Elections, Medical Incidents, & Blessings

Greetings and Salutations Faithful Stapleton Blog Readers!

Well I guess you could say that I have let the blog go stale a little bit but I don’t see it that way.  It may be stale if you do not keep up with my on Twitter, Facebook, or Friendfeed but I do post everyday.  In fact the people that follow me online probably know what is going on with me more than anyone else.  So I come back here to occasionally update everyone in long form.  That way all my Troglodyte acquaintances can still keep up.

Since my last post these United States went through a general election.  I have to congratulate President Elect Barrack Obama on his historic election even though his policies will lead this country into the fiery pit of hell.   But seriously how cool is it that just 40 years after black people were being hosed in the streets and not allowed to vote that a black man is now President of the United States and the most powerful man in the world.  (Please notice that I used black not African American.  I do not care where you are from.  You are either an American or you are not no descriptive adjectives please.  I can find nothing in the dictionary that indicates that black is a negative term so I use it.  ) It either shows that there is a ton of white guilt around or we have come a long way as a country.  I just hope John McCain realizes that out of his 54 million votes that 53.5 Million of those votes were for Sarah Palin or against Obama and not for him.  That’s it no more politics in this post I am working on a another channel to deliver my rants I will update you all later on what that will be.

After stopping my preparations for HaraKiri I carried on with the rest of my election week.  The second week of November I was mostly tied up with staff meetings in Indianapolis.  I really like Indianapolis the downtown reminds me of clean and smaller scale New York.  If you ever get to stay in downtown Indianapolis and you have the means may I recommend staying the the Crowne Plaza.  It is a really neat hotel and convention center built into the old Union Station.  The third week of November I stayed in Marietta, OH all week to work with a local customer.  It was a 3 person conversion job that I did by myself, these are beginning to take it out of me.  I came home that Friday evening 21st to Jess not feeling well and in a lot pain.

After a protracted battle she finally agreed to go down to HIMG Now Care to be examined.  She had been sick we just thought she had the nasty stomach bug going around.  She was dehydrated so they had a time with needle sticks for blood work.  Now Care took some blood and X-Rays they determined that her Liver Enzymes were 3 times normal levels and did not like the X-Ray.  So they sent us to the ER for a CT Scan and further evaluation.  After about 7 hours in the St. Mary’s ER they did a CT scan and determined that there was nothing wrong and sent us home.  We returned home about 2 AM on the 22nd and went to bed.  About 9 AM when the pain and nausea meds wore off Jess began violently throwing up bile.  She was a trooper and a model of stubbornness and held out until about 4 PM then we went back to the ER.  It is amazing how fast you get moved through the line when you were just there 14 hours ago and are throwing up on the reception people.

This time at the ER we got some action and they did an ultrasound and Jess and I found out we were the proud parents of Gallstones.  So after discovering what was wrong the ER sent us home with pain and nausea meds to follow up with our family doctor then a surgeon.  Well this takes us into Thanksgiving week.  I had to go to a bank Monday the 24th there was no choice in the matter.  The bank could not do business without me there due to new products I was implementing.  So I reluctantly left Jess and Sandy was nice enough to come over and take her to the Family Doc.  We got a referral to a surgeon the quickest we could get into see him was on December 2nd.  This was another week of waiting and Jess’s symptoms were not subsiding at all.

This takes us to December 2nd we got into see Dr. Robarts and the quickest he can do the surgery is December 15th.  Since Jess ‘s blood work continues to come back ok and her pain can be controlled she is not considered and emergency case.  Unfortunately controlling her symptoms means that we are giving her enough medication to knock her out.  This has several effects, she had to take an incomplete in her student teaching class and I had 2 weeks of 300+ mile daily commutes so that I could be with her in the evening.  I had originally planned to stay out of town during this time.  This of course made my butt drag even closer to the ground then it already was.

This brings us to December the 4th (Ricky’s Birthday).  I left that afternoon with Mom to travel to the Cleveland Clinic to be with Willie and Sharon for Willie’s surgery.  Through a series of unrelated tests Willie discovered that he had a small tumor on his Kidney.  He evaluated his options and decided to have the tumor removed at the Cleveland Clinic because it could be done laparoscopically.  On the way to Cleveland I received the sad news that Jess’s Grandfather had passed away at 8:05 PM.  I kept in touch with home while Mom & I completed the trip.  Once in Cleveland we met up with Willie and Sharon and we learned that we had to be at the hospital at 6 AM for the surgery, so I got to bed about 12:30 on the 5th.

Mom & I got up and went over to the hospital with Willie and Sharon at 6 AM, Nancy made it up about noon on Friday.  About 2:30 we received word that Willie is out of surgery and that it went very well.  After getting to see Willie in recovery I left everyone so that I could travel bank to Huntington.  So about 18 hours after arriving I headed back down I-77 towards home to be Jess and her family on Saturday for the Funeral.

Saturday morning came way too early but there were things to do.  So I got up and took Phoebe and Petey to the shot clinic at 10 AM that saved us $100 on their annual shots.  I came back to the house and picked up Jess and we proceeded to the funeral home.  During this time an ice and snow storm began in Huntington and everything became white and covered with ice.  Jess was very upset about her Grandfather so I was glad I could be there for her.  I was also very honored when asked to be a pall bearer.  At the conclusion of the funeral services and interment we spent the rest of the evening with Family.

About 11 PM Jess began to have a substantial amount of paid in her back from the gallstones.  Finally about 1 AM I convinced her to go back to the ER.  After being there 2 of the last 3 weekends and not mention we came out in the middle of an ice storm we had no trouble going up to the window and just telling the people we were drug seeking.  So they did another round of blood work it still looked good no emergency surgery we still have to wait another week.  So basically I get Jess all drugged up and we get home about 4 AM.

So at the end of this 4 paragraph 60 hour time frame I had driven 700 miles to Cleveland and back. Spent 12 hours in the Cleveland Clinic, 3 hours in the St. Mary’s ER, attended a funeral, comforted family, took 2 unhappy pets to the vet by myself, and solved this whole dependency on foreign oil thing.  My butt was dragging I forwarded every phone we have to voice mail and went to bed. (See if you followed my twitter feed you would know all this already.)

This brings us to this last week.  Things went pretty normally for around here I had a couple of day trips, Jess was drugged but comfortable, & I am up to my ears in work.  (Poor Jess since her Gallstones were discovered she has only really had 2 good days.)  Jess is looking forward to her surgery on Monday and this Gallstone adventure being over.  Then all we have left to deal with are the holidays, which will be an adjustment for the family with the loss of Jess’s grandfather.  If anyone has any doubt about the love I have for my wife know this: The last time I had cheese fries was on November 15th.  This is love baby!

Depending on how well you know me this entry may come off like complaining or you may know me so well that this entry is just as anal as I am.  However I am thankful for all the offers of support and comfort during this time, to Sandy for helping out with Jess when I had to leave to work, and to God for watching over my family and covering us with his never ending love and grace.

However we have been truly blessed during this time.  Paw Paw got to come home for Thanksgiving and everyone got to see him.  Willie’s post op came back with a clean bill of health he lost only a small portion of one kidney.  After he recovers he should be good as new for a soon to be 49 year old.  However he is starting to look like an aging Wookie with his shirt off (something else for me to look forward to).  Jess although she has been in a lot of pain should be on the mend in the next week.  We have to be at the hospital at 6AM on Monday with a surgery time of at or about 8 AM.

Well that’s about it from the Stapleton Mansion.  That’s the news and I am outta here!