Grandma's Slow Recovery

When I got back from the Bahamas, I went to the Livingston Hospital on April 23 to see how Grandma was doing.  Jean had told me over the phone that Grandma had been moved from Evergreen Livingston, the nursing home, back to the hospital.  Apparently Grandma now had some lower right lobe pneumonia, a bladder infection, and was dehydrated.  She didn’t look very good in the hospital.

While we were there, a doctor came in and explained to Jean, Dad, Bonnie, and me that he wanted to do some surgery on Grandma.  At the time, her feeding tube was in her nose, and he recommended that they put one in her stomach.  Basically, they thread a tube directly into her stomach so that they can feed her without using her mouth or nose.  It seemed to be a good choice considering that the nasal feeding tube is really only meant to be used for a short period of time.

Grandma was moved back to Evergreen April 27.  Jean and I attended a care conference in regard to Grandma’s care at Evergreen.  They are hopeful that Grandma will make a slow recovery.  It could take three months though before she could come home is their guess.  Of course, I can’t hold them to that estimate since no one knows the future.  Grandma is making some improvements, even though they are slow.  We sent to Evergreen a book and a small photo scrapbook for them to work on with Grandma.  They’ll help her read and recognize all of her family.  Grandma seems to be doing alright when it concerns recognizing people, but she’s still a bit disoriented.  She’s nowhere near as disoriented as she was when she first had the stroke, though.

People’s opinions about how to best take care of Grandma don’t really seem to be in her best interests.  A few people thought that we shouldn’t give her a feeding tube and let her literally starve to death.  In our family, we think that is crueler than doctor-assisted suicide, and we don’t approve of that either.  Here in Montana we shoot the livestock that we don’t need—we don’t starve them.  We’re supposed to treat people better than our livestock.  We believe in quality of life, but we think that Grandma needs to be given a fighting chance to live.  After I told some of these people that Grandma told me that she wants to live, they tended to back off.  I am convinced that there are at least one or two people who are hoping she will die for their own personal reasons.  Through this ordeal, I’ve been reminded of Psalm 41 (NIV):

For the director of music. A psalm of David.
Blessed is he who has regard for the weak;
   the LORD delivers him in times of trouble.
The LORD will protect him and preserve his life;
   he will bless him in the land
   and not surrender him to the desire of his foes.
The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed
   and restore him from his bed of illness.
I said, "O LORD, have mercy on me;
   heal me, for I have sinned against you."
My enemies say of me in malice,
   "When will he die and his name perish?"
Whenever one comes to see me,
   he speaks falsely, while his heart gathers slander;
   then he goes out and spreads it abroad.
All my enemies whisper together against me;
   they imagine the worst for me, saying,
"A vile disease has beset him;
   he will never get up from the place where he lies."
Even my close friend, whom I trusted,
   he who shared my bread,
   has lifted up his heel against me.
But you, O LORD, have mercy on me;
   raise me up, that I may repay them.
I know that you are pleased with me,
   for my enemy does not triumph over me.
In my integrity you uphold me
   and set me in your presence forever.
Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel,
   from everlasting to everlasting.
   Amen and Amen.

I’ve been praying for Grandma’s recovery and hoping for the best.  She’s still pretty much stuck to a bed or a chair, but with some help, she’ll recover.  In the meantime, Jean and I have been working in the house.  Jean has been doing a lot of organizing.  I'm just now getting started on house work after getting back from my vacation.

Saving the Best for Last

Revision note: I've changed the original shark wrangling video link to a new video that isn't squished like the last one was. 

Monday, April 19 I went on Powerboat Adventures.  This was definitely one of the highlights of my trip to the Bahamas.  It’s one of the best activity packages in which you can participate.  The weather report wasn’t very promising, and I had been praying for a good day.  When we got to the dock, the weather was overcast, but it soon cleared.    For the rest of the day, I saw nothing but blue skies until I returned to Nassau.

The Powerboat Adventures speedboat

We started out by having a long ride from Nassau Harbour (yes, Bahamas uses the British spelling) to Allen Cay (pronounced “key”).  It was quite windy because we were aboard a speedboat.  I was seated in the front of the boat which didn’t get sprayed as much as the back of the boat.  Even still, I got so wet I just decided to take off my shirt and keep my sunglasses on so that I could kind of see.  We saw a few sailboats on the way and I enjoyed the ride.  I wouldn’t have minded being the captain and piloting the vessel.  When we arrived at Allen Cay, my face was crusted with salt.

We got off the boat for about fifteen minutes to half an hour so that we could feed the rock iguanas.  These creatures are some of the coolest, and are a protected species in the Bahamas.  The crew gave us grapes to feed the animals, for which the iguanas were already prepared.  They were very excited to see us come, and it was apparent that they were aware they were going to get breakfast.

