The easiest way to avoid regrets is to ask yourself this question, "If not now, when?" It's a powerful way to put life and our decisions about how we spend our time into perspective"
Our nephew is okay. He was leaving work as a Nurse at the hospital last night on a through street at 45 mph when a woman ran a stop sign, also at 45, and T-boned him in the front fender and driver's door. He was cut out and taken back to the hospital where he works by ambulance. They kept him overnight, running tests on him. He is badly bruised everywhere, concussed, broken in a few places, and sore, but they found no critical damage. Praise God. He was released to stay with his brother today. His wife is a travel nurse and is working out of state this week.
The fact that the brothers can be together for the rest of the week. They are all in their 50s and haven't lived in the same state for over 25 years. Sometimes they were all able to get in for the same holidays, but not always, because everyone had in-laws, too. They have always been close, so I hope they get to enjoy the time together, though it will be stressful. The auction to sell their parents' farm, business, and all their belongings is this week. They had to put their mother in a memory care facility last month, and between getting the autopsy/hospital report back, the sale of where they called home, and most of their parents' things, and now this wreck has been very stressful on them.
Being a good kind of tired. Got up early and went all day. It sure is better than being exhausted lying around the house like last week.
The weather has been so fallish for a few days. It is so nice. Of course, it will go back up soon, but it has been lovely. I love fall!
The nephews finally got the autopsy, and the hospital reports that pretty much pieced together all the strangeness and mystery of my BILs last three days before he was found unresponsive and taken to the hospital and put on life support for days before they decided that he was brain dead and suggested that the plug be pulled. Since I shared all the weirdness then, I will share what they found if anyone is interested. If not stop now. It seems that it was a perfect storm of events.
A few months before the accident, he had been having trouble with his blood sugar going wildly high, though he was on several diabetic meds and insulin. He was put on high doses of Ozempic to bring his sugar down. It had started working too well and had caused him to go low a few times already, but he had not told the doctors, so he stayed on the same dose. Having more frequent lows. He and my husband both can tell when they are going low, even when asleep, and take glucose or drink juice. Then they usually take something to stabilize them after getting back in the normal range.
He had been alone for a week because his son, who is a nurse, picked up Mom to spend a week at their house so they could take her to a specialist because she was having memory issues. They suspected early dementia or Alzheimer's. Dad refused to go because he said he had too much to do. While she was gone, three days before he was found unresponsive, he had fallen out of the back of a truck trying to load a lawnmower up a ramp into the truck. It had come back out of the truck partially on top of him. He couldn't get up. A neighbor heard him yelling and took him to the hospital, where they strapped his broken ribs and gave him muscle relaxers and pain relievers, and sent him home. He didn't tell anyone in the family about the fall.
He had been on OxyContin for years from an incident at St Thomas Hospital in Nashville, where they had some tainted steroids that they had put into his back for back pain. He ended up with a brain and spinal infection and was in the ICU for three months. He was the second one that lived out of dozens that died. It was in the news for weeks. He had terrible nerve pain after and would often have to take OxyContin for it.
The son brought his mother back home in the afternoon, stayed awhile, and had to leave to get back home so he and his wife could work the next day. Still, Dad told no one about his fall or his ribs, just said he wasn't feeling well later on, took his meds, and went to bed. Just a normal night. His wife said she heard something in the early hours of the morning and checked on him when he didn't get up because we become attuned to them going low at night, both he and my husband frequently go low about 2-5 AM when adjusting new meds. It has always awakened them, and it usually awakens us wives because sometimes they are too weak to get up and get juice or glucose for themselves. When she checked on him, he didn't answer her; he was cold and clammy as they are when they go low, but she couldn't wake him up. She called the neighbor because she didn't know what to do. She was still mostly lucid, but sometimes things would set her off, usually stress, and she would just be lost. The neighbor came over, calling 911 on the way. He said he tried to do CPR but didn't really know how. It was 15 minutes from the time the neighbor got the call from her until the ambulance got there. They managed to get his heart beating again and took him to the hospital. The tests they made when he got there said he had all his regular meds, all the diabetic meds, Ozempic, the muscle relaxer, and OxyContin. Evidently, he was hurting enough that he took the Oxy instead of the pain meds the hospital had prescribed him. They think that the Ozempic and all the other diabetic drugs caused his blood sugar to go low, the muscle relaxer and OxyContin together had made him sleep so soundly that he didn't wake when he started going low. He was unresponsive for at least 15 minutes before EMTs got his heartbeat back.
The rural hospital where he lived ran tests on him and found all the medications that he had taken and found that he had also had a stroke and that part of his brain was damaged but although they said it wasn't a vital area and the rest was most likely alright he was still in a coma so they deemed him too severe for their hospital and sent him to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, over an hour away.
When he arrived in Nashville, he had a fever and tested positive for a virus. They administered antiviral meds until he no longer ran a fever and no longer tested positive. When they were finally ready to do a more intense brain scan, a few days later, they said he had had another stroke and none of his brain was alive. They pulled the plug. The biggest trouble was that neither of the hospitals wanted to tell the family anything at the time. With two nurses in the family and an engineer, I am sure that someone was intelligent enough to understand if they had told them. They were in the dark about all of these things and had to piece them together after recently getting the hospital report from both ER visits and both hospital stays as well as the autopsy and talking to the neighbor. It was sure a wild and crazy ride for everyone involved.
Such a series of troubling events.
Posted by Paula on 9/9/2025, 9:45 am, in reply to "Monday gratitudes"
I'm glad your nephew is ok.
