On Saturday, July 10, 2019, my dad texted me about his not feeling well. He had had some medication changes earlier in the week, and we both somewhat expected a few symptoms. Just before church the next morning, I received another text that he had gone to the hospital overnight with unusual symptoms. I spoke with my aunts later that afternoon, and decided to hop on a flight from Charlottetown to Toronto that night. Praise the LORD there was room on the flight!
I ended up spending the next four days at Grand River Hospital with my dad. The immediate concern was the possibility of a stroke — but an MRI quickly ruled that out. His symptoms were odd: described by the doctor as choreiform movements. In the absence of a stroke or a hereditary disease, the doctor suspected an issue with medication. It turns out my dad had been on an unusually high doses of various medications for years. A recent change in those medications seems to have kicked off something akin to withdrawal symptoms.
Among others, we were visited that week by Pastor Snell and Bruce Wallace from First Baptist Church, along with my cousins Greg & Amanda and two of their children. The Littles are on a brief furlough before returning to full-time ministry in St. Lucia.
I remain incredibly thankful for the flexibility afforded me as a lead software engineer with Mattermost. I spent part of my week working on the hospital wifi, but also had the flexibility to reorganize my schedule and take time off to be there for my dad. I’m also so very thankful for family like the Lapointes who not only let me crash at their place but lent me their sporty Hundai Veloster. It was nice to drive manual again 🙂
The wonderful medical team took care of my dad until he was sent home on the Thursday with a plan to eliminate these drugs altogether. After making some additional arrangements, I flew home later that night in time to celebrate Kathyrn’s 1st birthday on Friday.
Funny story. My flight from Pearson landed after midnight, so it wasn’t an option for Charity to come with the kids to pick me up. As various people stood waiting for a taxi, one of the drivers asked me where I was headed. “Bonshaw,” I replied. He looked at me quizzically and asked, “Bonshaw?” Nobody was headed that way, but one driver offered to take me there after dropping off another passenger downtown. As I entered the vehicle, he casually mentioned downtown and Bonshaw, and the passenger immediately proclaimed, “Bonshaw!?” As we started heading down the road, the driver notified his team over the radio. Sure enough, over the crackly speaker, I heard a reply: “BONSHAW?!!” With a smile on my face, I explained our family story. It’s good to be home.