This is mostly for me, before I forget the details, and for the few people that are begging to know the "whole story". That's definitely not our Bethany. All she wants to remember is that Dad was sick, and now he's getting better... (Oh, and that she HAD THE BEST TIME staying with the Slatons for almost a week.) Denial is bliss.
Where to start... Maybe with some explanations of my cute hubby's "engineer" way of thinking so you can understand a little more of the hows and whys.
1st Russell example: Occasionally I hear cute, warm fuzzy stories from girlfriends about their husbands calling home every night from the hotel - maybe even reading scriptures and having family prayer by phone with their family. Not my cute husband, we get a text (because it's free) that says "I'm here" when he gets off the plane. I used to get a short phone call, but now it's a text. WHY? Russell got upset with Verizon (rightly so) and switched himself and the older girls to AT&T. (Bethany is stuck with the 'ghetto' pay-as-you-go phone until she has a real job - her dad's rule.) I, on the other hand, am still on Verizon with my sister and mom SOOOOO I can no longer talk to my husband or daughters for free. IF there is a change in return date (not time), we may get another text, but that's it. One text per business trip. We don't feel neglected or offended. It's actually VERY amusing, as in "Oh, our funny daddy!" In a house of all females, we find his way of thinking SO entertaining - mostly.
2nd Russell example: If I need to send information to Russell (by free texting, of course), his typical response is 'K' - that's it, just one letter. For a while, we started responding back with random letters of alphabet. He was SO confused. After that, we got "OK" for a while, but now it's back to 'K' again. Silly, silly Russell!
You know the advice for talking to teens, "say it in ten words or less, or all they hear is after that is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah". Well, engineers are very similar - give the basic facts, tell them what you expect of them, and let them fix it (good luck trying to fit all that in a 10-word sentence...) If I try to give background/emotion information (our house is girl world, after all), I can see 'blah, blah, blah' scrolling past his pupils. At least he doesn't also have the infamous Mikesell girl eye roll! (Although, I'm sure he'd like to at times...)
NOW TO THE STORY!!!
It began with two weeks of travel to a small test range in Hollister, CA (south of San Jose). The 1st week, he came home with a very strange spider bite and was having a few odd symptoms, but by the weekend, he seemed fine. On Sunday, at church, Bethany and I were staring at him from the audience (Beth likes to catch him nodding off on the stand). He looked a little gray (I'm not talking about his hair). He said he had a strange stomachache, but there was a plane to catch, and off he went to another week in Hollister. Of course, I received the obligatory "I'm here" text. A new week had begun! I did text and whine one morning midway through the week. The dogs kept barking at imaginary nothings, plus the phone ringing (Verizon for him, loooong story), and I was trying to listen to endocrine dictation, which was sounding strangely like Russian. In hindsight, I should have been suspicious when I received a complete sentence text response. Especially, after the texting continued - laughing about our naive goal of years ago, using pets to teach children responsibility and sacrifice. Kids gone, pets still here, so who is learning the lesson exactly?!? Parenting is very humorous... Mostly, the joke is on us!
Russell mentioned that he was having those 'spider' symptoms again at night, BUT DID HE MENTION THAT HE HAD BEEN HOLED UP IN HIS HOTEL ROOM FOR 2 DAYS ,SO SICK HE COULDN'T MOVE OR EAT? No, of course not...
THEN, 5 am the next morning (Thursday, November 19th), it was a typical seminary/school morning. I go downstairs and find a text from him on the cell phone, "I'm in hospital". Okay, which hospital, phone number, anything - nope - and his phone was off... So I decide not to panic. I send a text and begin the morning routine. As I'm dropping the kids off at the high school after seminary, I finally hear from him, sort of. He's fine, a little sick, don't worry. Which hospital, is there a phone number, he doesn't now. When he knows something, he'll text. I ask to talk to one of his coworkers, they just left. HMMMMM....
Now, I'm going to deviate from finishing the story from what I knew (which was very little), and tell the story I NOW know after piecing it all together once I arrived in CA. His coworkers thought he was telling me, HAHA! They won't assume that any more. We have exchanged phone numbers, and Mona has Verizon!!!
By Tuesday, Nov. 17th, Russell had decided that his symptoms were not from a spider bite. He now thought it was different symptoms - food poisoning. That's why he locked himself in the hotel room - to tough it out - that's how he handles all illnesses. By Wednesday night, Nov. 18th, he knew he needed to eat, and thought he had worked through the food poisoning. He called his coworkers and arranged to meet them for a late dinner. When they walked in and saw him, Mona turned to Ross and said, "He doesn't look too good." Just then, the pain hit so he excused himself and curled up in the restroom stall. By then his coworkers had decided he was going directly to the ER when he came out, and lucky for them, he had made the same decision in the stall.
