One of the things that didn't get done last weekend was his dad's groceries.
Dave's son was supposed to go do that (told me he WOULD do it, in fact), but he never did (you may recall that Dad's care giver quit suddenly due to illness a few days prior to Dave's emergency ambulance ride adventures).
That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because when Dave went on Monday to get the groceries, his dad had fallen and cut his head open.
He was gushing blood, and there was blood all over the house from Dad walking around bleeding.
Dave called 9-1-1 and spent the day dealing with this major crisis -- right after his own crisis.
The e/r doc ordered a head CT, and everything came out okay. No internal brain bleed, no concussion.
They cleaned the wound, put 16 staples in it, and released Dad home. The gash is 3 inches long.
Due to his age, we had hoped they would keep him overnight, but they did not, so Dave called for a non emergency transport to get Dad home.
Meantime, Dave contacted his boss and explained everything, and said he would not be at work Tuesday, either.
Dave called his eldest brother in Houston (who has power of attorney for Dad's medical and legal), who is retired, and he said he would possibly come up and help out...maybe around Friday.
So... Dave's family is a major fail in my eyes at this time!! First, Eric doesn't do what he says he is going to do to help out, and then.....
I would have been on a plane on Monday, since my brother was already on shaky ground, and now THIS happens!!
(His brother actually went fishing the day after Dad's accident--he doesn't get in a hurry about ANYTHING, and apparently doesn't really understand what Dave had just gone through....or doesn't care. Dave's middle brother, in Kansas, still works, so he did what he could from afar, including starting the search for a new care giver for Dad, and staying in regular phone contact.)
Anyway, Dave eventually talked his brother into coming SOONER, but he did not come until Thursday, so that meant that Dave had to miss work all week.
Since he spent so much time at Dad's, making sure he was eating and taking his meds, Dave was also able to clean up most of the blood. There's a big area on the carpet, though, that will have to either be removed or cleaned professionally.
Dad is doing okay. He gets his staples out next Wednesday, and Dave's brother will take care of it.
Friday was my birthday, which was kind of a big deal.
55 and still alive has been my theme. Many women diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer do not live into their third year of treatment, so I am VERY aware, and very happy to be having another birthday!
I'm not just alive, I am thriving.
In recognition of this, we booked a fully equipped, modern cabin in Broken Bow, OK (where it's green and hilly, and there's a national forest).
This was another reason we needed Dave's brother to come to town and help out with Dad.
After last weekend, and then last WEEK, we both really desperately needed this quiet, stress-free get away. This cabin cost us $300, and was pre paid.
Rain was in the forecast, so we planned to just sit in our cabin, and read, and listen to the rain.
That is exactly what we did... in addition so using the hot tub (when it was not raining), and the tv and dvd players. We laughed our butts off watching funny dvds.
The drive down on my birthday was beautiful, with fields of flowers, and partly sunny skies.
We got here before the rain, so we went out for dinner, and got back to the cabin and soaked in the hot tub before a drop ever fell.
There was a whip-poor-will in the woods, and we sat on the front porch swing and listened to him sing, as the wind blew through the trees.
It has been VERY therapeutic.
We are still there right now, letting the dishwasher and the laundry finish.
The bad news is, on Friday night/early Saturday morning, a MAJOR storm ripped through our home neighborhood, knocking down full grown, huge trees; limbs and branches; and the POWER.
Our neighbor lost her beautiful, enormous silver maple (thankfully it did not fall on either of hour houses), and we have been told that our back yard is a huge mess, but that none of our trees are down. Just limbs and branches.
Our power line is on the ground in our back yard. From what we saw on news reports, 40 thousand OG&E customers were without power at one point.
Our neighbor tells me that there's only a small area of our neighborhood that is still dark, and our house is in the middle of it. Dave just called OG&E and there are no updates regarding the outage in our area.
Great.
It's 42 degrees in OKC this morning, and our house sitter says it's 60 degrees in the house right now.
Maybe the food in the fridge and freezers won't rot if it gets cold enough in the house. Chances are, though, that we will have to throw everything away.
We'd been saying we needed to defrost the deep freeze.....
It's pretty cool that this cabin has a washer and dryer, so we don't have to take any dirty laundry home, since we can't wash it!!
I think MAYBE this has been enough stress and anxiety for this year. ALL AT ONCE. Can we stop now, please?
At least this weekend has been a lovely respite. There were storms here last night, too, and the power flickered out a few times, but it came right back on.
Sigh.....wish we could just stay, but it's too expensive!
Have a good Sunday!
Addendum: Our back yard is not full of branches, it is full of trees. The power and cable lines were ripped off of the back of the house.
It was 50 degrees inside when we got home, but the temp dropped to 41 outside last night, so it is in the 40's inside this morning, to be sure.
We got a crappy motel by the highway, and had to leave the cats in the house.
I will not have to miss work (because God FORBID!), and Dave has our handy man guy coming out this morning to re-attach the electric meter and riser to the house. Then Dave can all the electric company to turn us back on.
Emergency crews came yesterday, finally, and put the line up by the meter. It was NOT a live line, but was already shut off.
Dave called the 24 hour insurance company hotline yesterday and opened a claim.
Off to my cheap motel shower....
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