Sad news
My dad passed away on Thursday.
He was 83 and hadn't been in the best of health, even though he was plotting his escape from the rehab place he'd been moved into after his last trip to the hospital. He kept his mind, his strength of will and his sense of humor to the last and his end came quickly and quietly with my mom at his side, where she'd been for 59 years.
He never wanted any of the falderol that goes along with funerals, and I'm happy to say Mom's abiding by his wishes. Had he had his way, his body would have been dumped in a ditch or in the woods some place to go back to nature, but the state frowns on that sort of thing. He'll be cremated and the closest thing to a memorial service will be a family gathering next weekend where we'll eat too much, talk to much, hopefully laugh too much and cry more than he'd want. Except for the last thing, it's what Daddy would have wanted and he's just gonna have to suck it up and let us all cry some. ;-)
I've been having problems with my not!asthma. The pulmonologist swears I don't have asthma. My lungs beg to differ. So... it's not!asthma. In recent weeks walking a half mile has become arduous. Prior to that, I could walk that half mile to the grocery store and sing along with my iPod without being out of breath. Even allowing for the blast-furnace-like temperatures and the rainforest levels of humidity, this is Not Normal.
So, went to bed around midnight then woke up unable to breathe worth a shit around 3ish. Did my usual inhaler-coughing-up-a-lung routine and found the lovely sight of pink tinged crap coughed up out of my lungs.
*headdesk*
Called Kelsey Seybold to make an appointment for Monday. As soon as I told the gal I thought I might have pneumonia again (oh, *such* fun), she shuttled me off to the on duty RN who wanted me to drop everything and run off to the hospital.
Um, NO!
We talked a bit about what it would take for me to run off to the hospital and I think I got through to her that I'm not such an idiot that I'd sit around and die before getting help. She told me what the huge flashing neon "GET THEE TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM" warning sign was (a tablespoonish amount of coughed up blood). The big compromise is I'm going to the doctor in the morning before heading out to Mom's house. I can live with that.
On the upside, I don't feel anywhere NEARLY as bad as I did when I had pneumonia before. I ran 103 fevers then. At the moment, I'm barely limping up to normal... which *is* high for me.
Off to try and get back to sleep for a while.
He was 83 and hadn't been in the best of health, even though he was plotting his escape from the rehab place he'd been moved into after his last trip to the hospital. He kept his mind, his strength of will and his sense of humor to the last and his end came quickly and quietly with my mom at his side, where she'd been for 59 years.
He never wanted any of the falderol that goes along with funerals, and I'm happy to say Mom's abiding by his wishes. Had he had his way, his body would have been dumped in a ditch or in the woods some place to go back to nature, but the state frowns on that sort of thing. He'll be cremated and the closest thing to a memorial service will be a family gathering next weekend where we'll eat too much, talk to much, hopefully laugh too much and cry more than he'd want. Except for the last thing, it's what Daddy would have wanted and he's just gonna have to suck it up and let us all cry some. ;-)
I've been having problems with my not!asthma. The pulmonologist swears I don't have asthma. My lungs beg to differ. So... it's not!asthma. In recent weeks walking a half mile has become arduous. Prior to that, I could walk that half mile to the grocery store and sing along with my iPod without being out of breath. Even allowing for the blast-furnace-like temperatures and the rainforest levels of humidity, this is Not Normal.
So, went to bed around midnight then woke up unable to breathe worth a shit around 3ish. Did my usual inhaler-coughing-up-a-lung routine and found the lovely sight of pink tinged crap coughed up out of my lungs.
*headdesk*
Called Kelsey Seybold to make an appointment for Monday. As soon as I told the gal I thought I might have pneumonia again (oh, *such* fun), she shuttled me off to the on duty RN who wanted me to drop everything and run off to the hospital.
Um, NO!
We talked a bit about what it would take for me to run off to the hospital and I think I got through to her that I'm not such an idiot that I'd sit around and die before getting help. She told me what the huge flashing neon "GET THEE TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM" warning sign was (a tablespoonish amount of coughed up blood). The big compromise is I'm going to the doctor in the morning before heading out to Mom's house. I can live with that.
On the upside, I don't feel anywhere NEARLY as bad as I did when I had pneumonia before. I ran 103 fevers then. At the moment, I'm barely limping up to normal... which *is* high for me.
Off to try and get back to sleep for a while.