THIS WASN'T WHAT I PLANNED

Not at all.  I planned to go to work and get my desk cleared off.  Then when I got home I was going to watch the movie "World Trade Center" in memory of that fateful day 12 years ago.  (If you want to read my story of being caught in that day, it's here.)

Remember I told you that Joe didn't want me to go to the hospital with him?  Well, he changed his mind and wanted me to go.  I called work and took the day off.  Carole picked us up and took us.  It took a long time to get into the Emergency Room.  Once there Carole left, telling me to call her when I wanted to go home and she would pick me up.

After waiting two or three hours to get looked at (Joe slept through most of it), he was finally taken to get a CT scan of his brain and x-rays of his knees and shoulder (the places he was having the most pain).

 

He doesn't know I took this picture.

After two hours he finally came back.  I was getting really worried about him.  It should have been 45 minutes tops.  And after all of that they still hadn't taken the x-rays of his shoulder because of a mix-up.  So back he went for another hour and a half.

He had a great nurse named Rose who really fought for him to get the tests he needed, not get the tests he didn't need that they ordered anyway, and was up in arms about not getting the shoulder x-rayed at the same time as his knees.  She was wonderful.  God bless the nurses.  They have a hard job.

Finally around 5 p.m. two doctors came in to see Joe.  We had been there since 10 a.m.  These doctors were great.  They were pleasant, but very informative and very interested in everything we had to tell them.  They told us that Joe would be staying for a few days for observation and tests.  This is not what I wanted to hear, but at the same time I want him to be OK.  So I told Joe that I was going home, get something to eat, get his things and come back.

I went outside, called Carole and waited 45 minutes for her to show up because it was rush hour.  At that point I was sorry I hadn't just driven myself.  I could have been home by then.  When I got home I grabbed some snack stuff so I could have something to eat, a bottle of water, and Joe's clothes and toiletries, his glasses and his Bible, and headed back.  I got there around 7:30 p.m. and he was still in the Emergency Room.  He was so happy to see me.  I asked if he had eaten, and he said no.  So I went to the nurse (a different one since Rose had left) and told her he was diabetic, hadn't eaten all day and needed something to eat.  They had forgotten to feed him.  So she got him a sandwich, some juice, a plum and a couple of sugar-free cookies.  I have to give her credit, though, because she also got him a fish dinner to take up to the room with him.

So Joe was taken up to his room around 8:00 p.m.  I got him a table to eat his dinner (there was nothing in the room), helped feed him because he was having a hard time of it, got him to the bathroom, and had just gotten him back into bed when one of the doctors (Dr. Oren) came in.  He talked to us about a half hour.  He told us they are going to check his blood sugar, his blood pressure, and go over his entire medication list to see if there is something that he is taking too much of, too little of, or if there are some drugs acting against each other.  No one has ever done this.  Each doctor does his own thing, so this is really useful.  I am happy about this.  So this whole thing may be a blessing in disguise.  God always has His way and this may be a way to make Joe better.

There is probably a hairline fracture in his scapula from the fall and that is why his shoulder hurts so much.  But there is really nothing to do about that except let it heal.

So that's the news.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better.  Although maybe not since my day will begin with me going to have my root canal finished.  It's always something!

Partly cloudy
High:  93 degrees at 3:05 p.m.
Low:  74 degrees (predicted tonight)
Sunrise:  6:37 a.m.
Sunset:  7:15 p.m.