I pick Margie up at the hospital and then drive her through insane traffic and panicked moose safely to our home

I slept with my iPhone right by my ear and so was awakened a bit before 11:00 AM by Margie's call to tell me that she would soon be released and so I could come in and get her.

11:00 AM - sounds very lazy. But I had not been able to go to sleep until 5:00 and I ran out of Vicodin two days okay and while it is possible that I could call the doctor and get the prescription refilled I have decided that I don't want to take it anymore and will just tough it out. I did not sleep that good. I bet my shingles woke me up AT LEAST 30 times. Maybe I should rethink that decision. We'll see. So, even at 11:00, it was very difficult to get up, but I did not want to leave my wife in the hospital, so I got up.

When I reached her, I was a little dismayed to learn that she has a plastic tube going into the place were her gall bladder used to be. Fluids drain out of that place into a little bag that she keeps safety pinned to the inside of her shirt. She must bear this burden until November 30, when I bring her back to see the doctor again.

Still, you can see that she was happy to be getting out of the hospital and headed toward home.

Anyone who read yesterday's post has probably already figured out that the building seen through the window is the hospital - the Alaska Native Medical Center.

Soon, we were on the Glenn Highway, headed toward the Parks Highway and home. As you can see, the traffic was absolutely insane. For some reason, when I look at this picture, I hear that old TV jingle that used to accompany Chevy commericials on TV: 

"See the USA in your Chevrolet..."

Back then, our family car was a Ford.

And today, I was driving a Ford.

Ford Escape.

"See the USA, in your Ford Escape..."

There were school buses roaming about, packed with studious kids who would have preferred to remain at school, but now had to go home.

About this time, a text came to our phones simultaneously. Margie was free to look at hers. It was from Lisa. It was an iPhone shot of her and Melanie, in Carrizo, Arizona, White Mountain Apache Tribe, standing with their Grandma Rose, Margie's mom.

Finally, we were in Wasilla, headed up Lucille Street. Just before we reached Metro Cafe, this moose crossed the road in front of us. When you see moose crossing the roads right in front of traffic and often dying in the process, they seem like pretty stupid animals. But I think in the woods they are pretty smart. Not as smart as bears and wolves, but pretty smart just the same.

If they weren't, they wouldn't still be here. The bears and wolves would have got them all and then the poor ravens would have had to make do without their moose carrion. It's just that living in the woods for how many tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands or milliions of years, moose had no need to learn about roads so they didn't. They didn't even bother to develop the capacity to learn about roads.

Now they are undergoing a crash course and maybe sooner or later the survivors will ultimately evolve to the point where they figure it out.

They might even start driving cars themselves; they might run over us, sometimes.

I asked Marige if she wanted me to pull into the Metro drive through but she just wanted to go home.

The moment we got home, Margie asked if I would take a picture of her with her iPhone so she could send it in return to Lisa and Lisa could show it to Rose and all present so they would know that their mother and daughter had made it home safely.

So I did.

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Surgery # 2 successful - hopefully, Margie will come home today; Happy birthday, Lisa; A raven for Soundarya

Margie went into surgery #2 yesterday about 10:00 AM and came out about two hours later, groggy, uncomfortable and feeling considerable pain, as anyone would who had been cut into and had an internal organ removed. The doctor proclaimed the surgery to be a success and said she should be able to come home today.

As I was sitting beside her, I heard the chime that signals a new text message coming into my iPhone. It was from Jacob, sent from Phoenix. This is it: Jobe looking almost stunned to see how drastically the environment and weather around him has suddenly changed.

I will admit, as much as I love wintertime Alaska, when I looked at it, I wanted to be there, too, with Margie, smiling and laughing at her children and grandchildren, enjoying the warmth of a sun that is bright this time of year, whereas ours is dim.

About 45 minutes later, I got a second text from Jacob. They had gone to lunch and Jobe had thrown a fit - the biggest fit anyone had ever seen any of my grandchildren throw anywhere. They had left lunch a little early. Jobe was now in better spirits. They were planning to take the boys to the zoo.

Late in the night, I wanted to call Margie but was afraid I would wake her. She called me just before midnight. Her voice sounded strong and good. She said she was already feeling much better. She was eager to come home - and I am eager to bring her home.

As for the other three who made it to Arizona without us - Lisa, Melanie and Charlie - they had taken off to Tucson, just to check the place out. Today, they will drive up to the res, home of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, where Melanie was born.

