A Rather Depressing Start, to the Greatest Adventure of my Life

Before we begin, we must go back, just a little. These are some of my writings from the beginning of my adventure. For those who may not know, it was an intense time for questions, concerns, and prayers.


Beginning of a new life, Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

To say that is has been a tumultuous couple of days would be putting it mildly. To say that my luck has completely hit rock bottom would be an error, but it is still difficult to look upon my luck with complete favor. Let us now take a brief moment and summarize my recent past occurrences, and then leave the final decision up to you.

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008. It started with a phone call I received around 9 pm Wednesday night. It was from my brother, Jason. My brother and I have a good relationship, but we are not the kind that have regular phone conversations, especially this late at night-he has two beautiful little girls with an early bedtime. Anyways, he was calling to tell me that my father had been in a car accident. My heart dropped. To this moment I have a tough time recalling whether my mind was completely overflowing with random thoughts or if it was completely empty. He said that he had flipped his truck driving home from work. I asked if he had been drinking. Jason listed things that might be wrong with my dad, saying areas like his face, chest, lungs, kidneys, spine, ankles, but said that it was still to early to tell the complete damage that was done to his body. Apparently he was waiting at the hospital with my mom, and they had not seen him yet since he was still having tests done, but they knew it was bad. I did not know what to do. I immediately began crying and waiting and packing. I did not know what to do. I knew I would be going home, yet I waited for them to call back with more information. I frantically began cleaning everything, busy motion to keep me from sitting too still and thinking too much. I was too emotionally wrecked to drive. While I waited two friends came over, to wait with me and distract me. We watched a stupidly funny, cute movie. I cannot remember what it was about. It is funny how my mind purposely blocks things from my memory. What I can remember is how badly I was shaking. Just writing this now, thinking about it in-depth again, my shakes return. Mid-movie Molly, my sister-in-law called me to give me an update on my dad. She listed the things that were possibly hurt on him, and it seemed the list lasted forever....broke ribs, a ruptured kidney, a punctured lung, a broke nose, compressed discs in his spine, ankles....he was covered in blood and was still having tests done on his head. I lost it again, crying so badly it was difficult to speak. Molly made me promise her that I would not drive home that night. She knew I was too upset, and said my mom had enough going on without worrying about me on the road too. I pulled myself together, returned to my friends, the shakes, and the movie I was completely lost in. The movie ended about quarter after twelve, and my friends hugged me good bye. Immediately after they left, I grabbed my keys and sack of dirty clothes and headed to my car. Technically, I did not lie to Molly. I arrived home around 2:30 am and let the dogs out, after hugging them a million times. Once again I began picking things up, like the salads that were prepared and waiting to be eaten. Around 4 am I was still too wired to sleep, but figured I should try. I climbed into my niece Augusta’s miniature bed and slept with her baby doll Stella, some of her other random toys, and both of our dogs. It was a little crowded, but safe. At 4:30 am my mom came home. She was surprised to see me but I could tell she was relieved, we both were. While she talked to me about what happened she turned into the frantic cleaning, moving woman. I wonder where I get it from. She told me she had to stay at the hospital so long because she had to monitor my dad’s breathing. A little side note, my dad is a big guy (well he used to be 40 lbs bigger, but that was before he went on the nutri-system diet...besides the point) with high blood pressure and sleep apnea. My mom had to stay and wake him up ever so often because his punctured lung kept collapsing while he was sleeping, which to all us medical geniuses pretty much means bad news. After talking for awhile, we decided we should try to rest, I think mostly she just wanted to be alone to process the evenings events.

