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Insomniacs' Late Night Vent Hole - My Last Diary of 2022 [1]

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Date: 2022-12-27

Picture was taken 7 years ago. This is the final quarter mile of dirt road to pavement, home is 3 3/4 miles behind the truck!

Please read and follow instructions before opening. Or consult your physician. This is a no flame zone. This vent-hole (hereinafter known as IVH), if lost or stolen will not be replaced or purchase price refunded. Violation of IVH rules will result in expulsion without refund. A copy of IVH rules can be obtained from one or more members wearing tie-dyed oxford shirts after written requests. Admission to certain functions within the IVH may require additional innuendo, enter at your own risk. Frivolity and silliness are highly recommended for all riders. Flame wars are expressly forbidden. Please consult your counselor, magistrate or religious functionary before usage. Comment below if you agree with said terms.

Since this is my final diary of the year, I thought I would change the picture to a more seasonal one.

Most of you know that I live 20 miles from the big city of Great Falls, the nearest town to my house is Vaughn and that is 7 miles away by road and 5 miles line-of-sight. Needless to say, if I have an emergency in the dead of winter, help would be a long time coming, it’s 20 minutes to the “big city” under ideal conditions.

Back in 2013, my SO had a stroke December 5th, and she was involved when I returned home from Vaughn. The temperature was -25 below zero and it was so cold they couldn’t get the Mercy Flight helicopter fired up. The ambulance took nearly an hour to reach us, and you know with a stroke, every second counts.

After I helped the EMTs get her loaded into the ambulance, I called my daughter, it took her just 15 minutes to get here and by that time I was ready to head to the hospital, she rode along with me. When we got to the hospital, about 40 minutes later, I discovered that the ambulance hadn’t arrived yet. They got there 20 minutes after I did, I don’t know exactly why it took them well over an hour to get there, maybe they had to stop and restart her heart, I just don’t know.

So, for three more hours, they were working to get an IV started, and from the look of the bruising on her arms, they couldn’t find a vein they could get a needle in. By this time 6 hours had passed since I called 911, the doctor came in the room and said he had a clot buster shot they could give her, but the big question was how long it would have been since the stroke began. Said he couldn’t use the shot if it had been longer than 4 hours and it could kill her. The doctor said, “I don’t want that responsibility if she dies from the shot.” I told him that I would bear the responsibility for whatever happens, I asked Kim if she wanted to do it and she said yes, so we did.

They couldn’t touch her for 36 hours after giving her that shot to bust the clot in her brain, because she would have bled to death from the bruise of being touched. So while we had time to kill, my daughter and I went and got dinner, it was 8:00pm and we hadn’t eaten since Noon. Nothing more we could do at that time. I took my daughter back to her car, went home and went to bed. There wasn’t any getting sleep, but the stretching helped. I was back at the hospital by 9:00am.

The next 2 weeks were something that she doesn’t remember to this day, she remembers being transferred from the ICU to a special rehab unit in another facility, but nothing all the way back to the day of the stroke. For the next 8 months, I was there nearly every day, for most of the day, deep down I knew I could never care for her at home. With the help of her daughter-in-law, we arranged a flight back to her home state of Ohio where she lives in a structured setting with the staff she requires and her daughter, brother and father are close by.

It hurts to love someone for 20 years and suddenly they are no longer here. She survived the stroke, but it cost her the use of her left arm and left leg. There was a personality change too, not a big change, but it was noticeable, thankfully it wasn’t a bad change. Her speech is slurred, and her voice is froggy too, I can’t understand what she says all the time. She lives in Ohio, I live in Montana, I take care of the animals we shared, there is only one of thirteen still alive and he happens to be the cat she was holding when the stroke began, it took me two weeks to catch poor Scout after his trauma, he was a scared kitty.

November and December have always been my worst months of the year, if anything could go wrong, it has. December saddens my heart as I look back on the past year and all that has been lost during that time. At least the holiday season brings the Christmas lights out and that gives me some comfort and some hope that just maybe, the coming year will be better.

Who is talking to who.

SPOILER WARNING: A late night gathering for non-serious palaver that does not speak of that night's show. Posting a spoiler will get you brollywhacked. You don't want that to happen to you.

Tuesday, December 27

Jimmy Kimmel: Michelle Obama, Marc Maron (R 12/12/22)

Jimmy Fallon: Anya Taylor-Joy, Glen Powell, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen (R 11/16/22)

Stephen Colbert: John Krasinski, Sarah Polley (R 12/1/22)

Seth Meyers: Lea Michele, Janelle James (R 12/5/22)

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