Today is also Lisa's birthday.

My very special Lisa, who was born in Anchorage but waited until I arrived to make her appearance.

It was 1985 and I had gone to Barrow to begin work on what would be my very first Uiñiq magazine. I felt a little lost, wondering if I had gone crazy to even propose such a thing. What if I couldn't do it? What if the challenge was beyond my meager skills?

I didn't plan to stay long, because Margie was going to have a baby in a week or so and I wanted to be there.

Melanie had come very fast - less than two hours from when Margie first went into labor. We figured this baby might come even faster.

So when she called me close to midnight on November 21 to tell me her labor had begun and a neighbor was going to drive her to ANMC in Anchorage, I thought I had missed my chance to be there for the birth of what would be our fifth and last child - who, just like the last three of the previous four, had evaded whatever birth control method we were trying at the time and had happily snuck in.

In those days, Mark Air had not yet gone out of business and they had a red-eye flight that left Barrow at about 2:30 and flew non-stop to Anchorage, a bit over two hours.

So I jumped on that red-eye - and I was the only passenger. Just me and two stewardesses, on a 737.

I got there in time, because Lisa waited for her dad.

Happy birthday, Lisa. If you were in Alaska and not Arizona, this is what you would be seeing.

I, by the way, had just left the hospital briefly, to get a late lunch.

Now I am coming back from that late lunch and the sun is slowly slipping below the southwestern horizon. Do you see the raven? At this size, it is very hard to pick out, plus, I was shooting through the windshield so the definition is not as pronounced as it could be.

Still, if you were to look at this photo full-size on my Apple Cinema Screen monitor, the raven would be clearly visible - just above the near wall of the middle turret.

I drove past the hospital and then parked near the emergency entrance, as that entrance is also very close to the elevator that would drop me off almost right at Margie's room on the fourth floor. After I parked and started walking toward the building, I notice raven upon raven upon raven, one after the other, passing over, alongside and nearby the hospital.

All the ravens were flying east. Their work day was coming to an end and they wanted to get to their homes in the trees on the hills and lower slopes of the mountains before dark set in.

Of course I thought of Sandy, who loved ravens : Soundarya, muse and soul friend. I think of her every day and many times throughout the day. She appears in many dreams, sometimes as herself, sometimes in disgues. Of course I think of Anil, too. It had now been one year ago that Anil had died with a good friend in a tragic car crash.* The next day - one year ago today - still stunned by the news about Anil, I answered my phone to hear the message that I never wanted to hear - that Sandy had chosen to follow her husband into death.

Sandy, who loved ravens - and all creatures, be they furry, spiny, feathery, slimy, creepy... she loved them all.

As I walked toward the building, I took pictures of each raven that passed nearby - then along came three at once. The wing of the highest one caught the light of the setting sun and reflected it into my lens.

Then one raven did what none of the others had. It stopped its forward progress and turned back toward the hospital.

It alighted there. This, I decided, was Soundarya's raven.

I stopped and waited a bit, to see if I could get a picture of it when it flew away. It took its time, and kept looking back in the direction from whence it came. I wandered if it had a partner, a friend, a mate, that it was waiting for. Or maybe it was part of a gang - a gang of ravens.

We often see such gangs around here.

I stood there waiting to see, but no other raven came to join it. According to my car, when I pulled into the parking lot the temperature was -3 F (-19.4 C). I knew that if I waited much longer, my lens would fog and ice up once I stepped into the warmth of the hospital. Plus, in addition to the pain and misery these shingles continue to inflict upon me, they have taken away my resistance to cold. I have just been cold, cold, cold.

So I went inside to see Margie. I do not know if the raven left alone, or if another came along and the two flew off together. I think the latter is probably what happened, but I do not know.

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*I did not learn about the friend until later, so I did not write about him at the time.

The first surgery went well, but...

Margie's first surgery went well, but she did not get to come home. For all of yesterday and into this morning, we thought she would likely be released early today, the second surgery could be scheduled for later and we could still make our planned trip to Arizona.

But it was not to be.

Five gall stones were removed from her, but they left a blood infection behind and it must be treated or it could become very serious. So she is still in the hospital, she will have her second surgery tomorrow and, for now, our trip is off.

Lynxton is still going, though. Tomorrow, he will head out with his parents and his big bros. They will fly to Phoenix, overnight there, then drive up to the White Mountain Apache reservation. The introduction of Lynxton to his Apache and Navajo family will begin.

