I think that while Dad was in surgery they injected caffeine directly into his brain. So for the last week I had been talking to my Dad and he had been telling about how bad other people have felt after the same surgery that he is going in for. So Taka and I cleared our schedules so that we could stick around most of Wednesday if we needed to, in order to help him out.
Tuesday we get to the hospital around 9:15am. The nurses prep him and Taka and I wait with him until they take him to surgery. As they are wheeling him away he puts his hands on an imaginary steering wheel and says "I'm driving this cart, take me to the front entrance." The nurses chuckle and keep wheeling him towards surgery. From down the hall I hear my Dad say "Help, they're kidnapping me!" I smile and Taka and I go down to the cafeteria to study. Later they let us go in to see him in the recovery room. When they are ready to release him, Taka goes to get the car and the nurse gets Dad dressed and walking around. His nose starts to bleed, which will happen after you have surgery on your nasal passages. They put a sling around his ears that holds gauze under his nose. As the nurse wheels him out there are people walking in. Dad says "I would be a good poster for your hospital. I wasn't bleeding when I came in." Without missing a beat the nurse says "I told you not to walk into that door." I almost fell over laughing.
We get Dad home and I swear he becomes the energizer bunny. He wouldn't sit still. And of course he kept poking at his nose. We told him to sit down, and we tried to get him to follow the instructions on the sheet they gave us to get the bleeding to stop. About 4 hours later Dad decided that the bleeding wasn't stopping and we needed to go back to the hospital. So off we go. The nurse at the desk very patiently explained to Dad that he was supposed to be bleeding and that it would stop. When he turned and left she leaned over and told me "Don't worry, he is going to be just fine." I said "I know. Sorry to bother you."
The bleeding stopped shortly later, we had some dinner and took him home again. We put in the movie Eastern Promises, but he still wouldn't stop moving. Finally he settled in front of his computer. Taka and I watched the movie. It was quite good. I liked it a lot. Yesterday he was feeling just fine. Only a little bleeding. We went out to lunch before Taka and I headed back to Minneapolis. Dad had heard that many people after having this surgery are laid up for a week, not Dad. He was a ball of energy. In fact, he will be down in Minneapolis tonight attending his poetry class.
I still think they injected him with caffeine.
October 2008 Archives
Today I took my Entomology Lab Exam. I normally have lab on Wednesday but I asked my TA if I could take the exam early and she said it was okay. There was two parts. Identifications and short answer. I felt really good about my short answer performance. She graded our identifications while we were in lab. I got a 27 out of 30. Not too bad. We'll see how I did on the second part of the exam next week.
I took the exam early because tonight Taka and I are going up to my Dad's house because tomorrow he goes in for outpatient surgery and someone needs to stay with him for at least 24 hours. This way I didn't have to worry about studying for an exam while trying to take care of Dad.
Today is me and Taka's anniversary!
Happy Anniversary Taka!
I got up this morning to make Taka a pot of Irish stew before we head off to sail. Yay for stew!
But it never seems to work out that way. Well the rest of September came and went. Once I am back into the swing of school time just flies by. After the Corn Roast weekend we went back to sailing to finish out the season. September 20th and 21st we had the 2 day Fall Regatta. Saturday was two races, back-to-back. Sunday was one race. Saturday the wind was great for the Potato on Saturday the wind was non-existent in the morning when we were scheduled to be on the lake. Overall we ended up taking a 2nd place in our fleet. YAY!!!
Saturday September 27th began the last race series of the season, the Commodores Cup, a four race series. The wind was perfect for the Potato. We crossed the finish line 2nd, but unfortunately several boats corrected over us and we ended up with a 6th overall. That is the downfall of PERF racing. The way I look at it is that we are second because we crossed second. Last Saturday was the second race. Good wind again, but some of our competitors just out sailed us. Our next race is this coming Saturday. I wish that there were some photos of how hard we were all working during these races. Taka has had a consistently good performance fore decking. Cindy and I have done pretty well trimming the sheets for the head sail. But I have to say that I have done an incredible job trimming the spinnaker. The downwind legs have been tough. The first Saturday I had to use my whole body to hold onto the spinnaker sheet. I was on the low side and quite close to the water a couple of times. My hands, arms, and shoulders were sore for a day or two. But that is part of the fun of sailing, having wind but not too much of it, and working hard to get the boat to do what you want it to do.
School is going well this semester. I have been scoring well on my biochem quizzes. I just had my first exam in entomology and I think it went pretty good.
