The latest is that Steve is still in the hospital in Ketchikan. He will be there at lest Sunday night and possibly Monday night as well. They are waiting on blood cultures to see what kind of antibiotics to put him on and also to see some of his numbers (blood pressure and blood sugar) to come down more. And we now know what caused all of this. His prostrate swelled up and caused a partial blockage which caused the urine to back up into his bladder and kidneys. The bladder is supposed to be about the size of a Halo tangerine but was the size of a canteloupe! A normal creatine level is 0.6 and Steve's was a full on 6! His BP was over 200 and his sugar was off the charts too. That's why they thought he might need to go on to Seattle for dialysis. Thankfully they didn't need to do that! One of many answered prayers!
I was able to fly on the plane with him to Ketchikan (answered prayer!) and I even got to spend the night in the bed next to him. (Added benefit!) He's got the best room in the hospital! It's a corner room with a huge bunch of windows and a view of the water and part of Ketchikan. But the poor guy is bored out of his mind. LOL! He's not happy that he has to stay but is being good (grumpy but good). LOL!
There is a relatively simple fix to this problem but it must be done by a urologist and there isn't a full time one in Ketchikan. So there is a visiting one that will be here next week and Steve has an appointment on the 28th. Unfortunately he will have to keep the catheter until at least then and maybe longer. We are hoping and praying that the doctor will have time to schedule the procedure and do it right away so Steve doesn't have to wait too long but we won't know until he sees the doctor. Apparently all 3 of Steve's younger brothers and his father have had this issue but we never knew it!
There's also the probability that Steve has Type 2 diabetes. He's been told for quite awhile that he's borderline but I guess this put him over the edge. So we will have to research the diet and do some exercising for that. He's trying to lose weight anyway.
TO give you an idea of how things work here on our remote location there is a clinic that's open Monday through Friday until midnight. After those hours and on the weekends we either call 911 or we call a nurse triage line. You tell the nurse what's going on and they ask appropriate questions and then they call the on call physician who makes the determination of whether to have the team come in or not. In this case it took a few minutes for the nurse to reach the physician and when she called back it was "come in NOW". I had been trying to do some cleaning up and had all the trash bags in the car ready to take to our burn spot on the property and was going to burn the trash. We had no idea where the geese were. Steve drove down to the lagoon and they weren't there and we just had to leave them. Meanwhile, I'd been in a pair of sweat pants with an old Christmas t-shirt on. I grabbed a sweater and put my boots on (they were the closest) grabbed my purse and we were out the door. Dishes in the sink, laundry ready to go in the dryer, trash in the car and produce scraps for the birds in the car too. Off we went.
When we knew that he would be medivac'd we didn't know if I could ride with them. So just in case I could I rode in the ambulance (driven by one of our neighbors!) to the only land airport on the island which is just a couple of miles from the clinic. Our car is still at the clinic with all that stuff in it. Hopefully it won't be too stinky when I get it in the morning. LOL! Thankfully the pilot said I could go too and they loaded us up on the plane. What a wonderful thing the Guardian Life Flight is!!! The crew was obviously extremely professional and knew exactly what they were doing! Meanwhile I was kind of freaking out because I had let the flight insurance lapse because I thought we couldn't afford it. Come to find out they'll take the application while you're flying! As long as they send a copy of it with your credit card info to their insurance person before they transfer you to the next point you're completely covered for whatever your insurance (Medicare) doesn't pay!!! So other than the now $70 annual fee for the TWO of us we won't have to pay a penny!!! A HUGE answered prayer!!!
Once we arrived at the airport in Ketchikan (which is on another island so you have to take a small ferry across the Narrows to get to the hospital) they put us on another ambulance which took us to the ER. The doctor on duty was the same one as the one who took care of Steve the other day when he took himself to the ER! And one of the nurses was the same too. They remembered him. It wasn't long before they determined that he needed to stay so we were only in the ER for a couple of hours. That was nice too.
Steve's oldest son and his 15 year old son came to visit which was really nice. And Steve's youngest brother came too. He gave me the keys to his car and told me I could stay at their house which would be quieter than Greg's house and much closer. So that was the plan. But then I was able to stay with Steve which was nice but as we all know hospitals are NOT a place where you get to rest! So I was pretty tired. And I needed a change of clothes badly!
I took the car and went to Walmart forgetting that it's full on tourist season there which means several cruise ships were docked with thousands of passengers and crew members all descending on that small town. Walmart was a madhouse and there wasn't much selection in my size but I managed to find what I needed. Especially socks. Boots without socks and a lot of walking do NOT mix! LOL! But the checkout lines were a mile long and every register was open. I was in line and a guy behind me said "What about those over there? Other people keep going over there while we're standing here". I hadn't seen them! There were 2 self checkouts. Normally I HATE using them and I won't use them but in this case I did. Thankfully it worked just fine and I was out in a matter of minutes. When I got back to the room Oldest stepson Greg and youngest stepson Mike were there and had brought me some iced coffee. YAY!
Awhile later nephew Riley came with his fiancee Bella and their two daughters Emily (just over a year) and Ryleigh just about a month old. Talk about adorable!!! Emily and I had fun chatting with each other. She thought it was wonderful that I spoke her "language"! We played peek a boo too and Riley got a cute picture of us. I'll DEFINITELY be scrapping that! Ryleigh was sleepy so we just watched her. She looks like her grampa! About an hour later it was time for me to leave to catch the ferry. I really didn't want to go and Steve didn't want me to go but we knew I needed to so I could take care of the birds. Sandra's husband took care of them for us today because she's been sick which was really sweet. But the chickens needed water and feed and I need to keep an eye on the geese. So I came home. It's a 3 hour ride and they have really good food so I got a good meal of halibut and cole slaw and tater tots with a yummy chocolate shake.
Then I tried to relax. Not so easy. But then about half an hour before we arrived I saw a familiar face! It was a lady I barely knew because she and her husband had moved not long after we arrived. But they were back for a visit and just happened to be on the same ferry! She got a selfie of us and we had a nice chat. That was really what I needed - take my mind off things. Sandra picked me up and will take me to the clinic in the morning since she has to go anyway and I can get my car. Then fingers crossed Steve will be home tomorrow night on the ferry. Meanwhile our geese were in the yard when I got home and I think all the babies are there. I wanted to leave them alone so hopefully they'll go in the coop by themselves! Then I checked on the chickens. One is missing. Our beautiful completely black Raven. I'm praying she's either with the neighbor's chickens or just afraid and roosting somewhere nearby. She's such a sweet chicken I'd hate to lose her. But we just couldn't help it. Steve comes first.
I'm settled down now and read each and every one of your wonderful posts. Cherries you ladies are very special and your vibes and prayers were very strong for us! I made the mistake of starting to read your posts on the ferry and had to stop because I was starting to cry!
They are all so very special and mean so much to us! God bless each and every one of you!!!! And THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts! I wish I could hug you all!!! Tomorrow I will try to put this place in order until Steve comes home. I'm pretty tired so I don't think I'll have trouble sleeping tonight. LOL! And my alarm is already set for the morning. I had done a rewind NSD challenge and had already scanned it in so I was able to post it tonight. And I will try to catch up on all the winners and such! So much FUN!
And I will update you all on Steve's progress. Thank you once again and I'm sorry for the book!!! Thought you'd all enjoy reading about the process of living in the "frontier" as one of the t-shirts in Walmart said.
Kristin 
My name is Susan and I love to scrapbook!
