had been giving him double doses of Lasix which takes swelling and sodium out of your body. But, eh. They gave him an IV, and he had to wait and wait and wait as he was too weak to walk by himself. As a fall risk, he could not get up out of bed even to use the restroom, so 45 minutes after asking for assistance in that matter, it wasn't a pretty sight. And, I was none too happy about this so-called award-winning hospital.

Regardless, he did get to come home on Wednesday, but not after my husband and I had anticipated his discharge on Tuesday and left early to meet him at his house to help get him inside. We spent the day waiting, going to local thrift stores and the nicest Aldi I've ever seen and turned around the next day to do the same. Only this time, he was released and came home. The entire ordeal exhausts me even though I am not my sister who has been with them 24/7 since Friday. The days ahead include more trips down to my parents' to help when I can, but somehow still feel as if I'm not doing enough to help. I am just happy prayers were answered and he was strong enough to be released from the hospital. Now, he can hopefully get some good sleep and heal from surgery before receiving the recommendation about radiation. Thankfully, it doesn't look like chemo will be necessary, though.

On top of this, I have been fitting into my days driving with my 15-year-old permit driver. On Friday, she hit a milestone. While I was waiting at the hospital, my husband took her out driving on the neighborhood streets for the first time. Since then, she has driven around the blocks a couple days and then yesterday, we went to a parking lot to work more on parallel parking and pulling in and out of parking spaces as well as turning radius maneuvers doing a figure 8. She is still doing well and no unpleasant incidents to report.



My son developed a lighting engine that helps create realistic lighting effects when doing 3d modeling on computer games and modding. He is involved in a project with other modders from around the world. He also finished up robotics build season, he worked on coding the GUI for the scouting program and we wait for regionals next week...Another few days of city driving for me.

My youngest has been doing some lessons on her own while I was tending to my dad and family's needs and such and I would fill in when I came home in the evening with science and history and some language arts. Today, we do a more normal day of schooling.

On top of this, I got 4 new writing assignments and sold a few things on eBay which requires contact with the buyer, proper packaging, printing a label, and getting them to the post office on time.

I think that's about it for this week. Thanks for reading, and please keep my dad in your prayers.