2-11-04 - 2-18-04

Morning finally came and they let me sit in his room. He was still coming off the drugs and looked terrible. He did wake from time to time, but they would come and put him back out (apparently it's uncomfortable being intubated so they liked to keep him out during that time). Disney travel called to see if they could help find me a hotel. They did find a Super 8 and I took it. After waiting an hour for my shuttle each way, I was glad when the hospital's customer relations person looked me up in dad's room and asked if she could assist me in finding a hotel room closer to the hospital. She found a room in the full nearby Hampton Inn for a hospital discount, so I jumped at taking it, but couldn't get in until the next day. Dad continued to come out of the drugs for short spell before they'd put him back to sleep. He took it all in really good stride---as he always did! By evening, he was awake more and trying to spell things in the air with his fingers---air writing. He had no idea where he was or how he got there, so was surprised to hear about the tug boat and lear jet.
That night I went to have dinner in the hospital cafe---the cusomer rep had given me about 8 $5 coupons. The cafe food was actually pretty good. The night in the Super 8 was noisy, but I was so tired it didn't matter. I was glad for the move the next morning, though. The hospital even provided a free taxi for me.
Next morning Dad looked a lot better---more alert. Probably could have come off the intibater, but the respitory Dr. wanted to leave him on it another day. He said with "near drownings" (or as Dad liked to call it "attempted drowning"), there's so much salt left in the lungs that it draws more water into the lungs. That evening, as Dad was air-writing, a new nurse handed me a paper with the alphabet on it. Sure made it easier! I wonder why none of the other nurses offered it!? Or why I didn't think of it!?
Curt (Dad's friend from Atlanta, Georgia), showed up that day. It was really nice having a familiar face around. He even treated me to dinner 2 nights and i treated him to the cafe. He also got a hospital discount room at the Hampton (told them Dad was his brother). He truelly made himself part of my family!
Next morning they took the tube out. Dad's heart then started having periods of rapid heartbeat waves (not A-fib, though). He didn't notice them, but it still worried me. They moved him to CCU and started giving him heart medicine. That night they changed the meds and it went back to normal. When Curt and I went to see him after breakfast, he was gone----off to a regular room. There's where he started referring to the hospital as North Ridge Medical Center and Resort. He was feeling good, but they wanted to keep an eye on him for awhile more. His "roomy" was also feeling pretty good. He had gone in for a physical, then they decided he needed a triply by-pass and wouldn't let him out before the surgery. So between Dad, Curt, and Don (the roomy), they had lots of war stories (all three retirees from the military) and life stories (all the same generation). His wife even ate dinner with Curt and me one night. Those 2 nights the 3 guys and I even played cribbage 'til 10 or so at night. The nurses seemed amused and kept reminding us that it was a hospital and there were sick people there---then they'd shut our door and let us stay. Don was even quite relieved to be able to ask Curt several questions about bi-pass surgery since he had it about 4 month previously.
Finally, on Sat., the Dr. asked if Dad would like to leave on Sun. So I spent several hours on my cell phone working out the arrangements for us to get home. Disney again tried, but could only come up with airfares over $1500. So I called AmericanAirlines directly and was able to pay the $100@ change fees and rebooked us. But the earliest they could book us was for the following Wed.. BEing our original tickets, we had to fly out of Orlando and be booked in the same fare code. I found a car rental and Curt took me to pick it up. Hampton was kicking him out that day, so he made me a deal that if I go to have sushi with him that night, he'd stay another night in a Best Western. How could I resist?! After dinner we went back to the hospital to visit and play more cribbage.

The next morning Dad was finally released. We went straight to the Hampton, where I'd secured another couple nights, and Dad wanted to hit the jacuzzi. We even went to Walmart where Dad picked up another cribbage set for Don and we went back and visited with him another 3 hours that night.
The next day, Dad and I took off to Key Largo and the Everglades. I was a bit disappointed in Key Largo. But we didn't have much time there.  Don't know what I was expecting.  But Dad did get a big kick out of the African Queen boat.

 I was impressed with the Everglades. Lots of birds, fish and alligators. it was a nice day, no mosquitos, and nice wooden trails.

 a cormorant

 gar

 tri-colored heron

 anhinga drying off

 alligator

 Dad looking really good from the nearly life ending experience he'd had just a few days ago!

 wonder what he's taking a picture of

one of my all time favorite photos of dad.

We got back into town in time to visit with Don awhile more--until they brought him a new roommate.
Next morning---we drove off to Orlando. We spent the night in the airport Hyatt so that we could be at the airport by 4:45 the next morning. (I also had to make sure Dad's medical release had made it to the airlines so they wouldn't deny him boarding). We flew to Dallas, Texas, together, then parted ways.