Past, Present and Future

I posted my blog entry yesterday in order for this one to make more sense. I find myself believing more and more that I am approaching the end of my life on this spinning orb, and I'm of two minds about it. On the one hand I have accomplished much to be proud of. My beautiful wife Carole, and I have three magnificent daughters who have gone on to raise their own daughters, all of whom are a continuing source of pride for us. Without exception, each has married a man I would (and do) call son. Thanks to SASS (Single Action Shooting Society) and the sport of Cowboy Action Shooting, I have a multitude of true friends, scattered across this great land, most of whom I have never met except through the wonders of the Internet.

In my professional life, as Chief Theft Investigator and Safety Director for a large public utility, I was able to vastly reduce accidents, winning state and national awards in the process.  We went first one year with "No Lost Time Accidents", then another until I retired when we had built up nine years with no lost time sccidents in our Natural Gas Department. On the Security side, I reduced the theft of power, natural gas and water to a trickle and reduced "our fault" vehicle accidents by two-thirds.

The failures are mostly on the personal side and some now seem petty and unimportant. I never got to talk my wife to Italy as I had promised, never toured the country in an Airstream trailer. We had to give up the only home I ever really loved due to my wife's health and dwindling income. And we are living the last few years of our lives from check to check

This Ain't Easy

This ain't easy.

I was unexpectedly admitted to the hospital down in Huntsville, AL on the 27th of Dec. and straight into ICU. I have ascites, combined with cirrhosis of the liver and my liver is starting to shut down. The cirrhosis is caused by a fatty liver, and, because of the ascites, I'm bleeding internally, my abdomen is filling with fluid, which is compressing my lungs, making it very hard to breathe. The doctor told me this afternoon that there's a survival rate of fifty percent after two years and downhill from there. 

The docs here say that they will treat this with a diet limiting sodium and fluids and large doses of diuretics to keep the fluid build-up to a minimum.

Pards, I don't know when or how this will turn out, but I'm gonna stick with this game we all play just as long as I can. Hope to meet and shoot with as many of you as possible between now and whenever. Any prayers, good thoughts or well wishes will, as usual, be greatly appreciated.

Bama Red

UPDATE

I'm home from the hospital - got in about 8 PM last night (New Year's Eve) and my Bride had a New Year's Eve supper waiting for me - mushroom smothered steak, baked potato, corn on the cob and orange sherbet for desert. YYYUUUUMMMMMMM!!!

I'll ask for your prayers to continue, cause the hard part starts now - living with all the restrictions, medicines and continuing tests, procedures, etc., etc., etc. Hope to see as many of ya as possible down the trail.

Bama Red

Angels

My insurance coverage specifically excludes any form of home health care. Simple, easy to understand, all-inclusive.

As I’m reaching the end of my latest hospital stay, the doctors inform me that I will require six weeks of IV antibiotic treatment after discharge, either at home (see above) or I can return to the hospital’s infusion clinic every day for the next six weeks and that is seven days a week. The treatment at the hospital would have been covered by my insurance, but it required having someone to load me up and drive me to Huntsville Hospital (70 miles, round-trip). This takes a vehicle, which is either wheelchair capable or is otherwise able to accommodate me without bending my knee. We got to the point where we had a medical transport van lined up that would take me along with a cancer patient who also had to go to Huntsville each day for his treatment. Would have run me $150/week. Not bad, all in all. I would have had to leave Fayetteville at 7:00 AM each day, but that’s an inconvenience, I guess.

However, there were two Angels that decided that sometimes you find you can do more. One of them was a Social Worker employed at the hospital. The other was a nurse, employed by the insurance company, and based at the hospital. These two lady Angels came to see me one day and innocently asked what they could do to help me, probably expecting a polite “Oh, nothing.” , in reply. When they heard me out, they looked at each other and said they were putting a hold on me till they could work something out. Three days later, Joan, the Social Worker came back in and said, “I’m not sure what happened, but a proposal has been made to your insurance company which they have approved. Your home health care, nursing and the antibiotics are covered for forty days at 100% coverage.” Joan and Vickie, the insurance nurse had together worked a miracle. A rep from the home health care company brought me some paperwork to sign and told me that the cost of my treatment (uninsured) was $1,774.36 per day and that she had never seen it covered at 100% before.

Yes, there are Angels living and working amongst us. I know two of them.

'Tis the day after Christmas and I was wrong in my last blog 'bout things returning to normal - far from it.

