04-27-2003 Day 44 (Sunday Morning)
Two
steps forward one step back. Robbie wasn’t ready for his new
home yet and they weren’t ready for him. So now Robbie has a
new temporary home. They moved him across the street to Plano
Medical Center (a very large hospital), 1600 Coit Road, Plano,
TX 75075. He is in the CCU after having a long night and day
after leaving Parkland. When he was examined yesterday morning
at the Specialty hospital his heart rate and breathing were
fast. They had been that way for most of the night. The doctor
wanted more tests that couldn’t be conducted at the smaller
hospital because of his rates and he was running a fever of
101.8. He didn’t
know what was happening but wanted to get a good handle on
Robbie. This Morning Robbie is finally calmed down and very
stable after all the tests and is back on the vent for a little
while. This actually has been a good move for Robbie since now
he has a different set of doctors looking at him. They believe
that the fever is coming from the pneumonia that is still in his
lungs. He is back on antibiotics to treat it and they are
working to get his lungs back in shape again. The visiting hours
in the CCU are a little different but here they are:
10:00 to 10:30
12:00 to 12:30
14:00 to 14:30
16:00 to 16:30
18:00 to 18:30
20:00 to 20:30
22:00 to 22:30
Again we welcome everyone to come visit
Robbie and We will let you know when he moves again,
John, Marleen and Karen Grinnell
04-28-2003 Day 45 (Monday)
We
had a very alarming day yesterday. Robbie’s concaved head
where the bone flap was taken out was now looking normal, which
we thought, might be swelling of his brain. As it turned out he
had become dehydrated and as they were giving him fluids his
body retained those fluids thus the swelling of his brain area.
It turned out that this is normal for someone who has a bone
flap out. He was also running a fever, which started to break
late last night. Today found him very relaxed. His breathing and
heart rate have really settled down. They tell us his pneumonia
is almost over but he has a very bad sinus infection that they
are treating now. His white blood cell count was down to
8,000… another good sign. They have him on the vent and giving
him respiratory treatments. Maybe in a day or two they will
again try to get him off the vent. We received an email today
that was forwarded to us and is floating out there in cyberspace
that we want to share with you….. Here it is:
READ THIS CAREFULLY, LET IT SINK IN!!!
Michael is the kind of guy you love to
hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something
positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he
would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"
He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day,
Michael was there telling the employee how to look on the
positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me
curious, so one day I went up to Michael and asked him, "I
don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time.
How do you do it?"
Michael replied, "Each morning I wake
up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose
to be in a good mood or ... you can choose to be in a bad mood.
I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens,
I can choose to be a victim or... I can choose to learn from it.
I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me
complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or... I
can point out the positive side of life.
"Yeah, right, it's not that
easy," I protested. "Yes, it is," Michael said.
"Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk,
every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to
situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose
to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your
choice how you live your life."
I reflected on what Michael said. Soon
thereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business.
We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a
choice about life instead of reacting to it. Several years
later, I heard that Michael was involved in a serious accident,
falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours
of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Michael was released
from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw Michael
about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he
was, he replied. "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna
see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask
him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.
"The first thing that went through my
mind was the well-being of my soon to be born daughter,"
Michael replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I
remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or...
I could choose to die. I chose to live."
"Weren't you scared? Did you lose
consciousness?" I asked…. Michael continued, "...the
paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be
fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the
expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really
scared. In their eyes, I read "he's a dead man. I knew I
needed to take action."
"What did you do?" I asked.
"Well, there was a big burly nurse
shouting questions at me," said Michael. "She asked if
I was allergic to anything. "Yes, I replied." The
doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply.
I took a deep breath and yelled, "Gravity." Over their
laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on
me as if I am alive, not dead." Michael lived, thanks to
the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing
attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice
to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will
worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its
own." After all today is the tomorrow you worried about
yesterday.
You have two choices now:
1. Delete this.
2. Forward it to the people you care about.
You know the choice I made.
Enjoy each day, each breath and
mostly---each and every friend.
Thanks for being our Friends,
John, Marleen and Karen Grinnell
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