St. Joseph's

I am in hospital. Intensive care for right now.  Little problem with heart, lungs, kidneys. They all failed together. Heart surgery tomorrow.

I told the ambulance crew, the emergency crew, the intensive care crew that I am terrified. 

They said,  "You are a seriously complex case, in need of deep sorting. Please do not be filled with worry. We got this. By the way, who is your next of kin? What is their telephone number?" 

Now see, that right there doesn't match. 

This isn't my first time. I've been in this hospital at least fifteen times. The entire building has changed. I've avoided for a very long time. I see improvements in every single aspect of this experience. So much more is now automatic. 

I notice, the communication between crews is outstanding. To a person, everybody is much younger than myself. Every single person I've encountered is outstanding. Believe it or not, the food is excellent. Except mine doesn't have any salt. Otherwise, very good cooks. I just now had the most delicious meal ever. But I can only take one bite of any given thing. Still, quite impressive. 

The equipment is all upgraded. All of it. Splints on both legs squeeze continuously. The bed shifts position slightly continuously. Blood pressure taken every 15 minutes automatically. The strap is left on and it squeezes hard in cycles. Urinary catheter, lines into both arms, pulse oximeter on finger opposite hand. I am well and truly wired to fixed in place with minimal movement. 

The young people as teams are most impressive. I tell them that. Very much like professional adults and very much like children they each have told me how important that is for them to know. Apparently patients don't bother mentioning. I tell them the differences between them and everyone who preceded them. And they are each extremely thankful to hear it. 

60 comments:

Mumpsimus said...

I'm looking forward to close-up photos of hospital food. Get well and be well.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Chip, I am so sorry you are going through this. While those pesky organs of yours need to get in line, I am glad your observation skills are still as active as ever. Get well soon.

ampersand said...

Sorry to hear this. Please get well soon.

Michael S said...

Best wishes for a return to good health.

Meade said...

Your grace and optimism inspire. We wish you well, Chip. Always have, always will.

Dad Bones said...

May your heart, kidneys and lungs come to the realization that if they want to keep their jobs they better get you through this. It probably wouldn't hurt to thank them for all their hard work. Being human organs they likely feel -like all of us - that they don't get enough credit.

And thank you for all your posts over the years. I especially enjoyed the ones about Trump.

edutcher said...

Chip, hang in. I appreciate how tough it mist be, but hang on.

We need people with your breadth of curiosity of all things and intellect.

ndspinelli said...

Chip, Mayo is based on teamwork, antithetical to our usual healthcare systems. My wife has gone thru tough physical ordeals involving leg and hand numbness. MRI's, EMG's have been confusing. She falls often. She starts w/ Mayo in a couple weeks. If you want info on how to get a referral to Mayo, just email me. My prayers are w/ you.

SLM said...

Chip -- I've followed you and your comments/blog for years; your optimism has always inspired me. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Amartel said...

Chip-Don't know if you remember me but I remember you with fondness. I just heard you are in dire straits and wish you all the best in your fight. Hope you are back and cooking along pronto.

Trooper York said...

Chip I don't know if the prayers of a sinner mean anything but please know that you are in my prayers. I hope you make a full and complete recovery and can get back to regaling us with tales of your culinary prowess.

Please know that you are really missed and are in my thoughts often.

God bless you and keep you safe.

Dan said...

Hoping you get feeling better!

pious agnostic said...

Gosh, I hope you get better right away!

HL King said...

Be better soon!

MamaM said...

ChipA, I've taken your recommendations for fork swirling scrambled eggs, planting caladiums, and making homemade blue cheese dressing to heart, with those acts now part of my life as gifts of goodness from you. May the whatever healing you need to recover and realize more health and life, goodness and blessing be yours. With fondness and hope, MamaM

No Baloney said...

I adopted the macaroni & cheese, bacon, and jalapeno recipe some years ago and, now, on Saturdays, I have it for breakfast. Get Well.

The Dude said...

I built a box based on your fold-out book instructions. Tell the docs to fold your insides back together correctly.

