Blogger 365 Day 296 - These days

 I expect everything I have to write is going to take longer than this particular bus ride but at least I will have a chance to get some things down on paper before I either reach my destination or my iPad runs out of battery life.


     In case you hadn't guessed and really why should you, I am in the bus from Indiana, PA back to Pittsburgh.  I look like the only person who is going to be riding this bus today, there is nobody else on it at all which is kind of unusual.  Usually this bus route starts in like State College or thereabouts and has a handful of stops before getting to Indiana.  Not that I have ever rode this bus and wondered about a seat, but just the same it is odd to see it this empty.  Check that, there is one person sitting in the very back. I don't know if he is just being very quiet or if he is asleep at this point.  It is only 9:30am after all.

     Anyway most of you are probably wondering how the last few days have went and I have been pretty much quiet about the whole time frame simply because I haven't had the time or opportunity to blog.  For purposes of this particular entry we are going to go all the way back to Tuesday.  That was the last day I worked before taking time off for my mother's surgery on Wednesday.

     There wasn't much going on at work Tuesday, I was basically training Bobby on the stuff I normally had to do still as well as helping out wherever I could on other things, including trying to maintain my composure with our register company while criticizing their tech support again, a process that is becoming all too familiar.  In this particular instance they were supposed to show up on Monday at 9am regarding issues that are now almost a month old.   Of course their technician, Art, no showed nor did he call to say he couldn't make it, so I was trying my best to control myself while at the same time asking why we are paying for a service agreement with them yet they are failing to provide any service at all.   Had this been a one time theme with them perhaps I wouldn't have been as upset but it is a recurring theme and even the problems in question for these issues we were having Art had been notified of better than three weeks ago but instead of addressing them he either ignored them or passed the buck and said it was someone else's problem.   Needless to say my phone call was testy, in fact I expected I would here something from Ed about how I handled things.  Mind you I didn't swear or yell (surprisingly) but I was forceful enough in tone that I might have gotten a strong talking to, Ed has made a point of saying I need to work on my people skills.  This time though when I hung up the phone he said I handled that appropriately, firm enough without yelling.

      The rest of Tuesday at work was pretty uneventful, though I did ask Ed if I could get my paycheck early.  We normally get paid on Wednesdays but since I would be off I asked if I could get my check on Tuesday.  He said I could, which I expected, so I my check and paid my November rent before I found myself living on the streets because I forgot to pay it.  When I got back to my apartment rather than going straight home I went to my watering hole to have a couple and try to calm my nerves regarding Wednesday's scheduled surgery for my mom.  I am quite sure I drank too much, because even though I made it home okay and was able to order in delivery with no issues and even eat dinner, when I finally put my head to try and rest it wasn't a gradual nodding off that one might be used to, instead it was more like Pinochio having his strings cut, all movement and thoughts and everything just ceased.

      I woke up Wednesday and the plan was pretty simple, get dressed and go downtown, catch a 1-Freeport Road bus from town to Natrona Hts to meet my aunt and then ride to Butler Memorial Hospital with her.  First I miss the bus I wanted to take into town, I was going to catch my normal bus into work and walk to the other stop from their.  Since I missed my bus I could either wait another 30 minutes or I could walk across Oakland and be on a different bus in 10-15 minutes instead.  I did the walking thing, I had built some leeway time into my mental schedule of what times I had to be certain places, but not enough to give away a half hour.  So I walk up to 5th Avenue, I catch a bus very quickly and am downtown while still being in schedule. My next bus, the Freeport Road, I knew from reading the schedule online, has a stop on Liberty Avenue and 7th Street.  That isn't the only downtown stop, just one for which there is a timed checkpoint, they pretty much stop every block or so in town.  When I get off my bus I just walk over to Liberty Avenue, go to a bus stop on the side of the street where traffic is going outbound, and wait.  I look up at the bus stop sign that lists all of the buses that stop there, the 1-Freeport Road is on the sign, all is good.  So I wait, and wait and wait.  I am seeing other buses for other routes make 3 and 4 appearances while not once have I seen mine.  Finally it does show up and I hope on board what is an empty bus, even emptier than the one I am currently on.  Still I hop on, the driver says nothing at all, until we go three more stops that is, then she says it's her last stop.  Apparently I am to catch the same bus on the other side of the street, another 20 minute wait.  Any schedule I had by now is just fucked.  I call Amy and let her know what's up, she says she will meet me at bus stop.  I told her nit to rush, the Freeport Road is a long bus route, just to get to Natrona Hts takes at least an hour and change.  No sense in running to the bus stop and just sitting there waiting.

