No more posts today…

That photo has absolutely nothing to do with what I am about to tell you but is there for comic relief (it is a kids flotation device I saw while walking out to the lighthouse in Port Townsend on Tuesday).

Tuesday afternoon, around 5pm Eastern time, I got a call from Pennsylvania that my older brother who lives there was having yet another seizure and was in an ambulance getting prepared for a ride to his preferred hospital, about 40 minutes away.  He is in his 5th year of seizures and for the most part they have become fairly routine (go to hospital, stay 2 or 3 nights in ICU, adjust his meds and send him home).

That all changed later Tuesday evening when his live-in girlfriend called and said that when had arrived there he was “stable” but that his condition was now being called “critical” and they were going to move him to another hospital not far away.  The cities of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania are only a few miles apart and are often referred to together, much like Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina.  Needless to say that put my family in the condition called “mild panic” as I notified my other two brothers, one of whom was also on a road trip in the Midatlantic states.

Well, Wednesday I decided to stay in Port Townsend so I would have continuous cell phone service for updates.  The news got better throughout the day (although the air quality didn’t) and it turns out the “critical” was more of a classification for hospital purposes because Wilkes-Barre didn’t have an ICU room available and they had to justify transporting him to Scranton.  He apparently did have a brief time when they couldn’t stop his seizures so they heavily sedated him for the night.  Wednesday morning the doctors reviewed his various tests from the night before, woke him up from sedation and decided that while his meds still need adjusting, he will probably go home in another day or two.  So while there were moments of terror for us, it turned out to be pretty much business as usual.

So far this morning (Thursday, 940am local time) the air quality numbers haven’t improved quite as much as forecasters had predicted and I don’t know yet what my plan is for the day.  It is cool and damp and not expected to get any warmer than the low 60’s here in town.  I am getting ready to venture out and see how things look – literally.

Yesterday I worked on a post (probably two) which I may make later today if I don’t end up going anywhere.  If I backtrack back west I won’t post it until tomorrow.  While I was doing laundry yesterday I started reading a John Grisham book I bought while I was in Colorado Springs and am now totally absorbed in it.  I may just sit by the water and read.