Scheduling Helpers

Pat will come on Sat. or Sun. Nikki will leave sometime on Saturday. John's daughter, Denise came today and leaves sometime on Sunday. John had a pretty good day but, is having a difficult night. Let me know which day will work best for you. Since Denise is here, I may be fairly flexible Saturday afternoon or evening and probably same on Sunday.

I am trying to sleep but, it is really hard.

Unexpected Trip to Ft. Worth

You may have already read that we are in Ft. Worth. John's son died this morning and we are here with his 3 daughters, from Lubbock. They are in the other room making plans. I am in a waiting room alone since John's ex wife has informed me that I am not an immediate family member and I am to stay away from them. Of course, her husband and several neighbors are all in the room making arrangements. I am exiled. Some day I will have good news.

Sad news

We got a call this morning from Dallas to tell us that David, John's son had a heart attack and had been taken to the hospital on life support, in Ft. Worth. I shuffled around, got 5 airline tickets and John, David's 3 children and I flew to DFW. We are at the hospital waiting now. Don't know much other than it does not look good, they cannot do a test for brain waves until Monday, he has a DNR order and we are just here.

The beginning

We got a call Sunday afternoon just as John was getting prepared to meet his friend, Hugh Haynes for their weekly dinner at Furrs. It was a neighbor of Hugh's telling us that he had a bicycle accident and had been airlifted to UMC. John and I hurried there to find a couple of his neighbors waiting at the hospital to fill us in on what they knew. Hugh had been out riding and probably was finishing up his ride since he was almost in front of his drive. His routine is to ride 33 miles a day. A boy that lives out there, saw that he had fallen off the bike, ran for someone to call 911 and then ran back to check on Hugh. By the time the boy returned, a doctor and nurse who were also bike riding had found Hugh on the side of the road and had started CPR. It took quite a long time for the helicopter to come to airlift him to Lubbock to UMC.

Hugh had been wearing a helmet. Something happened, what we will never know, maybe an animal crossed in front of him. He flipped over his bike, landed on his head and broke his neck at C2. The speculation is, he immediately quit breathing at that time. We don't know how much time passed before the other bikers found him. When EMT came, he was put on a respirator and has been in SICU since.

Hugh has a daughter who lives in California, a son in the Dallas area and a son that lives in Amarillo. All of the family have come to Lubbock and are staying with us. Two more grandchildren arrive tomorrow and that will total 11 of his family staying here. It appears that the decision may be to take Hugh off life support tomorrow. He has been non responsive since the accident and with a C2 fracture, prognosis is very bleak.

I am so concerned for John. To tell the truth, this is John's only friend. It seems that the crisis and tragedies just continue to rain.

I thought that ya'll would like to know and know why you haven't heard much from me.