Our nurse supervisor, who is an Arkansas Razorback fanatic, had her 'after game' display. It showed a large red Razorback hog laying on his back covered in band aids with hypodermics stuck all over. She enjoys putting her display up every weekend to entertain the patients. If you are not a football fan, Arkansas lost it's coach to a major scandal just before the season opened. Then, the star quarterback got hurt. The season has been a disaster. These folks really are Razorback fans here!
Deb's labs came back with excellent results but she had to have a unit of blood. Kristen, Dr van Rhee's APN assistant, spent a lot of time with Deb. She is making sure everything is going on-track while Dr van Rhee is back in Holland. She said he is planning on participating in Deb's Tuesday pre-infusion meeting via telephone on Tuesday.
Today Deb ministered to a person in great distress. It seems the more Deb is hurting, the more her Godly character shines through. November 23 will be 38 years of marriage for us and I still am being surprised, amazed, and so proud of Deb!
Because of the meds, Deb needed to come straight home after clinic. I asked what she wanted to eat today and while she slept, I made her a supper of pork loin and gravy, home made mashed 'taters, baby lima beans, and a pear salad. Late afternoon she woke up and just as we were beginning to eat, the doorbell rung. It was our condo neighbor, Mr Sam. Wild guess, he is 75-80 and lives alone. He has to use a rolly cart to get around and is always so glad to see us. He lived in Augusta 50 years.
We invited him to join us and he ate a good supper, talking all the while. We enjoyed his company. He was raised in the NE corner of Arkansas near Blytheville. He worked on the Mississippi River on a big barge that had a huge steam powered 87' arm and bucket for scooping sand and gravel out of the river. During WWII years his father worked at Oak Ridge, TN as did Deb's father. While there, Sam's older brother got a contract to repair typewriters and calculating machines. Sam learned the trade assisting his brother. After WWII, Sam enlisted in the Marines. The Korean War was raging by now, but because of his background in typewriters, they gave him more training on teletype technology and he spent the service time in North Carolina. His wife was from between Florence and Darlington, SC. He was able to spend a lot of time with her family. After the Marine stint, he moved to Augusta, Ga and operated a typewriter and business machine store. He built his wife a beauty parlor which is now a bank branch. He is proud of her former shop building.
While in Augusta, the government constructed the Savannah River plant which had over 40,000 employees at one time. Sam would make copies of building and engineering plans for the site and for projects at Los Alamos for the engineers. He had a machine that would make copies up to 24' long. So, Sam got to support Atom Bomb making at Oak Ridge, and Hydrogen bomb making at Augusta. He said that's where he first learned of the dangers of alcoholism. The most skilled employee at making the large prints on a clear plastic would lose it on these precise jobs and go on a multi-day drunk. He apparently could not deal with the pressure. The drunk's wife begged Sam and the staff not to bring him any booze because he would stay drunk as long as he could get whiskey.
Sam used to golf and fish a lot. He had a cabin on a lake in SC and his stories of trot lines and fish baskets reminded me so much of fishing with my grandfather.
After his wife died after 47 years of marriage, he left Augusta and moved to Arkansas where he re-married. His second wife was a school friend that he had grown up with. They had stayed in touch through annual school reunions from their small community school. Mr Sam had also been friends with her late husband. They operated an office supply here in Little Rock until retirement. They sold their big home and moved into the condo for retirement. She died a few years ago.
Mr Sam wanted us to know about his trip next Thursday-Sunday. He and his step-son are flying to Washington, DC for a family wedding.
He held Masters tickets for many years and has kept us in Augusta/Masters magazines.
Tomorrow repeats the past few days and we are staying hunkered down avoiding any source of infection that could hinder Deb's infusion of Natural Killer Cells on Thursday.
Blessings!
No comments:
Post a Comment