Millbrook Cove (north end of Vancouver Island) BC, Canada, 2-SEP-2018 – Waiting for results of emergency surgery is no easier on a sailboat in the middle of nowhere than it is anywhere else.
The difference on this trip is the Iridium Go, which has changed our lives for the better and taught me what a real love-hate relationship is about. How I hate the UI on that product.
But, it allowed a text message from my brother Ken to reach me: ‘‘Dad is in for emergency surgery. Blood Clot in left leg, also one in kidney. Can’t do anything about kidney. Its a tricky surgery.’’
A second text followed with more details.
We’d just left Shearwater and cellular service two days ago.
It will be a week or more before we have it again.
I was about to write that it would take that long for the message to have reached us, but if my family had thought of it, and I’m not certain I would have in their place, the Canadian Coast Guard could and would have relayed the message to us.
But, there would have been no back-and-forth communications. I would have not been able to call my dad before he went into surgery, nor notify my sister, nor ask another brother who is with my dad, to text me when the surgery is over.
For anyone who does not know my dad, you should. I’ll send anyone who asks his email address so you can tell him to get well quickly.
My dad is 91. He doesn’t flout his age as much as he once did. He’s involved in some politics now lobbying the local school board to add something to the available school activities and to fund that something. He feels that disclosing his age might work against him.
I’ve never asked him, but I suspect it might be odd to be the last of your generation. His siblings are all gone, his siblings-in-law are all gone. I think his cousins – there were thirty-four – are all gone. Of the few people I knew that reached this age most told me it was a lonely time.
For my dad, it seems anything but. His circle of friends grows and crosses age boundaries. It gives me great joy to realize I have friends, who consider me their friend, of all ages. I assume it must do the same for my dad.
Jennifer and I sit here, at anchor, waiting to hear.
Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.
Prayers and healing energy ❤️
prayers
Praying all goes well with your dad. I can only imagine the stress you are going through being on the water and not where you can just go and be there. God Bless.
Don,
All went quite well. He and I should speak today. While he was there, they noticed some issues with his prosthetic leg (He lost his other leg in a car accident when he was in his 70s), and are working to get him a better fit.
He’s quite a guy.
Please send me his email. Hugs to you to help with the waiting for news.
I’ll send the email in a few minutes.