Rock iguanas on Allen Cay

After reboarding the speedboat we went to Ship Channel Cay, which was pretty close.  There we were greeted by sting rays and various sharks who were also about to be fed, but not by us.  As we started to relax on the island one of the crew started feeding the sharks.  The water was pretty shallow and we were able to be in the water with them as they were feeding the sharks.  Of course we stayed our distance since the sharks were feeling pretty ferocious.  The sting rays were coming to us and were swimming by our feet as all this occurred.

The crew then began to wrangle the sharks.  It was a really impressive show.  It’s kind of like how we wrangle bulls out here in Montana:

Later, we were allowed to feed the sting rays.  Unfortunately I got bit, but I was alright.  Rays don’t have teeth so all it only scraped my finger.  It had the strength and potential to break it though.

Ship Channel Cay is situated where there is a tidal current running between it and a neighboring island.  It was about as strong as a slow river, too.  We snorkeled in that area, which was really neat because it was so effortless.  Once on shore, the rocks were a bit sharp, but that’s why I brought some water shoes with me!

After snorkeling, lunch was finally ready.  They had some really good grouper fish prepared and everything was delicious.  After lunch we all hung out on our private beach for the rest of the afternoon.  I almost forgot to mention that the entire time we were there, there was a wild boar hanging out with us too!  He didn’t mind that we were there but none of us touched him.  It looked like someone got him long enough to saw down his tusks:

I’m on Ship Channel Cay enjoying the afternoon on my Powerboat Adventure.

We went home happy, and several went home drunk.  I particularly remember a couple of guys from Great Britain who were about 19 years old who were completely sloshed.  They apparently had a good time.  I was sitting next to them on the trip back to Nassau and I wondered if they weren’t just going to spill their beer on me!  Fortunately no one got sick.  I got home really happy that we had a great day.

That evening I dined at Graycliff Restaurant.  I truly was served a gourmet dinner that night, but it cost a pretty penny.  Take a wild guess how much I spent on that meal: $128 including gratuity!  They had some good lobster, though!  I couldn’t finish everything that I was served, but I enjoyed it.

When I arrived at the restaurant they seated me in a waiting room that was decorated much like a living room or a den with someone playing the piano at one end.  That’s where I was able to look at the menu and decide what I wanted.  They offered me a tasty martini while I was waiting—pink champagne with a cherry and a piece of orange.  I skipped to the main course, which was Caribbean spiny lobster tail, cut into small chunks and made with a sauce served in the tail on top of a bit of mashed potatoes.  As a side, I chose some fettuccine Alfredo, but that proved to be too much food.  I simply had sparkling water with my dinner.  Two rolls were served too.

It was a really nice restaurant—someplace that you would dress up really nice, and I would have thought that a suit jacket would have been required but a guy in front of me was wearing a t-shirt and was constantly on his blueberry while he was eating.  He seemed to be out of place and the restaurant didn’t put any requirements on him, I guess.  The tables already had formal place settings arranged.  After dinner cigars were offered, but not having ever puffed one, I didn’t want to be the public fool.

Tuesday, April 20, I really had fun!  I went to the Atlantis Resort for the day and had fun at Aquaventure, the 140-acre water park.  Having numerous slides and an inner tube river complete with rapids, huge waves, and even more slides, I had a real blast!  The only bad part is that there was an extraordinarily long line on some of these rides.  On the Leap of Faith, the fastest waterslide they had, I had to wait about 20-30 minutes to go on it the first time.  That ride only lasts less than 30 seconds and there’s a point at which you free-fall for a second or two.  I did that ride twice, and the Abyss once, and the combination of these rides gave me a bruise on my butt about five inches in diameter.  I had so much fun!  By the way, I got that bruise from the water, not the slide itself.  That really shows you how fast you travel in those tubes.

Some of these rides are located in the Tower of Power.  As a result, some of those rides are completely in the dark.  I was able to take a video of several of rides, but the darkness in them doesn’t let you capture what you actually feel.  The video below shows The Falls, one of my favorite slides.

Wednesday April 21 I hung out with Sonny and his co-worker Maggie at the Botanical Gardens for the afternoon before I had to go back to the United States.  They wanted to see the pictures I took while I was here and just hang out.  I got to see Maggie’s little baby too.  He must have been between six months and a year old.

That evening I did my laundry and got some take-out from the Fish Fry.  I went to bed late after getting all my things packed.

I went back to Montana on April 22.  I got to the airport about three hours before my plane left so that I could get through customs.  That was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  My first flight became delayed by more than an hour and I would have missed my connecting flight in Charlotte, North Carolina.  The airline subsequently put me on a different flight to Miami, where I would connect to Denver and then take my original flight from Denver to Billings.

