New Photos!

Summer 2009 Pictures!!!

A Cruel April Fool’s Joke

Yesterday evening dad began experiencing abdominal pain, by 8:00 pm it was so severe that Kehlen and I packed him into the car for another late night dash to Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it that far and turned around and aimed for Saint Peter’s in Olympia instead. The ER was busy for a Tuesday night, victims of the latest flu virus, due to his condition the triage nurse marked him as ‘urgent’, meaning we only had to wait one hour instead of two.
The pain was staggering and it was hard to be patient as each new nurse asked the same questions; finally, relief came when he got some medicine to control the pain. After that, it was hours of sitting on stiff plastic chairs waiting under the glare of the florescent lights as they rolled dad back and forth on a gurney with a broken rail, first to x-ray, then for a CAT scan. What we discovered by almost 4:00 am was that he was suffering from a urinary tract infection as well as an obstructed bowel.
They decided to transfer him up to Virginia Mason this morning so he could be around his docs and his old friend the nose tube. So far, they’ve loaded him up on antibiotics to fight the infection and are keeping a steady flow of pain meds going to help him wait it out to see if the obstruction will pass on its own. If not, he’ll have to undergo surgery again, which will take him back quite a few steps. So here’s hoping that he can relief from the pain and strength to help his body heal!

Back Home

Yesterday we brought Dad home! He seemed relieved to be out of the hospital. When they asked him if he’d like to eat something before leaving, he politely turned down the offer, to which the nurse replied, “Yeah, you’ve probably had enough of our cooking”- a truth he did not dispute. Despite being attached to what I call his “ball and chain”, all the tubes and bags which hook up to his bladder every evening, he said he felt detached from the drugs but happy to be home.
At the hospital, he’d been woken up every two hours to be poked, prodded, or injected, making it impossible to get any restful sleep. He woke up this morning after nine hours of uninterrupted sleep, and felt much improved. He was able to eat a normal breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast and coffee. The most impressive feat of the day was going grocery shopping. After a week of only walking from one end of the hall to the other, traipsing back and forth through Fred Myer on a Sunday afternoon was quite exhausting. I know he is frustrated and surprised by how little stamina he has, but I think it’s pretty amazing to be shopping for sweat pants only a week after having organs removed; heck, I’d just be lounging in sweat pants period!

Neo

We joked before dad went into surgery that his new nickname would be "Neo" like the character in the Matrix, more accurately, for the new "neo bladder". Upon entering the hospital room on Friday, I felt like perhaps we had stumbled into a scene of the Matrix; dad had so many tubes and gadgets hooked up and, in conjunction with the pain meds, I wouldn't have been surprised if he was partially in cyber space fighting Machines.
Despite the pain and exhaustion, his sense of humor remained in tact. He was pretty tired though, so we came and went in small doses.
Saturday I got caught in St. Patty's Day parade traffic on my way to the hospital. I was surprised when I got there to see dad sitting in the well padded chair. Some of the tubes had been removed and he was much more alert (although the tube in his nose was still source of much aggravation). He immediately had me take out his lap top and post a blog. I was there for about 40 minutes, and he remained sitting for the entire time which is excellent because, apparently, the more one gets up and moves after surgery, the quicker the recovery and less pain (seems a bit counter intuitive to me but it seems to be working for him).
I had just enough time to jet home and make it the fire station's annual crab feed! We did a good job stuffing our selves as usual, although I felt sorry for Kehlen who was volunteering and could only watch us and empty our shell buckets (not too sorry though because she got to take the extra crab home).
I was surprised to see snow this morning; finally, remembering that it is supposed to be spring, the weather has now turned to slushy rain. Dad called and, despite the nasal pitch from the tube, he sounded well rested and much better. He has been moved from the ICU to a room on the 17th floor, with a view of Lake Union! Sorry, I'm still not positive which room number it is. He said he had a bit of a rough night as the pain meds ceased for a period, but is doing well today. He even went for a walk up and down the hall twice! I believe the combination of every one's thoughts and prayers with his desire to get the heck out of there a.s.a.p., he's on his way to a speedy recovery!

Success!

