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| “The Scagliones: Together in Good Times AND Bad!” |
Points2Ponder
By Alan P. Scaglone
So…I spent my 4 day STAYcation…. In the ICU!!
Yes—ICU!! You know, the Intensive Care Unit!!
That place! Where they only take you when you are one step away…from the grave!
I spent four long, tiring, exhausting, emotionally draining, spiritually taxing days AND nights in the ICU!
Not as the patient, but as the family member!
Yep—all the plans for Siesta Key Beach, a night movie, much needed yard work, dinner with friends AND even some overdue painting…
None of it got done…but I now know more nurses, doctors and staff of Morton Plant Mease Hospital in Clearwater, Florida than I ever needed to know!
And…I was one city block from Clearwater Beach…and never got to see the water!!
NOPE—my oldest brother Joe was in ICU.
He had an infection, which affected his blood sugar level, spiking at 790, which affected his kidneys, causing them to not be able to expel the fluids fast enough, causing him to be put on dialysis, causing him to add 24 pounds of nothing but fluid in a 24 hour period, causing his lungs to start filling with the fluid, causing him to have labored breathing, causing them to put him on a ventilator, causing them to sedate him heavily with the “Michael Jackson” drug Propofal! And yes, I now see why MJ called it milk! It is cloudy white and looks like milk! Hmmm… would not have known that had I not lived through this past weekend. NOTE to Self!
I am the youngest of 3 boys and Joe is the eldest. Paul is the middle child.
Paul was in Illinois. I was on a STAYcation at our home in Seffner, one hour away from the hospital.
I spoke to the doctor at 9:30am and asked him “if he were your brother, would you call the family in? Should they come now?”
He looked down at the ground, then looked right in my eyes and said “If he were my brother, I would tell them to come now—do not wait a day! Get them here now!”
WOW!! Guess doctors are NOT known for sugarcoating their words!
But… that’s what I needed to hear!
So…I was supporting my sister-in-law, keeping this info from her, hoping to keep her spirits up and be a strong brother for HER also…
And I was calling all family in…to say goodbye!
POINTS2PONDER Why is it that we just assume we have time to “fix” our squabbles or get back together—until we get THAT call?
So…I called….I called Illinois; I called Tennessee; I called Apollo Beach; there was even a call to Ottawa, Canada!
They all made their travel arrangements to come BEFORE it was too late…to say goodbye!
It would take some of them 2 days, some of them 1 day; some of them drove, some of them flew.
But they all came…they got the “ya’ll come now” call; we were all so grateful it was not the “it’s too late to come” call!
And I waited…for them to converge on the ICU room 289.
I was in Joe’s room alone with him, singing The Old Rugged Cross to him, when his nurse came in.
I asked Nurse Anna if she ever got used to seeing all the family reunions and all the tears shed, all the regrets verbalized, all the promises made to do better.
Nurse Anna smiled and said, “Those are the ones we like; it’s one who came one hour too late, one day too late, one minute too late, and never got to make amends—that’s the sad one!”
It just made me wonder?
What is so important that keeps us apart so long?
Why does it “seem” to matter so much—that it deprives us of “make-a-memory” moments?
No one promises you’ll get that “ya’ll come now” call…
It could be that “other” call.
Why take the chance?
Why not…Reach out, reach across, reach thru.
Contact them NOW – before you have your STAYcation… in ICU!!
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