Sunday, September 20
Mike and Kelly have been seeking a new church home since they found that they would be moving to Midlothian and today we joined them to attend the morning service at Parkway Baptist Church. We never know what to expect when we go to a new church, but we were absolutely blown away by this morning’s service. There was an excellent blend and balance of music and sermon and the pastor’s message hit us just where we needed it. The main point was that no matter what we think, God is in control and we aren’t. Certainly, God was in control this morning as we were led to worship with this congregation.
We had earlier made arrangements to drive up to Lake Anna today to spend some time with our friends, Rod and Ruth. We felt we needed some time away, and the kids needed a couple of days to figure out what they wanted to do with their new home. So, after church we said goodbye to Mike and Kelly and began the trip to Lake Anna.
As we were driving west on I-64, Barbara reminded me that John Buttram, one of her former students at West Middle School and a member of one of our Odyssey of the Mind teams, was in Charlottesville attending the University of Virginia. Since it wouldn’t be too far out of the way if John could arrange to meet us somewhere, she called to find out what he was doing.
Luckily for us, John was just taking it easy today and jumped at the chance to meet us in a little town about halfway between Charlottesville and where we were at the time. In almost no time, we all arrived at the local shopping area in Louisa and walked over to Hardees to have something to drink and spend some time catching up.
It’s hard to believe, but John, who was on a team of sixth graders when we first coached him, is now a junior at UVa studying engineering…where has the time flown?!!! John even told us about an OM type project that he built in his room, a set of bookshelves that are suspended from the ceiling rather than standing on the floor…a really neat idea.
Within a few minutes we were well on our way toward Lake Anna. We followed Rod’s directions as closely as we could remember, but ended up having to backtrack when we found we turned off one road too soon. Barbara called Rod for clarification and soon we were headed in the right direction and found the new turnoff right where Rod said it would be.
As we turned onto the road leading toward the house, the phone rang; it was Cathey calling us from Lubbock to tell us that Jimmy Clint had been taken to the emergency room at University Medical Center (his third trip of the week) with a blood pressure reading of 187 over 137 and a heart rate of only 20, and then had been transferred to the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.
Jimmy had told us of his earlier trips to the hospital, but had insisted that we didn’t need to drop everything and come to Lubbock. However, this call changed our thinking. Even before we could stop the car in Rod and Ruth’s driveway, we decided that all of our plans (including spending a couple of nights with Rod and Ruth) had to be dropped.
We spent a few minutes apologizing to Rod and Ruth for the change (of course, they understood), took a quick photo because we hadn’t had one in such a long time, and then turned the car around and started back to Richmond.
I drove as fast as the law would allow and Barbara fired up the computer to get flight information to get her from Richmond to Lubbock. Because it was so late in the afternoon, it was impossible to get her on a flight before Monday morning, and even then the flight would take either 14 or 17 hours.
Given that information, Barbara looked up Southwest Airlines, called their flight information people, and explained our predicament. The folks at Southwest were very friendly and helpful and, while they couldn’t get her on a flight from anywhere tonight, they did have a direct flight out of Baltimore/Washington International Monday afternoon that would get her to Lubbock in about 6 hours with a brief stop in Austin.
We drove on to Midlothian, called Mike and Kelly (they had been at a shower for some friends all afternoon and were now doing some shopping), explained the situation and told them we’d meet them at their house.
The rest of the evening was a frenzy as we gathered up whatever we thought Barbara would need for the trip, advised friends and family of the situation, and tried to get a decent night’s sleep to prepare for a long day ahead of us.
Monday, September 21
Jim: What a day this turned out to be!
We got up early to make our final preparations for Barbara to get back to Lubbock. Not knowing what traffic around D.C. and the Baltimore region might be like, we decided to leave Richmond at 9:30 to allow ourselves plenty of time for her to be checked in by 1:30.
It was a fairly easy drive along I-95 at first, but the closer we got to D.C., the more crowded and harried the traffic became. We weren’t too far south of the District when everything came to a screeching halt as four lanes narrowed to 1 ½ (don’t ask how that happened, but after all, it IS Washington, D.C.).