Of course, finding a hospital was another adventure -
iphones not working right, Russell balled up in pain in the backseat, mad at his phone, even some "Mormon swearing". They ended up calling 911 so a police officer could give them directions. The only hospital in the area was St. Louise Catholic hospital (
Gilroy, CA). Ross and Mona helped him with the paperwork (he remembers nothing but giving them his wallet and handing the clerk his driver's license). He was in a bed in the ER for quite a long time. He settled down once the IV started (morphine). He remembers waking up several times that night and asking Ross, who was sitting at the end of his bed, "Why are you still here?", "Ross, it's 4am,!" Diagnosis = severely dehydrated, and later they discovered, also septic. The symptoms made the doctor suspicious of the gall bladder, but when they poked it, no pain. Of course, the spider bite and food poisoning theories threw off the investigation too. Eventually when the blood and lab tests came back, he was admitted - because of the infection.
Meanwhile, I told a few family members, but I didn't tell the college girls because they had HUGE midterms and papers due that day. There wasn't anything to tell yet... I didn't tell my parents because I didn't want them to worry while they were helping at the temple. (I'm still not sure I have been forgiven for withholding information.) By then, my sister, who graduated from Santa Clara Law school, had called a few friends still in the area and asked them to do some investigating. Miraculously and gratefully, Russell was soon adopted by a ward (congregation) of our church in that area (Del Rey Park ward). Even better, the head nursing supervisor was a member of that ward (Brother Max). FINALLY, we were beginning to get information, and accurate information! Of course, my tough hubby was INSISTING that I not come. He was sure that he would be coming home the next day. Ross and Mona switched their flights to stay to fly and accompany the invalid home.
By now, there had been two days of tests (and a roommate in horrific pancreatic pain), but the doctors were still perplexed. Gall bladder, yes. Gall bladder, no. Severe bacterial infection from an unknown source, definitely. An MRI was scheduled - and yes, it was the gall bladder. Russell's gall bladder didn't have any of the normal outward symptoms. A specialist was called in (off his family vacation) for consultation. It needed to come out soon, but they hoped (actually, Russell hoped) to fly home for the surgery - at least that's what he told me (I think it was the morphine). When I met his nurses and told them the story as I knew it from him, they laughed. They knew he wasn't going anywhere...
Gall bladder surgery scheduled - NO! DON'T COME!!!! It's simple and easy, and I can get on a plane the next afternoon and fly home. Don't waste your parent's free flight. HMMMM... By then his family was NOT happy with me for still being home. BUT as much as I dislike being in trouble with them (I have awesome inlaws), I'd rather they be mad, than Russell! Mona and Richard (her husband) had already decided that she would stay until Saturday and come home with Russell after his 'easy' surgery. They sent Ross home to his family. Sister Margaret came and prayed for him, and the Bishop from our church stopped by with his brother and gave him a blessing. Surgery was scheduled at 7pm, so Kenna and Marah planned a family 'moment of silence'. I teased Russell that we were going to have him put his cell phone on his head, and Jon was going to lead us in family prayer. Instead of the laughter that I expected from him, he said, "tell them thanks, I need it". THAT was when I really started to get nervous and emotional. I could tell he was scared.
Note about Mona: For almost the entire 13 years at Raytheon, Mona has also assigned as part of the team. I jokingly call her his 'work wife' - and the nurses laughed hysterically when I called her that when I got to the ICU. Apparently, on Grey's Anatomy the night before, the term 'work wife' was introduced. Actually, the surgery nurse thought I was Mona (we don't look alike), but in her defense, the 1st surgery was at midnight. The very first question I ask when Russell tells me about a future trip is, "Is Mona going?", and when he says, "yes", I've felt at ease/peaceful. I liked having a woman with all those engineers, and yes, she is an engineer too, but not a man. After this trip, I know why!!! I call her St. Mona now. Here's a bad picture of them that I took on my cell phone after I got to the ICU:
It's late Friday night now, and I'm sitting at home (being obedient). Russell's surgery was delayed because the surgeon was needed on an emergency (knife fight). Visiting hours end at 8pm, but the nurses tell Mona to sneak back through the ER. She calls me at 1am, the surgery went well, he's awake and in recovery so she's heading to her hotel (before security catches her). I call all the girls and the relatives - even his parents who go to bed at 7pm (they insisted). Bethany and I have a slumber party with all 4 pets on the couch. The next morning, the dogs wake us up early. I decide I might as well attend our Christmas craft day (I'm craft-challenged, but my girlfriends were going to help me try to make a few things as gifts.) I hadn't heard from Russell yet so I call Mona. She's been trying to call him but there isn't an answer on his cell phone or in his hospital room (#128). She is heading over to the hospital. (Because he is being discharged to fly home, HA! The nurses laughed hysterically at that one also.)
