planomateo
Member
Wanted to share something with all of you. Normally I'm the guy that keeps his personal life private, but for some strange reason I have this feeling that I need to share this with you guys. I've been trying to post this the last few days but hadn't completed it until now (love the draft feature with this site so I can work on it as the days have passed by).
Over the last few years, the relationship with my father has been rocky. He was my dude, the guy I looked up to for everything, my best friend, the guy I called for advice regularly. We went from talking on the phone 3-4 times a week to 1-2 times in the last few years. We're both fairly stubborn and had our own thoughts about what triggered our broken relationship. Neither attempting to resolve our differences.
As I mentioned in the game thread Monday, I flew out to San Diego that morning for work and planned on watching the game in my hotel room Monday night. In San Diego during lunch I got a phone call from my sister that something was wrong with dad (he's almost 69 years old). She told me he had a large clot (the size of a small tangerine) in his brain (right frontal lobe area) and his chances were 50/50. It was serious enough that they choose to do surgery immediately. The surgeon said they were concerned that if the blood clot pushed on the central part of the brain that connected to the vertebra it would cause serious issues that would impact his recovery. Being that he was in the VA hospital I was concerned a little bit more as I wasn't sure if he'd get the care he needed. I later found out that the UAB surgeons help out at the VA Hospital which is a huge benefit of the VA hospital being so close to UAB in Birmingham.
I immediately had the selfish feelings of guilt for not repairing the relationship with my father and worrying that I'd never have the chance to mend the fences with my dad. I really didn't want to have to carry this burden for the rest of my life. I went into this thinking the worst and hoping for the best.
I told my boss and my team that'd I'd be leaving for Birmingham immediately and as I headed to the airport I was able to get a flight out to Birmingham at 2:30p PST, which put me into Dallas around 7:30p, then I got to Birmingham at 10:30p.
I was able to watch about 15 mins of the game at the gate in Dallas, there were probably 10 of us Alabama fans in some type of Alabama shirt or hat, we were yelling when Derrick Henry drew first blood. I want to say the game was tied up when we boarded the plane for Birmingham, I turned on Tune In Radio on my phone and listened to it on the plane up to about 2k-5k feet in the air. For the next few hours I was wondering about my father and what the status of the game was.
Once we got above Birmingham, I was able to listen to a bit more of the game about 5,000 feet above the ground to the landing. I got a cab to and headed to the VA hospital. I was dropped off at the Emergency entrance and walked up the same time my uncle (dad's brother) did and we hugged and walked in and went up to the SICU to see him. After we saw him we went up to the waiting room and the game was on and we were able to watch the last 2-3 mins of the game. I slept in the waiting room and watched the highlights and all the post game talk as it gave me something different for me to focus on while I was worried about my dad.
After a few hours of sleep I headed downstairs to see my dad the next morning around 5a. Dad apparently either pulled the endotracheal tube out or tried too, then had to restrain him which he didn't care for. A few hours later the surgeon came in and asked my father if he could hear him to hold up two fingers which he held up both of his middle fingers. This was a huge relief for me, I knew my dad was fighting and was going to recover...I just wasn't sure in what state at the point.
Tuesday afternoon he was awake and they removed the endotracheal tube, he was still loopy due to the drugs he was on, but he could recognize me and all our family members and friends from church that showed up to support him. He had alot of people praying for his well being. Wednesday he was able to hold much better conversations and took his first walk via the help of a walker and I was blown away that this guy underwent brain surgery around 2p Monday was able to walk 48 hours later. My dad has always been the toughest guy I know, he's always had an extremely high pain tolerance, he's been a fighter all his life (literally, the stories I could tell about him would make you laugh).
He progressed more on Thursday and Friday morning that they released him yesterday and allowed him to go home. The VA hospital in Birmingham had some amazing nurses and doctors, they really impressed me with the level of care he was provided and you could tell almost all the nurses really loved their job. They were great and being a Veteran and hearing all the stories about VA care I was really worried initially.
I dropped dad off to his house around 4:30p (in Odenville) and I was able to get on the 7p flight to Dallas last night.
I'm not a religious person, I do believe that there is a higher power in the universe. I will tell you that this experience has me questioning my beliefs more than ever. I know some of this was attributed to my dad, the surgeons and nurses, and the love that he had from others to help him recover. The biggest reason I wanted to share this was so that if any of you are having an issue with someone that you love that's prevented you from resolving your differences, resolve them before you don't have the chance. I'll forever be grateful that I was able to resolve the differences with my dad and I don't have to carry this burden the rest of my life. I really was worried I wasn't going to have this opportunity on Monday after hearing the news.