The next few days were pretty rough. It was hard seeing my dad, who is usually a control freak, leader and hero to all, helpless in a hospital bed. His accident was a big reality check for himself, and us all. We definitely believe that someone was riding with him, especially after seeing his truck, and we are so very thankful for all that we have. Luckily, my dad survived and only broke all of his ribs on one side, four on the other, only bruised his kidney, punctured one lung, broke his sternum, and compressed two discs in his upper back (he already had compressed discs in his lower back.....meaning my father who once stood 6’3” is now probably 4’10”....but not really). He never needed any stitches, according to the doctors - my mom has a different opinion. His ankles, head and face all turned out to be just fine. In fact, the next day he wanted his cell phone and lap top back so he could do some work. What a fighter, not even broken bones and heavy drugs could slow his business ego down. Something, I hopefully did not inherit from my father!

Now to summarize the good and bad of things:

Yes my dad was in a severe car accident and is going to spend the majority of his summer healing, but fortunately he survived. This is definitely a miracle, especially after seeing his Ford F150 fully equipped with the armor of a hydraulic lift tailgate, brace for a plow, a stainless steel toolbox that lined the bed of his truck, and a metal bracket to attach appliances to....twisted, crushed and shrunk down to the size of a S10. Thank god no one else was involved.

While at the junk yard examining my dad’s truck, which clearly was in a horrific accident, I noticed a truck that belonged to another recent car accident victim from my hometown. This other truck hardly looked like it was in an accident at all, but unfortunately the driver of that truck was not as lucky as my dad.

My dad spent five days in Intensive Care, then was moved to the Special Care Unit for another couple days. Luckily my work place was very understanding and supportive and gave me some time off to be with my family. It was much appreciated.

Friday, April 25th, 2008.

I was all set to return to Oshkosh today. I had spent a lot of time with my dad, and we all decided it would be okay for me to return to work...instead of watching him sleep in the hospital. I spent the morning with him, and then it was time for me to leave. I felt alright leaving him because he had a nonstop flow of visitors, calls, cards and flowers frequenting his room. The thing that I did not feel alright about was my stomach. I had woke up the night before at 4 am and thought my appendix was exploding. It was the worst pain I have ever felt. I sat up for an hour and a half crying, shaking, unable to move or twist in any direction. It was awful. It felt like all of my muscles were being ripped apart. I wanted to wake my mom up to take me to the hospital but wanted her to get her rest more. Neither one of us had gotten very much sleep lately, and I did not want to worry her any more. Anyways, I ignored the pain and tried to sleep it off. I woke up in the morning and my side still hurt. I told her about it but added that she should not worry, I would be fine, it was probably just something caused by stress. Unfortunately though, I had been having weird stomach problems for about a month now – I will save you the gory details, but let’s just say it was not fun or pretty! I figured I lived with them for that long, why not longer?

After I left the hospital I called my mom to let her know I was leaving. Like the good, worrisome mother she is, she was still frantic about my stomach and insisted I go the doctor. I had already been to one in Oshkosh - but believe they misdiagnosed me. I told her I would think about it. I then called my nurse friend and she finally scared me into seeing a doctor. Needless to say I did not make it to work that day, and just for fun, they gave me the next day off as well. I did, however, make it to the same Emergency Room that my dad had been rushed to by ambulance two days prior. I had the same doctor and everything. My family was getting pretty well-known around the Emergency territory. I was checked in around 1 pm, finally saw a doctor after 5 pm and was checked out after 7:30 pm. I was told to come back for some more tests, since it was after hours there was nothing more they could do.

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

I had the joys of an uncomfortable surgical procedure today. All I can say is wow, powerful drugs, or maybe it was just my body has no tolerance for them? I heard the stories from my friends who have had these before, and they were all awake during their procedures. Not me. I remember meeting Carlos the anesthesiologist and being carted in the direction of the room. We went through one set of doors, then another, then I was gone. I do not remember even seeing my doctor or anything. The next thing I knew I was awake and people were talking to me, in fact I think they were laughing at me? I know I was talking, maybe I was funny? Oh well, just another memory I don’t remember.

Adding it all up, I still do not know. Some days it still seems like my stomach is rotting, but at least I know now my colon is clean and healthy.

My dad’s accident was on a Wednesday. He was able to check out of the hospital on the Thursday, the following week. A week that will always be remembered by the Gruett family.

