Art & Life of SwarDrawS

I was driving home on Wednesday after dadâs surgery and I was thinking of Corey at work mentioning he had a job interview. I donât want him to leave. I then thought if he did leave if I would be invited to his and Christinaâs wedding.

The next day I had lunch with Lisa V. She asked if I knew about Corey and Christina. Apparently they got engaged. See when I had my thought the day before they were just simply dating. Now they are actually planning a wedding. I IMâed with Christina to confirm then waited for Corey to come back from his meeting to give him a hard time. Apparently I was the first one in CN to know about this.

The next moment was again while driving. I was thinking of common heart surgeries. You have your bypass surgery like RAWâs mom, then the valve replacement like dad. Then I thought there are also pacemakers. The next day dad found out he needs a pacemaker.

They kept him in ICU this weekend and will get him the pacemaker tomorrow. I guess he will be home on Wednesday.

Dorothy is trying to get herself out of the nursing home. I guess she isnât ready. When the nursing home people asked her where her washer and dryer were in her house, she said, in the garage. Nope, not even close. I guess she had a hard time drawing a face of a clock as well.

RAW is a little worried that means the start of dementia. Earlier that day my therapist was telling me that the reason they donât want them to drive for 2 months is because they get easily confused and forget where they are going. I hope whatever is going on with Dorothy is lingering effects of her ordeal and they will clear up.

Grama really doesnât get why anyone would go to a restaurant. After I visited dad yesterday we went out to eat. We tried a new greek restaurant. Grama practically went in kicking and screaming. She canât fathom why anyone would pay what they do for bad food and sit there to eat it. She only eats out at fast food restaurants if she has to.

Posted by swardraws at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

so this will be a short entry.

Last night I went off to Crown Point so I could be there for dad's open heart surgery today.

Against my better judgement I put on Wedding Crashers because mom wanted to watch it. Got to bed at midnight only to wake up at 4:30 this morning. We got to the hospital at 5am for a visit to dad before they wheeled him off to prep at 6am. The surgery started at 7:40. It took 4 hours. Jean, Bobbie, Deloros and Jim all came by to hang with us in the waiting room. At 12:15 they were ready to wheel dad to ICU. They said it will be 30 minutes before we could see him and that he would be awake later. We went to lunch then came back an hour later. Dad was awake but still had his breathing tube. We waited longer. Once he got the tube out he could talk. He seemed pretty good regardless to what he went through. He talked and seemed to be clear thinking. On a scale of 1-10, he rated his pain at 00. I guess the drugs were working there. He said he didn't feel too bad. He said he was glad I was there.

I left Crown Point at 6pm. I got home at 8. Time for bed

Posted by swardraws at 09:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday I called him. I really don't have much of a relationship with Dad and when I got him on the phone I couldn't think of anything to say. He joked that he almost made it to 70 and called himself a condemned man.

Last night I went to bed and realized that my social anxiety issues come from him and not so much from mom. Sure I am just like her in that regard and I am sure there is a lot of monkey see monkey do but I think the key is dad. Dad is fairly typical husband from that era, he made mom feel stupid. I guess I can't speculate on whether or not mom felt stupid or not but he did demean her and call her dummy. I now believe this why I have this fear that someone will find me stupid and why I can't think of anything to say to him. I don't want him to think I am stupid. Whoa. Too bad I didn't have my therapy session today, I could of used it with this relavation

Last night Paula called. She was mad because mom hadn't gotten around to her yet to tell her about dad. She says mom is in denial and I suppose I am too (didn't I tell you I am just like her). I called dad tonight and he told me that they will do surgery next week. He has a hole or a weak spot on his heart that was caused by a case of rhematic fever he had when he was in high school. Back then they didn't know how to fix it. They are going to fix it now. His doctor said he has a 90% chance of survival. He is bummed he is going to miss the begining of camping season. He was still waiting for mom to call to tell her about the surgery.

I am thinking that I should probably go down there this weekend. Paula guilted me into getting this last chance to see him. RAW fixed my brakes this week but I heard a sound from them today and he is in Fort Wayne with his mom this weekend. I don't think I should trust the car for the long road trip. I will take off from work next week to go down there for his surgery. Then the last week of March I planned to spend Spring Break down there. We will see what happens.

Also yesterday I called grama to tell her about the plans I was making to take her down to my cousins house. She has been wanting to go but when I told her we would stay the night she freaked. She is suffering insomnia with her depression and said maybe she won't go. I told her she is going and I will bring a sledge hammer to knock her out. She told me to knock her out good then so she doesn't ever wake up.

Posted by swardraws at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I guess his heart was racing and they want him there for 3-4 days to adjust his meds. I have never known my parents ever to be in the hospital so this is an odd concept for me. I guess he has been on heart meds as well as meds for boarderline diabetes for 2 years now. I wasn't aware of this. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since he is an obese 69 year old man.

Last weekend we went to Fort Wayne to visit Dorothy in the nursing home. I have never been in a nursing home before but it is was as I expected with old folks in wheel chairs everywhere. Dorothy still tires out too easy but is generally on the road to recovery. She said to me, "I guess you never would of thought I would end up here." I told her she isn't ending up here, she will be able to go back home in a few weeks. She wants to move into senior housing which is totally understandable. It should be interesting to see what we end up doing with the house. Oh let the fun begin!

Posted by swardraws at 09:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)