Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!  I'm always grateful for my amazing father, but this Father's Day is particularly tender.  A week ago Papa Kay was in critical care on a ventilator.  In fact, the doctor told my Mom that out of his twenty patients in the ICU, Dad was the one he was most worried about.  We were all scared that this Father's Day he might not be with us.

You may recall that my Dad was hospitalized for pneumonia at the beginning of May and has been on oxygen since.  Unfortunately the pneumonia never resolved.  It gradually got worse until he developed ARDS (acute respiratory failure) and went into septic shock (an infection that spreads to the blood stream.)  When he and my Mom arrived at the emergency room, his oxygen was in the 50s.  His blood pressure plummeted to 50/30.  If you don't know much about medicine, I'll just say that this is not good. 

Callie, Talia, and I drove through the night last Sunday so that we could be by his side.   Seeing my father paralyzed, sedated, and intubated brought back so many memories from December 2022.  Papa Kay and Annika even had the same "reminder" wrist restraints.  It made me so sad to see my fiercely-independent father restrained, even though I knew it was for his own protection. 

On Tuesday my Dad's breathing began to sync with the ventilator, so they were able to stop the paralytic and step back the sedation.  My Dad wanted to communicate SO badly, but it's nearly impossible with your hands tied and a breathing tube blocking your vocal cords.  Communication devolved into a rather pathetic game of twenty questions, but we did our best.  Fortunately Papa Kay doesn't remember much about our sorry attempts at decoding his charades.

By Wednesday my Dad became coherent enough to use a white board.  Even in his delirious state, he wrote me this beautiful message: "I'm OK" with a heart.  These shaky strokes are such a tender representation of his generous soul, thinking of others even when struggling himself.

His next messages are hilarious.  He beckoned his nurse Melina over and wrote two messages for her.  The first, ABC, was to tell her what news station he wanted to watch.  Can you decipher his next note?  Wordle.  Yup, Papa Kay still cared about keeping his Wordle streak.  You'll be glad to know that we broke into his phone and solved the Wordle for him while he was sedated.  After all, he'd just reached 800 days!  We didn't cheat, but had we come close to losing, we absolutely would have.  Priorities.

It was a happy moment when Papa Kay was strong enough to hold his own phone and work on Wordle by himself again.

Shortly before noon on Wednesday we received the delightful news that Papa Kay would be extubated.  While still a bit scary, taking the tube out isn't nearly as frightening as putting the tube in.  I wept as I saw his amazing smile and heard his raspy voice thanking our amazing nurses.  His next request? His comb.  So perfectly Papa Kay!

This seemed like the right time to give Papa Kay his "Keep Smiling" ring.  Eli has one that matches.

Remarkably strong, Papa Kay was out of bed and sitting in a recliner by Thursday.  Around ten pm they moved him out of the ICU and onto the main floor of the hospital.

By Friday my Dad was walking the halls with PT.  I sent the family a text to celebrate his stroll, but Adam suggested that this walk was more of a celebratory strut.

By Friday afternoon we were able to secure a private room with a window for Papa Kay, a huge step up from the dreary shared room where he was originally placed.  While still needing oxygen, he was breathing well and his kidneys seemed to be recovering from the hit they took due to low blood pressure and medications.

Callie, Talia, and I would have liked to stay, but we left home in such a rush that we needed to get back and put our houses back in order.  We drove all day Saturday to be back with our own husbands by Father's Day.

To the men in our lives, Jason and Adam, thank you  for running everything while we were gone.  Your support during this critical time meant so much!  And Papa Kay, thank you for fighting so hard when your lungs were so terribly sick.  I've always cherished our time together, but time seems even more special now.  I'm grateful that we can still share your goofy jokes, bizarre memes, and thoughtful insights about life.  For a "net-giver," it must be difficult to be stuck in the hospital on the receiving end, but just sharing your smile means so much to me and others.  You are a remarkable husband, Dad, and Grandpa.  We love you!  Happy Father's Day!

Memorial Day 2024--Ponderosa Grove

Hey world, here I am blogging at the Sweet Branch Library again.  This time Annika convinced her cousin Eila to come join the Dungeons and Dragons fun.  