Meade said...

https://www.legacy.com/funeral-homes/obituaries/name/robert-ure-obituary?pid=198278545&v=batesville&view=guestbook

Michael S said...

Meade, thanks for your post. Truly sad news.

Meade said...

Everyone loved him.

pious agnostic said...

Very sad.

I'm Full of Soup said...

If there were a Hall of Fame for blog commenters and just damn nice people, Chip would be one of the 1st inductees.

Fr Martin Fox said...

Chip:

I'm so sorry to hear it, get well soon! I am praying for you.

Charlie Eklund said...

I’m very sorry to hear that we lost Chip. My condolences to those who knew him and may God bless, and watch over, his family and friends.

Charlie Eklund said...

I’m very sorry to hear that we lost Chip. My condolences to those who knew him and may God bless, and watch over, his family and friends.

Charlie Eklund said...

I’m very sorry to hear that we lost Chip. My condolences to those who knew him and may God bless, and watch over, his family and friends.

Wince said...

Such a wonderful contributor to the Althouse community.

I always trusted that he'd continue to do his creative thing wherever he went.

So sad to learn his contribution to this world has been cut short.

May he rest in peace.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I'm praying for you Chip. I don't know what else to say in situations like this. Please stay with us, the living. Don't go anywhere. Maybe that's why they strapped you down ;)

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

"I’m very sorry to hear that we lost Chip."

Oh no!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

So weird. I was checking out his YouTube channel a few weeks ago to see if he had posted anything new.

R.I.P Chip

Night Owl said...

Such a gentle soul. We need more like Chip. What a loss. 😔

Nichevo said...

Oh no! Lost him? Who knows this? Does anyone have the true word? This is terrible!

If my wishes for your complete and speedy recovery are too late, Chip, then Godspeed, and may your memory be for a blessing.

Nichevo said...

Missed the obit...Sad. Very sad.

Tomcc said...

Damn. Remarkable talent, sad to see that he passed (on April 1, no less).

Dan said...

So sad to hear this!

Chip Ahoy said...

Hello this is Jim, I'm "Chip's" younger brother, actually "Bo" as we call him> And he was an amazing soul, his abilities and talents were fascinating and amazing. I'm the guy with 2 young sons that he love very much and inspired very much.

I think anyone that knew Bo or read his posts would be remarked and inspired. Thank you God very much for my brother Bo, and all the incredible inspiration he gave to myself and family.

He loved his following here very much and mentioned you often and fondly. A couple years ago when we went to Red Oak Iowa for a wedding he was so excited to share his experience with you. Maybe you remember the reception in the barn, or the the vanilla ice cream churning outside, powered by the front end of a 1950's John Deere tractor. I know he posted photos here about the trip cause he mentioned you guys a lot during the trip

I love my brother very much, and thank him and welcome his spirit into my household daily. I'm absolutely certain "Chip" is in a wonderful place, and I look forward to a future filled with continued inspirations he will be giving us all.

Thank You God for the Bo and Chip experience, and Thank You Bo, I love you very, very much. Jim

Chip Ahoy said...

We will be having a celebration get together for the life of "Chip Ahoy" in Denver July 18th. If anyone is interested in coming post here and I'll get back to you

Snowdin said...

James,

I followed your brother’s blog for years and loved it. I commented once and he responded, which made my day.

From his writing, It was clear he loved you and your family very much.

Please follow up on his send-off, if not too much for you.

Condolences,

A. Ellis - a Chip/Bo follower

Snowdin said...

http://bour3.blogspot.com/2020/08/this-kid-is-so-cool-i-cant-stand-it.html

One of my favourite posts

Snowdin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ColoradoJim said...

I was always interested in how he surprised his neighbors with giving them plants with instructions on getting them to grow. One thing that impressed me is how he always thanked the people who did deliveries in some way. He responded once to one of my comments on one of his growing articles. I do not know if I can make it to the celebration of his life as I do work but I am in the area. Of especial interest to me was his learning sign language. My parents were given a choice between mainstreaming me or learning sign language so I never did learn it.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Please let us know about the celebration of life of Chip/Bo.

