March 5th, 2006

Things continue to grind along here.

My father passed away in January after about six months of hospitals, rehab and adult foster care. It all started at the end of June last year when one of his artificial hip joints went bad and he fell down and couldn't get up. He was checking in with me everyday by email, but one day I noticed that I hadn't heard from him, so I called and got no answer.Daughter and I went over to his house and found him lying on the floor. He was conscious, but very weak. Called 911 and they took him to the hospital. Checked my email and realized I hadn't heard from him for a couple of day. So he could have been lying on the floor for a day or two, not just the few hours he told us about.

In July we (my brothers and I) had a hall-way conversation with Dr. Doom-and-Gloom who told us that the prognosis for my Dad wasn't good. If we went ahead with the surgery to fix his hip, he probably would not survive more than a year. Turns out he was right, but what were we going to do? Not get his hip fixed? Not sure that it did him any good in any case.

November was his best month. He was able to come to our house for Thanksgiving dinner. He was getting around with a walker, able to get in and out of our mini-van without assistance, though I would stand right next to him. Sometimes he would loose his balance for a minute and I didn't want him to fall. But come December, he started to decline and it was pretty much
downhill from there.

Should we have done anything differently? Well, maybe. Back in mid-June he had a stent put in to block open one of his arteries. I think this was done with an anesthetic, though I am not sure how much. When he first went in the Hospital they thought his hip had become dislocated, and they gave him a general anesthetic to make it easier to put the joint back together. That didn't work, so then they operated to repair the joint. That required another dose of general anesthetic.

After he had been in the hospital for a while I learned that general anesthesia is not your friend. It can take three or four days for young people to recover from general anesthesia. That's how long it takes for your body to flush all the drugs from your system. For older people it can take longer, weeks, or even months. It took my Dad about six weeks to come out of it.

So now I am dealing with his estate. I had a guy call me last weekend about my Dad's house in Cornelius. I intend to sell it, but I haven't listed it or advertised it or even put up a sign. Got a letter from someone else wanting to buy it for cash. The real estate market may not be as hot as it was, but it is still plenty warm. There are two developments in Hillsboro that I know of that are on tiny tracts of land that are bordered on one side by railroad tracks. They are crammed full of tiny houses. There is one street going into these places. You can't get back out unless you turn around in someone's driveway.

Work continues to be a sad comedy. The owner is getting back from two weeks in Europe. One week at the Olympics and one visiting potential customers. Meanwhile, the company didn't have enough cash to make payroll, so we had to get some cash from the owners wife so we can have real checks on Monday, as opposed to automatic deposit. Time to look for a new job? Or a sailboat?