      I do make it there, Amy is already waiting and we head out.  The drive to Butler from her place isn't bad, maybe 25 minutes or so, but talking to Mike on my phone, or texting him, I knew that they had taken my mom in for pre-op around 8:30 am, I don't even get to Amy until 9:30 and until we get to the hospital it is 10am.  As an added bonus, Butler Hospital may be one of the most confusing places I have ever been in my life.  There are at least three different lobbies, based on what doors you enter and different sets of elevators going to different places.    So tracking down Mike, even with my cell phone, was a process.  Amy and I located him after the third lobby we tried, I really shouldn't say there are three lobbies, in all likelihood there are more but I only found three of them and rather than look into this matter for being factually accurate I am just going to go all Picard while being tortured by the Cardassians and say "I see three lobbies.".

      Not that it means anything but my current bus is taking a different route into Pittsburgh.  Not that he has me lost or anything, and I am not even sure if this way is any faster or slower than the way they usually go.  Right now I would say time wise we are on pretty much the same pace this way, outside Holiday Park in about an hour's time.   I am doing a pretty good job on the iPad battery here too.

      So anyway, we all meet up at the hospital, they had given Mike a beeper so anytime they did something new with my mom he would get a message saying they moved her, etc., etc.,etc.  Since he hadn't heard anything new since 8:30, and now it was 10:30, I offered to buy if anyone wanted something to eat.  It was the least I could do, since Amy drove and Mike had been there since like 7am.  But he had already ate, so just Amy and I sat in the cafeteria and had something.

      Around 11:30 we get the beeper message that they are moving my mom into surgery, so we can go to the 5th floor waiting room.  Honestly I liked the waiting room we were in, the coffee was free there, on the 5th floor is was all vending machine stuff.  Worse it was those vending machines that spit out Pocahontas dollars for change.  Can we all agree that dollar coins just suck?  But we make our way up to 5, I get some phone calls and texts from work, Bobby having questions about certain things which I expected and truthfully it was a good distraction, focusing my mental energies on that meant I wasn't thinking about the surgery taking place.  But then I get another call, this one from Art.  I answer the phone and he says "I'm here." To which I say "That's great, I am at the hospital with my mom, bye.".  Honestly that guy is just a jackass that pisses me off more and more each time I have to deal with him.

      It wasn't until after 3 pm that the doctor came out and said the surgery went well, and that my mom was being taken into post-op and we should be able to see her in an hour or so.  Amy had some things to do at home, so she said she was going to leave but was coming back in about two hours, I spent some of those Pocahontas dollars by putting them back into the vending machine and buying some crackers and coffee to get by on.

      Mike and I waited around, he found some car remodeling show on cable that he and another guy started watching and striking up a conversation as well.  On things I know nothing about I just politely excuse myself from the conversation and this was one of those times.  I played on my iPad, smoked cigarettes, paced around, just doing lots of things that amounted to nothing in the grand scheme of things.

      That one hour wait to get in to see my mom actually turned into over two hours.  In fact, just as the nurse was coming out to say we could go back, Amy was getting off the elevator, having finished what she needed to do she was back already.  Of course it was also after 5pm, visiting hours in the ICU are only until 7pm and more than anything I think my mom was just interested in sleeping.  Between getting up very early and now post surgery and the lingering effects on anesthesia we didn't stay too long, just long enough to make sure she was resting comfortably, or as comfortably as one can rest in the ICU.