Miami was an adventure, but in a bad way.  When I got there, I found out that my connecting flight was on the exact opposite end of the airport from where I was.  I had to really hoof it to get there.  In the meantime, I also had to go through another security checkpoint.  That was a pain in the neck.  I don’t approve of the body scanners, but because I didn’t have any time to waste, I didn’t have the opportunity to go through a different line, so I just put up with it and went to my gate after putting on my shoes and belt and putting together everything I had.  I barely made it to my plane and was the second to last person on the plane.  I think the people behind me had to go through a similar experience of Miami Airport’s poor transportation management.

I made it to Billings and stayed the night at the Super 8.  I liked my room until the next morning when I found out that I slept in a bed that had dry pee on its bedspread.  I had already taken a shower by the time I noticed the pee in the morning, so I just took the bedspread to housekeeping and talked to the front desk which gave me a significant discount for my trouble.  I like the Super 8 in Billings, but one of the housekeepers didn’t do his or her job.

I went to Livingston and met Jean, Dad, and Bonnie at the hospital where I saw Grandma.  She had been in Evergreen Livingston, a nursing home in Livingston until recently when she got dehydrated, a bladder infection, and lower right-lobe pneumonia.  If it’s not one thing it’s another!  So a doctor came in while we were there and recommended that we put a permanent feeding tube in Grandma—something that doesn’t come out of her nose.  This tube will be on her stomach.  She’s due to have this surgery tomorrow.

So that was the end of my vacation!  I had such a good time away from Montana for a couple weeks.  Even though the weather didn’t always cooperate with me, I made sure I made the best of the time that I had there.  I really hope that I can go back to the Bahamas again someday.  It was a period of time I will always treasure.

The Last Weekend of My Vacation

I was having so much fun in the Bahamas!  It’s too bad I’m smack-dab in the middle of reality again.

Friday, April 16 I went on another adventure: I rode a submersible motor scooter in a reef.  It’s basically a one-man submarine.  Your head stays out of the water the entire time, but the rest of your body is underwater.  I did this adventure with Stuart Cove.

So our bus driver took us to Stuart Cove, where the 1995 movie Flipper was filmed.  We were given very good instructions by our guide.  These submersibles had a lot of similar features to scuba gear; they were even regulated by Bahamas laws concerning SCUBA.  Then we got on a boat that took us to where we got in the water.  It wasn’t a very nice day, so the first location didn’t work because the water was too choppy.  The diving crew chose instead on a second location called “Maly Maly.”  SCUBA divers got in the water first.  Then for each of us, the crew let down a submersible.  We got into the scooter, and then we were taken 15 feet below the surface.  I had a submersible camera, so I was fortunate to be able to take photos and videos while I was down there.  The divers led us to the set of the Cessna 310 airplane wreck from the movie Jaws.

The airplane wreck set from the movie Jaws

Once my turn was over, I took some snorkeling gear and went out again and took more photos.  Unlike the Sea Garden, this area had more yellowtail snapper.  I saw a school of black fish that had blue on the top and bottom.  Also, a school of sergeant major fish swam up to me to say hi.  I thought that was really neat because I didn’t have any food with me, so their interest in me was purely curiosity.  The sergeant majors in Naly Naly were much larger than the ones in the Sea Garden—maybe six to eight inches long.

Sergeant majors show their curiosity in me

Yellowtail snapper, a scrumptious meal!

A school of blue and black fish

Saturday, April 17 I spent the day with my new friends Sonny and Julie.  Sonny is Bahamian, and Julie is from South Africa.  I met Sonny where he works at the Botanical Garden on Monday and I met Julie at my hotel.  Sonny wanted to take me to the Straw Market and show me around downtown a little bit.  Up to this point, I had walked past the Straw Market, but I didn’t go in because most of the time that I was in downtown I came in the evening after it had closed.  As well, the Straw Market is situated in a very confined space, so if you didn’t know what you were looking for, you might miss it.  Apparently the original Straw Market had burned down and the city is in the process of building a new one.  In the meantime, they had this to serve their needs.  If you look carefully in the photo, you can see that it goes on for a good distance.  The Straw Market is a place where tourists can buy their souvenirs.  I noticed that if you saw one booth, you typically knew what was in the other booths as well, but there were a few surprises here and there.

The Straw Market

We ate lunch at the Poop Deck and I had this awesome hog fish.  It was grilled with garlic, salt, and pepper.  Sometimes the simpler things taste the best.  Oh wow!  That was really good fish.  The restaurants in the Bahamas in general are all very delicious.  I just wish they were open in the evening more, instead of only being open during the daytime.  The Poop Deck is located near the Paradise Island Bridges and along the dock.  You could see Atlantis Resort from where we were, but the number of boats, yachts, and ships there was just incredible.

