Thursday, January 16, 2014

January 16 – “Emergency Wake-up Call”

What a start to the day yesterday.  What an early start, that is.  We got a call from Uncle Jerry around 4:30 a.m.  Never a good sign.  The only thing anyone should be doing that early in the morning is going fishing or maybe leaving for a vacation.  He said he was having the worst headache of his life, and it had begun to affect the vision in his left eye.  The pain had gotten so great that he needed some help getting to the emergency room.  I let him retell his story to Chris while I got dressed, and she concurred that he needed to get to the ER right away.  Some of what he was describing could be signs of a stroke. 

I got to his house a little before 5.  The door was locked, which surprised me, because when he knows I am coming over he usually manages to unlock it.  And when he didn’t answer my knocks right away I was beginning to get nervous.  Just as I was pulling out my phone to call, though, he finally opened it and stumbled back toward his bedroom.  His gait was very unsteady as he moved slowly from couch to chair to wall before collapsing into his bed.  As he stumbled along he said, “For some reason I’m having trouble seeing out of my left eye.”  That’s when he finally turned so I could see his face.  The whole left side of his face was swollen, and his eye was swollen completely shut.  Explained the lack of vision, I guess.  I described his face to him, and he was surprised about the swelling.  I hesitantly ventured, “You know, I think this might be one of those times when we need to call 9-1-1.”  I was floored when he actually agreed with me, but I didn’t hesitate. 

The fire fighters from station 7 were there in less than five minutes doing their assessment.  The ambulance had to come from downtown, but it was on its way as well.  Before it arrived one of the fire fighters, who shall heretofore remain anonymous, went out to move the truck to give them room to load up.  Suddenly we heard the loud blare of the distinctive siren.  It only lasted a few seconds, but it might have been enough to give a few of the neighbors an … unexpected … wake-up call.  I asked if that meant the ambulance was there, and through a stifled chuckle I heard, “Sure, that must be it.”  Kudos to the crew.  They did a great job.

The ambulance did arrive just seconds later with their gear and the travel seat they would use to carry Jerry down the stairs.  As the paramedic was writing down all the drugs Jerry takes, she asked if the patient was related to Nathan Vaughan.  I said he was the patient’s great nephew and my son.  She looked up rather abruptly and said, “Oh, now I see your hat.”  Yep, that would me … Chappy.  That settled, they got Jerry into the ambulance and I followed them in to the hospital.  All that and we still arrived at UTMB before 6 a.m.  Gotta get there early to do your most effective waiting.  He had a CT scan, blood work and a quarantine test.   He’s in quarantine because at his last visit they removed his sigmoid colon.  Apparently that makes you an automatic quarantine for the next three times you come in.   

Jerry started talking to me around 7.  He was reminiscing about his days growing up and how his good ol’days intersected with so often with my Mom and Dad’s.  It quickly became evident that this was some good stuff.  I told him he needed to record all the stories, but he said, “It works better when you’re just sitting around talking to someone – like you - and they ask an occasional question or two.  So there was my job description for the next hour or so.  Listen and ask a few questions.  It didn’t take me long top start taking notes, and I ended up with five pages of memories.  They were quite disjointed as he was saying whatever came to his mind, but I plan to send them to his kids.  I know I would get a kick out of having stories like that.  In fact, because several were about my own Dad, I’ll just keep a copy for myself as well. 

The “treatise of the past” was the only really good thing we took home from the experience.  The docs never did give a satisfactory answer for the swelling, which, by the way finally went down on its own.  Jerry was feeling much better, so we left and went IHOP for some breakfast.   And yet another adventure came to an end.  Bring on the next one.

Jeremiah 29:11-14 says, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.’”

Father, thank you for the first responder team that took care of Uncle Jerry.  May they all have peace and rest and joy within their families.  Amen.

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