Running out of conversation topics to distract my mother

Ken: "We've got to get rid of the Christmas tree. It's so dead, even a heated conversation could set it off."

Brad: "Yeah, it's so dry, it's threatening to go on tour in Hello, Dolly!."

Ahoy! Well, technically, my promise to resume updates after January 1 wasn't broken. It's just a wee bit farther past that I expected or would prefer it to have been. Still, the logs tell me visitors haven't abandoned The BradLands over the long holiday hiatus, and I thank you all for faithfully checking back to see what, if anything, was new.

WHERE I'VE BEEN: It's an adventure that isn't over and one I'm sure to write about at greater length later on. My father has been hospitalized since the day before the night before Christmas; he has had difficulty breathing since a paralyzed lung muscle was diagnosed in late April and this most recent in-patient stay is an extension of that, possibly an indicator of a different, even more chronic condition.

My father hates to stay in the hospital...this is a common trait of the Graham men. He gets restless, he becomes agitated...which only serves to aggravate a shortness of breath. So it was that on Christmas Eve, his breathing and his heart stopped — thankfully for only a few minutes — but long enough that once he was revived, it necessitated placing him on a respirator to ensure his continued breathing.

It's now more than three weeks since he was admitted for what my mother and I both assumed would be a short stay. He has been transferred to a special care hospital here in St. Louis and mom is bunking at my house. We have all begun the slow, staggering process of "weaning" dad from the ventilator and back to a standard oxygen delivery system.

The outlook — if long — is promising. My father is 78 years old, strong as a proverbial ox and, although he can't speak for the tube in his throat, he is no doubt cussing us all out in his mind for putting on such a fuss and compiling a running tally of invective in re: hospitalization to deliver once his voice returns.

For my part, I'm fine. Tired, but fine. Overworked, but fine. Running out of conversation topics to distract my mother, but fine.

I have a few links — likely all old news by now — that I'll post in a day or so. (The past few weeks have moved to the archive.) Meanwhile, thanks for all the (virtual) cards and letters, kids. Updates will continue to be sporadic, but as some semblance of normalcy returns to my life, so too will it inform The BradLands.

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