We eventually made it safely to Washington/Baltimore International with just enough time to pull up to the Southwest departures door, get Barbara and her luggage out of the Vibe, and send her on her way as I drove away, hoping to get back to Richmond before her plane took off.
The drive to Richmond was punctuated by the occasional phone call between us, but was otherwise not noteworthy. I was about a half hour out of Richmond when Barbara called to say she was boarding the plane and would call again when she got to Austin.
After calling Mike to get directions to the IMB, I found my way to Kelly’s place to get a house key and get directions to the house from there. I did know one way, but it would be much longer than the toll road, so I grabbed a few quarters from our laundry money and struck off on a new adventure. It was, as Kelly told me, a much easier and faster way to get home than what I had considered, and soon I was back in the house, clothes changed, and working furiously on painting the trim in the primary guest bedroom, all the while waiting for a call from Barbara to let me know she had arrived safely in Austin.
I continued painting throughout the afternoon and early evening, stopping only to field calls from Barbara as she called from Austin and then from Lubbock to let me know she was there and waiting for our good friend Becky to pick her up and get her to the hospital to check on Jimmy.
When Mike and Kelly got home from work, I helped them unload some things from a borrowed pickup and then I followed Mike to another section of town to return the truck and get him back home. We stopped along the way for some takeout Chinese and then returned to the house to eat. We decided that it had been an exciting enough day for all of us, so after dinner we plopped ourselves down on the couch in the living room and watched a DVD that Mike had received in the mail today, X-Men, The Origin. I won’t say that it was the best movie I’ve ever seen, but it was fun to unwind and share time with the kids.
Barbara: Once Becky and I got the luggage in the car, we made a quick trip to the hospital where we found Jimmy in not too good of shape. However, he did his best to visit with us as we all waited for Cathey to bring Jaycie up after cheer practice. It was amazing to see how quickly Jaycie could crawl in that hospital bed with her Daddy, not letting the IV’s or any other gizmos stop her.
After receiving hugs from Cathey and Jaycie and visiting a little bit, Becky and I headed to her house to call it a night as I was still on Eastern Time!
Tuesday, September 22
Jim: When Barbara flew to Lubbock, it was with the understanding that if things were okay there, we’d find a way to get her back to Richmond to continue with our plans to finish our part of working on the kids’ house and then return to Toccoa, Georgia, and Big V to spend six weeks volunteering at the Georgia Baptist Conference Center.
After spending a large part of Monday night at the hospital and having a chance to visit with some of the medical staff, she said that we did need to be there, so she decided to stay with Becky until I could get there. Throughout the day she kept me updated on what was happening with Jimmy Clint.
For my part, I tackled the job of finishing as much of the trim as possible in the primary guest room, an all day job, and washing clothes along the way. During the evening I helped Mike with a couple of chores in the living room and packed as much as I could to be prepared to leave at a decent hour tomorrow morning.
So…Basically this was a hurry up and wait day as we waited for doctors, different tests, and the usual hospital procedures. Eventually what we found out was that Jimmy has been ill for 48-60 months but it has taken this long for it all to spiral out of control...
High Blood Pressure
Low heart rate
vaso-vagal syncope...usually not a big deal; but combined with the other two, no beta blocker medicines can be used so are trying some medicine that is like caffeine.
Because of the VVS, they are hesitating about the pace maker...
One two hour IV of medicine today for quick release; one pill tomorrow...walk...if heart rate goes up, he'll go home with this medicine, but his system may become immune to it...if it lowers...pacemaker
The doctor said his irritability, shortness, impatience, etc. are products of the fluctuation of blood pressure (normal to extremely high), low heart rate, and VVS, reacting in ways to make his body feel normal.
Pace maker still on the table...just don't want to put one in someone so young...
Still unclear about the biopsies done on stomach, intestines???
The above are the notes I took as the doctor’s rattled off their findings.
Finally around 4:00, Enterprise called to let me know that a car was available and they would be by the hospital to pick me up. After picking up the car, I returned to the hospital to see the family before Jaycie’s cheer practice. Jaycie and Cathey had brought Jimmy a blizzard treat which he certainly enjoyed. This time I had the camera and could capture Jaycie in the bed with her Daddy!
