All the time that I had the nausea, My little Dani would imitate me by running and getting a Kleenex and pretending to have the “dry heaves”. It was hilarious!!
As I said in the summer of 2008 I pretty much got over the nausea but my breathing continued to worsen. I met with a thoracic surgeon at the V A (he was actually on staff at the University of Minnesota) and he told me that he could do a surgery that might make my left diaphragm work again.
It was a laparoscopic surgery that stretched and attached the diaphragm to the left ribcage. At that point I was ready to try anything to improve my quality of life.
My daughter Aimee had just had her third daughter (Mackenzie Grace) in September of 2007 and my daughter Lynsey had just had twin girls in June of 2008 and I really wanted to be able to enjoy all my “little girls”.
The surgery was scheduled for October 2008 and it went fine. I got out of the ICU and was on the mend when I my blood pressure started dropping, and I started drifting in and out of consciousness. They rushed me back to the ICU and started giving me transfusions. I had gotten five units of blood during the surgery, and they gave me another nine units to stabilize me. I was again in for a lot longer than I bargained for. I got out in time for my birthday November 18th and was able to play executive chef for the Thanksgiving meal.
I was extremely impressed with the surgeon who did the diaphragm repair because he was the first doctor to actually tell me what had happened. He thought he might have nicked the spleen and that was where the blood loss was coming from. It repaired itself and I still have a healthy spleen. The doctor that did all the damage to begin with never admitted anything although his boss finally told me that what I suspected had happened was really what had happened.
I never recovered enough to take the responsibility for the “little girls” again. My son-in-law, Sean and my daughter, Aimee were forced to hire someone to take care of the “little girls” while they were at work.
In January 2009 I met Sarah on the internet and we really hit it off from the beginning. We met for the very first time around Easter and started spending almost every weekend together. The ‘little girls” began calling her Gramma Sarah way before I thought of her that way. I had sworn that I would never re-marry and now I found myself telling Sarah that she was going to be my wife. We were married on the Fourth of July and that begins a whole new adventure.
…and that’s the absolute truth…give or take a lie or two.
More next time…
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