How old was your BIL? "If only...." he could have had a different outcome. Condolences to everyone. Was this your husband's brother?
my husband's brother. He was 75. Still a long life but with his wife having the beginnings of dementia and all the boys living in different states all the info they could get was so confusing. We kept getting conflicting information. The local hospital was not cooperating (makes me wonder if they didn't feel that they could be sued for not telling him he sould not take the oxy with a muscle relaxer or if they are one of those hospitals that only know what the patient tells them and they didn't know he had it, but he had been in there several times since the mennigitis incident and his doctor is affiliated with that hospital.) I just know that they go no info at all until he got to Vandy. Although unfortunate, and of course, they miss him, they are more at peace now that they were able to see all the info (especially the nurses of the family) and figure out what was going on.
Delta I am so sorry for your family and all they went through
Posted by Krista on 9/9/2025, 7:23 am, in reply to "Monday gratitudes"
I am glad your nephew is ok, first of all!
What a sad story about his Dad. How tragic all he went through and all the suffering. My heart goes out to you and his entire family.
It was just a weird turn of events all the way around, and no one could piece anything together with the information they had gathered. They thought at first he might have committed suicide, which made everyone feel bad, but no one saw any signs. There were a few odd things that made them wonder if he had possibly been murdered. Once he was found unresponsive, their mom went deeper into dementia and has ever since. She went from a few episodes that made them get her tested to full-on, not being present most of the time. All three of the boys and even his three brothers have been very stressed for 11 months. To me it sounded like something from a CSI episode I watched once.
Cinq Choses Pour Moi
Posted by Krista on 9/8/2025, 12:08 pm, in reply to "Monday gratitudes…"
1) Ray made me a lovely roast beef dinner last night and went to Dairy Queen to get me a ice cream which was something I wanted and enjoyed
2) Day 1 of Optifast - had one at breakfast. Not delicious but not horrible either. I can have broth, decaf coffee, sugar free jello, Gatorade and water of course. There's other "stuff" but this is what I'll be having
3) 296.2 start weight - saying it as I'm hopeful it's gonna to be down down down down down and down from hereonin
4) got my auction work all done for last week's auctions which is always a relief
had a nice dinner and ice cream (DQ has always been my favorite ice cream, but they are so scarce around here). Your food sounds much like a colon cleanse fast for colon work. Day one is never hard for me. Days two and three are difficult for me, and I have a few white knuckle moments, but after day three, I stop being hungry anymore. After a week, I can watch recipe shows and food commercials, and they don't bother me. My problem is my husband not being able to stand me not eating. In the hospital, I was NPO for almost three weeks, and he kept wanting to offer me part of his dinner. He is worse at home. I know that Ray is very supportive so I hope that after day three it doesn't bother you at all.
Food sanity today. I had a true binge yesterday. I guess it's not that unusual when I've lived most of my adult life having them but, it is definitely not how I want to live the few remaining years I have.
Fall weather
Hamilton in the cinema was awesome. See something new every time I see it.
Nurse will be here in a few minutes. I want her opinion on whether or not I still need the wound packed. If not, Bill can cover it and I can get to outpatient PT.
The help Bill has provided throughout this debacle!
Paula
Posted by Beverly on 9/9/2025, 1:00 am, in reply to "Mine"
Food sanity. Yes. I love to hear it.
Glad the nurse will check out the wound. Double glad bill it well. I am so glad he has been able to be so helpful!
I am so glad that you have food sanity again.
Posted by Delta on 9/8/2025, 8:36 pm, in reply to "Mine"
One thing I have been told to do (easier said by "professionals" without the problem than done) is to keep telling myself that it is just thoughts created by bad habits and that I am better than this. Thoughts do not hurt us; only buying into them does, but overeating does hurt us.
I hope the nurse felt she no longer needs to pack the wound.
I think that Bill likes being needed and helping. His biggest mistake was marrying someone so independent, self-assured, and capable. He would probably have been happier with a shrinking violet that he could pander to, but he is attracted to everything that you are, which is just the opposite, yet it doesn't give him what he needs, attractive though it is. Ya'll always seem to get on so well when you are down and need him.
1. 61 degrees out right now with a high in the 70’s. Love this fall weather!
2. Monday morning and getting ready to get out of bed and get dressed for a job I love! So grateful.
3. A nice weekend with Ken. Love my time off with my guy
4. The Kansas State fair is in town and will be over on Sunday! I am not a fair lover-hate the traffic it brings to town and will be glad to see it leave.
5. Lots to do at work to keep me busy this week which always makes the week go faster! The weekend is just five days away!!
Cindy
Posted by Beverly on 9/9/2025, 1:02 am, in reply to "My five…"
Fall weather... yippee!
It's such a blessing to love your job.
I too love when the work week would go be quickly.
You need to start
Posted by Delta on 9/8/2025, 8:44 pm, in reply to "My five…"
taking your vacation during the fair and just leaving town for somewhere else.
I used to love the atmosphere, the smells, the noises, the exhibits, but hated the rides, although I enjoyed watching my kids and grandkids enjoy them. I stopped going when my two oldest grandkids were still young and don't think I ever took my youngest two because it started having so much crime that it was scary.
I woke up
Posted by Cindyh on 9/8/2025, 10:41 am, in reply to "My five…"
At 530 and it was 45 degrees!! I was shocked. And Wednesday it’s supposed to be in the 90s again after a beautiful Fake Fall!
SHUT YOUR MOUTH!!!!
Posted by Delta on 9/9/2025, 1:09 am, in reply to "I woke up "
IT IS FALL! FALL IS HERE! NO MORE 90S! I JUST WON'T HAVE IT! lol I have loved the past few days so much that I am in full-out two-year-old tantrum mode hearing that.