Imagine my surprise later when the phone rang and from the caller ID I could see that it was Jimmy. However, when I answered, I found a young woman saying, “Mrs. Colwell…ahhh…Little, this is Brooke Hedgecoth. Brooke was one of my students in Lubbock about 30 years ago!!! Seems as though Brooke is dating one of Jimmy’s friends and they were at the hospital visiting Jimmy. Wow!!! What an awesome feeling to know that one of your students from so many years ago even remembers you, much less calls and visits with you.
We made plans to see each other tomorrow at the hospital (however, as it turned out, that never happened as Jimmy was released.)
Wednesday, September 23
Jim: After seeing the kids off to work this morning, I finished what little packing was left, loaded the car, straightened up the room and, after taking time to snap a few shots of the refinished guest room and the front of the house, hit the road for a long day’s drive to Toccoa and Big V.
In the interest of speed and with little regard for where things belonged for travel, I took down the decorations and put them away, went through all the steps to close up the motorhome, and drove down the hill to hitch the trailer and load the car on it.
When Dennis came up to the campsite, he told me that there would be a dinner and church service at the conference center tonight. There had been a major flood in northeastern Georgia over the weekend and much of Toccoa had been flooded. In fact, they had been without city water for a couple of days so people were coming from town to the conference center to take showers and get drinking water.
When I finished with the vehicles, I grabbed my kitchen shoes and headed for the dining hall to help the dishwashing crew; but, it turned out that I was a little late and nearly all the dishes had been done. Still, Bill, the center’s director, invited me to join the crew for dinner. In addition to the usual dining hall crew, I also got to visit with one of our volunteer friends, John Worley, who was with a group of disaster relief volunteers who had come to Toccoa to repair homes.
When the church service was over and all the folks had left the parking lot, I pulled Big V around to one of the two RV slots in the lot, ran out the bedroom slide out, leveled, and hooked up the electricity, hoping to get a good night’s sleep before what would undoubtedly be a l-on-g day tomorrow.
Along the way today Barbara called to let me know that the medical staff had stabilized Jimmy Clint’s blood pressure and heart rate and had discharged him to go home and await further tests.
Barbara: Jimmy called this morning at 4:30 to ask me to bring him some eye drops when I came up and to also tell me that the doctors were supposed to be there around 7; so I got myself ready and headed for the store and then the hospital.
After much debating, changing medicine, etc., the doctors decided that a pacemaker was not an option at this time and by late afternoon, I was taking Jimmy Clint to his house where he planned to rest up and get caught up on some work. We had decided that I would continue to stay at Becky’s so I made a quick stop at Farmer’s Market to pick up dinner for Becky and me.
The rest of the evening was spent checking up on Jimmy, talking with Jim, and enjoying a long leisurely visit with Becky which is something she and I don’t get very often. We did decide to head for bed early as it had been a loooooong day!
Thursday, September 24
What can I say about today? The operative words were drive, drive, and drive some more.
I was up and away from Toccoa by 5:30 am, managed to hit the early morning traffic through downtown Atlanta, and then just cruised along I-20 through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana until finally pulling into the Texas Welcome Center some 738 miles and 15 ½ hours later. I had aimed for this particular stop because the Texas rest areas have great free wireless internet and I would be able to catch up on my email. But, the storm that I had been driving through for the last hour had knocked out the internet service, so I grabbed a bite to eat, laid down, and crashed for the rest of the night with the roar of diesel truck engines providing a lullaby.
Barbara: I have tried so hard to remember this day, but I can’t. All I know is that I sent Jim an email that night saying that the day had been a million years long.
Friday, September 25
Jim: This was primarily another travel day, but with all the miles I put behind me yesterday, it was possible to stop in Mineola for an hour or so to visit family and check the mail and then get back on the road toward Lubbock.
