Life's Little Detour's

Have not written anything in awhile, so thought I'd update this site now that I know something solid.

We flew to the U.S. to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with my father in St. Pete, Florida. Two days into our visit, he fell and broke ribs while coming to dinner. At 97 years of age, this entered us into a battle for his life. Day 2 at the hospital, we knew he had no lung damage, other than bruising, but he had that sometimes deadly Mersa infection-that antibiotics have problems with- from cutting his hand on a hospital bed(my conclusion). Nothing in that room was ever really clean-so much for progress.
He also had phnuemonia.
Day 4- bed sores.
Pain drugs brought 5-6 days of delirium and even 24 hour care and observance (I slept in a chair beside him-this was much the same as sailors 'single-handing' a boat...."A life" is at the taking if you fail-- but you can certainly do it-- if you decide not to fail.)...one way or another, he was difficult to protect. Sometimes 'he' was the problem-incoherent and trying to be mobile without the skills; and other times the problem was getting 'some' of the hospital staff(those that were "Ho-Hum"floaters, ""doing their hours....."", to do what the heck they were being trusted to do, not mentioning somehow getting well paid for.
He survived it all................ and 16 days later I brought him home for the rest of caring. No hospice, no nursing home. Our personal doctor was very helpful and I applaud him in all his efforts. Without a good Doctor, in todays system there is not much chance of ANY good in ANY outcome.. The system stinks, but some doctors really stand out. Thanks to our's, Dr. David Long, we all can feel good.
At home, with our own staff and/ round the clock personal supervision and care/ helped him regain ground lost. He is doing fine now and enjoyed a wonderful party for his 98th Birthday on Jan. 20th (shown in photos here).

We count our blessings and hopefully continue to learn from the battles life gives us. (This might be the most important thing that has come out of this.)

A birthday retreat is now planned for Dorothy up in Pensacola, Fla for a few days, then we are off to spend time aboard Memory Rose again. It has been nearly 4 months.

Will update again soon. Thanks for being patient.