I haven’t posted for a few days as I’ve been off my usual routine this week. I didn’t sleep well Sunday night. I knew I had to be up early – I had my alarm set for 4:15am. Usually, when I need to be up early, I have an internal clock that wakes me up just before the alarm. In this case, I was restless all night and I was awake at 3am. I stayed in bed and tried to sleep, but got up at 4am and shut off the alarm.

I was up early to take my step-dad to the hospital. We had Ken’s car all weekend so I could drive him to the hospital for surgery to correct an abdominal aorta aneurysm and not have to scooter over to his place at dark-thirty. I told Ken I would be there by 5:15am. I showed up at 5:05am and we were on our way by 5:10am.

I figured the drive to Inland Valley Medical Center would take at least 30 minutes. In the early morning hours of Martin Luther King day, there was very little traffic and we made it in 25 minutes. We checked in at the ER as instructed and sat and waited for about half an hour. Then an administrator called out a name and Ken raised his hand. She started to tell us where we needed to go and Ken asked about his co-pay. He was told during the pre-op appointment that he would have a co-pay and it had to be paid in full before the surgery. The woman said she didn’t know about the co-pay and took us to an office. She started looking at files on her computer, then asked Ken if he knew the amount of the co-pay. Ken told her the amount and she said she didn’t see any notes for it, but would take the payment. I saw the file she was looking at – it wasn’t Ken’s file. She was about to apply his co-payment to someone else’s case.

We got that straightened out and walked to the surgery center. Ken’s 84 years old and never had a surgery before – and he had never spent the night in a hospital before. After a short wait, a nurse came and led him back to the pre-operation preparation area. I joined Ken there after a few minutes. I’ve been through several surgeries and I tried to reassure him and explain to him what they were doing. It was almost 8:30am by the time they were ready to wheel him into the operating room (OR). I told him he would be going to sleep in a few minutes. He looked at the nurse and said, “I’m wide awake now, I don’t think I can sleep.” I told him, “Trust me, you’ll be asleep in a few minutes.”

Before they took him away, the surgeon told me there was maybe a 1% chance that he would have to perform open surgery. The plan was to insert a stent through the femoral artery into his aorta and avoid open surgery. The surgeon said I should stick around until he was out of the OR. This made me wary – if they had to perform open surgery, I wasn’t sure if it would be survivable for someone Ken’s age and condition.

I read a book in the waiting room. I went to the cafeteria for breakfast. Then I came back and read some more. At 10:30am, the surgeon came out and told me everything was fine. He showed me a CT-scan image taken with contrast in the bloodstream. It showed blood flowing through the stent with no leakage into the aneurysm. Perfect. He said there was a possibility Ken would be discharged the next day, but more likely it would be Wednesday.

About an hour later, I was able to visit Ken in the recovery room. I said, “Well, you made it through.” He said, “I don’t think I did too well.” I told him the surgeon said everything went really well and he was pleased with the outcome. Ken said, “But I was thrashing about and trying to stand up in bed.” I laughed and told him that didn’t happen – it was a hallucination brought on by the anesthesia. He seemed really confused by that. Before I left, I told him I would call him the following day to check on him. The nurse told me he would be in room ICU13.

Monday night I was really tired and went to bed at 9pm. I slept like a rock. I was up early and got out of bed at 6am. I read for awhile then had breakfast when Donna got up.

Sunrise Tuesday morning

We hit the pickleball courts. Here at Golden Village Palms RV Resort, they take pickleball seriously and start play at 8am. I knew Ken usually likes to sleep in, so I played pickleball until 11am, then I called the hospital. It took four phone calls and lots of runaround before I was able to talk to Ken. He wasn’t in ICU13 like they told me – he was in ICU2.

Ken told me that when the doctor made his rounds earlier, he said Ken would be discharged after lunch! He said I should wait until he called me before heading to hospital because it might take a couple of hours. I received a phone call around 2pm from the nurse. He said he had trouble getting hold of me – they had written my phone number down incorrectly. Luckily Ken had my number on a note in his coat pocket which he eventually found. The nurse said I should plan to pick Ken up at 4pm.

Donna and I drove to the hospital and picked Ken up. He was moving a little slow but seemed fine. On the way to his house, I stopped at Rite-Aid to fill a pain prescription. That’s when trouble started. The pain med – Norco – is a class two controlled substance. Rite-Aid wouldn’t fill the prescription because the doctor didn’t hand write the date – it was pre-printed on the prescription form. They said the prescription had to be hand signed and hand dated. They suggested using a different pain med. I wasn’t going to do that without talking to the surgeon. It turned out he was in surgery at the time. I called his office and they told me they would page him and he could call Rite-Aid. They expected him to be out of surgery within half an hour.

We drove Ken home and told him he should kick back and relax while I worked out the prescription issue. Ken’s a pretty tough guy. He made a pot of coffee and turned on the television. We planned for Donna to spend the night at Ken’s house so she could prepare meals for him. He wouldn’t have it. Like I said, he’s a tough guy. Ken served in the Marine Corps and fought at the battle of Chosin in Korea. He’s been through very hard times in his life.

I went back to Rite-Aid to see if they heard from the surgeon. He hadn’t called and by now it was after 5pm. I called his office again but it was closed – I got through to his answering service. They paged him again and he called me. He said I should just buy extra strength Tylenol. He said Ken didn’t take much in the way of pain medication all day and he thought Tylenol would work fine. I bought the Tylenol and went back to Ken’s place. We sat for a while before he shooed us off. He’s used to living alone and he wanted us to go home and come back on Wednesday.

It was well after 6pm by the time we got home. Donna made oven-fried chicken that had soaked overnight in buttermilk and chives. This recipe was new and it was very tasty. The chicken was crispy, flavorful and moist. She also prepared buttered green beans and black rice with sweet potatoes, ginger and scallions.

Oven-fried chicken

Wednesday morning we were back on the pickleball courts. I called to check on Ken at 11am. He seemed anxious to have his car back in his garage. I told him I would make a quick run for groceries, then go to his place.

He seemed to be getting around fine when I arrived. He said he had some aches and pains and he didn’t know why. I told him he was only on his second day after surgery. Aches and pains are to be expected. He said he planned to go to the clubhouse and play cards on Thursday. He usually plays on Tuesdays and Thursdays. His neighbor, Ray, would walk with him to the clubhouse. He said he thought the walk would be good for him.

I rode the scooter back home and left Ken’s car in his garage. Donna adapted a chicken stir-fry recipe and made beef & broccoli stir-fry with flank steak for dinner. It was delicious!

Flank steak beef stir-fry

We played pickleball again this morning – I played for three hours. I’ll call Ken later, after his card game to see how he’s doing. I told him we were paid up here until Saturday, but we can extend if he feels like he might want some help. That’s the nice thing about being mobile and full-timing. We don’t really have to be anywhere. At a time like this, if we lived in a sticks-and-bricks house, I would have flown out here to help Ken. Then I would sleep on his sofa or get a hotel room. But I didn’t have to do that. We were able to move our living quarters to his area and we can remain here if he needs us.

It’s a beautiful day today. The temperature is in the mid 70s with only a few high clouds. The snow we can see on Mount San Jacinto and up in Big Bear is melting from the mountain tops.

Snow on the mountains

The nice weather should hold up through the weekend. We’ll decide tomorrow if we’ll stay here or move on.