I'm looking forward to watching the game today
Sorry for rambling...
Over the last few years, the relationship with my father has been rocky. He was my dude, the guy I looked up to for everything, my best friend, the guy I called for advice regularly. We went from talking on the phone 3-4 times a week to 1-2 times in the last few years. We're both fairly stubborn and had our own thoughts about what triggered our broken relationship. Neither attempting to resolve our differences.
As I mentioned in the game thread Monday, I flew out to San Diego that morning for work and planned on watching the game in my hotel room Monday night. In San Diego during lunch I got a phone call from my sister that something was wrong with dad (he's almost 69 years old). She told me he had a large clot (the size of a small tangerine) in his brain (right frontal lobe area) and his chances were 50/50. It was serious enough that they choose to do surgery immediately. The surgeon said they were concerned that if the blood clot pushed on the central part of the brain that connected to the vertebra it would cause serious issues that would impact his recovery. Being that he was in the VA hospital I was concerned a little bit more as I wasn't sure if he'd get the care he needed. I later found out that the UAB surgeons help out at the VA Hospital which is a huge benefit of the VA hospital being so close to UAB in Birmingham.
I immediately had the selfish feelings of guilt for not repairing the relationship with my father and worrying that I'd never have the chance to mend the fences with my dad. I really didn't want to have to carry this burden for the rest of my life. I went into this thinking the worst and hoping for the best.
I told my boss and my team that'd I'd be leaving for Birmingham immediately and as I headed to the airport I was able to get a flight out to Birmingham at 2:30p PST, which put me into Dallas around 7:30p, then I got to Birmingham at 10:30p.
I was able to watch about 15 mins of the game at the gate in Dallas, there were probably 10 of us Alabama fans in some type of Alabama shirt or hat, we were yelling when Derrick Henry drew first blood. I want to say the game was tied up when we boarded the plane for Birmingham, I turned on Tune In Radio on my phone and listened to it on the plane up to about 2k-5k feet in the air. For the next few hours I was wondering about my father and what the status of the game was.
Once we got above Birmingham, I was able to listen to a bit more of the game about 5,000 feet above the ground to the landing. I got a cab to and headed to the VA hospital. I was dropped off at the Emergency entrance and walked up the same time my uncle (dad's brother) did and we hugged and walked in and went up to the SICU to see him. After we saw him we went up to the waiting room and the game was on and we were able to watch the last 2-3 mins of the game. I slept in the waiting room and watched the highlights and all the post game talk as it gave me something different for me to focus on while I was worried about my dad.
After a few hours of sleep I headed downstairs to see my dad the next morning around 5a. Dad apparently either pulled the endotracheal tube out or tried too, then had to restrain him which he didn't care for. A few hours later the surgeon came in and asked my father if he could hear him to hold up two fingers which he held up both of his middle fingers. This was a huge relief for me, I knew my dad was fighting and was going to recover...I just wasn't sure in what state at the point.
Tuesday afternoon he was awake and they removed the endotracheal tube, he was still loopy due to the drugs he was on, but he could recognize me and all our family members and friends from church that showed up to support him. He had alot of people praying for his well being. Wednesday he was able to hold much better conversations and took his first walk via the help of a walker and I was blown away that this guy underwent brain surgery around 2p Monday was able to walk 48 hours later. My dad has always been the toughest guy I know, he's always had an extremely high pain tolerance, he's been a fighter all his life (literally, the stories I could tell about him would make you laugh).
He progressed more on Thursday and Friday morning that they released him yesterday and allowed him to go home. The VA hospital in Birmingham had some amazing nurses and doctors, they really impressed me with the level of care he was provided and you could tell almost all the nurses really loved their job. They were great and being a Veteran and hearing all the stories about VA care I was really worried initially.
I dropped dad off to his house around 4:30p (in Odenville) and I was able to get on the 7p flight to Dallas last night.
I'm not a religious person, I do believe that there is a higher power in the universe. I will tell you that this experience has me questioning my beliefs more than ever. I know some of this was attributed to my dad, the surgeons and nurses, and the love that he had from others to help him recover. The biggest reason I wanted to share this was so that if any of you are having an issue with someone that you love that's prevented you from resolving your differences, resolve them before you don't have the chance. I'll forever be grateful that I was able to resolve the differences with my dad and I don't have to carry this burden the rest of my life. I really was worried I wasn't going to have this opportunity on Monday after hearing the news.
I'm looking forward to watching the game today
Sorry for rambling...
