The Unexpected

The husband/lover/best friend and I expected to have an empty nest for one week.  Son Caleb was out in Las Vegas, Nevada at Coach Summit 2014, the yearly convention for Beachbody, the fitness and nutrition company he works for.

Although we were taking care of his puppy Sheila, we were mostly assuming we'd have an uneventful week with Caleb gone.

All reports coming from Caleb from Vegas early in the week indicated that he was having a ball, meeting a lot of people, and having educational and motivational experiences throughout each minute of the day.

At a program celebrating the top Beachbody coach, Lindsay Matway, a video Caleb created was shown as the program's finale.  The theme of her celebration was "Shine," and so Caleb's video reflects the same message.  It's a short video but well worth watching.  And, of course, I'm just the proud mom here.

The venue for the showing of this little video was the MGM Grand Hotel's Grand Ballroom.  With six large jumbotron movie screens and over 2500 people in attendance,.... well let's just say apparently Caleb got some very good exposure.  It will be interesting to see how his business grows over the next year.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the nest did not stay very empty for long.  I got a call from our local hospital very early Wednesday morning.  It was my emergency room nurse/daughter Rachel telling me that my father had brought himself in during the night with severe pain in his lower back.  Mom and Dad had been vacationing 1 1/2 hours north of us at our family lodge when his pain became unbearable.  Because Mom has never driven Dad's big Ford 350 truck, somehow Dad drove them himself and made it to our hospital.

After a battery of tests, it was found that he had blood clots in both of his lungs and in one of his legs.

I read a number of blogs each day, and if there's one thing I read in them often, it's to expect the unexpected, and to keep your plans as firm as jello.

So, my mother stayed here at our home with us over the next four days while dad was in the hospital.  We visited him twice a day and tried to keep his spirits up.

He was happy to be discharged on Saturday, and we brought him home to our place to rest here for the rest of the day and overnight to Sunday.

He was certainly glad to be out of the hospital, get a decent shave and shower, and relax on our patio to the sounds of our waterfalls and birds.

Happy to be feeling better

Sunday we made the two hour drive to take him home.  Bob drove Dad's truck, and I took Mom and Dad in my car.  After a brief lunch together, we drove ourselves back home.

The phone rang first thing this morning, and again it was news that was unexpected.  Dad had returned to his local emergency room again last night.  The pain from the blood clots had escalated to the point that his medications weren't handling it.

Hopefully the blood thinners and pain relievers will do their work today and over the next several weeks.  In the meantime, I'll be asking the Great Physician for a total healing for my Dad.  

Today Caleb is making his way home from the Baltimore airport.  This little gal is eagerly watching and waiting for his return.

Something tells me Caleb's gonna get some very big, very sloppy kisses.