dad at his organ
My dad is a really interesting man. He grew up in central PA with a mother (my gram) who taught piano lessons. She, of course, taught her son and daughter to play too. All those years helped him stay out of trouble enough (he was still smoking by 6, and other stories that’d make any mother cringe!) to make it to a prestigious music school where he studied organ and piano.
He went on to become a church organist. And then, he went on to get kidney disease. Fast forward through the years of dialysis and doctors appts to his first kidney transplant. Lots went wrong and we nearly lost him. But, several years later, he went on to have a very successful transplant…and he is still living because of that kidney someone so generously donated!
Ok, so, that was his first brush with death. I think my dad is part cat though because he did actually almost leave us again just about 2 weeks ago. Things are all fine now though, so I can tell the story : )
About 2 days before Christmas, my mom was up visiting, and my dad had to shovel some snow. They have this chronic patch of ice at their house that they keep saying needs to be taken care of, but, of course, like so many of us, they keep forgetting/putting it off.
Well, he slipped and fell on that very patch of ice, breaking his right hand. Not only does this suck because he’s right handed, but, Organists use both of their hands! We were really worried about him, about his potential for recovery etc. But amazingly enough, he healed quickly, and, even though the hand was fractured, he was still able to play the organ. He played the Christmas Eve services no problem!
We were all feeling very gracious about how this injury was healing and how little it actually infringed on my dad’s day to day. But, then….
It all started with a headache that wouldn’t go away, then, he started to get nauseous. My parents thought it was all just the flu, until dad started to lose his balance. That’s when they headed over to the ER. The docs initially were worried about the kidney; not for long though.
Before they knew it, my dad was being taken in to have a cat-scan done. They called the neurologist immediately.
When they read the cat-scan they found that my dad had a very large subdural hematoma. They asked him if he’d hit his head recently, but he hadn’t. Then, my parents remembered his fall in late December. This was almost a month ago at this point, but, the doc said that what he saw would go along with this idea. He also said that dad didn’t have to hit his head to get a bleed like this. It was likely that when he fell the force of his brain just hitting his skull so hard could cause an injury.
The hematoma took up over 1/4 of the space inside my dad’s skull. And, it was pushing his brain out of the way. He was scheduled for surgery the next day and the hematoma was drained before it could cause any more problems! That was only the first part though.
No one could say how my dad would be after surgery. The neurologist did say he was optimistic, but, that could mean a lot of different things.
At this point, my dad can walk, talk, eat and all those basic things, and, he found out Saturday, he can still read music and play the organ!
Just awhile longer though and he could have been permanently compromised in some way, or worse, dead. I’m sure grateful my dad has such a hard working guardian angel!!
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