Memorial Day weekend

First a quick update on the health front. Since a few days after having the thoracentesis I have been running a low grade fever and having chills. I called my lung doctor who said that this can happen after the procedure and to give it a few days to go away. It didn't and the past few days I was also short of breath. I went to see her today and she is concerned that there might be some bacteria so she sent me to the hospital where they took blood cultures. I got stuck in both arms (the right arm had just been stuck two days earlier for my INR.) She gave me a script to start antibiotics because if there is any bacteria floating around it could infect one of my heart valves. Suffice it to say that would be quite an ordeal to deal with. So hoping and praying this is bacteria somewhere else and will go away soon.

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend. It always makes me think of my father and his father. His father served in World War 1 and my Dad in the Korean conflict. My Dad served over twenty years in the Navy before retiring. He enlisted as soon as he was old enough and stayed in until my mother told him she just couldn't handle four kids on her own. He was usually out to sea (he saw the world including Greenland, Japan etc.) for months at a time. He was fortunate to be able to use his diver's training and medical training to land a job as a hyperbaric chamber engineer with Union Carbide. Later Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan hired him to run their chamber and he stayed there until his last retirement. He was a hard worker and when times were tough he had two jobs before landing the Mount Sinai job. They were really good to him and he made friends there that he kept until the end.

Being proud of his military career my mother called the service when he passed away. Because of his status they sent military people there for his funeral. It was so touching and moving and he would have been so proud. When they played Taps it really broke me up. Some days it is still hard to believe he is truly gone. I go to his grave often and it comforts me. On Memorial Day I used to take something over like cupcakes that were red, white and blue and tell him thank you for serving our country. I am proud of the sacrifice he made and I remember that it was hard on us having him gone for those long months. Thank you, Dad, for being a father I could be proud of.