And Things Change Again

I haven't written in awhile because at 4:30 am on the 9th I got a phone call that my wife couldn't breathe and they were sending her to the emergency room. I got dressed and drove over (the roads were horrible) and waited with her while they ran tests. They suspected a heart attack and shipped her off to Albany Medical Center. I picked up a few things she might need from the rehab center and went home, where I found 6 inches of heavy wet snow and had to take time to clear things out and rake off the roofs. A tree had gone over, just missing the storage shed. Couldn't leave Lucy the pit bull home alone forever, so I took her to the youngest daughter's. There was no snow in North Hoosick, a couple of miles away and a bit lower in altitude!

Following that I headed for Albany by way of Clifton Park. Had a bit of vibration in the Jeep. They spent an hour trying to find me snow tires. Then my oldest daughter took me to AMC. We waited awhile with my wife. They were trying to get her blood pressure under control. It was obvious nothing else was going to be done that night, so we went back to Clifton Park and I slept on an air mattress after retrieving the Jeep with new tires.

On the 10th they took my wife to cardiac catheterization. I waited in the waiting room but no one showed up, and the woman on duty finally came and told me she was back in her room. I went down and she had just gotten there and started screaming in pain and went into cardiac arrest. They tried various things and finally kicked me out. After an hour or so I called in and they sent a nurse out to talk to me. They had used minimal dye to save her kidneys and evidently nicked an artery and she nearly bled out. They gave her 4 pints of blood and she was taken for a cat scan, where they confirmed the bleed. By that time she was stabilized. She got 2 more pints and was watched closely for the night. I "slept" in a chair in the room for two nights during all of this.

I left at 1 pm on the 12th to avoid the traffic. The Jeep got home all right, I got Lucy, and put the Jeep on ramps and found the rear u-joint gone, crawling around in the ice and snow. I removed the driveshaft. Had to work bare handed much of the time! After thawing my fingers I removed the bad u-joint.

Then I had to extract the car from a snowdrift to go get a new part. With the use of a lot of sand, I finally got it out. I found the local parts store had one, but had to wait over a half hour until they got their computers up in order to buy it! (Our bank's computers were down in the morning! We are too dependent on computers.)

The next day I got the u-joint in and put the shaft back in. Did laundry, dishes, paid bills, and put some kerosene in the heating oil, then went back to Albany.

I left Lucy with the youngest daughter again this time, but the following day I left her home and went to Albany at 9 am. This worked out great traffic-wise.  My wife was supposed to have a port put in for dialysis and have surgery on her ankle, which had shifted (the bone doctors came to her room since she was down there). After lunch I began having bad stomach cramps. Left for home at 2:30 and made it O.K., but the rest of the afternoon was miserable. Did manage to get the checkbook reconciled and go to North Bennington for gasoline. Went to bed at 7:30, but woke up with a terrific leg cramp at 9 PM. Managed to slide out of bed and put weight on it, which helped, but then got bad chest pain.  Finally I had a cup of tea and chewed up an aspirin just in case, and managed to get some sleep.

Things picked up after that. God is good. My wife finally had dialysis and felt much better. They put the ankle surgery off. I felt much better, and managed to get some work done widening the doorways so the wife can navigate them with  a wheelchair or walker. Mobile homes weren't made to be handicap accessible! I put more kerosene in the oil tank to thin the oil before the arctic cold wave hits Sunday night - (total of 25 gal in now).

We are supposed to get a bad nor'easter this weekend with up to 24 inches of snow. I may not make it down to Albany on Sunday!

Haven't done any photography much lately, but I did manage to take a couple of the Tomhannock Reservoir on the way home today with a cell phone. The ice fishermen are having a good time!



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