NIghtmare at Sea, Part 2

Continued from earlier post...

We made it back to say hello to Popi at Sacred Heart Hospital in Port St. Joe.  The doctors still weren't exactly sure to the extent of damages but they did ascertain that his humerus (upper arm bone) was jutting sideways into his ribs and it looked as if his shoulder joint was shattered...and moved into the soft tissue around his shoulder blades and clavicle.  He was in a lot of pain.  Dad put up a good front but we left him to his nurses and his pain meds pretty quickly after saying "love you". 

The police and the boat captain were in the lobby of the hospital.  An ambulance was on it's way to take him to Bay Medical, in Panama City, about 45 miles away.

Mom packed a bag, changed out of her bathing suit and headed after the ambulance.  I'm demanding a lawyer - screaming lawsuit, the girls want Nana & Hop Hop to come home and Adam is sick with anxiety and worry, blaming himself because he takes on all the problems of the world to which I'll take this opportunity again to tell him that he wasn't the one that drove the boat into a CHANNEL MARKER IN THE MIDDLE OF THE INTERCOASTAL!

I know what ya'll are thinking - that we have the worst luck ever.  It's that lava rock my parents brought back from Hawaii.  There’s a legend that says Madam Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire who commands the volcanic action on Hawaii’s Big Island, lives in the fire pit in Halema’uma’u crater, at the summit caldera of the Kilauea volcano.  Madam Pele doesn’t like to have lava rocks purloined once they have cooled and settled. It is said that anyone who removes a piece of rock from the Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park will incur her wrath. Bad luck is certain to follow. Dad mailed it back to the islands years ago but the bad luck is following us...all of us because I left Hawaii with them!  We were all on the same plane!  And the curse started not long after we landed in Georgia thirty years ago...

Dad had his first surgery Sunday night in Panama City.  They straightened the humerus but realized they probably wouldn't be able to repair his shoulder, certainly not then, certainly it would take a big block of time
and it was already 10:30pm. 

The next several days were repeats.   Adam & I would get up with the girls.  We were on vacation so Charlotte feasted on ice cream sandwiches, oreos or pudding, Ruby had a respectable cheese grits and scrambled eggs.  Then we'd screen up and head down to the beach to play, girls are both asking for 'Nana and Hop Hop' every ten minutes.  It really was beautiful where we were staying - had a real 'Old Florida' feel.  No condos, just houses, so everybody is spread out.  The girls ran and ran, hunted shells and splashed in the water.  Charlotte pretended to be a scientist, so Ruby acted out a scientist too.  Charlotte's exploration took her into the surf.  Ruby did not splash; Ruby ran away from the surf.  We'd come up for lunch and naps, then head to Panama to see Dad.  One good thing, the new Bay Medical is a really fancey facility - nicest hospital we've been in...and ya'll know we've been in our fair share of 'em.  Unfortunately, the docs were not quite up to par with the setting.  (They had a sushi bar.  I'm not kidding)

Bay Medical has three orthopedic surgeons.  Dad saw all three.  The third, and most senior, after going over daddy's charts decided Pop needed to be transferred to Atlanta - they were not going to be able to repair the shoulder.  The emergent aspect of dad's injury (the humerus in the chest) had been corrected (although this doc says the correction probably did more harm than good - outstanding) and they had a two week window to reconstruct the shoulder.  Dad's best bet was to head to Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta.

So, dad came back to the beach house on Wednesday - and the evening was just as it should have been every night...minus the sling and the pain meds.  Fresh fish, shrimp and oysters, margarittas on the deck, listening to the waves, watching the sunset, two beautiful & happy little girls running around sharing their love with everybody. 

Hoppy is scheduled for surgery at Piedmont on Wednesday.  And can you believe: we're already planning our fall trip - they'll be goin' after sea trout. 

We have got to figure out how to break the curse of the lava rock. Maybe it will involve a trip to Hawaii...