Well, as the title implies, I finally made it home. It took 3 weeks and 2 days, lots of tests, prayers from myself and many others, but I was actually released Thursday night, with the premise that I would stick around in Rochester to have a blood draw done in the morning to make sure everything was on the right path. Before I go on, I need to explain why this is appearing on Wednesday and not Sunday. I did write Sunday, but when I went to login to my website and it said I was locked out because of too many failed in login attempts. I had not tried previously, so I gave it a whirl. No go. My wait time to login was 6 hours and as much as I wanted to get this out on Sunday, I was not going stay up to post it at 2 am! I tried again Monday and Yesterday and same thing. I finally wised up and contacted the support team for my host server and they jumped right on it and got things going! I’d love to know who was trying to login, have Moose and Rocco pay a visit and politely make sure they never try again!!
So back to our regularly scheduled programming. So my first order of business once set free was to go and check into the hotel I had booked a reservation at. I had to stay in the hospital until 6 pm so that they could give me one final med and draw blood one last time. After checking in, I walked a couple of blocks to a steak house and ordered me up a nice juicy ribeye. I was able to order outside food to my hospital, but the drivers were not able to deliver to the room and quite frankly, the few times I did, it was not as fresh as it would have been while eating in the restaurant. So the steak really tasted fantastic and I almost finished the whole thing, but ate too many of their bacon/cheese mashed potatoes! After a pretty good night of sleep, I awoke early enough to get to my blood draw appointment at 6:30. I was very grateful that downtown Rochester has such a wonderful skyway/tunnel network to get to almost all of the buildings at the Mayo Clinic, as well as many of the near-by hotels. It was in the mid-40’s when I went for my blood draw and I did not have a jacket, as nearly a month had passed since I was admitted and there was no need for a jacket then! I was able to take the skyway/tunnel system back to my hotel and then to my choice for breakfast. I ordered up the establishments namesake and a dish of mini-doughnuts. I was unable to finish the doughnuts so took them back with me and then proceeded to forget them in my room after checking out! Se la vie!
I’m not sure if I mentioned this in the previous entry, but I was not at the Mayo (St Mary’s to be more exact) for the entire time of being in the hospital. My first stop was at our local hospitals emergency department, Portage Health. I think that hospital is very good, as are it’s employees, but they are a small hospital and cannot always give the treatments or take the tests needed. So I was flown out to St Luke’s hospital in Duluth. This was my first time there, but I found it to be of great service and personnel. What also made that experience so good was the fact that it sits about a block from Lake Superior and I was able to snag a room with a lake view! It helped to pass time by watching the freighters and other ships/boats come and go. I arrived in Duluth on Wednesday night August 31st and then was driven to Mayo on Sunday the 4th of Sept. So my stay at Duluth was much shorter then Mayo. I did not get a room with a street view, but rather looked across at the other side of the building I was in. The room itself was quite nice, the building was fairly new and thus the rooms there were very modern. So that made it less stressful to be there so long. The biggest help in keeping me sane nearly the whole time I was there was the fact that my best friend and neighbor, Tim, came down on September 5th and stayed for 2 weeks! I cannot find the words to express my gratitude for his company for such a long time. He also was my connection to the outside food work, bringing me fresh fruit as well as sweets and chips and was my pick-up man for when I ordered out. I have know idea how I will ever repay him I just pray that it will not be similar circumstances.
Another huge thank you goes out to another friend. One that I got to know through the website and have ridden both sleds and side by sides with him. He goes by the handle “Scottyking” on the discussion board. He lives about an hour away from Rochester in a SW suburb and also has a cottage in Twin Lakes MI. With Tim back in Jake and a release looking very likely. I called him to see if he was heading to Twin Lakes this weekend and when he said yes, I explained my situation and asked if I could hitch a ride. He was kind enough to first drive down to Rochester and then we headed north to his place and met up with Nora and Grace and made the ride home.
I missed a lot while I was gone. I will save the details for another entry, but it felt both wonderful and a little strange to be back. I had grown so accustomed to the hospital, that being back in the outside world and home was a bit foreign. Even a bit stressful if I can say. Not over the top stressful, just a bit uneasy. I think the only way I can describe things is from the movie Shawshank Redemption when the old man that was the librarian got released and could not handle it. Now my case was not even 1/100th the experience he went through in the movie, but had the same foundations.
I don’t have a lot of pictures to share from the Keweenaw this go around. I really have only been home a little more than 48 hours, but I can report that we/they have gotten a ton of rain the past few weeks and look to get more in the next 2 days. No snow yet, but just the other side of the lake from around Wawa to Gearldton look to get a coating in the next day or two. The colors are in different stages of change, as is the case every year. Driving through N WI produced the most colors, but they were only around 50 percent. The hardwoods around Mass City and Twin Lakes were around 10-20 percent and here in Jake there are just a few hints of colors. Here is a shot I took yesterday just past the Dreamland Bar and here is a shot nearing the end of Jacobsville Rd. I have seen some picks of the higher terrain in Keweenaw County and their colors are around 40 percent. So it looks like the peak will be near average time for most areas.
I guess that does it for this one. Thanks for stopping by and,
Good Night From the Keweenaw..
–JD