JU said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JU said...

Hello Again This is Chip Ahoy's brother Jim. I'm really sorry for not posting earlier but I lost his computer's password and got locked out when it mysteriously requested the password somehow. If anyone knows how to get access to a Macbook Air please post it here and I will get an email. Thank you

I'm posting to tell you more things about how incredible Bo was and to invite you to his life celebration party we're having for him in July.

After reading this please see this video invitation at https://youtu.be/61SZ3m_N2Jc

Chip's (Bo Ure) friends graciously agreed to having his life celebration party in their backyard garden, in Bo's hometown of Denver Colorado. The party will be on Bo's birthday July 18th 2021 and attended by his friends and 4 siblings. I will post the address of the party here within a week. Everyone here is invited but please tell me you will be attending for an accurate attendance count.Thanks

In his friend's remarkable garden we will be adding poster size pictures of Bo's modeling career (flipping amazing).

At least 20-30 of Bo's homemade pop up book style greeting cards which are always been captivating to see.

Stories and pictures of Bo's artistic childhood talent such as:

A 20 piece hand painted ceramic nativity scene display of baby Jesus, a manger, Joseph and Mary, 3 wise men, cows, camels, sheep, barn shelter with the north star and other things.

Early hand drawn and painted artwork.

Teenage Leather making, a full fringed leather jacket on the arms, front and back.

Full grain leather lunch box and leather wrapped thermos Bo made for his older brother.

Bo's vanilla ice cream making from gathering vanilla beans from around the world.

Bo's 10 year long extensive bread making, and gathering yeast starters worldwide.

Most impressive is his Egyptian artwork. He studied and deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs (thank God for spell check) and incorporated them into his paintings. He worked at the Denver federal reserve bank, and would take the bags of shredded Old uncirculate-able money, mix it with plaster.
Then create a 3/4 inch thick painting surface about 16 inches tall and 16 inches wide (or so). Then he would lay strings on the along the face of the surface of the plaster, and when it dried he would remove the strings leaving a deep channel in the plaster. Then he'd snap (break) the plaster along the channels, sand and paint it to look like a tan colored Egyptian stone surface. and paint hieroglyphs on it. Then have it professinally matted in a deep profile frame and give them to his friends.
Some of his paintings are in the elevator lobbies of high rise luxury apartments, and dining rooms of his friends country mansions.

There will be much more to see, appreciate and share about Chip's (Bo's) life on July 18th so please come if you can. Or post here

After reading this please see this video invitation at https://youtu.be/61SZ3m_N2Jc

brio said...

There are plenty of instructions on the web and videos on Youtube to reset passwords without losing data. Just do a google search.

I would give you instructions here but a lot of it depends on what macos is on the computer. A bootable usb or cd would help but those options are not available on current macs where os is downloaded instead of installed via cd or usb.

brio said...

Hi Jim

Email me and I will send you step by step info on how to reset the password, if his computer was kept updated with latest os.

I just went through and reset the password on my mac with no issues and it was easy--too easy if someone steals a mac.

JU said...

Thanks Brio, Where do I find your email address? Mine is jimure(at-symbolio)gmail.

JU said...

Chip's (Bo's) Life celebration party is this Sunday (July 18th) in Denver. Reply here if you're interested in attending. or email me at the address above. Thanks, Jim

ColoradoJim said...

How did it go? I had a prior commitment so I could not make plans to attend.

wildswan said...

Only lately found out about and was sorry to hear of this loss

pious agnostic said...

I still come back here sometimes because I miss him.

JU said...

Hello This is Jim again Chip Ahoy's brother. My sincere apologies for not posting here about our friend and brothers life celebration party. It was held in Denver Co. July 18th for my brother Bo Ure. Some pictures got posted on my fb page for everyone to see

He loved his online community tremendously, my family and I miss him too.

