Happy New Year's Day!

I had all good intentions to write a nice message to all my friends and acquaintances here at "Fishing With Dad." I appreciate each and every one who visits here and takes a moment from their busy day to check in and see what dad is up to.

Well, folks, I am writing this New Year's Day message from my hospital bed in Lancaster, Pa. I entered the ER on Tuesday evening with a high fever and swollen throat glands. I was in pretty bad shape. I received an oral steroid for the swelling and some hydrocodone for the pain and sent home. 5 hours in the ER.

The very next morning (Wednesday), I was still in bad shape. I had not eaten or been able to drink much due to my poor throat condition. I was dehydrating and losing weight (206 down to 189 lbs in three days). I was admitted to the hospital at 11:00 a.m., saw a doctor at 1:00 p.m., and got started on an IV, steroids to reduce the swelling, antibiotics, and pain medication around 4:00 p.m. I have slowly been getting better, but I now have thrush from all the antibiotics... great! The antibiotics reduce the saliva which keeps the thrush away in healthy adults. Babies and seniors often get thrush for the due to lack of saliva.

I'm sorry for such a downer blog entry, but my wife brought my laptop to the hospital so I could keep all of you updated. I'm hoping to be home in a day or two.

Have a great New Year's Day! I'm going to be watching some bowl football from my "lounging" bed in the Lancaster Regional Hospital, Rm #420... Currently watching my home state team, Penn State against LSU (Go Lions!)and later, the Rose Bowl!

dad