I find myself missing my brother, Jon, at the oddest times and places. I was his caregiver every Saturday and Sunday on the second shift, in addition to seeing him various times during the week. On weekends, we would always talk about completely unimportant things, like custom hot rods we might have seen on some TV program, Alabama or Illinois football (he was an Illinois grad), or - our favorite - Braves baseball. Its these conversations I miss and which will bring me to tears quicker than anything else. I'll be cruising along on autopilot, as I do more and more lately, and a random thought, sight or sound jerks me to a halt and the brain goes, "I've got to call Jon about this." , or, "I've gotta get a picture of that and e-mail it to Jon." That's when the empty feeling in the pit of the stomach hits you and your gut starts doing flip-flops. To those of you who read this and have lost someone close, none of this is new and certainly not unique to me, but it does give me something to write about and , hell, it may even be somewhat therapeutic.

Ambush, the Alabama State Championship Shoot, went off without a hitch, although I did not accomplish my goal of improving on my last place finish. Yet, due to category choices and lack of other competitors in my age group and category, I was the 2009 Alabama State Champion Senior Frontier Cartridge Duelist. Funny as hell, isn't it. Jon would have gotten a big kick out of that and would have told me not to worry about it.

At the end of November, I had the second revision to a total knee replacement on my right knee. That makes the third surgery on that knee this year. I'm still on a cane and going to therapy three days a week for that and the docs can't tell me if the surgery was successful or not.

My wife and I moved back to Tennessee in November, also, and now live in extreme south-central Tennessee.

Well, that's it for this post. See y'all on down the trail...

Well, folks, its been a rough time for me and mine. My brother died on August 7th, and I guess it just took the heart out of me.

I've had a hard time concentrating, I fall asleep at the drop of a hat (and it don't even have to be a cowboy hat, neither!), lost my appetite (not just for food, but for most everything), and have neglected my family.

This week is the 13th Annual Ambush at Cavern Cove - the Alabama State Championship for the Single Action Shooting Society, and I'll be trying to better my dead last finish from last year. We'll have over 200 shooters this year - a new record and a real testament to the quality shoot put on by the members of the North Alabama Regulators - the host club. I'm hopin' this starts me on the road back to normalcy.

Thanks to all who sent up prayers and good wishes. They were - and are - greatly appreciated.

Hardest Post I've Ever Had To Write

As a lot of you know, my younger (58) brother has been in the Medical ICU at Huntsville Hospital for the past 2 1/2 weeks, and has been in the hospital 10 out of the last 11 weeks altogether. It started out in May as a kidney infection that caused him to lose a kidney six weeks ago. Its been downhill since then - the remaining kidney doesn't seem to want to work, so he's on dialysis five hours a day. He has a yeast infection in his bloodstream, caused by the antibiotics used to keep down infection. He had a cantelope-sized psuedo-anuerysm (sp?) (docs also called it a hematoma) in his right thigh caused from blood seepage when they removed a pair of temporary dialysis catheters to install more permanent ones. His right lung has collapsed twice in the past two weeks and they think it is getting plugged by mucus, but they are having trouble getting that out since he has no lung muscles due to his paralysis at age 14 (1965),and almost cannot cough at all.

Today he told me that he is tired of fighting, tired of being sick and tied into machines that tell him when to breathe, pee, poop, etc. In short, he wants to quit. It'll be the first time he's ever give up in his life. He can't envision going back home and living the life he did just three months ago, since the docs say he'll require dialysis 3X week (to start) for the rest of his life. He's gonna talk to our Mom in the hospital tomorrow morning and then he will decide whether to discontinue all further medical treatment.

My family and I would appreciate any prayers, good wishes or kind thoughts that y'all can spare for Jon 'Rump' Edmonds. I'd sure like to keep him around a while longer............

--------------------

Bama Red"

Trail Food

Well, last night, the Missus and I decided to invite ouselves to dinner with our middle girl, her husband and one of the granddaughters at the one and only cantina, El Coyote, in the bustling metropolis of Gurley, Alabama. Needles to say a good time was had by all - good Mexican enchiladas, chimichangas, smothered skirt steak and, for the grandddaughter, who thinks McDonalds and Wendy's are the epitome of fine dining, chicken wings! Cooling adult beverages flowed for those of appropriate age and Carly chased her wings with Coke on the rocks!

Impromptu get-togethers like this can make for some of the most fun times to be had and last night was no exception. It was good to get home and turn on the satellite and watch the Atlanta Braves beat the Milwaukee Brewers 9-4, on the road. Yesterday, life was good.