Not Much, What Have YOU Been Up To?

Actually the past few weeks have been full of doctors and hospitals. (SPOILER ALERT: Dad's fine and back home.) My dad lives in Port Townsend and was admitted to the hospital there for lack of breath, blah blah blah. He had internal bleeding, but they couldn't find the source. He was in no danger as long as he was in the hospital, because they could keep "topping him up" with more blood. They scoped him 6 ways from Sunday, then transferred him to Swedish Hospital in Seattle where they have better toys, including something called a "capsule enteroscopy" or "pill camera." This is a pill the size of a multivitamin that has a camera in it. You swallow it and it wends its way along the scenic waterway that is your digestive tract, sending images the whole trip. Really. They found the source and clamped off the bleeding. Now, I'm no doctor, but I've talked to a bunch of them lately and they think the culprit for this ulcer may be the baby aspirin he's been taking for many years like a good patient. Through all of this Dad kept his sense of humor, charmed the staffs of two hospitals and one clinic, knew all the names of the nurses and doctors and could still recite "The Owl and the Pussycat" to his sweet wife, Marianna. Glad this has turned out well. Thanks to the doctors and staff of Jefferson Health in Port Townsend and of Swedish Hospital in Seattle. And to all blood donors past and future. Love you, Dad.

At Swedish they have a team approach and call the lead doc the "Quarterback Doctor."

He really said that.

It was the balloon endoscopy that found and clamped the bleeders. Not a good likeness of the actual doc.

The Swedish Doc. Sorry, just couldn't help myself.