       Mike left to go home, Amy gave me a ride back to my apartment.  I would have stayed at the hospital but I had a court hearing for work on Thursday that I wasn't sure if I would have to attend or not, and any time I am unsure I prefer to err on the side of caution.  I got back to my apartment around 7:30 and again I decided to go to the bar, this time more of a relaxed state of mind now that the surgery was over.  I figured I would have a beer and then head back to my apartment and try eating something besides vending machine food.  But once I got to the bar I saw the hockey game was just starting, and shortly after that a couple of females came in that I didn't know, though one of them was really cute, so I hung out and bought them a round of drinks and put some money in the jukebox, which I shared with the, after they had complimented my previous music selections.  I found out their names are Amber and Rachel (I think) and they ended up buying me a drink too and before I knew it the hockey game was over.  They left and shortly thereafter so did I.  Shortly after I got home I grabbed something to eat and then turned in for a night.

     Thursday morning I woke up, got dressed and headed into work.  The time on my sheet for the court hearing was 8am, but I know how the courts generally operate so I got into work about 8:30am, went down to the office to grab my paper for the hearing only to find out Ed had taken it already.  Mind you, I know where the hearing is taking place, it is just a few blocks from work itself, so I walked over.  On my way I got a phone call from Mike, they were going to let my mom out of the hospital at noon.  That was some good news, I figured worst case scenario I could catch an Indiana bus after the hearing or on Friday morning and spend some time there, just in case my mom needed anything.

      I get into the building where the preliminary hearing is taking place, I see a table for check ins for the court so I head over there.  I explain my situation, I received a paper in the mail, I haven't been called to testify but because I received the letter I thought I should be there.  They asked me if I knew which case I was there for and I said it was Commonwealth of Pennsylvania vs. Leveritt Johnson.  Simple enough, right?  They looked at me and said which one, so I looked down at the book that had the day's hearings in it and there was a full page of hearings for Leveritt Johnson.  I mentioned the store I was from, they said that they would need the detective's name that had the case.  Thankfully I remembered that his name was Johnson, they found my case and said I could have a seat in the hearing room.  Once in there I saw Ed, Kerry, and Mickey all sitting together so I joined them and we sat there and waited as they plied through other preliminary hearings before getting to ours.

      Once Leveritt Johnson was brought before the judge everyone involved with a pending case against him was pulled into the hallway.  They decided to waive the preliminary hearings and package them all (at least 15 cases) into one case that will be held over for trial in 6 to 8 months from now.  Basically I just wasted my time by being there.

     After the hearing I walked back to the store with Ed, we talked about a few different things including how well my mom was apparently doing.  By the time I got back to the store I figured Mike was already in his way to the hospital to pick her up, so I stuck around the store for a bit and worked on some things, helping Bobby with the numbers, fixing a leak from one of the coolers, helping put together the grocery order and almost putting in a work day despite being off.  I was just at the point where I was trying to decide if I wanted to rush back to my apartment and throw some things in a bag and try to rush back on Thursday or just wait and pack everything and leave Friday morning.

        Just as I am getting ready to leave work Mike calls and says they are changing their minds and keeping my mom an extra day at the hospital, so he was going to come pick me up and take me to the hospital during a break in visiting hours.  So now I am rushing back to my apartment to throw clothes into a bag because I am thinking I might be spending the night at the hospital instead.  I am not sure what time Mike will show up, but I know that I haven't eaten since the night before so I also have to grab some food before I leave.

       I managed to eat a couple of sandwiches and throw an extra outfit in my bag thinking if I need to change clothes at the hospital Friday morning at least I could do that before Mike arrived.  I helped with the directions to get out of Pittsburgh and on the way to the hospital so we wouldn't get stuck in as much rush hour traffic and we ended up getting to he hospital at 5:30.  We had been there maybe a half hour before one of the nurses came in and said that in fact they were going to release my mom Thursday night.  I swear in was like the Three Stooges of hospitalization, going home, then staying, then going home again.

