September 29, 2009

• 81 Storied Years

  Update:  Despite yesterday’s incredible news, which I still encourage everyone to read below, my beloved Uncle George passed away peacefully this morning, with none of the extraordinary, damaging measures that he had to endure for the past week.  I fully believe that is the way he wanted it.  He made the most of his last night with us, and it rivaled the best of our family parties…and we throw good parties!  Had he survived, his quality of life would have changed drastically and he wouldn’t have liked that.  He fought until the end and surrendered on his own terms, enjoying time with his family.  I’m so glad that I began making videos of his stories lately.  He was the best story teller I ever knew, and I will always look back at these videos fondly and remember a life well lived.  As I left the hospital last night to take my aunt home, I told him I loved him and he grabbed my hand and said “I love you too Care.”

  
  Some of my favorite photos of my uncle from the past year or so.  Click for lager size and again for even larger.
  

  
  Click Play, Above Right.
  “Now don’t forget, this is going on Internet.”  “That’s all right!”

  
  Uncle George remembered so much about his life and loved to share his memories.  When I told him that I wanted to start recording him on video, he laughed, but I think he really liked the idea.  The first story told in the above video is actually pretty funny.  It involves a drunken train conductor and some young girls hitting on my uncle (who was even a stud back then) when he worked in a hotel after coming home from the war.  The second story involves my aunt scouting for Nazi & Japanese war planes in Iron Mountain, Michigan (of all places) during WWII when she was in high school.  The third story is a retelling of a joke they used to play on their (less favorite) nephew. 

  ---

  
  What a roller coaster of a day…from the time I took my aunt home on Sunday night and Lisa stayed the night with him wiping tears from his face, to when he extubated himself and started talking, saying it was the happiest day of his life, to twelve hours later when he died.

  I posted the following blog at 2 AM this morning, a few hours before my uncle passed away:

  Regular readers of this space know of my fondness for my Uncle George. You’ve watched him celebrate his 79th, 80th and 81st birthdays with me; laughed at the stories he told on his 60th wedding anniversary to his 82 year old “cougar” of a wife, my “Aunty LuLu“; and listened as he regaled me with stories of the “old days” that always ended with a hearty  laugh.  At 81, he’s far more fit than I am.  In fact, he still works as an usher at the Angel’s baseball stadium, a job he loves.  My aunt and uncle spent several weeks in Michigan over the summer while I was in Italy, and while there my uncle contracted a mild case of pneumonia.  When they came back, he had lost a little weight, but since he’s strong as an ox, he didn’t let it affect him much and he continued to work around the house and go to his job at the ball park. 

  
  The last photo I took before he went into the hospital.  It’s of our family enjoying ice cream on a 105° day less than a month ago on August 29th.

  When I went to their house for my regular spaghetti dinner a week ago Thursday, he said he was feeling much better and even gave me an inhaler for my asthma that had been prescribed to him for his pneumonia, which he said he no longer needed.  We all laughed and remarked that it was pretty sad that I was sharing medicine with my 81 year old uncle, because HE didn’t need it and I did!  I didn’t take a photo that evening (like I usually do), as I remember thinking he still looked a little thin.

  Fast forward to last Tuesday.  My uncle was working the Angel’s game, but asked his boss if he could leave early in the 7th inning.  As he went to leave, he collapsed and fell backwards hitting his head.  As it turns out, there was a nurse waking by in the stadium.  She immediately began giving my uncle CPR until the paramedics arrived.  They determined he had gone into cardiac arrest due to a fatal arrhythmia, and shocked him back to life with a defibrillator.  He was taken by ambulance to University of California, Irvine Medical Center where he went into cardiac arrest a second time and was paddled again. 

  
  Sunset from the hospital window

  When I arrived at the hospital Wednesday, on my way to San Diego for a business trip, things didn’t look good.  He was hooked up to a ventilator that was breathing for him, and his blood pressure was dangerously low.  An angiogram revealed that a bypass he had more than 20 years ago was nearly completely blocked, and his heart was only pumping at about 15% capacity.  Though there’s not much they can do about the heart problems at his age, they were hoping to wean him off the medicine so he could breathe on his own.  And the waiting began.  We all tried to keep a positive attitude and make the best out of a bad situation by laughing and letting him hear us laugh.

  
  I was even able to get quite a bit of work done Friday afternoon

  
  Back on the chain gang

   
  The kids never went in, but they were a welcome distraction!

  By Friday we all had to wear scrubs while visiting due to the possibility of infection.  Also, he was beginning to develop pneumonia again.  I stayed with my aunt, and as each day wore on, my uncle looked sadder and sadder.  Because he was intubated (had a tube down his throat breathing for him), he couldn’t speak.  Things culminated this morning as his medicine wore off and it became increasingly clear that he did not want to be there.  It finally got so bad, that the doctor asked the family leave for two hours, and that’s when something remarkable happened…

  
  Auntie holding Uncle’s hand…

  When everyone was out of the room and the doctors thought he was sufficiently restrained and sedated, my uncle proceeded to pull the tube all the way out of his throat!  Alarms sounded and the family was called back to the hospital.  I had actually taken Tommy & Andy to see the movie “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs“, and by the time I arrived back at the hospital, my uncle was sitting up in bed, talking and breathing on his own with no IV or additional medicine!  This is one really strong man!   His first words to me were, “Now that you’re back, we can start the party!”  I pulled out the inhaler he had given me the week before and he laughed!  Obviously his heart is still very sick and my aunt understands that; but it was so nice, after a week of interminable waiting and hoping, that we were able to talk to him and laugh with him tonight.  He’s still sharp as a tack, and as we left he was trying to get out of bed to close the blinds (a definite no no!).  We’re taking it one day at a time from here, but I think my aunt will be able to sleep well tonight!

  
  Earlier today while he was still intubated

  
  Enjoying a little 3D normalcy with the boys

  
  We called him “Doctor Doom & Gloom” but the comments on Facebook are trending in his favor (in the looks department at least)!  He had nothing on my uncle though:
  
  
  Move over Doc…you could have never competed with this!

  
  Laughing, smiling and breathing again!  After a stressful week filled with a literal Nurse Ratched, lots of Diet Coke, gallons of hand sanitizer and more than a few tears, a family gathers around its patriarch.

  
  One of my favorite photos of me and my uncle, taken on his 80th birthday last year

  • 2:53 am
  • 48 Comments