Happy Birthday Dad

A year or two ago, or maybe even further back than that, Linda told me that for her 50th birthday she wanted to go skiing in the Rockies. In the end she had to settle for Mont Tremblant and I had to settle for celebrating my birthday alone. She went with a few friends and the timing just happened to fall on my birthday.

Mark had a bit of a cough all week, but had managed to keep up with the pace. Things were different on Saturday morning. He had a fever and was beginning to show signs of respiratory distress. It's always a tough call, because going into the hospital is stressful especially for Mark. I decided to go, better safe than sorry. So Lynn and I bundled him up and trucked him off to Sick Kids. We were admitted, almost immediately, to a room in emerge. I spent the next 24 hours there. Marks condition was stable, but he was clearly quite sick.

Erin was on her way out of town for a holiday trip to Quebec City. She managed to stop in for a while. It's always tough when Mark goes down. Do we put our lives on hold or do we simply blend our stories. Erin made the decision to live with her plan, and I made a decision not to call Linda, who was skiing in the sunshine on the south side of Mt Tremblant.

By Sunday afternoon Mark was transferred up to the 7th floor. This would be his third stay on that floor. They had determined that it was pneumonia and he was on two different antibiotics. Now it was just a matter of time to see how he would respond. By that time information had leaked (thanks to modern personal communication devices) to Mom that Marky was back at Sick Kids. She called and I told her to stay and enjoy the rest of her time. She did, but not without checking flight availability to Toronto. Who knew that you can fly direct from Mt Tremblant to Toronto Island Airport.

As soon as Mom arrived home the doctor signed Mark's release. He's been at home since then making a slow recovery.

Wow, what a birthday.