My Daddy.....

(some of his girls)

I am writing this to my friends and family who have asked what is going on with my family at the present time.

Thank you for all of your messages, text, FB, instagram and so on and so forth.

I mean could 2020 get any worse?

(in better times)

but....

Not to start off on a negative note but....

I've been up since 2:00 a.m.

Partly trying to cry myself to sleep, partly trying to figure stuff out.

Finally at 3 I got up and made a pot of coffee.

As if Covid-19 wasn't enough, then we have rogue police officers standing by while another officer choked to death an innocent black man.

He's life mattered y'all.

It. mattered.

So....all of this has bothered me to pieces like it has everyone.

__________________________________

Saturday, a week ago, my step mother called me to come check on my dad.

As an ex-gymnast and an incredible athlete all of his life, he has struggled with severe back pain for probably 30 years.

When "W" and I got to his home, he was curled up in a fetal position, unable to walk.

We did our best to get him to the emergency room at Grandview Medical (highly recommend as the best hospital in Birmingham)

6 hours later, and a morphine drip alongside pain meds we were sent home.

__________________________

On to this week.  I made an appt. with a good friend who is an orthopedic surgeon.  Wednesday he did an x-ray and we couldn't tell exactly what was going on but the back is definitely skewed.

Or just plain screwed up.

There was also something disturbing going on.

That we really couldn't figure out.

So....on to the MRI the next day

My poor sweet dad couldn't stay still. In SO much pain.

So....on to the open MRI.

Immediately the tech noticed something.

(you know they do this all day every day so you know they usually know what they see)

(I'm the first to say "WHAT DO YOU SEE"...knowing they know, if you know what I mean.

They rushed the results to my friend and I immediately got a call.

Aortic aneurism the size of an ...... orange.

Dang. That's all I knew to say.

dang.

That is 7 centimeters

All I could think of is when I was about to deliver my kids 7 centimeters was 3 centimeters away from a head coming out.

That's pretty large. (I mean let's be real here)

SO....this is what is causing his back pain.

So...after talking to this WONDERFUL vascular surgeon we have 3 choices.  Only one is going to work.

We could do nothing. But if we do nothing, it will burst and he will die.

We could cut him from sternum to stomach and at 86 that is just NOT an option in my book because most likely he wouldn't make it through that either.  WAYYYYYY too many issues.

Or they can perform an Endovascular aneurysm repair where they insert a tube on the inside of each thigh and repair that way.

Today's medicine is amazing.

This will most likely be done today at UAB.

By the way, my dad is in the Ritz Carlton of Grandview, and if they offered room service, I probably would have spent the night with him.

Only if wine was involved.

Yesterday was exhausting. Both mentally and physically.

He literally cannot walk and thankfully I am strong and can handle holding him up.

He has a corner room with windows surrounding it and a view of the helipad which THRILLED him!

So, if that had anything to do with another sweet friend of mine (I won't name names, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for loving on my dad)

He is in pretty good spirits.

If you could just say a gentle prayer for complete healing from this surgery my family would be forever grateful.

My two brothers, and my sister will be driving in today.

Much love, health and happiness in this confusing world to all of you at this time.

Please love on your family.

We all need all the love our hearts can handle right now.

❤️❤️❤️

xoxo

kb