Hilarity Ensued in ER Room 52

Well, yesterday was a very interesting day. Adam, the kids, and I decided to drive down to Annapolis on Thursday morning to help mom out for a little bit and to see dad. The time together started out great and promising. Payton got to go stay with her Aunt Gretchen, Uncle Ben, and cousins so that I could wake up with dad to let mom sleep, and Adam took care of Austin. We even got to go see Gretchen tend bar for the Piney Orchard Relay for Life Team. She did a great job and they had so many amazing friends come out to support the cause. Next time, she may need to study up on her drinks!

Gretchen posing behind the bar before her first shift....and yes, she wore the high heels!

All appeared to be smooth sailing, but then God threw us a curve ball. While there were times yesterday that we lost our patience a bit, on the whole, we had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs. I wanted to share some of the stories below; some I will not share on here, sorry. We even managed to get a mini-Sid Oaksmith Look (SOL), something that we have actually been missing seeing. But dad was smiling a lot yesterday and that made it a good day.


On Friday morning, I went with mom and dad to dad's appointments. The day started out as usual with taking dad to his 0850 radiation appointment. Dad got zapped and we proceeded to his next appointment with the surgeon to get his feeding tube tightened and to find out why his stomach was so distended (swollen due to pressure from the inside; bloated). After waiting for a while, the surgeon came in and told us that he wanted us to go to the ER and get X-rays and fluid. This is where the hilarity begins.

Mom helping dad down the hallway to his second appointment of the morning

 Mom got a wheelchair because dad was a little too tired and weak to walk and began pushing him over to the ER. At one point, we went outside and dad mentioned how nice it felt outside. Mom took that to mean that dad wanted to be pushed outside the whole way. If you've never been to Anne Arundel Medical Center, it is a rather large facility with a lot of buildings and parking garages. Well, the only way mom knew how to get to the ER was by following the main road in and going around the parking garage and up the hill. While they started out on the sidewalk, they got to a point where the curb was too high to get dad up and so mom just decided to take off up the road. There were cars passing by them, and as we now know, a couple crazy thoughts about those two wacky people. We laughed about that off and on all day long. I'm so glad I got this photo when I did with mom pushing dad up the road with the speed limit sign in it. Did I mention that for a woman with short legs, she walks ridiculously fast.

Mom pushing dad to the ER

Now to the crazy thoughts. One of the ER nurses was a long-time friend of dad's. Mary Lou was on duty in the ER rooms. When I showed her the photo, she just started laughing. She said that she drove past us and was wondering who those crazy people were. She thought it was some patient who REALLY needed a cigarette (you can't smoke on the medical campus).

After being checked in and seen, we found out that dad has a mechanical blockage in his smaller bowels, basically he has a kink in his hose. The surgeon came in to speak with us and told us that he was going to admit dad to the general surgery unit to simply watch him with the hopes that the problem resolves itself. We had the TV on mute at this point (not much else to do in the ER while you are waiting but watch TV). Right after the surgeon left, I flipped the channel and the first channel it landed on was the home shopping network advertising a drain cleaning product. Without skipping a beat, I told mom and dad that they should order that for just 3 easy payments of $39.95. Mom and I busted out in laughter. Unfortunately, dad missed the joke and asked us why we were laughing so hard. So we had to tell him again, which got a smile out of him.

Dad was hooked up to an IV drip for hydration and got one 1000mL bag "sucked down," and then had another one hooked up. It was set at 150 mL per hour. Mom did the math and realized that it would take about 6 hours to get all of that fluid in him. She asked the nurse if the rate was correct. He said that the doctor wanted him on a slow flow. Little did we know at the time that we still had time to kill in the ER and that he would get through that bag, but then start another!

Up to this point, dad wasn't really allowed to drink anything and could really only occasionally suck on some ice chips. The nurse gave him some sponge pops that he could dip in a cup of water and rub along the inside of his mouth. Dad was wearing a face mask since his immune system is compromised and there are a lot of sick people in the hospital. Well, dad kept lifting his face mask up to the top of his head every time he wanted the sponge pop and sucking on it. At one point, when Mary Lou was in the room, dad had his mask completely covering his eyes and was just sucking away. He was a sight to see, and gave mom and me some laughs.

Dad with his mask on his forehead, just sucking away on his sponge pop

Once dad made it up to his room (around 2300), the nurse went through the whole series of questions to check him in. Once again, dad's accidental comedic timing was impeccable (or we were punch drunk from being at the hospital since 0840). The nurse asked dad if he wore a hearing aid. His immediate response was a simple, "huh." I couldn't help but start laughing which caused mom and the nurse to start laughing - poor dad and his artillery ears.

By the end of the day, we had a lot of laughs and so many more stories. Mom beat 4 more levels of Candy Crush and surprised me with her preparedness for the day by having a phone charger in her bag. Thank you so much to Gretchen for bringing us lunch, Adam for taking care of the kids all day, and to Mary Lou for checking in on us throughout the day. Dad will be in the hospital until the situation either corrects itself on its own or he has to have an alternate procedure done to unblock him. While hospital beds are not fun, he no longer has to worry about getting dehydrated since he is constantly hooked up to an IV drip.

Please pray for the blockage to clear up on his own so that dad can get back to eating and getting in all the calories he needs. Dad will be able to continue with his radiation treatments, which is wonderful. He has completed 3 weeks of radiation and 1 week of chemo, so we are halfway there. His last round of chemo will begin the week of February 17.

Please also keep Jim and Barbara Smith (dad's brother-in-law and sister) in your prayers for healing, and the Greenwells, Pettys, and McMillians in your prayers with the loss of loved ones. I also ask that you keep a high school friend's mom in your prayers as she goes through her own battle with cancer.

Proverbs 17:22   A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.