Seeing things

While at Akron General Hospital I was on some major strong drugs. I don't know what they were called or anything. All I really do remember is seeing things on the wall and trying to hand imaginary objects to people. I would be staring at the wall in my room and would see all kinds of objects and different colors. I remember seeing elephants, and other zoo animals. I would blink my eyes and I would see something new on the wall. Delilah said that I was trying to hand her things that weren't really there. She also said I kept on playing with the buttons on the hospital bed and kept on pushing the nurse button. Serves them right, I hope it bothered them to no end by me pushing the nurse button since they put me some crazy drugs.
I remember a nurse came into my room to draw some blood out of my right arm. She got the first vile or 2 ok, but it took her forever to draw the last one. She kept poking me in a new spot to try to get more blood. I was becomeing very frustrated with her.
My left arm always have an IV hooked up to it. My veins are still sore. Does anyone know if they will return back to normal? When I rub my right arm I do not feel any veins, but when I rub my left arm I can feel my veins and it actually hurts to touch them. Is this normal?
I have been trying to take it easy this week. Is it possible for a Miller to take is easy? I doubt it. I have been trying to help out as much as possible to keep/get the house back up to par. I've been mainly focusing on laundary. I fell asleep last night from 3-5:30 and Delilah actually yelled at me. (Because she wasn't feeling good and Elise was sick) She said if this was how it was going to be (meaning draining myself during the day) she would have taken this week off also. Oh the fun.
I don't think I'm meant to be a stay at home dad. I get side tracked doing other things and don't get the important things finished. I haven't worked since April 5th. It has been a total of 20 days since I worked. I won't work again until May 1st, 5 more days. I am looking forward to it.
In a previous post I had mentioned about the possibility of us moving to the Atlanta area. At this point it seems that transition will not happen. Which we are fine with. We always enjoy looking at the possibilities that come before us.
I must get going - if you read this and have a blog please post on your blog - you know who you are, I miss reading what's going on in your life. Don't be a blog abandoner.

-Later-

Equal Education for All

Hmm, where to begin. It's been a while since I last mentioned anything about good ole Lady.

During late summer of my 6th grade at Fredericksburg Elementary, Lady decided she wanted to go to school. Now she never followed me to school or anything like that. So, I'm not sure how she decided to come into the school building. Anyways, it was in the afternoon probably 1-2 hours before school let out. Lady had decided to come into the school building, the second grade classroom actually to cool off. Someone came up to my class to inform me that my dog was in the building. How they knew it was my dog is beyond me. I guess she was a very popular dog. Anyways, I walked down to the second grade classroom to get her back outside. She did not want to go back outside, she was enjoying her attention from all the students and the fresh water she had received to try and cool down.

She eventually went outside and everyone returned to what they were suppose to be doing while taking care of Lady.

-What a smart dog-

Getting back to it

I have this whole week off. My new boss, Bill, wants me to be 100% before returning back to work. (He also mentioned that other employees were concerned about me having viral meningitis and catching something from me) I have to be honest and say that I am not 100% yet, I'm probably about 90%. I still have a headache every once in a while. Today Elise is sick so I have been tending to her.

-More later-

Da food is da bomb

While at the Cleveland Clinic, I realized for the first time that hospital food doesn't have to be disgusting. Every morning you would have the opportunity to pick out the next days meals. It was good stuff. For breakfast your were able to pick out anything from cereal, omelets, potatoes, milk, and juice. It was like going to a restaurant and looking at a menu.
One evening I had pasta with a stew over top of it. It was really good and the food was actually hot when it got to you.
My dad mentioned that each floor had it's own kitchen. Very impressive.
Five stars on the food.

Not your normal hospital

The Cleveland Clinic Foundation is not your normal run of the mill hospital. I'm talking about first class with a capital "C". Because of this I have decided to dedicate the next several posts about the the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Don't worry, Tuesday's are still reserved for Lady.

The first thing you notice when you walk through the doors of the Cleveland Clinic is the utmost respect everyone is treated. This respect resonates through the clinic; the custiodial crew, door-men, dietary aides, nurse aides, nurses, and doctors.