The drive was fairly easy until I got to Wichita Falls and hit those fabled West Texas winds, which I fought all the way to Lubbock. About two hours out of Lubbock Barbara called to say that Jimmy was back in the hospital. He had gone to the doctor’s office for a check of his blood pressure and heart rate and they immediately sent him to the emergency room. His heart rate had dropped to 17, so they gave him a dose of Atropine, resulting in what they called “a controlled heart attack.”
While Barbara made arrangements for us to get one of the 8 RV slots at UMC, I drove like a bandit to the house in Lubbock, unloaded the Vibe and dropped the trailer, and then drove to the hospital. Barbara and Jaycie were waiting for me to guide me to the RV section and in just a few minutes we had Big V backed into a slot, leveled, and hooked up to the electricity.
Meanwhile, Jimmy was settled in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit and, although stabilized, was being continuously monitored by machines and nurses. We spent the rest of the evening visiting with Jimmy while they got me caught up with what had happened and what the doctors were planning, which was to install a pacemaker on Monday.
Jaycie spent the night with us in Big V. We set up the DVD for her and she started watching Shrek 3 and then went to bed. With over 1,800 miles under my belt (or should I say under my rear), it didn’t take long to drift off to sleep.
Barbara: Started this day by going to Wal-Mart for a haircut…it was either that or dog tags! Next I went back to Becky’s to pack my things and head over to Jimmy’s since Jim will be in today. Yay!
At 4:00 I picked Jaycie up from junior high (my how hard that word is to write…what happened to our little granddaughter?) Anyway, she and I went back to the house where she did homework and visited with her Dad before my taking her to gymnastics. I brought the camera along and did the proper grandmother thing…then I realized that my phone must be at the house since Jaycie had been talking to her mother on it before we left. Therefore, I quickly ran back home since I needed to keep in touch with Jim. After all, even though I wasn’t with him as a co-pilot, I still could be that from afar!
With that information at hand, I called Jim and told him to come to the hospital instead of the house since I had seen some RV parking sites at UMC. Then I grabbed my luggage and headed back to the gym to wait on Jaycie.
By the time I got to the hospital with Jaycie, he was still in ER so she and I went to the cafeteria to grab a bite to eat. Finally her daddy called to say he was in Cardiac ICU room 21 and could we come up. The minute we got in the room, Jaycie was in the bed with her daddy!
About that time, Jim called that he was at Jimmy's unloading the trailer and car. About 8:30 he found his way in Big V to the RV site in the hospital parking lot where we will live for the next several days.
I was never so glad in my life to see Jim! He is my strength, my rock, my foundation and I have sorely missed his guidance in person.
Saturday, September 26
Jim: It was good to be with family again after those days on the road.
We spent all day at the hospital, a lot of it just sitting around in Jimmy’s room, but we did get some good information about what was planned for him.
The doctors had earlier talked about implanting a pacemaker, but because it is a radical procedure, especially for a 37 year-old, they wanted to see if they could win this fight through the right balance of medications. After yesterday’s incident, there was no question that they would go ahead with the pacemaker implant on Monday. In the meantime, Jimmy’s contribution would be to relax and take it easy until time for the surgery.
We learned early on that Jaycie has a remarkable attitude toward what is going on with her daddy. She handled the hospital atmosphere with far more maturity than most adults would, and certainly more patience than even Barbara and me.
Jaycie fell asleep during the game so Jimmy and I decided to leave her alone and let her spend the night with him. Therefore, I walked back to Big V to put myself to bed.
Barbara: According to the doctor we saw this afternoon, Jimmy will have a pacemaker in on Monday. Right now they are weaning him off of the HR medicine...if for 4 hours, his HR will stay above 40, they will move him to the 5th floor...it's been an hour and 45 minutes and it's down from 63 to 50...guess time will tell.
I was asleep when I heard Jim come in from the hospital, but I realized that I only heard one set of footsteps, not two. I couldn’t believe that Jim had left Jaycie, but decided that the guys knew better than I and promptly fell back asleep.
“A hospital is no place to be sick.” - Samuel Goldwyn
From the RV lot at University Medical Center in Lubbock,
Jim/Dad/Gramps & Barbara/Mom/Grams