        After some post surgery paperwork we left the hospital around 7:30, headed home.  Mike had originally brought his dog with him, thinking he was just going to take my mom home, now the dog had been in the truck most of the day so the first thing we did was take the dog home.  I would argue that that should have been all we did, but instead we went to get something to eat.  We ended up stopping at Eat N Park, and while the food was okay stopping there really wasn't.  My mom couldn't even read the menu, whether that was a lingering effect of the anesthesia from her surgery or if there are lingering effects from her previous stroke or previous condition I do not know, nor do I know whether what she was going through is a temporary thing or whether the damage was permanent.

     For those not in the know I will put the surgery my mom had into lay men's terms, there are two major arteries, one on either side of the neck, that carry oxygen to the brain.  One of hers was 90% blocked, so they had to go in and clear the blockage.  Of course I know that any time the brain suffers from a lack of oxygen brain damage can occur, so while the blockage was removed there is no telling if there is permanent damage as a result.  I found myself wondering that very thing quite often this weekend, when something would happen I would wonder if this is just a temporary thing that will get better as she recovers or if this is now just the status quo.  The menu was one such instance, she couldn't even say what she wanted, she just pointed to a picture on the menu.

       Dinner took a while, not because the food took so long but because my mom was struggling to eat.  That I do blame on post surgery grogginess, she was having problems even walking let alone managing to use utensils.  We left the restaurant and went home, where my mom was still having issues just standing, I had to catch her to keep her from falling just walking into the house.  And when we did get inside and she decided to sit on the couch she ended up having an accident, whether she couldn't get up or just forgot to get up I don't know.

      Friday I got up a little early, I wanted to go for a walk to clear my head and to check out the bus schedules for Pittsburgh on Sunday.  Not that I was looking to just leave, but I knew if I let Mike give me a ride back to Pittsburgh on Sunday most likely it would involve my mom wanting to go too and I had seen nothing to that point that would suggest a two hour ride in the truck would be good for her recovery.  Nor did I think leaving her alone for two hours would be wise, so it would be in everyone's best interest if I handled my own travel arrangements.  Besides you can only be chauffeured around for so long before it starts to feel like mooching, at least for me.

     The rest of Friday was pretty much uneventful, we didn't go anywhere.  As was the case for the entire weekend, we didn't cook anything either which probably doesn't do anything for my mom's long term health, at some point she is going to have to maintain a healthier diet and start exercising a little, even if it is just walking, or we are going to end up in the same place, with blockages and surgeries again.   No calls from work or anything, which is good.

      Saturday was also uneventful for the most part, just watching my mom and wondering if some of the things she was suffering from, like having trouble seeing, getting confused by her TV remote, dropping things, struggling to stand up after sitting on the couch, etc. are things than can and will get better or not.  I realize she is not young anymore and I am not suggesting she go out and run a marathon or anything crazy, but the status quo is just not working as evidenced by the trip to the hospital Wednesday.

        I did get to talk to Amy a little bit on Facebook messenger Saturday night, just keeping her updated on how things were going.  I even got to talk to my cousin Bobby who recently got married, it was the first time he and I have spoke in ages.  He started playing Marvel Puzzle Quest also, so I was trying to pass along some advice and tips on the game.  Not sure how good my advice was, hopefully it will help in the long run.

       And Sunday brings us to today.  Yes I have been off the bus for quite some time now, I don't type nearly that fast and this has been far too wordy to be a 1.5 hour project, instead. I have been typing off and on all day, taking time off to ride the bus home, wash some dishes, catch up on emails, make dinner and just relax a bit.  I still have to run out later and do laundry and reset my alarms for work in the morning, so stopping now is probably a good thing.