A death in the family.
So I just came back from a whirlwind trip to Baton Rouge. My uncle was sick and unconcious on Friday, which was the family crisis I was referring to in my last post. My dad woke me up on Saturday morning and told me my uncle had passed away at about 4:45 Saturday morning. He was only 55. He just slipped away and didn't come back. He had a DNR order so they let him be. By 8 a.m. Saturday my dad and I were on the road to Baton Rouge and my mom had arranged the funeral service for Sunday at 3 p.m.
It was a fast trip to B.R. Granted, I slept half the way because I had stayed up the night before playing video games until 3 a.m. and my dad woke me up at 7 a.m. to tell me the news. It was quite a shock. He had been in and out of the hospital for the past few years because of his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. He was in the navy. So he had a lot of health problems. But this past time he had developed pnemounia and my mom flew up there to be with him. But none of us really expected him to pass away. He had torn off his oxygen mask Thursday night (they think he was disoriented) and his oxygen levels were down to 30 percent for an undetermined amount of time. That's when he lapsed into the coma. (But we didn't know that until my mom flew down there). The doctors said sometimes people come out of them, it's just the body's way of repairing itself. Apparently, there was more damage than predicted because that's what they think made his organs shut down. So, his heart started failing at 4:30 a .m. and he was gone by the time my mom got to the hospital at 4:45 a.m.
We went to the funeral on Sunday. It was what I expected. It wasn't the shock that you get at your first funeral. I was prepared this time. He looked nice and peaceful. I patted his arm and said goodbye. He's going to be cremated so we didn't need to go to the cemetary. But we took his flowers to the cemetary and laid them on my grandfather's and grandmother's headstones.
It still hasn't quite sunk in. I suppose it will after awhile when I wonder why he hasn't called me lately.
On a lighter note, my first day of work is tomorrow. I have to get up at 6 a.m. Kate asked me when my usual wake up time was since I had been out of work and I told her 11 a.m. She laughed at me.
It was a fast trip to B.R. Granted, I slept half the way because I had stayed up the night before playing video games until 3 a.m. and my dad woke me up at 7 a.m. to tell me the news. It was quite a shock. He had been in and out of the hospital for the past few years because of his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. He was in the navy. So he had a lot of health problems. But this past time he had developed pnemounia and my mom flew up there to be with him. But none of us really expected him to pass away. He had torn off his oxygen mask Thursday night (they think he was disoriented) and his oxygen levels were down to 30 percent for an undetermined amount of time. That's when he lapsed into the coma. (But we didn't know that until my mom flew down there). The doctors said sometimes people come out of them, it's just the body's way of repairing itself. Apparently, there was more damage than predicted because that's what they think made his organs shut down. So, his heart started failing at 4:30 a .m. and he was gone by the time my mom got to the hospital at 4:45 a.m.
We went to the funeral on Sunday. It was what I expected. It wasn't the shock that you get at your first funeral. I was prepared this time. He looked nice and peaceful. I patted his arm and said goodbye. He's going to be cremated so we didn't need to go to the cemetary. But we took his flowers to the cemetary and laid them on my grandfather's and grandmother's headstones.
It still hasn't quite sunk in. I suppose it will after awhile when I wonder why he hasn't called me lately.
On a lighter note, my first day of work is tomorrow. I have to get up at 6 a.m. Kate asked me when my usual wake up time was since I had been out of work and I told her 11 a.m. She laughed at me.