Whig Hill

just a note...phone out

Duh. I'm back in N.C. but my phone is still in Virginia. I should have it back in a number of days, but don't know exactly. Best way to reach me is by email. It's usually the best way anyhow.

p.s.-- Redskins beat the Boys of Cow by 21 points. That's not just Sean Taylor's number, that's providential. This really does feel like the closest thing to a religious revival for me.

check this out

At this link, you will find that the Grapes of Wrath production I appeared in earlier this year was chosen by the N&O as "one of the year's best" in  Triangle Theater. Also notice that the Bare Theater's Twelfth Night is on the list. My friend Kacey was in that and it was HI-larious.

A Kwanzaa Miracle

Ok. Dad is apparently doing so well I'm thinking of heading back to God's Country. In the little sing-along the family had last night I wrote a blues song and played it on my brother's guitar...
       
            I got a dad... they always say he's gonna die
            I got a daaaaad..... they always say he's gonna die
            But when I hear that now...
            I know its a dirty goddam lie.

            bu bwuuumm bwu bum  grrrrruwwww grrrwwwww

The necrotic tissue in the mouth is apparently not the dire infection it was earlier last week. The gall bladder drainage, though in hindsight not as urgently necessary, has provided some relief from infection in that region. A chest x-ray yesterday revealed "cessation of constant degradation" over an earlier chest x-ray. That means the fungal infection in the lungs has apparently stopped getting worse.

We're waiting for the lungs to clear, for the gall bladder to heal itself, and for this fourteen days' course of anti-biotic to get through. Not sure what happens after that. No one knows what is actually keeping him alive except will power.

BTW... he's dictating (most of) this update and eagerly looking forward to his next sponge-bath from Maria. 

One yard.

Dallas had one (1) yard rushing. That's just embarrassing.

I'm so happy right now.

Cancel all my appointments, the Redskins. are. in. the. PLAYOFFS!!!!!!

things blocked by the Walter Reed computers

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Update

Been a rough couple of days with dad. All that stuff in the last post is soooo three days ago. Here’s what I know—potential infected gall bladder was threatening to perforate and take down the liver with it. That’s bad. A fungal infection in the lungs is pretty heinous and he’s getting the strongest drug for that. If that drug doesn’t work, there will be nothing that can be done before the infection takes over his lungs. But we won’t know if it’s working until a test comes back Monday or he stops breathing before that. Last night they performed a procedure to drain his gall bladder to reduce that risk (but it actually makes another risk because it creates another potential infection point.)

So, we’re waiting. Waiting to see what the tests about his lungs say. Waiting. We’re all joking that he’ll apparently live long enough to see the Redskins stomp the Cowboys tomorrow night. But we also know that he might not. Dad’s awake, lucid, able to walk, and usually sits on the edge of his bed talking away. That puts us all in a good mood.

My fever is gone, but my sore sore throat lingers. I went down the hospital PX and picked up some Halls for it. While there I noticed the odd magazine selection. No Cosmo or anything like that, but Sports, Military History, and Playboys. Wait, that’s not odd, that’s a reenactor's magazine-rack-dream-come-true. I also noticed that if you wear a face mask while sucking on lozenges, the exhaled mentho-lyptus fumes go upward, straight into your eyeballs. Ouch.

Also, of February 5th, at the auditorium here, they’re having a helper monkey demonstration. That’s right. Helper monkey.

I want a helper monkey.

Sick

Well, I went and got sick. I'm stuck at my parent's house in Woodbridge with a fever and an inflamed throat, probably strep. Not as bad as Little Rock but I sure as shit don't feel like doing jumping jacks right now. Hell, I barely have enough energy to be typing this up.

Anyhow, because of this I can not visit my neutropenic dad so I'm back to third hand information. Since last report he's developed some internal bleeding problems and they're running a cat-scan on him to figure that out. What this all means in the big picture, I don't know.

Dad update

Everyone is here at Walter Reed doing the Christmas thing.

The problem is that I can't get a straight answer on anything. Mom and Dad tell each other and us half-truths to spare us distress. And I don't think they know all that's going on either. But I finally spoke to the main doctor this morning and this is what we have.

He has bacteria in his blood. Pseudomonas. He has no white blood cells to fight it. None. The infection is coming from two intertwined things. A cat-scan revealed necrotic bone tissue in his mouth. Basically, his teeth and part of his jaws are rotted and dead and sourcing the pseudomonas. Also, he's got a massive sinus infection, which would be ok for the rest of us but without the white blood cells...

So the prognosis is this: He has to get into a physical condition to survive dental surgery. That means he has to have platelets at 20,000, a reduction in the infection, no fever, and no bleeding. This morning the doctor said he has met the first benchmark and that the infection is, indeed, reducing some. He's been getting slightly feverish at night and he was not bleeding (internal bleeding) until just a few hours ago when a test showed that has begun again.

He could go either way. If he gets the surgery it will be an extremely difficult recovery. I just hope we can get to that point.

The anti-biotics and pain killers have got him a bit confused and frustrated. He's been halucinating and confused. He thought the nurses had moved him into the "dying room".  The nurse said they moved him to that room because he was walking around in the middle of the night all confused and scared and they wanted to keep a closer eye on him. That was actually pretty funny, after the fact.

He's more lucid now, but rather sedate. He actually looks fine...at least compared to last October.

We'll see.

As if on cue

I was driving home from Walter Reed tonite and sure enough, wamu was playing Christmas editions of old radio shows, beginning with a Fibber McGee & Molly episode. Then Lum and Abner.

Ok. Now a quiz. Who is the most famous comedic actress and singer from the 30s and 40s that you've never heard of that your host has a crush on? That's right, Alice Faye. She had a radio show, too, and Jack Benny made a special appearance as Santa Claus (for $7.50 per child, 'natch.) He also made a Monty Woolley beard joke! Bwhahahaha!

Anyhow, here's Alice:

Speaking of music

I'm up in Virginia now. Dad's in the hospital. I'm at the house watching the Redskins. The local NPR station is wamu. It's got bluegrass now when it's not playing the usual NPR talk programming. Back in the day, it was mostly all  bluegrass

That was the best and I miss it. I'm still glad they do The Big Broadcast with Ed Walker and I really should listen to it more often online. Fibber McGee... yeah.

I had Dick Spottswood, Red Shipley, Ray Davis, and Lee Michael Demsey. and  their best show was Bluegrass Overnight they played in the wee hours of Friday and Saturday nights. That's when they broke out the contemporary/traditional stuff and I learned about Allison Brown, Doyle Lawson, Hot Rize, Front Range,  A.K & Union Station, Don Reno, Dry Branch Fire Squad, and all those people.

Of course, they're all Sons of Waller. Charlie Waller and the Country Gentlemen, that is. I've actually cried recently that I never did see John Duffy and the Seldom Scene play even though they did a show at the Birchmere, like, every week. I did see Mike Auldridge and his friends up there once and that was one of my favorite shows ever because they stopped a song to explain the song structure and harmonics going on in it.

I've got The Country Gentlemen's Little Sparrow and the Seldom Scene's The Boatman on my current playlist and I swear that after one of those two play, I just turn the music off because you just can't follow that with anything.