Me and Sonny at the Poop Deck

Julie and me at the Poop Deck

After we ate, we took a stroll to the Government House, which is the Governor General’s mansion.  The Bahamas in the last week or so just got a new Governor General as well.  It’s my understanding that the Governor General is the equivalent of our President.  While we were out we saw Rawson Square and Parliament House.

Government House

Parliament House

Sundays in Nassau are very quiet.  It’s not like the rest of the week.  I guess I should have expected as much, knowing from personal experience in my job how a tourist community is likely to close early at night and be slow on Sundays.  As well, the Bahamas are a very Christian nation, so people generally go to church on Sunday mornings or evenings.  So April 18 Julie and I went to the Pirates of Nassau Museum in the downtown area.  A lot of research and construction went into the making of this museum, but it’s still pretty small compared to the museums I’ve been to.  The early 1700s were an extremely active time for piracy in the Caribbean and this museum showed what was used to fight, the strong boxes that were used to protect property on ships, and explained the myths that we hold about pirates.  Surprisingly, much of what we think about pirates is accurate, though.

Later we explored Fort Fincastle, a smaller fort than Fort Charlotte, but I found it just as interesting.  This fort didn’t seem to be the waste of resources that Fort Charlotte is historically known as.  Next to it is the Queen’s Staircase.  This landmark was cut out of rock by slaves who wanted to honor Queen Victoria (England) for abolishing slavery in the Bahamas.  It took, according to our tour guide, about 16 or 17 years to cut out the 65 stairs and the surrounding rock.  It’s a very impressive thing to see from the bottom.  At the top, you don’t quite realize how much effort it would take to do that work.  For some reason the waterfall wasn’t working.

Fort Fincastle

Queen’s Staircase

From the Beginning: Grandma's Stroke

Takin' it easy

The past three days have been more relaxing.  Mostly, I walk to most of the places around here.  The attractions are mainly in the downtown area anyway.

So on April 13 I went to the Botanical Gardens next to Ardastra Gardens.  It's a beautiful park filled with many varieties of trees, flowers, and plants.  To the casual observer, there isn't a lot that is interesting.  But if you pay attention, you can get quite a bit of information.  I had the advantage of being given a personal tour by one of the employees--Sonny.  Among other things, he showed me a tree that appeared to be as big as the 500 year old trees in Montana which had been tipped over by a hurricane in the 1960s.  He particularly remembered this happening.

As well, he showed me a wild cinnamon tree.  I thought this was really neat because it had fruit on it.  I tried the fruit and found it to be sweet and hot with the flavor of cinnamon.  Apparently many trees in the Bahamas bear fruit and the natives themselves don't know if they are good for fruit.  Heck, I'd pick those cinnamon fruit and make a pie with those!

There were a couple cockatoos making noise among the trees.  Sonny told me that they had escaped from Ardastra Gardens and there was a significant reward for their capture.  It's been several years since those birds escaped!

Flowers at the botanical garden

Afterward, I ate at the Fish Fry since it was close.  I had some snapper, which is served in water with green bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, and plantains.  It was seasoned very well and delicious, but I couldn't finish the dish.

When I finished lunch I went to Fort Charlotte.  Apparently Fort Charlotte is a conglomeration of three different forts that were built into each other over time.  The tour guide did sound like a recording, but he did give a little bit of useful information.  Most of what I gleaned came from the signs that were everywhere.  This fort was almost twice the budget that was allowed, and was never war-tested.  There was always the threat of war from various people--Americans, the British, French, and Spanish.  The fort never had to fight one battle, though.  Some considered this fort to be a complete failure and badly constructed.  Another major problem at the time was that many of the Europeans who lived here would die of the various diseases while they were trying to build the fort, and eventually slave labor was used.

The Bahamian flag flies over Fort Charlotte.

April 14 I went to Breezes Resort and bought a day pass.  At first I thought that the pass was a waste of money because after I got there, I found out that the water was so choppy that the government wasn't allowing any boats in the harbor.  It was unusually windy that day.  I was hoping to do several water sports, but oh well.  I resigned to enjoy a relaxing day in the sun and the wind.  I ate from the all-you-can-eat buffet.  Then I had a Swedish massage while I was there and met Renae, a girl who invited me to her church there in Nassau.  Afterward, I played some volleyball in the pool.  I went home early so I could get ready to go to Renae's Wednesday night service.

I was pleasantly surprised at the church.  I would describe the church as a Gospel church, and definitely of a pentecostal nature.  There were a few surprises there too.  We'll see how all that plays out...

Yesterday, I did laundry and hung out at the hotel.  For dinner I walked to Green Parrot and had a half rack of ribs, homemade fries, and vegetables.  Wow!  I ate everything on the plate, and it was really good.  I guess I must have been hungry!