Emergency Room Visit

Diary Entry For June 28, 2009 Email Shortarmguy at Shortarmguy@aol.com
Grandma Joyce came to spend Father’s Day with us. It was a somewhat somber occasion since it was our first one spent without dad on this planet. We tried to brighten the day by spending it on the boat since that was one of his favorite things to do. It even kind of felt like he was there with us in spirit. All in all, it was a pretty darn good Father’s Day!
The boys and I manned up and jumped into the water for the first time this year. The water temperature was a whopping 74 degrees, so the shrinkage factor was kept to a relative minimum. We were all fine and dandy until we were suddenly swarmed by a mad flock of deadly ducks who swooped in and started demanding food from us. It was a bit terrifying.
The boys decided to get back in the boat and accommodate the bullys’ requests by throwing in nearly a whole box of Cheez-Its. I’m not sure why, but they found it very funny to throw them all around their father so I was surrounded by duck fights! I didn’t mind that so much, but when the massive school of fish swam up from thirty feet below to compete for the food things became just a bit stressful. I kept having to kick my legs hard and yell down to them “Those aren’t Cheez-Its!”
They might not look like it, but these things are Man-Eating Killers! I was very brave to be swimming so close to them.

On Monday night, we helped out our good friends at Camp Odayin by speaking at their golf tournament fund raiser. There were about a hundred people there and we told them our story about the boys challenges in life as well as how much we feel blessed to have the opportunity to send them to such an awesome camp every year! We tried to mix in a little comedy but for some reason when you’re telling jokes in the middle of stories about dealing with fourteen different heart surgeries, the humor doesn’t go over very well. Not sure why that is.

Grandma Linda and Grandma Joyce came with us to the event to lend their support. As a matter of fact, there were so many grandmas there that I thought we’d ended up at a knitting convention or something!
So the Shortarmguy medical drama continued this week culminating in an ambulance ride to the emergency room on Thursday. I had just been sitting through an hour long vendor training and walked her to the other side of the building to show her some of the things happening in our tech room. Since I was anxious to get back to work, I rushed back across our warehouse. During my walk, I suddenly noticed I was really short of breath and started feeling very spacy. One of my co-workers saw me and said I was pale as a ghost. He asked if I was OK and I said “No, I think I’m going to pass out.” The room started spinning and I made my way back to the conference room and took a seat. My co-workers called 911. When the ambulance arrived, they checked me over and said my heart looked OK. Since I was feeling a bit better, I asked if it would be OK if I just drove to see the doctor myself. They said that was fine and then asked if I had any family history of heart trouble. I then told them “Well, my boys each were born with heart defects, but I went to a cardiologist a few years ago and he checked me out as being fine.” After I said that, the paramedic said “OK. Now that you’ve told me that, you’re coming with us.” I said “Can I at least walk to the ambulance?” He said “Nope. You gotta go on the stretcher!” When I entered the ambulance, they put an IV in me, put a bunch of nitroglycerin in my mouth, and made me eat four baby aspirin. I asked if I could have a drink of water to wash it down and they said “Nope.” So now I’m feeling like complete crap and thinking I’m dying as we drive to the hospital. I then went through a bunch of tests. The doctor came to the conclusion that I had bronchitis and the fluid build-up on my lungs was causing my shortness of breath. He said this caused a momentary lack of oxygen to my brain which most likely is what caused me to feel faint. So he prescribed some anti-biotics and nebulizer treatments and I’m on the road to recovery. I’ll tell you what, though. This was another scary reminder to me that life is short and I need to try to live each and every day to the fullest! I recommend that all of you do the same thing!
At least they didn’t make a scene or anything. I’m actually guessing hardly anyone even knew they were there!
My boss, Dr. David Bollig, accompanied me to the hospital. He swears that when the nurse told me that I had a $75 emergency room co-pay, that my blood pressure shot up momentarily. When he went back to the office, he sent an email to the company that I was doing fine, but I was having a real difficult time dealing with the Co-Pay. So when I came to work on Friday, I saw this donation bucket on the front desk and these “Save Todd” signs plastered all over our offices and warehouse. Best of all, there was almost a whole dollar’s worth of pennies in the bucket which is one less dollar that I now have to pay to the hospital! I just love my co-workers!
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Good Bye, Michael! You’ll be missed!

Quote of the Week

“To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time.”
– Leonard Bernstein, conductor

Jokes of the Week

An Illinois man left the snow-filled streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him there the next day.

When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick email. Unable to find the scrap of paper on which he had written her email address, he did his best to type it in from memory.

Unfortunately, he missed one letter and his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher’s wife, whose husband had passed away only the day before. When the grieving widow checked her email, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream and fell to the floor in a dead faint. At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:

DEAREST WIFE: JUST GOT CHECKED IN. EVERYTHING PREPARED FOR YOUR ARRIVAL TOMORROW.
P.S. SURE IS HOT DOWN HERE.

Circle The Cat --- Addictive Game

Crazy Basket
June 28, 2009 Love and Sorrow … Swallows: Here his mate is injured and the condition is fatal. She was hit by a car as she swooped low across the road.
Here he brought her food and attended to her with love and compassion.
He brought her food again but was shocked to find her dead.
He tried to move her … a rarely-seen effort for swallows!
Aware that his sweetheart is dead and will never come back to him again, He cries with adoring love.
He stood beside her, saddened of her death. Finally aware she would never return to him, he stood beside her body with sadness and sorrow.

Millions of people cried after seeing these photos in
America , Europe, Australia , and even India . The photographer
sold these pictures for a nominal fee to the most famous newspaper in France . All copies of that edition were
sold out on the day these pictures were published.

And many people think animals don’t have a brain or feelings?????
You have just witnessed Love and Sorrow

Felt by God’s creatures. The Bible says God knows when a sparrow falls. How much more He cares for US.