Happy Birthday, Davy!

Today is our son, David's birthday. He's so much like his dad and we are so very proud of him! He invited us all to their house yesterday to sit around and share memories of Don and have lunch and some special time together in Don's honor. This is a picture I took of him and his wife, Susan, on Thursday in Don's room. Now, Susan is another story; she's an incredible hostess! She makes everything looks so easy and made us all feel so very welcome. Thanks Susan and Davy!

A story of family love:

They had moved us out of the ICU into a private room, so we had room for all of us to be in there. It was way more convenient for us and they didn't have Don on any of the intensive care equipment. However we had some issues with the care we got there. After we first moved to the room, they were about 40 minutes late coming with Don's first medication. I went looking for his nurse and couldn't find her anywhere on the whole floor. (Found out later she had gone to lunch.) Then I went to the nurse's station and nobody even acknowledged me standing there. I went around to the reception area and said, "Excuse me; have you seen Terms of Endearment?" She hadn't, so I told her she needed to see it. There is a scene in there where Shirley McClain's daughter is dying and not getting her meds, and Shirley McClain goes to the nurses' station and pitches a royal fit which I was about to reproduce if they didn't get my husband's meds to him. She couldn't find our nurse, either, so she came in shortly and gave Don his meds. In a few minutes the director of nursing for that floor came down and called me out into the hall for a minute. She proceeded to tell me that I needed to lower my expectations! Of course I'm cutting this short, but Gretta saw that and said, "Did that woman just call my mom out there in the hall to scold her?" She went storming after her and told her that her mom's husband was laying in there dying and she would NOT speak to her mother that way. The woman started to get defensive and Gretta said, "And that's MY dad in there, dying, so you don't speak to me that way, either! Just get his meds to him on time!" She also filed a complaint with the hospital administrator. That was the beginning. When the shift changed the new nurse came in and told us that she was uncomfortable giving Don morphine every hour like the doctor had ordered, but she'd be willing to give it to him every 2 hours! I almost flipped out! Gretta was asleep, and Davy said to the new nurse, you don't want to wake up the beast; we've got her calmed down right now, but if we unleash her, you'll be really sorry. Long story, shortened; he got his meds on time every time after that and we never saw the director of nursing, again. We came away from this weekend knowing that we have a wonderful beast on our team. Davy and Jeff kept calling her the beast and we were all pretty proud of her. It's amazing how experiences can bring us closer even when they are awful. I thank God for absolutely wonderful children!