He sent us such cool presents, it was honestly a real treat to get something from him because they were so unique and interesting. Like a 9 inch moth that is born without a mouth, only lives for 2 weeks to sniff out a mate and propagate then fall off the tree and die. Or the time we got a big box of geodes for the boys to crack open with a hammer, then a week later we get a shadow box to display them. Or the time we get these toys to hide dog treats in and the dog has to figure them out to get the cookie. Lots and lots of fun gifts stories and memories.

Here is some of his amazing pages on the web that I know of.

He made popup books here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bour3/sets/

Some of his modeling pics here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bour3/sets/

Please be careful with the first
Some of his artwork here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128924666@N04/albums/72157712661451708

http://bour3.blogspot.com/2020/08/this-kid-is-so-cool-i-cant-stand-it.html

http://bour3com.startlogic.com//portfolio/profile_bour3_chip_ahoy.html

my fb page for you to see where we departed with the blessing in human form.
Some of these links are redirected to bad sites but here are some good links also
https://bour3com.startlogic.com/

And finally my fb page with our finale days celebrating the beautiful and wonderful Chip Ahoy, Bo Ure
https://www.facebook.com/james.ure.777/

DaveC said...

Hello Jim,
My name is Dave Cassidy. I lived in Englewood, Colorado during grade school and high school. I am almost certain that your brother was my closest friend when we attended Englewood High School, graduating in 1972. If that is true, I am very sorry for your loss. I wish I could have had the opportunity to reach Bob and become reacquainted after all these years later. But now, I fear I am too late. I’ve tried numerous ways of contacting you, including several attempts with facebook. I’ve also tried to contact those people who left condolences on Legacy.com where I learned of Robert’s passing. I never received a response from any of my attempts. You might be interested that the class of 1972 just celebrated a 50 year class reunion last week. While there, I continued to ask those in attendance if anyone else could confirm that your brother is the one-and-same friend that I hung-out with during and after school in the 1970’s. But, again I had no luck. So it is with this unusual public post on this website that I have scoured many times that I hope to reach you. I hope this website is still monitored and you will see my post. I see that the website stores my email address, so that you could use it if you choose to do so, to allow me and those who knew Bob to have closure.
A friend of Bob Ure,
Dave Cassidy

JU said...

Dave Cassidy, This could be the Bob of your upbringing, however your avatar is Anonymous and I cannot see your contact info. If you wish to post it here temporarily I will contact you and we can share. If the person you remember was incredibly artistic and one of the most respectable, friendly persons to walk. This may be a fruitful experience for the both of us.

JU said...

Every day we still celebrate Bo or "Chips Ahoy"

He sent us the absolute coolest things that would show up unexpectedly.

He sent us a shadow box with a preserved beautiful moth born without a mouth. It lives for 2 weeks clinging to a tree branch waiting to mate.

The upper tips of it's wings looks like a snake, and if a bird comes by to eat it, the moth flaps it's wings and scares the bird away. You can see some good pictures of it on the right side of the page here:

https://www.google.com/search?q=moth+that+only+lives+2+weeks+and+has+no+mouth&rlz=1C1CHBD_enUS1020US1020&sxsrf=ALiCzsaLRV2-TXbyAMjhflDS-6dUIrCf0A:1661370786144&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjkjbG8oOD5AhWuIzQIHa6QB28Q_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1307&bih=631&dpr=1.47#imgrc=GgoeNv7OJRHe4M&imgdii=c2tdQ1pm7XWYOM

JU said...

Google Search Atlas Moth to see some cool pictures

DaveC said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JU said...

Hi Dave, it gave me some unexpected problems also.

I just sent you an email

DaveC said...

Hello Jim,
This is Dave Cassidy posting an edited reply to you. The original reply addressed the problem that apparently this site only allows me to post "anonymously". I have since removed the public posting of my personal email address from the text of that previous message and I appreciate that you reached-out to me. I wish to extend my deepest condolences to you and all of Bob (Bo’s) surviving family. I thank you for providing a sense of closure to me and the other fellow students who once attended high school with our friend, Bob Ure.
Thanks,
Dave

JU said...

You're welcome and thank you also, I really enjoyed our conversation. And of coarse I'm glad that you got to share some love with Bo or Chips Ahoy.

Blog Archive