Morning at McKinney Medical Center

Finally, I have time to blog. The reason? I am in the Emergency Room with Dad, at the Medical Center of McKinney. Dad got sick last night, and at 4:42, we arrived at the ER. Yada Yada…… he has pancreatitis. It is extremely painful. His pancreas is inflamed, and he will be in the hospital for three to four days, if all goes well. 90 percent of all pancreatitis is caused by alcohol, but the cause of the other 10 percent is unknown. Dad falls into the “other 10 percent”. The treatment is….. nothing by mouth, and lots of morphine. No water, no food, and he is not allowed to be around any food smells. I knew about the rest of it, but not that he cannot even be around food. The smell of food triggers it in some people, so he’ll be in a special hospital section, and heavily sedated. Man, except for the no food part, it sounds like something I wouldn’t mind having. Anyway, it is not life threatening at this time, though it could change. They will continually monitor his blood to watch that it doesn’t get worse, as you cannot survive without a pancreas, and there is no “fix” for the issue. Since there is no known cause, the inflammation will, hopefully, go away just as it came….. on it’s own.

The football party was a success, in my opinion. We had pork “street” tacos, artichoke/jalapeno dip, Ruben dip, conqueso, baraccho beans, and plenty of hot sauce and chips. I had purchased some sugar cookies that were decorated with the “Boys” star and other football themed frosting. Wanda made a butter pecan cake that was delicious. Everyone brought their own drinks, so it was a great time. Gary lighted my new patio heater so that Mark could stay warm when he went out for a smoke. We had a ball. I did a surprise quickie dessert…… chocolate ice cream served as a sundae with Caffe Lolita (coffee liquor that’s better than Kahlua) served on top. That was also a big hit.

Wanda & Randy, Carlos & Sue, Mark & Joyce & Sheila, Margie & Ralph, and Sue & Clay came for dinner. GUESS WHAT! Clay brought me flowers….. that is another story in itself, but I won’t go into that…..
THANK YOU CLAY & SUE!
The first thing we did was feed our face. We all ate like pigs….. everyone was starving. Dang, you offer free food, and everyone will show up. Well, all but Gerry & Don. After eating, we all filled out one of Sheila’s football pot questionnaires, each person putting $2.00 into the pot. Half the crowd went into the living room to watch the game. They had a ball, based on all the screaming and yelling we heard. The rest of us watched the first half of the game in the den. At half time, we broke out the Wii Rock Band setup. One guitar (still haven’t been able to find one to replace the defective one I got for Xmas), drums, and two microphones. We started out with Sue D. on drums, Mark on guitar, and I think it was Sheila and I on vocal. Sue sucks on the drums is all I can say. Joyce took over the drums, and Sue moved to the guitar and Mark and I did vocals. Joyce can beat a mean drum, and Sue rocks on the guitar. Mark and I both suck on vocals, but hey man, you can’t have everything. We got so loud that the football watchers closed off the opening between the living room and the kitchen/den area. We just cranked up the volume and kept on rocking.

That continued until the “Boys” won, then we all merged back into the kitchen to get the results of the football pot. That damned Ralph won again. He is just too lucky….. I’m still trying to figure out how he manages to win at everything! Sue and Clay left shortly after the game was over. The ice cream dessert didn’t agree with Sue D. Then I drew for the door prize. It was a neoprene insulated wine bag with a bottle of “Young 2007 Merlot” inside. It has an image of “Norma Jean” on the bottle. I asked Joyce to draw the name, and Wanda won the wine. She was so excited, just thanking and thanking Joyce for the wine. I boldly told her that enough with thanking Joyce, I was the won that bought the door prize. She gave me a quick “thank you” and went back to thanking Joyce again for selecting her. Damn……. I did all the work! Oh well.
Margie is working market this week, so she was tired. They left early, but before they left, I cleaned out my liquor pantry. Ralph and Margie were sent home with a bottle and a half (appx) of Chevis Regal Scotch, Carlos took some Irish Whiskey, and I can’t remember who I gave the other stuff to, but I got rid of most of the “hard” liquor that we had. We just don’t drink it anymore. We do beer, wine, or girlie drinks. Dad went to bed cause he was pooped out from all the football. Whoops, he did give every female a new uncirculated Two Dollar Bill.
Once the party poopers were out of the picture, the rest of us played Pass the Ace. Sue S. won the first round…. Beginners luck. Glad we were only playing for quarters. The next round, Wanda didn’t have anymore money, so she played with dimes. We were sorta glad she won, cause she didn’t have enough money to play correctly. I can’t remember who won the last hand, but I am pretty sure it was Sue S. again. I think we finally called it quits around 1 or 1:30. I got a wild hair up my #%^$ and decided to clean house. I went to bed around 3am.
I got up Sunday around 7:30, and lolled around while Gary and Dad went to Ihop. Angie and family came over around 1 pm, and we girls played Rock Band while the guys….. watched football. What a surprise. Long day! Monday, I got up and actually went for a walk in the park with Stella. I took a couple of pictures on our walk. I used my Nike Plus, and logged 45 mins. And 2 miles. When you walk a dog that like to stop for a poop, and then pee on everything in sight, it takes a while to get in 2 miles.

I finished up yesterday by taking pain pills (shoulder and neck were hurting) and going to bed at 7pm. By now you know how I started today. By the way, the hospital was on DIVERT, which means they don’t take any ambulances. Every bed in the hospital is full. Every bed in the ER department has people, like Dad, that are waiting on a room so they can be admitted. We got here at 4:42, were put on the admission list at 8am. It is now 1:25 pm, and we’re still in ER. He’s on his second IV, and it appears that it’s gonna be one long day. They just changed the ER sign to show the DIVERT is still in effect until 15:30. I’d still rather be at this hospital. They are super here, and very accommodating. They even offered to get me some lunch but advised I’d have to eat it elsewhere. I’ve called all my siblings, step siblings, spouse, and daughter. I’ve caught up on blogging. Now, I’m going to go to the cafeteria and get something to eat. Have to eat it there cause the odor of the food is bad for Dad.

I've decided NOT to go to the movies tonight with the gang. They're all going to have to see AVATAR in IMAX 3D without me. You know what..... I bet they have a better time without me anyway.

Later……