Friday, January 13, 2006

Wow! Seems like I'm always catching up.

There has been so much happening since I last posted that I just haven't had time to keep this journal current - sorry.

We had a wonderful Christmas in Montgomery, AL with Terry & Teresa, Krystal & Ed, David, Denise, Harris & Morgan, Daddy, Shawn, Shannon & Brad, Shane, Suze and of course Dean and myself.

Christmas day started off at David's house early in the morning (since he has the youngest child) where he and Denise made us all a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and the ummiest cinnamon pull-apart cake!

Later in the day we had a feast of a dinner. All of us ate to much, just like you are supposed to on Christmas - right? That evening we played a game of "Scene It" after splitting into two teams. That was a lot of fun and MY team won!

During the day we had a telephone call from my sister, Judi, saying that she was in the hospital. She said that she had problems breathing during the night.

On Tuesday after Christmas, the doctor inabated her and performed a bronchanelscope (s). She was kept on the ventilator for 8 days. The doctor told us that at one point it was doubtful that she would pull through. Her lungs are in really bad shape and unfortunately she didn't listen to the warnings she had been getting for several years about quitting smoking. She has been diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis which cannot be cured.

On Wednesday a week, they got her off the ventilator and she seemed to be doing OK. There was some drug induced paralysis, but we were told that it was a frequent occurrence. Since she was doing much better and we were to have been at our son's in New Iberia the week before, we decided to head over there on Thursday, January 5th.

We had an uneventful drive from Foley, AL to New Iberia, LA and found the campground that we thought we were going to stay at for a week. Be warned - Chases RV Park is now full of FEMA trailers and is not what I would call the most comfortable place to stay. We moved on Friday about one block north to another campground - KOC. Not sure what the initials stand for, I jokingly said King of Cajun! Anyway, this campground is nice, fairly quiet and clean. There are a good many contractors living there since this is in the hurricane Rita area. They were quiet and not messy.

On Saturday, after trying for several hours to reach my Dad, I finally got him on his cell phone. I asked where he was running around at and his reply was "I'm in the hospital". Well, I thought he was visiting my sister, but no, he was a patient in the hospital. It seems on Friday morning he had fallen and broke his left hip!!! He didn't want us called because he didn't want to ruin our trip.

Since there wasn't really anything I could do for him at this point, we decided to stay in New Iberia and finish our time with Tim & Cheryl.

We had a wonderful visit with them. So much good food, oh my, Cheryl is a good cook! We also went one afternoon to the casino which was very good food wise, but not nice in the slot machine department - we all lost.

Cheryl and I went to Bingo two nights, but alas, neither of us had any luck there either.

On Wednesday morning, January 11th we headed in the opposite direction that we were supposed to be going. We headed East on I-10 for Alabama instead of West on I-10 to Quartzsite, AZ to meet up with some old friends and meet new one. I can't express how down I was. Don't misunderstand, I love my Dad, it just seems like there is a force at work to keep us off the road!

That brings us to now.

My sister is still in the hospital and it looks like she will be moving to a nursing home where she will receive Skilled Nursing Care. We are not sure how long she will be there, depends on her progress.

Daddy is in Rehab and should be there for another week and a few days. We have a doctor appointment next week and I'll find out more than about how much care he will require when he is released from Rehab.

Meanwhile, we are back at Rainbow Plantation, Summerdale, AL. As much time as we have spend here since August 05, we should buy a lot!

Till next post......