March has been a very trying month for our entire family. I will be happy to close the books on this one. Sasha had her surgery on Feb 24 and was released from the hospital on the 25th. Yeah! But on the 26th Caitlin and Steve had to bring her back to the U of M due to congestion problems. She was in the hospital for two more days.
On Feb 28, the same day that Sasha was released from the U of M Fairview, my Dad was admitted to the hospital. He had been having episodes of distress and Mom was at her wit's end. He ended up having 1000 cc. of urine trapped behind his enlarged prostrate. Can you imagine how much that hurt? They kept him in the hospital for several days to assess the situation and decide what they could for him.
On March 2 Mom, Aimee and I met with the social worker. The meeting ended with Aimee physically assaulting me. There is a reason that I keep my distance from her.
On March 5, Erica asked me to babysit Mason while she went out. Happy to oblige I did. Caitlin and Sasha were visiting and we were in the living room, chatting, while I was feeding Mason. I told her, "Look at pale he is." She said, "Pale! He's turning blue!" Sure enough he was as blue as the blanket he was wrapped in. He had a pool of formula in his mouth and his eyes were rolled back into his head. I turned him over and rubbed his back until he started to breathe again. We called "911" and they arrived right away. When they started oxygen he turned pink right away. Erica, who had not gotten very far, was back to the house before the emergency personnel even and we took him to Lakeview. They sent him on to Children's Hospital in St. Paul.
It was a very long eight days that he was in the hospital. I tried to be there as much a I could. Erica was stressed out and I tried to be a support for her. Thankfully Children's Hospital has an excellent staff and they quickly found out the he had a kidney/bladder infection and started him on antibiotics. They ran several other tests and found out that he has a condition call atrial septal defect which is a small hole between his to atrial heart chambers. They are going to monitor that for the next several years and that his right kidney did not drain properly and they are going to moniter that for a year or two also. Both of these conditions are fairly common and would not have been diagnosed but for his turning blue.
On March 8th, Dad was admitted into a transitional care unit at Maplewood Care Center. The plan was that he would be there for 14 days while a permanent situation was found. On March 11, Dad had what appears to be a stroke. We say appears because we never saw a doctor the entire time that Dad was in the nursing home. He started to deteriorate fast.
On March 15, Mom got a call from the nursing home saying you might want to get down here right away. He was in and out of conciousness for the next week as he slowly left us. Mom was by his side the entire time with me, Sara and Aimee trying to be there for her as much as we could. He passed away on March 22 after a long battle with Inclusion Body Myesitis, a form of Muscular Dystropy
His funeral was on March 27 at North Heights in Roseville. He at buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetary with full military honors.
Lee W. Tuskey was an extraordinary man. I am writing a post about him but as you can imagine words are inadequete to sum up his life. Dad, we love you and will miss you. 
Lee W. Tuskey