While at the Cleveland Clinic my room was located on the 8th floor of the "G" wing. I'm not sure how many wings there are but I think it went through "M". Every morning a young man would buff the floors. Now I'm not just talking about the main aisle but actually your room floor. He would politely ask if you minded him buffing your floor. (It was kind of noisey) He would take most of the furniture out of the room and then continue on with buffing the floor. Needless to say the floors were spotless and sparked in the sun.

As many of you know I was at one time a custodian at a local school district, I hadn't seem floors this clean in a long time. I can almost guarantee the hospital custodians made less than half what school custodians make.

Needless to say the Cleveland Clinic was a(re) very clean building(s). I was very impressed with the cleanliness.

More to come tomorrow.

An Open Thank You to All

This has been the most sick I've been for a long time. The last time I went to the hospital was when I had my appendix removed (I think I was in the hospital for like 2 or 3 days) back on New Year's Day 1998 or 1999.
I don't know all the medical terminology the doctor's spoke the past week. That is really Delilah's area, and hopefully she will post some of that on her blog sometime this week.
Delilah has mentioned names of people over the past week which have sacrificed their time and energy to help our family during our time of need. I will mention a few people but the list is not inclusive of all who prayed and gave their time. First off I would like to thank my family (mom, dad, sister, bro-in law, bro) for taking time out of their hectic schedule for coming up to Akron to help care for my family, next I would like to thank Delilah's parents for coming all the way from TN to help out too. Thanks to all from Fallscreek for you support to Delilah, your prayers definitely went a long way to help us. This was definitely what church was all about... supporting one another when another is down. Thank you so much.
When I got home yesterday, Jude sat on my lap for about 10 minutes. I actually thought I was going to have to pry him off of me to get a drink. I could tell he really missed me. I know I missed him and Elise. It seems that Elise grew so much of the last 9 days. She started to walk, which she was so close to doing when I went into the hospital. She didn't seem to be so surprises or happy to see me when I got home, must be an age thing.
The doctor's from CCF told me I needed to take it easy for about a week and build my strength up. The problem with this is I'm not really sure how to take it easy, I have a list of things in my mind which I want to accomplish... must be the Miller in me. I imagine I will start my new job April 24th. I am excited about the new possibilities it will bring.
IT FEELS GREAT TO BE HOME

9 Days Later

I am FINALLY home. It has been a long trek which started at Akron General Medical Center, which moved to the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and now I am back home. You will have to read Delilah's blog for all the details. All I basically remember is this....
April 10th....
*11:00 pm - headed to AGMC after a week of high fevers and some seriuously powerful dry heaves.
April 11th....
*Early morning sometime - admitted into AGMC
April 12th - April 16th......
*These days were pretty much a blur I do remember seeing a couple people, it felt like I fell asleep Tuesday morning and woke up the next Monday morning which wasn't really the case you will have to read Delilah's blog for the details if she decides to post them.
April 17th....
*2:00 or 3:00 pm finally enroute to the CCF.
April 19th....
*9:30 am - discharged from CCF
*10:45 am - arrived home.......FINALLY

Feeling Better

I'm finally starting to feel more like myself this afternoon. I went to the doctor yesterday afternoon and had a fever of 104.1 They checked my nose, throat, and ears and said everything was clear. But the doctor said that I had "something" big working in my chest. He said there wasn't anything that jumped out except something was working. So he sent me home with samples of Biaxin. He said to take it as a preventative to getting pneumonia. So I will take it, no problem with me. Hopefully I will be 100% tomorrow.

Sick

The sick bug finally hit me. I actually felt it coming on earlier in the week. But it his me like a train Wednesday night / Thurday morning. I woke up around 3 in the morning and took my temp it read 103.6. I went ahead and called off work right then (I was suppose to work days Thursday and didn't want to get up at 5 to call off). So I slept almost the whole day Thursday. I slept until 10 went back to sleep 15 minutes later, got up up at 12:30 went back to sleep 15 minutes later, got up at 4 went back to sleep 15 minutes later then got up at 9 and have been up since then. This is the most I have ever slept in a 24 hour period. I went ahead and called off for Friday also, I think this sickness deserves a full two days rest.

She wants to be a mail courier

Now Lady wasn't just any ordinary dog. She was very smart....
One time during a hot summer day, Lady decided she was going to head down to the post office and lay inside to stay cool.
I'm not sure how she got in, I can only imagine she snuck in after some one else walked through the door. I guess she didn't want to come out either. So they just let her be.