2008-04-28
Flushing
This is a post to flush out my brain. Nothing to do with a restroom.
I'll start with some good news, we have a beating heart in Jacey's belly. We're still pretty early into the pregnancy and it was likely that we would not have heard anything on the doppler. Luckily, we did. I know that hearing the heartbeat put Jacey's mind at ease.
On the way to see Grandpa in the hospital (I'll expand on this later) we were passed by a motorcycle. It was a red Honda sport bike. He was going a little fast on 40 highway, maybe 60 MPH, but there was nothing remarkable. Shortly after the bike passed us a ratty, ricey Honda Accord flew past us. They were well north of 70 MPH. They got right up on the bikes ass and then started to pass him. I could tell that the guy on the bike was a little unstable when the Accord passed him. I could tell the target fixation wobble as the guy on the bike got nervous. I've done it plenty of times. A lot of people do it in cars; you look a direction and you slowly drift that way. Shortly after that they were over a hile and around a corner.
We rounded the corner and saw a truck with its flashers on. On the other side of the road were the remains of the red sport bike. We pulled over and ran down to help.
The guy was alright. He banged his knee pretty hard but had already taken off his helmet, put on a hat, and started assessing the damage to the bike. I asked if he was OK and he assured me he was. He was really with it so I took him at his word. A couple guys in a truck stopped and we went over the bike and tried to push it out of the ditch to make it easier to get into a truck. That wasn't happening. The front forks and front wheel were broke. The back part of the frame that holds the passenger area was gone. There were pieces of red plastic everywhere. This bike wasn't going to be moved from the ditch by three guys.
The rider was OK. That's the main thing. He had a good jacket and helmet on. His only injury was his knee which was just covered by jeans. There was some grass stuck in the vents of his helmet.
On to Grandpa. He's been fighting with peripheral artery disease for a couple years. He's had stints and bypasses in his legs numerous times. He went in for surgery on Thursday for what was a last ditch effort to keep his lower left leg and foot. Unfortunately this bypass didn't do much to get blood flowing to his foot. He is now going through recovery from the bypass surgery so they can move on to removing his lower leg.
Grandpa is a spry man, about my size but an overall slimmer build. He's also in overall reasonable health for a 79 year old and doesn't weigh much. His doctor thinks that he'll do well with a prosthetic foot. Hopefully this will increase his overall quality of life as he'll be rid of the burning pain from poor circulation in his foot.
Unfortunately he is at Center Point. This hospital is terrible! They seem to not give a shit about anything. Grandpa's bedding hadn't been changed in days, they weren't turning him, they aren't checking on his food intake ... the basic things that a hospital needs to do! My sister is an LPN and has been extremely attentive to him. We rolled him on to his side as he was complaining about his rear end and we were concerned about pressure sores. Jocy's been feeding him nutrition shakes and trying to get him to take solid food. He had a little fish today and two nutrition shakes.
A little after noon we noticed that the soap dispenser in his room was out. We called the house keeping/environmental services and let them know. After dinner Jacey, Lily, and I went up and there was still no soap. This was nearly eight hours later! I went to the nurses station and brought this to their attention. I pointed out that it had been out all afternoon so no one that had been in to see him had washed their hands. This included a phlebotomist that drew his blood. Now would be a good time to mention that he now has an infection and a fever ...
We're afraid to leave him alone too long, especially at meal times as I know they are going to wheel the tray in and leave. Right now he's too weak and medicated to do much for himself. This is frustrating!
This isn't the first time we're been unimpressed with Center Point. Jocy delivered her baby there, grandpa had a surgery there, and Mom went to he E.R. with chest pains. Each time has been a sour experience.
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