FAMILY EMERGENCY - Still On Going......

Yesterday at 2 am my mother called to say my father was being moved to the cardiac ward. At 3:30 am she called to say they were sending him to Vancouver, WA to Peace Health Medical Center for emergency surgery on his stomach. We arrived at the hospital and waited 3 hours for the ambulance to show up to take him down to Vancouver. They were waiting on him, and called 3 times to see if he was transferred yet or not. We (my mother, Patrick and I) were then picking up clothes and stuff we would need to be down there for a couple days. Stopped and got breakfast and then off we went.

We got to the hospital and they were there. They told us they were just getting ready to do surgery and we needed to go in and talk to dad, because there was a chance he would not make the surgery. We then waited in the waiting room for 2 hours to see how it went. The doctor came out and said it was like a miracle that he wasn't as bad as they thought it would be. He came out of surgery but he still was not "out of the woods" yet. So, it was a waiting game. My younger brother, Patrick, flew out at 6 pm and arrived at the motel around 11:30 pm.

We all returned to the hospital around 9:30 am. He was still stable and the ventilator. He didn't do good when they were going to take him off, so they are doing a slow process of letting him breathe on his own. He was doing better as the day went on. We all agreed to leave around 3 pm and come home to relax and rest. We'll return tomorrow morning. We got about 3/4's of the way home when mom called and said Patrick (brother) wanted to go back. So, we met them at Spiffy's and brought mom home while he went back to see dad. He's there now. I'm kinda glad he did. Mom doesn't do hospitals very long and I know she wanted to come home. While Patrick is here, she's going to want to stay down there with Patrick, I'm sure. We told her we have some things to do the next two days and wanted to leave around 3 pm. She can stay or come with us then. Thursday is another day. UNLESS things change with dad, then we'll try and do a couple things for "us" before we have to spend more time down there. I know dad doesn't want us just sitting around. He told us when he was in at Centralia that we didn't need to be there all day. So, I know he's not crazy about Patrick being there, but he needs to be there. I would do the same if I came to see him. I feel better he's there because I can get messages often on how he's doing.

So, while we waited, I worked on Donna's quilt blocks.

I was able to get about 10 circles done over the two days we were there.

I thought I would try to get a few more circles ready for appliqueing on the blocks. She has a lot done, but there is a lot that need to be basted. So, while watching TV I'm going to do a few more and put them back in my bag that goes with me to see dad. It helps to have something to do while we are there.

This is the view from dad's ICU room. There is only 2 chairs in the room, and with 4 of us, 2 of us were always standing or sitting on the floor. Mom had the big chair while we traded off with the other one.

So, I'm not sure if I'll be posting every night, but I will get back to posting when I can. I'm still keeping myself busy with applique.

I took my embroidery to work on, BUT the embroidery piece was missing when I got down there. I took it out of the bag, so I couldn't work on embroidery. I've got it together now and will work on it when I get tired of the circles.

I'm not worried too much. I know he'll come out of this. Praying he comes out of this. At 84 almost 85 years old, he's still healthy and that helps. But he's got heart issues and that doesn't help. I feel he'll make it through this.

In the meantime, I'm spending time with dad and working on my crafts. I hope you are Happy Quilting/Happy Stitching!