HOME — SORTA
8–23–2026
SUNDAY. VAN FROM HOSPITAL BROUGHT ME HOME THURSDAY EVENING AFTER LAST-MINUTE SEVERE AND SUDDEN INCONTINENCE. DOC WAS AFRAID OF C DIFF, ONE OF THOSE INFECTIONS YOU GET IN HOSPITALS THAT FEEDS ON ANTIBIOTICS USED TO STOP OTHER INFECTIONS.
(AN INFECTION GONE “SEPTIC” FROM A FOOT INJURY PUT ME DOWN IN MAY THIS YEAR. DOCS WERE READY TO PRONOUNCE ME, MY 53-YEAR-OLD SON SAYS. WERE TELLING MY LADY LOVE TALK TO THE CHAPLAIN ABOUT BEREAVEMENT. SHE WAS READY TO GO TO WAR. )
(COURSE HER VERSION IS WILLAM THE THIRD MARCHED IN LIKE HIS NORMANDY NAMESAKE LANDING IN ENGLAND, AND REINFORCED HER REFUSAL TO LET ME GO.)
SURE MESSED UP MY SUMMER’S WRITING. SCRAPS OF EFFORTS APPEARED HERE.
PROMISED NEW NEBULIZER FOR HOME this time.Didn’t work.
(TOOK REGULAR nebulizer TREATMENTS IN HOSPITAL TO BEAT ASPIRATION PNEUMONIA. NEW HOME MACHINE BROKE ON FIRST USE.)
PROMISED HOME HEALTH CARE FOLLOW-UP. SKILLED NURSING TO CHECK WOUNDS, SWELLING; vitals; PHYSICAL THERAPY TO GET ME WALKING AGAIN.
FIRST SCHEDULED VISIT, NO show.NO CALL EXPLAINING WHY. MY LADY-LOVE FINALLY PENETRATED THE PCP’S GIBRALTER OF VOICE-MAIL TO BE TOLD VISIT RESCHEDULED FOR TOMORROW. NO APOLOGY FOR LACK OF NOTICE.
update 8–25: 2nd day home health nurse failed to show. Case manager explained Fire Dept medics will come do basic checks when home health fails.They did. They also fixed my nebulizer and gave me a new mask.
PNEUMONIA THIS TIME LEAVES ME DEPENDENT ON OXYGEN 24/7.
MY USUALLY RELIABLE SUPPLIER (USED o2 FOR SLEEP FOR YEARS IN TANDEM WITH CPAP FOR SLEEP APNEA) PROMISED o2 THAT I COULD USE ALL OVER THE HOUSE DURING PT.
RIGHT. A 50-FOOT TUBE FOR THE BIG MACHINE IN MY BEDROOM. SINCE THURSDAY WE’VE EACH TRIPPED OVER IT A DOZEN TIMES. ALMOST FELL. OR IT HAS SNAGGED ON BED CORNERs, UNDER COVERS, UNDER WHEEL CHAIR TIRES…
WHIPLASH ALMOST. OR CANNULA RIPPED FROM NOSE. THE o2 CONCENTRATION DROPS FROM 97 PERCENT OR SO TO 80 OR LESS IN UNDER 60 SECONDS. DIZZINESS, GASPING, FUMBLE FOR “RESCUE” ALBUTEROL PUFFER…
Get Bill Burkett’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
NEVER MIND ALL THE MEDICAL APPTS I AM BEHIND ON. I CAN GO DOWN MY BRAND NEW RAMP — no longer housebound by steps — BUT HAVE NO PORTABLE o2 MACHINE. MY PULMONOLOGIST ORDERED ONE — BUT MY SUPPLIER DOESN’T HAVE ANY.
(MY FRONT STEPS DEFEATED ME AFTER SCIATICA STARTED IN 2021. Four dangerous falls later, I WOUND UP HOUSEBOUND UNLESS WE COULD SCHEDULE 2 STRONG GROWNUPS TO USE SUPPORT BELTS TO BRACE ME IN CASE MY LEGS BUCKLED. )
(FOUR FALLS — EVERY ONE ON WAY TO A DOCTOR’S OFFICE. )
A PHYSICAL THERAPIST COMPARED MY FEAR OF THE STEPS TO PTSD.
