OT Hi Duke and Thread, RE: welcome back / my dad (Long)
Thanks. It's been a challenging two months.
My Dad is doing much better, but he's still not out of the woods quite yet, but we're all very, very hopeful. Thank you for all your emails & PMs and for praying - I believe it helped!
My Dad's chances of living was at one point only 10%, however, now it's up to 75%!!! He's off dialysis, off ventilation for the most part. He had a setback last week, resistant staff infection, but he's now turning the corner on that too. He's a fighter. His mind, faculties are well - no impact there - thank goodness. I can't wait until he fully recovers because there's a lot of good stories saved up to share with him, and my sister already has a nice summer event planned for him at her house in the country. He's really fighting his illness.
( For those that are wondering what he had, it started with a gall stone that blocked the gall bladder which created an infection that spread. 20% of people have these stones, so don't panic if you have them and only .1% get what my Dad had, but if you ever get back pain (even as high as shoulder blades), or stomach pain on the RHS after a meal (30 min to 3 hrs), you should have an ultrasound done and definitely blood work to check if it's infected. My Dad had these symptoms 6 months prior, but he didn't complain about them. )
It's taken a toll on my Mom - she had a first-time small stroke two weeks ago. But she's doing well. No visible impact whatsoever except initially. She's already at it again, though is staying with my sister to help ease any issues.
My mentally retarded sister had a first-time seizure when all of this was going on. Our family doesn't have any history of seizures so I tend to believe it was diet related, her brain scan came out fine.
Sometime in April, I was thinking how lucky my family is to be spared the medical issues other families seem to have... our family (out of 150 people) has no history of cancer, my Gr Aunt lived until 101 yrs old, my Grandparents were healthy and died when they were old, etc. etc.
Last month, I lost someone who is very near and dear to me. One of my closest relatives - he always enjoyed discussing business and other world interests with me, as well as social interests. We were very much kindred spirits. He also was the only relative that wouldn't always assume everything was rosey for me. More than 1000 people attended his funeral, people whose lives he had touched in some wonderful way, and it made me realize how fortunate I was for the time he spent with me and for having me as a priority in his life.
He was an executive at a public company and was one of the smartest persons I know. He had a heart attack and I think it was because when he retired he didn't adequately keep engaged in goals. He certainly didn't have any prior medical issues. There really should be more medical research on how men can retire in a way that doesn't generate the classical heart attack in the first three years. It's truly a neglected area of science and it hurts so many newly retired men. I believe the body chemistry may change when a person is initially adjusting in retirement and if the ramp-down isn't done in increments, particularly for an executive, it can create chemical and other body adjustments that is just too swift for the body to absorb, or maybe the chemistry in the body changes when one doesn't have the goals one used to have. I wish I had helped him create personal goals to keep him engaged in life. Losing him about broke my heart.
Hopefully 2003 is hopefully a better year for our family and for everyone.
On another note, I took a couple of weeks off of work, and in doing so, handed management of the company to my business partner, and when I got back, he was grinding his teeth because of the huge load that was placed on him (and I was beginning to grind mine too). That scared me because it meant too much had happened in such a short period of time for me personally. I suddenly got very scared our startup would be negatively impacted by my personal issues, and with losing so much in the past two months, there's no way in hell I wanted to lose anything else.
The very next day, I told someone (who I had been grooming) at work they were my successor just in case, and shortly after, we found a really solid, professional, seasoned CEO that's taken companies public (not the dotcom garbage, but good companies) and has a solid track record and knows WS. It's a great time to find some of the best CEO's. I'm ramping him up now, and am learning a lot from him. It's great working with someone who has solid business experience, who is quite smart, and has an enormous amount of contacts. He comes at things at a higher level, so I'm learning fast. Also, his financial skills are the best I've ever seen and he's helping me take corporate goals to a more higher level of thinking. I'm learning a lot, which makes it a lot of fun.
On another note, I've seen many solid indicators of business growth in December. Bookings were easier in December, which is unusual for a December, isn't it? Many solid commercial business indicators, even if the holiday consumers are in a supposed funk. But I'm wondering if USA/Iraq issues will set some of this wonderful business progress back to where it was. I believe capex, bookings, and employment are better - December was an improvement in the business world.
I may take some time off of work and spend time with family. I've lost 15 or 20 lbs over the past two months - things were stressful in my personal life. It doesn't feel like work is what's stressing me. I was a source of strength when my sister was ill back in April and I was so strong for her, and handled both work & personal without missing a step. But these past two months have taken a toll on me and I feel I'm starting to stumble. Time to take care of myself, have some fun, gain some weight, so I don't get on the casualty list and create problems for others. For a spell there, I think I may have forgotten how to have fun and laugh. Something my Dad never forgets to do, and why he's hopefully going to pull through.
Regards,
Amy J |