So what's new in the world?  The kids finished school.  Jason is in Phoenix on a work trip with ZenniHomes.  NomiAnn came to visit.  I passed the NCLEX.  Today DOPL emailed me my nursing license.  A bazillion hours of school, a $200 exam, and $90 of licensing fees and they no longer mail you a hard copy.  Go fig.  Plus, I'm swamped with homework for my BSN program (Bachelors of Science in Nursing) through the University of Utah.

Too much homework?  Sounds like the right time to procrasti-blog.

Memorial Day Camping 2024 was a little different than usual.  NomiAnn kidnapped Brooklyn and Talia and whisked them a way to Mystic, Connecticut to visit her cousin Beth.  They had a delightful time!  The original plan was for NomiAnn to drive out to Salt Lake with Papa Kay so that he could camp with us while she and the eldest grand-daughters explored the East coast.  Unfortunately Papa Kay's lungs have not healed enough for him to travel yet.  (Sad day!  Patience is really hard, especially when you are tethered to oxygen.)

Wanting to honor the tradition of Memorial Day camping, the Wilhoits, Annika, Eli, and I all piled into our minivan for a trip to Southern Utah. 

We never would have fit without Papa Kay's gear platform.

Jason needed to be in church on Sunday, so he kindly cared for Pickles while we were away.  Not only is Pickles cute, but she's a great running partner around Liberty Park!

The drive to Ponderosa Grove was long, especially for Eila who got sick just a few miles shy of the campground.  I doubt Beaver Creamery ice cream tastes as good on the way up as on the way down.  I was a little nervous that all of the campsites might be full since it was Memorial Day weekend, but there were plenty available.  We found two connected "walk-in" sites that were perfect for our group.  Here are Eli and Anders setting up camp while Annika surveys from the tree.

All of the kids enjoyed the ever present sandbox.

With Jason gone, I had to tackle the dutch oven all by myself.  I was pretty proud of how well the chicken pot pie turned out.

With happy tummies and plenty of daylight left, we headed off for adventure.

Our destination?  The Belly of the Dragon.  Who knew that Orderville Junction hosted such an exotic species.

We were so tired that everyone slept quite well that evening.  Here's Eila reading in her comfy tent the next morning.

Eli made amazing eggs for our breakfast burritos.

Our next exploration, Zion National Park.  The park was CRAZY busy (apparently Memorial Day weekend is the busiest of the year), so we showed the Wilhoit's our secret spot.  It was completely empty.  Not a soul the entire way!

Except for tadpoles, of course.  We literally saw thousands nesting in the puzzles.

Plus, lizards.  There were some big ones that seemed quite intent on staying put instead of scurrying away.  You can't see it from the photo, but the underbellies were a beautiful blue.

As for me, I loved the flowering cacti.

Scrambling up.

Power models.  Anders has the best expressions.

He might also have the dirtiest hands.  Annika's matched his at first, but when I went to take a picture she said that she had rinsed them in the tadpole water.  Ewwww.

After our hike, we headed to the Visitor's Center to refill water since there is none at the campground.  We thought about hopping on one of the shuttle buses, but they were packed.  Instead we decided to cool off by wading in the Virgin River.  Great choice!

Eila toppled and went for a brief swim, but she handled it great.

Happy kids make for happy parents.

Back to the campsite for some more treetop time.

We also explored the nearby dunes, hitting the "golden hour" of light.

Sand yoga is more difficult than you'd expect as the ground keeps shifting beneath your feet.

Meanwhile, the big boys had a great time playing bocce ball.

And lighting fires.  'Cuz everybody loves a good fire.  Eli's tipi blazed so quickly that we had to knock it down for fear that the flames would escape the firepit.

On our last day, we broke camp and headed to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab.  The property is enormous!  4800 stunning acres.  I had no idea how immense the scale of their work, housing around 1500 animals on any given day.  Annika was DELIGHTED to visit the Adoption Hub, albeit disappointed to learn that we weren't taking any animals home.

I adore how they named these pups Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops, and Coco Crunch.

I stayed out of the cat enclosure, but the others had a fun time.

It turns out that all of the animals, whether cat, dog, goat, horse, or pig were being given away with no adoption fee.  Annika made a convincing case for a horse, but alas, I'm pretty sure the city wouldn't allow us to keep it in our backyard like she proposed.

So many thanks to the Wilhoits for joining us on our Memorial Day adventure to this colorful country.  I suspect the red sand stains on your socks will remind you of fun forever.  :)