WHILE I WAS GONE IN VARIOUS HOSPITALS. MY BROTHER AND SON COLLABORATED ON A WHEELCHAIR RAMP.
A SKILLED EMPLOYEE OF MY SON’S BUDDY, WHO OWNS A CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, DID THE WORK IN ONE EVENING — CAME BACK NEXT DAY TO ADJUST DECK WIDTH FOR WIDER WHEELCHAIRS. STURDY, WELL-MADE, IT BLENDS INTO THE 80- YEAR OLD COTTAGE AS IF ALWAYS THERE. AMBULMEANCE DRIVER BRINGING ME HOME WAS DULY IMPRESSED.
(BEING A STORY TELLER BY TRADE, THESE story-less MONTHS HAVE BEEN HELL THE NEW RAMP OFFERS A LIGHT AT THE END OF THIS DREARINESSand a story.
MY SON’S PAL WAYNE SHAY — NOT HIS ANCESTRAL NAME— EMPLOYS THE RAMP BUILDER. THE SHAYS CAME FROM POLAND TO MINE THE RICHEST COKING COAL IN THE WORLD, LOCATED IN THE CASCADES around Carbon Gorge.POLES FACED A LOT OF DISCRIMINATION LATE 19TH-EARLY 20TH Century. SO HIS FAMILY JETTISONED CONSONANTS AND BECAME SHAYS.
First story I wrote for the Seattle Times Sunday Magazine the year my 53-year-old son was born was about those coal fields and miners.Boxes and boxes of history in the UW library basement, no index, no order.A helpful employee helped me find the thread: six vanished coal towns that flourished when King Coal powered the world. Mines that created Tacoma on the tide flats, rotting old Northern Pacific coal piers still visible in the 70s.
TACOMA WAS CREATED TO TRANSSHIP WILKESON COAL TO THE STEAMSHIPS, LOCOMOTIVES AND STEEL MILLS OF THE WORLD. TONY SHAY LIVED LESS THAN A MILE DOWN COLLINS ROAD IN BUCKLEY, A DAIRY AND BERRY-FARM TOWN, FROM THE MOUTH OF CARBON GORGE. TONY WAS WAYNE’S GRANDFATHER.
MY SONS MATERNAL GRANDFATHER WAS A NORWEGIAN LOGGER WITH THE WANDERLUST. HE CLEARED TRACK FOR THE CANADIAN PACIFIC,THEN CROSSED INTO WASHINGTON AND WOUND UP A TIMBER CRUISER FOR ST. REGIS. WHERE HE MADE FRENDS WITH TONY SHAY.’ IT’S POSSIBLE GABE KLEPPE BOUGHT HIS BUCKLEY FARM HALF A MILE FROM TONY’S PLACE ON TONY’S RECOMMENDATION.)
(IT’S CERTAIN THEY WERE LIFELONG PALS. THE 3O YEARS OR SO I LIVED IN MY “VAGABOND HOUSE” BUILT BY GABE’S WIDOW, THE SYMMETRICAL 4-POINT BLACKTAIL BUCK TROPHY ON DISPLAY WAS GABE’S. THE STORY WENT TONY WAS WITH HIM ON THE HUNT. )
THIS WEEK MY SON,WHO KEEPS GABE’S TROPHY NOW, WITH HIS OWN… AND THOSE OF MY GRANDDAUGHTERS! TOLD THE REST…OF THE STORY:
WAYNE SHAY HAS A BLACKTAIL TROPHY THE VIRTUAL CLONE OF GABE’S. HIS GRANDFATHER’S. A BUCK TAKEN THE SAME DAY GABE TOOK HIS. SAME PLACE. SAME TIME.
GABE AND TONY. TWO MATCHING BUCKS, SOMETHING LIKE 75 YEARS AGO. NOWMY SON AND WAYNE, generational FRIEND WHO MATTER OF FACTLY DISPATCHED ONE OF HIS BEST CRAFTSMEN 90 MILES TO RESTORE SOME MOBILITY HIS FRIEND’S DECREPIT DAD.