Meanwhile my sister hears through the friend/Max grapevine that there were two surprises after Mona left. First, Russell needs a second surgery to clean the 'sludge' out of his abdomen. Basically, they needed to roter-router him, then removed all the poison that had thickened and blocked drainage into his intestines. His gall bladder had been poisoning him. Second, just after Mona left, Russell went into respiratory arrest and was now in the ICU with a breathing tube down his throat (and wearing a very cute Darth Vader breathing mask. I got to see it in person). I called Mona, so she could find him in ICU. He still had the tube in so couldn't talk, AND he didn't know about the 2nd surgery.
Oh, and the poisonous sludge caused the respiratory arrest. Usually any drainage when the gall bladder is pulled out, goes down through the intestines. Since the intestines were blocked, the gas went up and knocked out his lungs. Something called "flashing". He sat up and felt like he was drowning. The nurses say that Jenny, the recovery nurse was really good and really fast.
Meanwhile, I started making plans - kennel the dogs, kennel the child (Slatons called and offered to take Bethany as soon as Ken heard at work about Russell), find a flight with my parent's SWA voucher, cancel my life for the next week, call my new boss and ditch my files, and pack only carryon. (forgot deodorant, conditioner and camera charger). Mona on the other end was finding a hotel close to the hospital and arranging a rental car for me.
Back in ICU - this is much more entertaining to watch Russell tell this story - He was arguing with the ICU nurse when his tube was removed. By now, he hadn't ate or drank for 4 days (IV only). He's thinking, "WHERE IS MY FOOD?" He tried to talk through the Darth Vader mask, but she didn't understand. So he lifted the edge of the mask and said to Elizabeth (ICU nurse), "I WANT SOME WATER." "Sorry, you can't, you're scheduled for surgery." "NO I'M NOT, I ALREADY HAD SURGERY." She checked the chart, "You have surgery scheduled tomorrow." "NO I DON'T, IT'S OVER", "Sorry, you have a second surgery." "WHAT?!?" Finally, he gave me official permission to come - so Mona would go home. (Too late, plans already were made while he had a tube down his throat.) If Mona hadn't insisted on staying, I think he would tried to stay alone...
Can I say that trying to leave Oro Valley on the day of the Tour de Tucson bike ride was pure insanity and actually almost impossible? We couldn't get to the kennel with the dogs because only right turns were allowed (if turns were allowed at all). My angel friend Donna, besides taking me to the airport twisting and dodging bicycle traffic and closed roads, had to return to my house, put the two silly dogs and all their supplies in her beautiful SUV, then drive them to the kennel. I had 'pick-up' service for Bethany. I've never seen her pack so fast - slumber party heaven... UMMMMM. She and Erica came over twice a day and took care of the cats, mail and plants - and it looked like they played some Wii... Let's say her older sisters gave her a very hard time about being so happy to be a Slaton for a week. There was a definite disconnect in her mind between "YAY it's party time" and having a very, sick dad. Bethany is pretty bright in math, but sick dad = Slatons, did not compute.
We made it to the airport without hitting any bikes, I ran straight though security, plane was on time, even the layover at LAX was quick. Mona met me at the car rental in San Jose, I followed her to the motel, checked in, and headed to the hospital. Nurse Elizabeth didn't quite know what to do with my husband, but decided to let him disconnect from some of his wires and tubes just as we got there. First to go was the Darth Vader mask - I couldn't find my camera fast enough - darn! That would have been great revenge for the horrid pictures he snaps on his phone and randomly sends to our daughters... Next to go were the blood clot leggings. I think he hated them most of all! Although, the hospital socks were a close second. Next, he was allowed to clean up a little. This is my only real picture. My sister reminded me to take the camera, but the charger... 
This is probably the most color I've seen in his face since before the 'spider bite'. I think it was from wearing the mask. Mona took a picture of us on Russell's cell phone before we had to tuck him in for the night.
Either Marah or Kenna called us 'angelic' - I think it's the sunlight, although it was a hospital of faith! You can see how yellow he was.
So Day #4 in the hospital ends with him in the ICU for another night, surgery scheduled for Sunday afternoon (more fasting for him, he loves fasting - NOT), and his work wife taking his home wife out to Dennys for a late dinner (the nurses let us stay late in ICU until we were caught).
I'LL FINISH IN A LATER BLOG - I've got to be responsible and transcribe....
