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November 09, 2012 - 12:41 a.m.
"grandpa's trip to the hospital"

Hey Journal!

What a crazy day! It's so late, and I'm exhausted... so I'll try to give you the rundown as quickly as possible!

So, this morning I got up at the normal time. I got ready for work and as I was getting ready, Dan's dad called to say that with all the snow, I should just come in late. I looked outside, and there definitely was more snow on the ground than I had expected, but the roads looked pretty good!

I got ready and watched a little TV, and then I figured that I would head out to buy our new TiVo on the way to work. I stopped at Best Buy and got the TiVo Premiere. I had spoken to Amy, who I used to work with, yesterday, and she said I shouldn't have a problem with them price matching it from Amazon. It was about $20 cheaper. All went well, and I was in and out in a few minutes, and on my way to work.

I got to work around 10:30, and it was just another quiet day! I feel like this must be what it's like every day in the winter for me, but I think I don't usually realize how drastic a change it is because it usually eases into it. This time it happened so abruptly, so it feels really weird!

For lunch, I had grilled chicken, and then after lunch we went down to Maintenance to get earplugs for Steve to use while he's cutting up trees at his house tomorrow!!

I left work at 4 and headed to Cablevision in Lindenhurst to return the two S-Cards that were in our old TiVo and to pick up an M-Card instead. I got there a little after 4pm, and there was a woman at the door saying that the store was closed because of a curfew in Babylon! WHAT THE HECK? First off, I don't even understand why a curfew is remotely effective or necessary. Okay, stop me from going to a store to exchange a cablecard. Weird.

So, instead, I went to the Cablevision store in Hauppauge where it is apparently not a problem to be out past 4pm. I swapped my cards, and then headed home.

I took out the new TiVo and hooked it up as soon as I got home, and then I had to call Cablevision to register the new card. The guy I talked to was nice and helpful, and he wanted to stay on the phone until I was able to verify if the card was working. Unfortunately, the TiVo was updating and was at 99% for a long time. Then, once that was over, it restarted, and he still wanted to stay on the line. It had been about 15 minutes, but then the screen said it could take up to an hour from that point, so I told him I'd just call back if there was a problem!!

Anyway, during all of this, my mom called to say that she had just heard that my Grandpa had been taken to the hospital. We didn't know exactly why, but she stopped to pick up me and Dan on her way, and we headed out at about 6:30. We got there around 7, and we parked in the HSC parking garage because it was free. The gates were open, so we figured that was better than the paid lot!

The only thing was, we had no idea how to get to the hospital from there. We walked through the school, and up the escalators, then found a door that was open and led into the hospital. We went down some random hallways and then boom... we made it to the Emergency Room!

We found my Grandpa in the "Acute Room 21" and he was just hanging out in bed there. So, what happened was... he was sitting on the stairs waiting for my Grandma to be ready to go out. He was supposed to be bringing some packages out to the car, but when my Grandma got back from going to the bathroom, he was still sitting there. She talked to him, but he didn't answer, and then she shook him and tried to get his attention, and he was unresponsive. She doesn't remember if his eyes were open or closed, but he was still sitting upright, not slumped over or anything.

She called 911, and when she returned, he was more aware, and she told him she had called 911. He said, "Why'd you do that?" Anyway, the ambulance came and took him to the hospital, and on his way out, he threw up a couple of times... so something was definitely weird.

My Aunt Janice had taken my Grandma to the hospital when it happened, so she was still there, but she left shortly after we arrived. A couple of nurses came in, and then a Dr. Cooling who explained a little bit about what may have happened. They said his cardiac enzymes were negative, which was good, and then his CAT scan didn't show anything conclusive. They didn't think it was a TIA because the symptoms were isolated to only one thing, apparently. They did want a neurologist to see him, and also said there was a very small chance that he had a seizure, but not the type of seizure what we are familiar with, more of an internal thing.

Later, another doctor, Dr. Bina ("like bean with an A") came in and checked him out. She asked him a bunch of questions like what year it was, what month it was, and all that. The whole time he was cracking his little jokes and stuff! It was actually very funny. When she asked him "Do you know what year it is?" He said, "Yes." Then she waited and waited, and he said, "Do you want to know?" hahah! I guess he DID answer the question!

Anyway, she made him push against her hands, keep his fingers closed, squeeze her fingers, a and kinda tested his strength. He did well, I think.

They said they wanted to admit him and observe overnight, but they weren't sure when a bed would be available. Fortunately, they said they found a bed, and it would be available in about an hour.

My mom, Dan, and I went to find some food since we hadn't eaten dinner! We went to the hospital cafeteria called the Marketplace Cafe. I got manicotti, and Dan got a Jamaican Beef thing with mashed potatoes. We also got pudding for dessert!

When we got back to the room, they were getting ready to take him upstairs. The woman came and wheeled the bed out, and off we went. We took a long walk around the hospital, and down many of the same corridors we had just been down on the way to find the room! We all fit into the elevator, and then off we went!

On the 15th floor, we met his new nurse, Amy, and then a weird doctor came to talk to us. He was� weird. Luckily, he said he was only working that night, and would be gone in the morning. lol

So, the whole time, he was really cold and kept asking for extra blankets. At one point, I think it he had like 5 blankets on. Meanwhile I was holding my jacket and felt like I was going to die of heat exhaustion!

Anyway, at about 11:30, we said goodnight and left the hospital. We had to find out way back to the HSC through the hospital and back to the parking garage!

My mom dropped us off at about 12:00 and then I finished setting up the TiVo, took a shower, and now it's time for bed!! I know I'm gonna be EXHAUSTED in the morning!

Until tomorrow...

Goodnight. :)