Free at Last!

Jailbreak was successful. Safe house is working, location on a need to know basis.... Those with cell phones can call; he's installed in the back room with hospital bed, safety bars on bathroom, etc. Hopefully both he and his keeper/staff/loving wife are resting now! Posted respectfully by Secretary.

Plan is On!

They're springing Gramps/Russ/Dad tomorrow... Saturday there will be no more waiting for Nurse Rachett to torment him. There's a hospital bed waiting in the back bedroom, and safety bars to the shower and hopefully all he'll need to finish his recovery. (Not to mention his computer, which he confided to Secretary yesterday, that he misses...)

50 Feet on Two

Secretary is posting a quick update, as Almeda has been way too busy. Today, Russ/Grandpa walked to the end of the hall and back, fifty feet in each direction. He walked with a doctor, so presumably they talked as they walked. There is a chance he can go home on Sunday. Karen has arranged for things to accommodate him there, -- hospital bed, etc. I understand he's been trying to eat the hospital food, and is anxious to go home ;-) Posted in haste by Secretary.

Next stop, extended care

This posted by Secretary again. Today was an ambulance ride (Almeda included, thanks to her great sob story that she had no way to get home as her daughter was taking a sick husband for a stress test) to Life Care extended care facility in Vista, very close to their home. After a three hour nap (enforced by Karen placing her in her chair with food and instructions not to get out for a few hours), Almeda is being taken over to see him now by Karen.

Hospital and Hotel

Karen and I drove down to the hospital and had to slow but not stop in the traffic. Her dad was upset and was cussing the nurses. He calmed down with morphine and I gave him a small lecture of: if he'll be nice to other people, they'll be nice to him. After lunch he apologized to one of the nurses. Karen and I went out for lunch and went to the hotel and I registered. Back at the hospital, Karen said goodbye and went home after a while. A little later they got him up and he could not walk but could stand and sit up briefly. I bought dinner downstairs and took it up to eat with him in his room. The Admission office called me a cab to go back to the hotel until tomorrow, when I'll take a cab back to the hospital. (This post dictated over phone to Secretary from author/Almeda's motel room.)

First Day Post Op

Secretary is posting as she hears from telephone. Almeda was across the hall when nurses got him sitting up and eventually standing. Good for healing, bad, pain wise. Also, he was mistakenly given more blood thinners this morning. Luckily, by 3pm he as sleeping. posted by secretary

Surgery Day

This is the secretary writing. Russ/Grandpa was scheduled to go to surgery at 12:30pm. This meant no food, no water (and no morphine according to him, but I'm not sure about that). He called about 3:30pm, still waiting in pre-op and joked he'd been waiting there in pre op two days :-) I would have felt the same. Worse, it was actually 7:30pm when Almeda called me to say they'd finally started his surgery. Karen arranged with the doctor to have him call on her cell phone when it was over so she could take Almeda back to her house for a little rest after the stress of waiting all day for any minute to go to surgery. They went back expecting a call, but Karen finally called the nurses to find out and reached a post op nurse about 10pm who was too busy to talk, but confirmed he was in post op. About 10:30pm the doctor called Karen's home phone and told her the surgery went fine. We hope it will be just a few days and he'll be out of the hospital. Posted by secretary with permission, but unseen as yet by author who hopefully is sleeping at last.

Visits

This is the secretary writing. As of midday, there were multiple hospital visits from La Del and Lorraine and a call to Kaye: He's lucid, certainly, and told me that the neighbor across the street (who helped him after the fall) has volunteered to do his yard work for him, even offering to replace the yard man so it'll be done right so he won't have to :-) Surgery is set for tomorrow, 12:30pm. It would have been this morning, but the doctor came in after he'd had a breakfast of milk. His blood was good, but... No use crying over drunk milk. . Posted by the secretary in advance of permission or discussion from AuthorAlmeda.

Update

This is the secretary writing. About noon, Karen updated me that doctors still don't know if they will do a pin or hip replacement and may not know until they get in there. They have to wait for the blood thinner to get out of his system, so that won't happen before Saturday at the soonest. I talked to him and he seemed in fairly good spirits (even sniggered at me for suggesting the irony of him always nagging about his wife being careful and he is the one who fell...) and is managing with some pain meds. Posted in advance of permission by the author by her secretary. (She is finally downstairs getting something to eat.)

It started out as a nice day, but ended badly. Chris fell down and broke his hip. We called 911 and the ambulance came and took him to Tri-City hospital. They gave him strong pain killers, and the dr. ordered x-rays and other things, and then they called Kaiser, and they said they would send an ambulance for him. He broke it about 2 p.m. and it was after 7 p.m. before they came for him. Later after Karen brought me home, a man called from Kaiser Hospital, and asked me lots of questions, all his medications and stuff. His blood is too thin to do surgery, so they will wait a few days for that. He said that they would take care of him. Karen and I will go down to San Diego tomorrow morning, and if I can find a hotel near the hospital, I'll stay over until after the surgery at least. More when I know anything new.

My visiting teacher came over this morning, and she brought me strawberries and a small orchid, in the orchid color. She hadn't been to see me in Feb. or March, because either I was sick, or she was. Also, the presents were for my birthday she said. She's a nice person. Her grandson is coming home from his mission to Mexico on Friday. We watched another movie this afternoon; we are going to have to stop for a while, other things just don't get done, and my eyes are rather strained with all that we've been seeing. I was counting on going for a walk, but it was cold and windy outside, and the clouds were coming up. It will rain tomorrow, the TV news said. I have three new books to read, and I just got started on one. It's nice to have them here, so I don't have to go to a library or a store for one.