Bang, redux.

• The second surgery on Friday went fine.
• Elder Son and I went to see Smokey on Saturday.
• He was much, much, much better.
• He will probably come home Monday or Tuesday.
• Our annual reservation at a campground on the North Shore starts a week from Wednesday.
• It now appears we might just be able to go.
• Smokey is pretty sure he can recuperate better and faster listening to the sounds of Lake Superior.
• I hope he is right.
• Elder Son's visit home at this time has been a godsend.
• Tis very handy having a doctor in the house.
• Younger Son was hit by a car last night while riding his bike.
• Hit from the side, but the car hit his back wheel, not him.
• He is mostly okay, nasty scrapes on his knees and to a lesser extent his elbows.
• He doesn't remember the actual crash but remembers flying through the air thinking, I don't remember hitting the ground.
• And then hitting the ground. He landed on his right kidney.
• The driver and passenger were very concerned. Called 911 immediately.
• Police, ambulance, and fire truck (fire truck? why a fire truck?) were there within a minute or two.
• He was put into the ambulance and checked over.
• After a few minutes his blood pressure dropped rather precipitously, and they made him lie down.
• But he was okay and did not need to go to the hospital.
• Elder Son explained what happened with the blood pressure.
• When one has a surge of adrenalin (the fight-or-flight response of the sympathetic nervous system), it also stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system (which generally promotes the maintenence of the body at rest (cribbed from Wikipedia because I can't remember exactly the terms ES used). But sometimes the parasympathetic response overshoots the mark, resulting in the drop in blood pressure.
• And that is my paraphrase of what the expert said.
• YS is stiff and sore today and needed a bit of help to get up from his chair at dinner
• Mainly I am supremely happy that YS is not dead or in the hospital.
• Two family members in the hospital would be way too many. 
• Some gizmo on the car that has been marginal for a while decided to completely nutso on our way to Minneapolis today.
• It wanted the car to go 52 mph. Period.
• This was not noticeable on the highway.
• It became very noticeable when we hit a half mile of stop and (5mph) go caused by a bit of road construction on the bridge over the Mississippi.
• Repeated continual braking causes the brakes to slowly fail.
• By the last couple stop lights before the hospital I was having to stand on the brake pedal with both feet AND use the emergency brake to keep the car from creeping forward onto the car ahead of me.
• With much internal cursing and extreme driving finesse I managed to get ES and to the hospital, to YS's and fiance's apartment, to a nearby restaurant, back to the apartment, and back to Wisconsin without any mishap.
• I shall not be driving that car again until I take it to the mechanic's shop. (That would be Lennie. Remember Lennie?)

I need to clear up any possible misconceptions about Smokey's infection and the VA hospital. The VA docs and nurses and other staff and the care they gave him were in no way responsible for the infection. Smokey has for several years taken an immunosuppressant drug for his rheumatoid arthritis. He had to stop taking it for four weeks before the surgery and was not supposed to restart until at least two weeks afterward. One week post op he was having so much joint pain from the RA that he decided to take the drug. A few days later... infection. And so it goes.

Comments

[Kym]

Oh, man. I hope you have enough wine on hand! That's a lot of crap to deal with. Glad everyone is okay! Sending good juju your way. . .

[Carole]

I'm so glad Smokey is better and that your son didn't sustain any serious injuries! And you, too, driving the car that way. You deserve this upcoming camping trip, that's for sure.

[k]

How on earth did I miss a post about Lindstrom? My good little Minnesotan heart is beating funny.
God, I hope Smokey has learned his lesson. And that he gets better now, because you have earned that vacation.

[tammy]

OMG! Seriously, way too many things happening in your world right now. Glad your son was able to be there with you!

I hope you have a calm, soothing, and rejuvenating vacation at the lake. You guys have earned it.

[Soxanne]

Oh, good grief!

Be careful and take it easy - ALL of you!

[=Tamar]

Thank goodness YS is all right! Also glad to hear that Smokey is better. Assuming no further infection problems, he might be right about healing better away from the hospital. Could you ask his arthritis doctor for medication that won't cause infections?

Many years ago I knew of a Volkswagen that had brakes fail repeatedly; the cause was a bad design, that allowed tiny pebbles to fall into the works and wedge the brake pedal so it was always just a tiny bit 'on' and eventually the brakes would heat up so much from friction they would stop working. I had a Ford that had dual power brakes and one side failed, leading to the need to stand on the pedal with both feet and pull on the steering wheel to get it to stop.
I have no data on gas pedal malfunctions.

Oh, and happy birthday when it comes along!

[Linda]

Wow, what a week you all have had! You are in much need of that vacation to the North Shore! Hope things will be better from now on. Sorry to hear about YS's accident. Glad he is on the mend. Good to know that it wasn't the hospital's fault for Smokey's infection. Men!.....can't live with 'em, can't kill 'em! Have a great week, Kat.

[Heather]

Good heavens...you're all going to need a vacation by the time this summer is done!

[Chris]

*BIG HUGS*

Glad Smokey is improving after his second surgery and that YS is ok! Yikes.

And I hope the car is in the shop right now...

[Cookie]

Thank goodness everyone is alright! Far too much excitement in your world.

Firefighters are all EMS dudes. (Even if they are really chickies.) Because of that, you often get the fire truck with the firedudes before the ambulance kids can get there. Ask me how I know this. ;^)

[toni in florida]

What Cookie said. I'm a fire/rescue dispatcher and in our jurisdiction, as in many, there are fewer ambulances than fire apparatus. And they're not usually stationed at the same place. Even when they are, the firetrucks are rarely tied up on any particular scene as long as an ambulance, because they don't have to transport patients, hang out at the hospital until the doctors there take the patients off their hands and drive back to their designated response zones. All of that means the paramedics and EMTs that are becoming the standard crew of firetrucks all over the country? Those guys are closer to the scene of most medical emergencies and accidents than the ambulances. So the firetruck personnel stabilize the patients until the ambulance crews can arrive and take over patient care. Also, in the case of a vehicle accident, there's always the chance of a radiator leak or other fluid spill from the vehicle, so the firetruck mitigates that potential hazardous-materials issue.

OK, lecture over. The most important thing is that you are all safe and recovering. Hugs to you all!

[toni in florida]

One more thing: a car-vs-bicycle has a high risk of internal or head injuries, so it's one of the highest priority types of crashes. And any high-priority call is dispatched with multiple units, so there are extra hands on deck to take care of severely injured patients... and in case there are other patients (like if the car driver had started having a panic attack or if it was a medical problem that caused him/her to hit your son in the first place).

Hope that isn't too much of an info dump. I've just heard the subject questioned by people for years, so I like to take the chance to share the answer when I can.

Again, glad you are all well.

[Vicki]

Oh, scary scary scary!!
Good grief, you could ALL use some quiet time at the lake.
:)

[gayle]

You're making my life look calm...
I hope everyone heals up and stays that way. And soon.

[bullwinkle]

I couldn't even read this - flash backs to getting hit by a car on my bike 20 years ago. Killed the bike; I am fine ;)

Otoh, car issues in the midst of family emergencies doesn't seem quite fair, does it? (hugs again)