Phones work best when used from both ends.....

So I'd been calling Dad in the hospital, and calling him, and calling him, with no answer. Called the nurses' station a couple times to be told he was sleeping lots. Got reports from various friends who've visited him, including that he couldn't eat the sandwich one friend had taken on Friday for his lunch because he was NPO for a test that would take much of Friday afternoon (but she went back in the evening with soup). But no answer from him for a couple days.......Couldn't even tell him about an upcoming good thing ;-) Well, it turns out that Dad had somehow managed to turn the ringer off on the phone, so it wasn't the fact that he needs hearing aids that was interfering with him answering. So, when Ted arrived today (that was the good thing for Dad that turned out to be a surprise), the ringer was restored.

So, what's the current story? Good news: he's breathing better, they removed a bunch of the fluid from his chest/abdomen, his heart rate is way down (in the high 80s from the mid130s where it had been last weekend), and Ted is there to visit him and do some around the house. Bad bits: he still slurs words after being off oxygen for a bit, and the test he was NPO for was to look at the spot on his left lung in more detail, to see if its composition (clot? malignancy? some benign growth?) can be determined non-invasively. As far as we can tell, nothing showed up on the various tests in Sept. when he was being prepped for the ICD insertion, so it is either something resulting from the accident (clot) or somethign new (in which case we may be glad he had the accident, as if it is a malignancy, it will have been discoved much earlier than these things usually are).

So we wait..... but at least the ringer is on for him to hear the phone now.

One way Ted and I are different: this afternoon, Ted asked Dad for a dinner order. Dad had no good suggestions, so Ted didn't get him anything (but will take Dad tea and a treat this evening). When Dad's done that to me, I responded that if he doesn't express an opinion, I'll get him what I think he'll like ;-) which is undoubtedly why Dad thinks I'm the pushier of his kids.........

I did manage to get the scarf for the family friend who has helped so much done and in the mail. I used some handspun I'd bought in Maine this summer (108 yds of wool). I loved the colors in this and how they varied........













On the side, I've rarely been as glad to have Shabbat come as I was this week, as I've just been beyond exhausted. I went to services last night (a smaller crowd than usual, as there's a big national conference going on and many people went) and then spent today at home -- davening, reading and snoozing.