I survived Christmas

I made two trips to the Emergency Room at the VA hospital during Christmas vacation. One was for the flu and the other one was for the loss of feeling in my left arm. The arm situation happened at half past ten pm and I decided that I was going to wait until the next morning before I made the trip to the ER. I decided that I was not going to call an ambulance and that there was no way I was going to attempt to drive to the hospital at that time of night on Christmas Eve.

I also decided not to wreck Tim Jr and Kristin's Christmas Eve celebrations and would simply notify the VA by email and give them the facts that I had experienced that evening. I figured that would be pretty smart as I wanted someone to know what was going on if I woke up the next morning dead. The ER physician didn't agree with me on that one but he's a new guy and didn't really know what I had already been through so I blew off his determination of that and asserted that I was fine and proved that to be so when I took the neuro test.

Tim Jr wasn't very happy when he found out what had happened. To use an old phrase: "It went over like a fart in a space suit". He was somewhat put out at me and mentioned the N word....as in nursing home. From my perspective, I considered the following things before I made my decision to stay home and simply hunt and peck an email to the hospital.

1. The weather outside was horrible, cold and wet.
2. I felt okay and the feeling to my arm and fingers returned shortly after the episode began.
3. Tim's mother in law was in for a visit and lots of family plans had been made for Christmas Day.
4. I was watching the SMU game and it was too good to leave.
5. I know how I feel better than anyone and the decision was mine and mine alone.
6. I get to do what I want to do most of the time and I wanted to stay home.
7. I did not want to get out in the freezing rain and risk a car wreck en route to the ER.

Having said all of that, let me add this. A recent Cat scan showed no new brain wave abnormalities and the read outs were no different than the previous Cat scans I had seen. I had no fever and all of my vital signs were really good especially blood pressure and pulse.

Since I'd already made 5 or 6 trips to the ER in the last year or so, I figured that sooner or later I would either return home and be fine or I would be dead as a hammer which would more or less put me in a position where I could care less. In view of the fact that everything turned out all right except for pissing off a number of people, I have concluded the following:

1. Sometimes it's not best to let everybody know what's up.
2. Sometimes it's better to report: "a tingling sensation in my arm" during my next visit to the Doc.
3. I would rather be dead than in a nursing home bed.
4. I still have my motor home and can run away.
5. I'm doing fine and ergo, the decision I made was a good one.
6. No matter what I do, I can't change the brain damage or anything else.
7. Party when you can and to hell with the rest of it.
8. Christmas has been postponed until this week end, weather permitting.
9. Would you rather be happy or right?

The way I see it, in this case, for me personally, I am both.

Welcome Tim Wigman

In the late 50's when my father passed away, I began attending Catholic boarding schools. It ended up being one of the best decisions my mother made for me and the experiences I had there have served me well over my life time.

I started off in 1959 with a summer session at Subiaco Academy near Paris, Arkansas and then went to Morris School for Boys in Searcy. My cousin Greg came with me as his dad and uncle both attended Morris when they were kids. It was a Crafts family tradition and since they grew up to be self made men who were very successful, that path was chosen for me and it was a good one. Greg's dad married my dad's sister and that's how the connection was made.

Tim Wigman was one of those kids out of 109 that one always remembers. He was the only one that had a record player and Tim introduced us to Elvis Presley and later on, the Beatles. A few years back, Greg and I were playing on the computer thinking about Morris School and thoughts of Tim Wigman led us to a search to find him. Now, we find a connection by email that came in this morning as did a request to send his buddy Ben, a link to this blog.

In any event, hello to Tim and family.