My dad was to come home Thursday morning and we still needed to prepare for his return. Mom and I needed to clean the house, carpets and all, and arrange the furniture to accommodate my dad’s new hospital bed which was to be the new centerpiece in our living room. We decided to wait until morning, ah sweet procrastination.

Tuesday night, the Tuesday before the Thursday my dad was to come home, our dogs, being the typical free spirited wild canines they are, decided that they deserved a little free run time. I have to admit they deserved it, with all of our time recently being spent at the hospital, they were not exactly receiving an excessive amount of our attention. In the past they have been known to take off for days on end, winding up in the neighboring towns – or neighboring houses. Once again, does not sound like anyone I know. Anyways, for some mysterious reason they were only out running for a couple of hours this night. Upon their arrival around 2 in the morning, they found me, still sleeping in my niece’s miniature bed surrounded by a plethora of toys. They both immediately jumped into bed with me. They knew better than to try to sleep in my mom’s bed. They knew they were on her naughty list. She does not approve of their wild curiosities which leads her to long nights worrying. Normally I am more forgiving. However, on this night, in the already crowded bed, I too was not in the mood to share my limited space with two soaking wet creatures from swamp thing. Did I mention we live by a lake? Ringo, a dog who loves the water but hates to swim, was used to being turned away for being too wet, so he just curled up by the foot of my bed. Peanut on the other hand, jumped to the floor and took off in a mad sprint towards the living room, hunched over with his tail between his legs. I assumed his peculiar behavior was just his nerves because he knew he was in trouble. In the morning when we woke up we found pee stains and doggie doo-doo all over the floor. Needless to say this was not an act to make for happy moms in the morning. The dogs spent the day outside on the porch, and mom and I cleaned every inch of the house, carpets and all.

Unfortunately, around mid-morning I had to return to work, and my life so I was unable to be of assistance in the unfortunate events that continued to plague our house.

Thursday May 1st, 2008. If mom and I had paid more attention to our dogs, maybe we would have been able to prevent what happened. As it turned out, the pee stains we thought were on the carpet were actually water that had been regurgitated. Poor Peanut was not feeling well at all. In fact the next morning when mom woke up the floors were dirty like the previous morning again. Peanut kept drinking water, then spitting it back up. He was in a weird place physically and mentally. Mom was very worried about him, but unfortunately she had to go and pick my dad up from the hospital. Just to give yourself a time frame, the hospital is in Rhinelander, 30 miles from our house. She worried the whole way. When my mom and dad returned home, Peanut, our little toy poodle was having seizures and was practically in a coma. She immediately loaded Peanut into the car and headed back to Rhinelander, again 30 miles away. By the time they had reached the veterinarian, all of Peanuts organs had shut down except his heart and liver, he was completely brain dead and comatose. They determined that he had gotten into anti-freeze and that it was too late. There was no choice but to euthanize him.

Once mom learned that anti-freeze was the culprit, she immediately began to worry about Ringo. Leaving her no choice but to return to Crandon, pick him up, and rush him back to the vet in Rhinelander, another 30 miles each way. In case you have not noticed time was not on our side. If Peanut had reached the vet earlier there might have been hope for him, and now Ringo’s fate was testing the clock.

After Ringo arrived at the vet, he too tested positive for anti-freeze in his blood. They determined since he was a bigger dog, a shepard-retriever-mutt-mix, it might not have affected him as quickly. He would however need a blood transfusion. He ended up staying at the vet that night, heavily drugged, and mom was once again able to return home. With Peanuts body.

My parents had a small memorial service for him. They buried him under an apple tree next to his brother, Buddy. Buddy was run over this last Labor Day, on the same road that my dad had his accident on. My dad said a eulogy, and everyone in attendance had tears in their eyes. Even my brother. I guess they realized how different things could have been, if they were attending the funeral of my father.