Melanie, Charlie and Lisa are also scheduled to go.

It will be a different kind of Thanksgiving here.

Margie in surgery right now; chilly this morning - we still might make it to Arizona

Margie is undergoing surgery right now. As soon as I finish this post, I will head for the hospital so that I can say "hi" to her when she comes to. As it was explained to me, the reason for the two surgeries is that it is possible pieces of gall stone could have broken off the big one in her gall bladder then got stuck in various ducts that lead away from it. If the gall bladder were simply removed, those stones could stay behind and cause trouble.

This surgery involves no cutting into the body. A scope and stone removing tool is sent down through the mouth to search the bladder and the ducts.

This surgery is not supposed to be that hard on a person. Margie may be able to come tonight. Furthermore, depending on what is discovered and how it goes, the second surgery, the one to remove the bladder altogether, might be able to be postponed or dropped altogether and we might still be able to go to Arizona.

There is only chair in Margie's hospital room and Melanie will not sit in it if I am there. She insists that I do, so I do. She looks more comfortable lying next to her mom than I feel in the chair, anyway. 

Unless you are looking at this in the click and blow-up size, it may be hard to read, but the unlit sign on the back window of this car says, "see me about lighted car signs."

When I took the picture, the temperature on this part of Muldoon in East Anchorage, which gets much colder than at the airport which sits right by the inlet, where the official Anchorage temperatures are read, was -14.

When I got home, it was -15 (-26 C) in our driveway.

This morning, it was -26 (-32 C).

One might think that this portends a good, old-style, cold winter ahead, but experience tells me that we cannot count on it.

Sometimes it starts out this way and then one of those troughs sets up in the Pacific and then pulls one South Pacific storm after the other up from Hawaii and ruins everything.

I hope that doesn't happen this winter. We will see.

I like my winters cold.

Now I am off to the hospital, to see Margie and maybe bring her home.

A rumbling train causes Margie to sit right up in her hospital bed

Jobe and Kalib came to the hospital last night to visit their grandma. They did not quite know what to think of her hospital room and were a little hesitant to enter.

But enter they did. Kalib greatly loves his grandma and immediately began to tell her about a great adventure in his life. It had something to do with trains - and in particular, a train named Thomas.

Holy cow! What is that in Kalib's hands? Could it be a train? Could it be... Thomas the train?

Practically the whole family was there - except for Caleb, who had to stay home and go to his regular night shift and Lisa, who had spent some time hanging out here earlier in the day.

All present were very curious to see what Kalib would do with the train that he held in his hands.

Why, Kalib put the train on the table in front of his grandma, found a tunnel, and drove that train right through it and to the edge of a cliff!

Astute readers will notice that Jobe also holds a train engine - that's Percy - Percy the train. As we were all talking about Percy the train, the door opened and in walked my friend... Percy! Percy Aiken from Barrow, who had come down to be with his brother Earl, who is intensive care.

I know many people are wishing the best and praying for Margie and me, but Earl needs prayers and good thoughts much more than we do.

I went down to the ICU unit to see Earl and there I also saw some friends from Point Hope. Caroline Cannon who was there to support her son, Leroy Oenga, who also has a great need for good wishes and prayers.

This morning, I slept very late. I've been doing that a lot lately. When I got up, I knew that I should fix myself oatmeal, but, solitary individual though I am, I wanted to go someplace where I could sit in solitude among people, eat, sip a bit of coffee and be waited on.

So I headed off to breakfast.

Here is a lone diner, at Abby's. We were both alone, him and I.

The truth is, I forgot my camera when I to breakfast this morning, so these last two pictures are actually from Wednesday morning, before Margie came home from Anchorage, before her gall bladder struck her down. These pictures are standins for today, although today I went to Mat-Su Family.

They are now planning to subject Margie to two surgeries - the first one to remove her gall stones, and the second one to remove her gall bladder. I do not understand this. I do not know why they don't just take the gall bladder out with the stones in it and get it done at one time.

There must be a good reason, but I do not yet know what it is.

They are hoping to do the first surgery tomorrow and then the next the day or two after.

They would do the first today, but they still need to bring down her level of infection.

We are scheduled to depart for Arizona Monday morning on Alaska Airlines.

We are not going to make it. In Arizona, Lynxton will be introduced to his bigger Apache and Navajo family and we were greatly looking forward to being there for it.

I was going to do some heavy blogging.

Now it will go unblogged. It will be documented, though. Lavina will be posting on Facebook.

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