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Where's Larry?

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Wow, what a weekend.

Sorry about going dark without notice, I had this really great post (much funnier and more insightful than my usual drivel) ready to go last Wednesday when I got a phone call from my step-mom.

"Your Dad's collapsed in court today, he's in the hospital, and we don't know what his prognosis is".

Oh crud. 

So as of about 12:30 on Wednesday, I went into total panic mode.  I called Valorie and she slipped into "hyper-competent super-mom" mode and by the time I'd gotten home at 1PMish, she'd already looked into flights, arranged for child care for the kids.  I was left to grab clothing and pack (and actually book the flights and arrange the rental car).

Thank god for Valorie, I'm not sure I'd have been able to pull it together.  I'd also made some more phone calls and figured a bit more about what had happened.

Dad had shown up for the last day of a trial he's been working on for the past 9 months.  After initial motions, he asked for a 15 minute recess to catch his breath.  The judge took one look at him and told my father that he was calling the EMTs.  Ten minutes later, he was in the White Plains hospital emergency room, where he fell unconscious (he had no blood pressure for a short while, and his blood electrolytes were totally messed up).  Norma (my step-mom) was called, and she started down to White Plains, and started calling the family together.

By 3:30pm or so our time, I'd gotten some more updates, my father was looking much more stable, although he was still unconscious (on a respirator, etc).  Wednesday was the last day of Daniel's "Singing on Stage" class at SCT, so we went downtown to attend the final performance (from 7PM to 8PM).  At 8PM, the sitter showed up to pick up the kids, and Valorie and I headed down to the airport.  At this point, my father was stable, although still in the ICU.

We flew a red-eye into LaGuardia airport, and rented a car to White Plains.  We got to the hospital about 11:30AM (more-or-less).  Dad was still in the ICU, but he'd been getting steadily better all night.  He was still wired up, but it wasn't as bad as I'd expected (I've watched too many episodes of Trauma: Life in the ER, I think).

We were the last of the family to get there, my youngest brother from Colorado (where he's attending school), my youngest sister from DC (where she works), my younger brother and his wife from Scarsdale and my sister from Albany.  With my step-mom and Valorie, we totally filled up the small ICU waiting room.

Over the course of the day, my father gradually regained consciousness, and by about 6 or so in the evening, they'd removed the respirator and feeding tube. 

We all went out to dinner (except for Dad, of course) at Legal Seafoods, (I'd never been there before, but it was extraordinary).  All during dinner, my right eye was tearing, and it was getting more and more annoying.

We all split up, Valorie and I to the hotel, the rest of the family to my brothers house.

I had a really rough night - I kept waking up with a sore throat and my right eye was hurting more and more.  It was starting to get gunk in it too.  I eventually woke Valorie up at about 8AM, she took one look at my eye and announced that it was our turn to go to the ER.  It turns out that over the night, my watery eye turned into a full blown edema - it was swollen to the size of a golf ball, and the eyeball was bright red (with really gross green stringy bits across it). 

So it was off to the ER for another Osterman male.  The doctor took one look at it and prescribed some antibiotics for it, and I was released to go to the ICU with the rest of my family.  Of course, the ICU nurse freaked and threw me out of the ICU the instant she saw my eye (Valorie kept referring to it as the "Eye of Sauron"), so I spent the day in the waiting room.  Dad improved over the course of the day, and by about mid-day, he was out of the ICU and had been brought up to a private room.

While I was waiting in the ICU waiting room, I learned that my brother Jeff (who'd been running a 102 degree fever for the past couple of days) was also in his doctor's office for bronchitis.

Not a good day for the Ostermen :).

But in general things improved over Friday, and have continued to improve over the weekend.  Dad's had some minor setbacks (like some issues with his catheter), but most of the IV's are gone at this point, he's getting most of his meds orally, and he's hoping to get out of the hospital tomorrow or Wednesday.

Valorie and I flew back to Seattle yesterday afternoon, arriving at about 10:00 or so in the evening - exhausted but much happier.  And the Eye of Sauron's finally gone, so I won't be frightening small children any more than usual.

So that's what I did on my weekend :)

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2005
    Sounds like you had conjunctivitis (pinkeye). Hope it doesn't affect your other eye (which often happens a few days after the first).

    Anyway, good to see your dad's getting better. Is your brother okay?

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2005
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2005
    I wish a speedy recovery for your Dad and Bro!

    JD

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2005
    We don't know what happened - he just collapsed. They know that his electrolyte levels were messed up, it's possible that it was related to the walking pneumonia that was diagnosed in the hospital, it could be new blood pressure medicine he's on, we just don't know.

    Which is almost worse, frankly.

    Jeff's just fine, he's just got bronchitis, and I'm almost over the conjunctuvitis.

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2005
    Sounds like you had a sympathy eye infection... Nice thing of you to do, make your dad feel like he isn't alone and all :-)

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2005
    Wow. That is something.

    I have been bed ridden for few days (Flu or something) so I can somewhat relate.

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2005
    I wish you guys the best of luck. It's never fun dealing with health issues that are somewhat mysterious.

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2005
    Sounds like too many BUGBUGs.

    My department recently had a discussion of who needs a stronger antivirus, but in our cases really we only need a stronger antiallergy.

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2005
    Very frightening.

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2005
    Larry,

    My father had a fatal incident one month ago, so I know what you went through over there. Hope you're all back in shape soon.

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2005
    Not the best weekend, by the sound of it! I have to admit I'd been wondering where you'd got to; glad to hear that your dad's getting better.

    Speaking as someone who's had conjunctivitus a few times in the past - make sure you don't rub your good eye with a hand that's been near the bad one... :-)

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2005
    About four years ago I had walking pneumonia. As hard as it might be for some people to understand, you don't have any idea you are sick. I got lucky and noticed my heart was racing at rest and went to my HMO. It took me months to fully recover. Not that I was sick the whole time, just didn't feel 100%.

    You should send the Judge a thank you card. No telling what might have happened if he didn't get to the hospital ASAP.

    Good luck to you and your family Larry.

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2005
    sounds like a rough weekend....glad to hear things are getting better. Very glad to see you back!

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2005
    Having studied Biochemistry and Biology in college, I can tell you that there are a lot of BUGBUG's in the human body. ;)

    I'm sure glad that everything turned out OK and your dad going to get out of the hospital soon because this,
    "Of course, the ICU nurse freaked and threw me out of the ICU the instant she saw my eye (Valorie kept referring to it as the "Eye of Sauron")"

    made me bust out laughing and I would have felt really, really badly if the story didn't have a happy ending. Just this idea of an ICU nurse screaming and yelling "Get that....THING...out of my ICU!" made me giggle. I've had one eye me, no pun intended, sideways more than once if I coughed or sniffled while visiting someone.

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2005
    Thanks for the thoughts Scott. It really was quite funny. The best part was this particular nurse was the one who told me that I shouldn't worry about wearing a mask (for my cough) because the germs in the ICU were far worse than the germs in my cough. Apparently the Eye of Sauron was too much for even her.

    The good news is that I just got a call indicating that my father was just released from the hospital, so he's probably home by the time I post this.

  • Anonymous
    April 05, 2005
    Oh, and Scott, that comment about "Get that...THING... out of my ICU" was almost a direct quote. She added some things about my being home in bed (which was kind-of difficult since home was 3000 miles away).

  • Anonymous
    April 09, 2005
    The comment has been removed

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