Blog #13 – January 31-February 17

Man makes plan and G-d laughs. Can we make this into my theme song? 

In cartoons, when someone throws a boomerang, it inevitably hits the sender in the head on the return flight.  I feel like that a little.

Boomerang Released

In the last couple of blog posts, you read about our drive from Asheville to Dallas to pick up our new Airstream on January 31. We were so excited — and we still are. The 27-foot Globetrotter model is still beautiful, even with a patina of road dirt on it. I will be putting a video on YouTube so you can see my super unprofessional tour of the new vehicle.

After our Dallas escapades, we planned to visit with our daughter Rachel in Corpus Christi. She lives in Utah now and we have less opportunity to see her regularly. When we heard we’d actually be in the same state, David and I jumped at the chance to meet her — even if the state was Texas and the meet up point would be a half day’s drive. Unfortunately, at the last minute, Rachel had an unforeseen delay. The people taking care of her dog got Covid. She’d be delayed past our dates to be in Texas.

Since David’s company has work in Houston, we dropped in to visit one of the DNA Properties in the Katy suburb. We spent more time than we planned doing work, but it was well worth it. I have to say, if you are ever in that area don’t walk, RUN to Harvest Restaurant. I had the most amazing grilled goat cheese sandwich, a vegan creamy delicious mushroom soup. You can get anything keto, vegan, whatever there – and your mouth will thank you. Carrot cake like you’ve never eaten.

Boomerang Returns

We determined that we had to get back to Asheville. It turns out some deals were coming to a head for David and they were all in NC. To do the best job possible, he had to get back to the East Coast. While we wanted to experience winter in the West, we knew we had to high tail it home.

We arrived in Asheville on Sunday and David’s sister Amy and brother-in-law Jeff flew in. David and Amy are partners and they got a ton of work done on Monday and Tuesday. On Tuesday afternoon, we got the call.

Mom’s in the Emergency Department

(aka The Boomerang Headstrike)

My mom was rushed to the emergency room for exploratory surgery. She had abdominal pain and ultimately ended up at the ER in WakeMed’s Raleigh campus. David and I quickly hooked up the Airstream and drove 4+ hours. I arrived at 12:30am to find my mom sedated and intubated. She had a perforated bowel and the surgeon had to remove a section of her colon.

I won’t go into the blow-by-blow, but it was pretty scary for the first few days. Anyone who knows my mom, knows her “can-do” attitude can get her through a lot — that and a ridiculously high pain threshold. I’ve had abdominal surgery and can tell you that it’s hard to roll over or stand up. My mom’s surgery was more extensive and she walking the first day! She was up, talking, making everyone smile and regaling people with stories. The PT, OT, surgeon, ICU nurses — everyone was amazed. How could you not be? An 85-year old who is mentally with it, is not complaining, and has a good attitude? One nurse told mom that she was the only bright spot they had in the past 48 hours.

My time was consumed with keeping mom’s spirits up, making sure she had good care, talking with medical staff, communicating with family and trying to put on a brave face. Keep calm and carry on and all that. My meals were all at the hospital’s Panera Bread concession. Let’s just say I am very grateful for the $8.99/month unlimited coffee program. I got more than my money’s worth. In a couple of days, mom moved to the stepdown floor. The staff told me an average person would have been in ICU the better part of a week, with a total stay in the hospital for two weeks at least.

On Saturday, I passed the supervisory baton to my older sister Anne and her husband Stu. Anne runs a business that she started 30+ years, and I assured her that the plan to drop in in mom a few times a day while still working would be great while mom recovered for the next week in the hospital. Only later would we realize how wrong I was. We got to catch up over dinner on Saturday night before David and I returned to Asheville on Sunday.

The Drive Back to Asheville

Boomerang again?

Sunday afternoon we started heading back. The sun was shining, the Superbowl would air later that night and we had a few hours’drive ahead of us. While listening to a podcast, someone pulled up next to us and motioned frantically. I rolled down the window, but at 60 miles an hour all I could tell was that he shouted, “Tire” and “pull over.” The next exit was yards away but we managed to slow down and exit into a quiet parking lot. That’s when we saw the shredded tire. That Good Samaritan saved us.

We lived in Manhattan for about 10 years in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s. Commuting to Queens on roads that rival those of a third world country (which exist to this day in the NY Metro area) gave David lots of practice changing tires. Unfortunately, he had to employ those skills again. It didn’t take long to realize that our roadside assistance program was not going to come, so David got to it. He had us out of there in 30 minutes. His Boy Scout mentality has us prepared for every eventuality. We had a special tire changing ramp that works for RVs with 4 tires. Honestly, the hardest part is removing the spare and putting the flat away. We headed home and ordered a pizza.

Meanwhile back at the hospital…

I thought Anne would be at the hospital with mom for the rest of the week, but the staff shocked us and said she could go home Tuesday. We were still trying to get nursing help at home and got them to delay a day. She was discharged on Wednesday (we had some help scheduled at that point) and Anne and Stu had the uneviable job of moving her back to her home — which is an hour+ away from good medical care. And that was just the beginning.

My younger sister, Linda, is a hero as well. She kept up with all the medical issues from California, asked the right questions and followed up on things we didn’t have time to do. Most importantly, Linda drilled down on the problematic cell phone reception and internet that is the heartbreak of rural America.

If you are reading this from some metropolitan area, you will never understand the challenge of communicating with someone in an underserved area. Garbled conversations and lost calls are the norm. And because there are fewer people in these areas, cell phone and internet providers don’t feel the need to give them a way to communicate because it is not cost effective. In reality, people in the country need communication services the most.

For example, my mom’s top download speed is 5MBS but is closer to 2-3 Mbs on an average day. This is considered “high speed internet” in her area. That may have been true – in 2005. To give you perspective, on Long Island I had 1 Gigabit download speeds and now I have cable and I have the option of 200 or 400 mbs.

This is not just important because she wants to watch The Crown or Yellowstone. The first day home, she had a medical issue. If the doctor could have talked to her or had a telemedicine appointment, Anne wouldn’t have had to travel her 90 minutes each way just to get someone to check her incision.

Cell phone reception is another problem. Anne and Linda called AT&T and got the run around by people in India. Two factor authentification doesn’t work if you can’t use your cell phone. The next day, I called and luckily got a service rep in America. She was able to see some problems, but it may be interference with the cell tower from an outside source, like a motor that is not FCC approved that disturbs the signal from the cell tower. Yes, that can happen. We’ll know in 48 hours and with the holiday weekend, that probably means Tuesday. Ugh.

Needless to say, we are looking at all options to better mom’s communication services. Cell boosters, WiFi hotspots, new antennas, laying new fiber cable, Starlink – whatever it takes to get this fixed.

Linda arrived late Saturday to be the next leg of the relay. Anne showed her some of the ropes, and she is currently running the race for the next week. Aside from medical stuff (which is a LOT), she’s outfitting mom with tech that will help her at home. I may come back for a day while Linda’s there to pop in and say hi. The following week is still up in the air, but nurses and aides will fill in the blanks. And mom is recovering and getting stronger every day. Soon she’ll be running the show again.

In the meantime, the boomerang made its full flight. I’m not sure when we’re going out West again. Not sure I want to risk throwing the Australian rebounding projectile again so soon.