Talked to mom briefly and it sounds like dad's bladder removal/reconstruction operation was a success! No signs of hidden cancer (although they'll have to wait for the micro something-or-other scope results to be sure) and now he's in ICU recuperating. Tomorrow he's supposed to be moved to a room on the 17th floor, so at least he'll have a view! Thanks for everyone's concern and please pass on the good news. I'll be posting any new information on my blog

Thanks!
Lauril

Gallery

Now that I’m back home and not some place exotic and fascinating, I just don’t feel that my life is worth writing about. I have, however, been wanting to show my pictures somewhere and I thought, “I do have a space and I don’t have to worry about matting and framing.” It’s been snowing unusual quantities here in Olympia, WA, inspiring some seasonal photos. Please enjoy my artzy pics and Happy Holidays!

The Good News Or The Bad News?

Hey everybody, after a disastrous journey here and a crazy start, things are finally settling down. So I'm driving to CA with the cat, what's the worst that can happen? I lose the cat.

Everything was fine and dandy, Treff was driving me batty with his incessant complaining 'why are the trees moving? Why is my seat shaking? Why is it so hot, you try wearing a fur coat. My litter box is too small...' but all in all we were making good time. We decided to stop for the night in a little two horse town called Lakeshead just north of Shasta Lake. We found a motel that allowed cats and spent the evening watching the Olympics. The next morning, Robin's dad offered to take Treffly for a walk on his leash. Despite Robin's warning that walking a cat is very different and one mustn't pull on the leash, there was a moment of panic and Treffly somehow got away. Unfortunately, there was nothing surrounding the little town but woods. We spent all morning scrounging through the brush searching, all the while visions of Treffly's leash caught up on something and choking him crept into my mind. By mid day it was hot and we had to take a break. We went to the local deli for lunch where the owner offered to copy some flyers; thus the afternoon was spent knocking on doors and passing out 'LOST CAT' notices. By evening I'd completely lost hope. I felt bad for blaming Robin's dad, but I couldn't help it, I thought he understood cats better. We all geared up for another sweep. Robin's dad sat vigilantly watching the trap he'd made, while I headed out into the brush again. As I began to scan the blackberry brambles for a flash of blue leash, I noticed a feral grey cat darting under some blocks of concrete, and thought to myself, 'now that's a good hiding place' but upon further inspection, saw no sign of his orange plumpness. Yet I kept scanning the area and then all of a sudden I saw it, that flash of blue leash, TREFFLY!!! There he was, huddled beneath the slabs of concrete, looking a bit bewildered but otherwise in good shape. After re hydrating him and a can of tuna, we opted not to stay there another night and hauled it out of Lakeshead. And after hours of searching, straining to hear him meow, I couldn't have been happier to hear Treffly’s disdainful remarks all the way to San Fran.

San Francisco is exactly as it's rumored to be, hilly and foggy. I managed to maneuver the truck successfully and was completely exhausted by the time I parked in front of 547 40th Ave. Before even getting Treffly out of the car, I went in to investigate my new dwelling. I was a bit disappointed, it really was in a basement and a bit dreary. I went back out to the truck to get Treff, and what did I find? A 50$ parking ticket! I had been inside probably no more that 10 minutes tops! There's only a two hour break in the entire week when it's prohibited to park where I did due to street sweeping and yet, of course, I’d managed to parked there just during that period, and in a moment of weakness I completely lost it.

The next day was filled with IKEA and unpacking. Robin had put me in touch with a friend who manages a catering company and I got word that there was an opening to work for something called 'Outside Lands' the following three days. I really had no idea what it was, but it was work and it was in Golden Gate Park which is about 5 blocks away so I more than happy to accept. As it turns out, Outside Lands was a HUGE concert, and I was working in the beer tent not far from the main stage! While serving beer and making an ass of myself trying to do simple math (we had no real cash registers), I got to hear (if not actually see) Radiohead, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Tom Petty and Manu Chao to name the big ones. Despite reeking of beer, trying to catch under aged punks and working 12 hour days on my feet with hardly any breaks, it was awesome!

Needless to say, today was spent catching up on sleep and building my IKEA furniture. Things are coming together and the place is looking much less dreary, and of course I'm just tickled to wake up every morning with Treffly purring in my ear.

I hope everyone is doing well and I miss you all! I still don't have a phone, but incase you want to send me a snail mail, my address is:



547 40th Ave.

San Francisco, CA 94121

Oh, these are just the before pics, I'll put up some 'afters' in a bit.