Friday, February 11, 2005
JANUARY....1987
Another year gone and another New Year unfolding. It seems they slide by more quickly the older I become. Maybe it’s because I’m having more fun all the time. Life is good. John and his family left early morning and it is my custom when guests leave, to throw myself into cleaning up the “campsite.” Scouts are always taught to leave it better than you found it. It gives me a way to work off all of the “goodbyes” that visits eventually demand…..and time to plan ahead. Memories are stacked and stored to pull out at a later date for further enjoyment.
I went back to work after the holidays and on the 9th we had to cancel going to Eminence, our office for the day, because their furnace wasn’t working. We spent the day at Headquarters to put our time in but were told to go home by 3:30pm because it sleeted and snowed all day…ending with about 8-inches on the ground.
Mom caught another cold and so we didn’t go out to see her the following weekend…and church was called off for the evening service so the older folks wouldn’t get out on the ice and fall. I turned my attention to some quilting I was doing and enjoyed the extra time at home.
On the 15th Ron told me I had passed the 6-month probation period and had been promoted to DE II…..it’s pretty much a done deal unless you screw up big time…the reward was getting a little more sick time and vacation time, along with a small raise. Even though routine, it was good to know I had it under my belt and could now look forward to being promoted to a DE III…this wouldn’t happen until I had 5-years with the Patrol.
When I came home that afternoon, Warren was on the couch feeling terrible. He was experiencing pain in his upper abdomen and back….he had a yellow color and was miserable. Couldn’t lay still ………I changed clothes and drove him to the ER at the hospital in West Plains. We spent hours waiting for one thing or another and his pain and discomfort continued to increase. He was about to his wits end when a doctor drove back after hours to check out the problem…..they forced a tube down his throat and nose which was brutal, put him on IV’s and Demerol….but it wasn’t until 4:00 am when he finally began having some relief. I stayed with him until 1:00am and then came home and spent a sleepless night.
I called in to be excused from work and went back to the hospital the next morning. He was taken for ultra-sound and later our home-town doctor came into the room to tell us he had a large gall-stone that passed into the duct which called all the pain. He was advised to have the gall-bladder removed as soon as he was over this attack because it, in all probability, would happen again. Warren was anxious to have it taken care of….he didn’t want a repeat of what he’d just been through. It seems the culprit that brought on the attack was the large number of pecans he ate while shelling them for me all afternoon. Barbara’s parents had sent a large bag of them they had picked up from her grandmother’s home in Mississippi…..and he couldn’t resist the good fresh taste of them.
I brought him home the next day and he was none too worse for the wear. It seems once the “attack” is over…..it’s over. He was not, however, too interested in eating more pecans for a while. Church was called off again the following week-end due to snow and inclement weather and I was off work the next day for Martin Luther King’s birthday…..so we just stayed in and enjoyed the respite.
When we went to Eminence the next time it was totally miserable. They were putting the new furnace in the Court House and there was still no heat. We sat huddled over a space heater with our coats on….the old rock structure was hard to heat up even with the furnace in full operation. This continued into the third time we were there…. but it wasn’t as cold and so it was more tolerable.
We finished the month out taking mom to West Plains to the dentist and then to a good restaurant for lunch. She stayed with us till late afternoon and then we took her back to WC. January had given us quite a bit of sleet and snow and we were glad to see the month fall behind us. Our next quest was to get Warren’s gall-bladder removed….as soon as possible. He was actually looking forward to it. Now that we had time to go at our convenience he would have it done in the Military Hospital at Fort Leonard Wood. A lot of the hospital community remembered him from the crisis in 1980 when he lost his leg……and it was always a social time for him to gab with all the “kids” who took care of him during that time.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
I went back to work after the holidays and on the 9th we had to cancel going to Eminence, our office for the day, because their furnace wasn’t working. We spent the day at Headquarters to put our time in but were told to go home by 3:30pm because it sleeted and snowed all day…ending with about 8-inches on the ground.
Mom caught another cold and so we didn’t go out to see her the following weekend…and church was called off for the evening service so the older folks wouldn’t get out on the ice and fall. I turned my attention to some quilting I was doing and enjoyed the extra time at home.
On the 15th Ron told me I had passed the 6-month probation period and had been promoted to DE II…..it’s pretty much a done deal unless you screw up big time…the reward was getting a little more sick time and vacation time, along with a small raise. Even though routine, it was good to know I had it under my belt and could now look forward to being promoted to a DE III…this wouldn’t happen until I had 5-years with the Patrol.
When I came home that afternoon, Warren was on the couch feeling terrible. He was experiencing pain in his upper abdomen and back….he had a yellow color and was miserable. Couldn’t lay still ………I changed clothes and drove him to the ER at the hospital in West Plains. We spent hours waiting for one thing or another and his pain and discomfort continued to increase. He was about to his wits end when a doctor drove back after hours to check out the problem…..they forced a tube down his throat and nose which was brutal, put him on IV’s and Demerol….but it wasn’t until 4:00 am when he finally began having some relief. I stayed with him until 1:00am and then came home and spent a sleepless night.
I called in to be excused from work and went back to the hospital the next morning. He was taken for ultra-sound and later our home-town doctor came into the room to tell us he had a large gall-stone that passed into the duct which called all the pain. He was advised to have the gall-bladder removed as soon as he was over this attack because it, in all probability, would happen again. Warren was anxious to have it taken care of….he didn’t want a repeat of what he’d just been through. It seems the culprit that brought on the attack was the large number of pecans he ate while shelling them for me all afternoon. Barbara’s parents had sent a large bag of them they had picked up from her grandmother’s home in Mississippi…..and he couldn’t resist the good fresh taste of them.
I brought him home the next day and he was none too worse for the wear. It seems once the “attack” is over…..it’s over. He was not, however, too interested in eating more pecans for a while. Church was called off again the following week-end due to snow and inclement weather and I was off work the next day for Martin Luther King’s birthday…..so we just stayed in and enjoyed the respite.
When we went to Eminence the next time it was totally miserable. They were putting the new furnace in the Court House and there was still no heat. We sat huddled over a space heater with our coats on….the old rock structure was hard to heat up even with the furnace in full operation. This continued into the third time we were there…. but it wasn’t as cold and so it was more tolerable.
We finished the month out taking mom to West Plains to the dentist and then to a good restaurant for lunch. She stayed with us till late afternoon and then we took her back to WC. January had given us quite a bit of sleet and snow and we were glad to see the month fall behind us. Our next quest was to get Warren’s gall-bladder removed….as soon as possible. He was actually looking forward to it. Now that we had time to go at our convenience he would have it done in the Military Hospital at Fort Leonard Wood. A lot of the hospital community remembered him from the crisis in 1980 when he lost his leg……and it was always a social time for him to gab with all the “kids” who took care of him during that time.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
