ICU

I suppose as we age those letters have more significance along with vocabulary like respirator, peeps, and cautious optimism. This time the patient was not a family member but he was the husband of my friend, Linda's niece. Now you would think that this connection would be so remote so as not to involve me but he did get his injury in Moses Lake and was air lifted to Spokane for care. Linda was the designated coordinator of the medical response team so she drove from Seattle to Spokane with Cindy, the patient's wife and their two children. They arrived here Sunday late in the evening and stayed with me at night.

It seems that Russell, the father, was driving in Moses Lake when he was stung by a bee. Within a few minutes he went into shock followed by cardiac arrest. Within 15 minutes he was rescusitated and taken to the hospital. After he arrived in Spokane he remained in a coma. As time wore on and 48 hours passed he continued to show no improvement. Yesterday about 7 he passed away.

It was a long, hard week for the family. They came together from all over the U.S. and everything fell easily into place. Russell's two eleven year old twins said they hated hospitals. I told them that they should love hospitals because the excellent hospital was helping their daddy get better. I went on and on about the fine care he was getting daily. However I was tempted to refuse Linda's offer to go into the ICU to see Russell. I wanted to say I hate hospitals but I couldn't in good conscience do that after what I'd told the twins. It was amazing how strong I felt after facing my fear of entering a patient's room in intensive care.

It was a busy week with many late nights. Linda, Cindy and I would get into the king size bed and talk for hours. Cindy is strong and it is going to take lots of strength to handle this one. Last night after Russell died the entire family came to my house to visit out of the hospital. Today they all packed up and left. Wednesday is the funeral.

Meanwhile this past week was also the Habitat for Humanity Blitz Build which I worked on for two days and the Manito Plant sale where I worked only 6 hours. The Lind Ladies also had their cookie day and I got to try the Rice Krispy bars. I need some advice with those as they did not look as good as Diana's did at Memorial Day.

Charlie came by the hospital to give us a rundown of his expertise in cardiac arrest patients as he formerly worked in this ICU. He was very helpful. I also talked with Betty yesterday and her rotator cuff is healing daily. She is taking it easy though it doesn't sound like she's happy doing that.

Today has been a veg day but it was nice outside so the pool is now functioning even though it is still not very warm. Lucas likes floating his boats around the perimeter for now. He and Alberta had a good time playing peek a boo but I'm not sure who was in charge. I have a feeling Lucas was calling the shots but Alberta was laughing a lot.


The world is a wonderful place to be born into
if you don't mind some people dying all the time
or maybe only starving some of the time
which is half so bad
if it isn't you