Major point I hope readers pick up on.....store your anti-freeze properly!!! I know there are people out there who leave it out in hopes of killing squirrels, well I kindly ask you now to PLEASE STOP! You never know who might be creeping around; a beloved small family pet or even a small child! The risks are too great, please do not leave it to chance.

In other news, Thursday, May 1st, 2008 was also my big interview with the Peace Corps. An hour and a half conversation, that I was rather indifferent towards. Which was rather surprising to me, especially since the Peace Corps has been my dream for years. The only dream I have had longer was to be a scuba instructor! I was excited to be finally having it, after wanting it for so long, but I was also filled with a lot of other mixed emotions. Especially with all that had recently been happening in my life. For example, if my dad was in a car accident and I was overseas, it would be impossible for me to drive right through the night and be home by the time my mother reaches the front door. Just one of the many thoughts I had. Guess it is up to the gods now, we’ll just have to wait and see what they have to say. I hope they like me again.

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

Thankfully Ringo survived. I do not know if my family could have handled loosing him too. I guess Ringo had to wear one of those ridiculous cones around his neck to keep him from pulling his I.V. out, but it was unable to stop him. In the morning he had it out and was up and whining, we think whining to come home.


In other news today, a little cute, yellow bird flew into our window today and died.

Still trying to find the positive to this one.

My friend Shell said that maybe this little cute, yellow bird had a life that we knew nothing about. Maybe the squirrels ate all of its food, trashed it’s nest while it was not looking and made this bird’s life a living hell, so at least now, even though the bird has reached the end of it’s flight, maybe, just maybe, it is in a better place.

Therefore, maybe, just maybe, this little cute, yellow bird is no longer a victim of squirrel abuse.

Monday, Cinco de Mayo, 2008

I am to call the Peace Corps to find out whether I am considered a nominee. I played phone tag all day with the lady, and won’t find out whether my life is about to completely change until tomorrow.

Another extra perk for the day is I got a speeding ticket today while driving back to Oshkosh. The officer was very friendly about it though, since I was honest with him. He still had to issue me a citation, bam another four points gone, but the nice cop-like gentleman he was, he gave me the lowest price range that he could. Thanks I guess? Not his problem, I mean it is only my 5th speeding ticket...oops...I wonder how many points I have left?

So, looking at the citation at hand in both lights, loosing four points is not an ideal situation for my insurance, and nice cops still make me poor....but at least it was not a car accident.

My dad called me later to give me grief about speeding. He also had just received a speeding ticket a couple of weeks ago while on vacation with my mom. He too had a real friendly police officer, and he too lost four points but the cop knocked his speed down to make it cheaper too.

Just for the record, my dad was also given a ticket for his accident; driving too fast for something.

My dad also has had to take the speeding class a couple years ago to regain points on his license.

I wonder who I inherited speeding from!?!?

Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

The big news is finally in, and..........I am now considered a nominee for the Peace Corps! While nothing is decided yet, I have the option of going to the Pacific Islands in September to be a Primary Teacher Trainer. Whatever that means! Frankly, who cares I am going to finally have my hut on the beach! Words cannot even begin to describe how lucky I feel that this was even an option! The lady who gave me the interview said I could choose between North Africa/Middle East, which most likely would have been in Jordan, or the Pacific Islands. Hmm, let me think about this, right. As soon as I heard the Pacific Islands was even an option I heard the whistles and sirens going off and it felt like I was being called to “come on down!” on the Price is Right!


Thursday, May 08, 2008

How do you pack for two years when you do not know where your going, or when. Or even if? I have gone to the library and checked-out about twelve books on a the Pacific Islands and a couple movies. I love this dream.

Monday, May 19, 2008

I want to start changing my life now to prepare to leave, but still now that would be premature. I have seen all the required doctors and have had all the tests taken. Now I just sit and wait for the results to come back to me. I hope I pass! I cannot wait to send them back and wait some more! Hopefully, since September is not that far away I will take somewhat of a priority and they will look at my file immediately! I wonder how old I will be before I get skin cancer?!