This is a long post so
settle in~ lol
Sometimes life turns us upside down.
We think our lives are following
the path we planned and hoped for.
But, sometimes, life throws us a curve.
We had planned to travel.
We had planned to enjoy our
GOLDEN YEARS.
We had planned to help our children
and grandchildren with projects
and help them realize their dreams.
Life had other plans for us.
Hubby (MyHero on the blog)
started declining about 5 years ago.
As most of you know,
he had three bouts of cancer.
The last one (almost 10 years ago)
was Stage 4-head/neck cancer.
They did not give us much hope
that he would make it through
the rigorous schedule of radiation and chemo.
He did make it through but at great expense.
Slowly he recovered and was able to live
a somewhat 'normal' life for a few years.
Then, about 5 years ago, he started passing out
with no warning. The first time,
he stopped breathing.
CPR brought him back around and in hospital
they ran test after test with no clearcut results.
Over the past 5 years he has continued to decline.
This past December we finally got to spend a week at Mayo.
They ran every test known to man on him.
Lungs-good. Heart- good. Blood work-good.
Every test ruled out another 'maybe'.
Best diagnosis- MSA
(multiple system atrophy).
However, he doesn't meet all the criteria but-
it is the best they can agree on.
His blood pressure drops for no reason.
Sometimes it is 70/35.
Sometimes it is almost normal.
When his blood pressure drops-so does he.
The rescue squad came 3 or 4 times.
They tried various meds-none of them worked.
They tried various exercises-Nope-not that!
He was in bed about 70% of the time.
I became a full-time caretaker.
He would be up all night so I would sleep
in one to two hour increments and get up to check on him.
I was a short order cook and bottle washer. lol
The first of this year,
it all caught up with me.
I woke up one day and my foot/ankle 'hurt'.
By the first of February I could barely walk.
An old auto-immune issue I had 35 years ago
raised its ugly head.
It took every ounce of oomph to get through
a 24 hour period.
I was on meds and the first couple
rounds did not work.
Added other meds-nope-not working-
It hurt to even take a deep breath
and, meanwhile, I was helping hubby get up and down
when he needed to and also taking care of
2 sweet pups- Scruffy and Coco.
He is almost exactly twice her size/weight. 25#-13#
He is King of the World and she is the
Princess in Waiting.
In April, we assessed the situation hubby and I were in.
We decided that
hubby needed more help than I could give him
and I needed a true 'rest' so my body could heal.
Just down the street from us (7 blocks)
is a wonderful facility. It is one block
from where John was born and raised.
My kids insisted it was the 'best thing'
for both of us.
Hubby has a beautiful efficiency unit there.
They make sure he gets up and out of bed
and monitor his meds.
He gets three meals a day and
all the gals make a fuss over him.
He has lots of company from old friends
and our oldest daughter lives one block from his place.
Our youngest son also lives one block away.
The kids' homes back up to each other.
Both kids have picked him up for outings.
Our older son is also in town but
lives further out.
Our youngest daughter lives in Indiana
so she is not here very often.
It is hard for me to pick him up
and take him anywhere because
I have to fold up his walker and
take it in and out of our vehicle.
He uses a cane sometimes but it is not
supportive enough most of the time.
It has taken me about 8 weeks to start sleeping
through the night.
For five years I woke up
every hour or two to check on hubby.
My pain is manageable and I am getting better.
My one foot and ankle are still a challenge.
I have inflammatory arthritis.
Not rheumatoid-IA works on the muscles
and tendons and you can't 'see' it.
It is like having severe tendonitis all over.
As a bonus, I had to restart potty training Coco.
She is doing well but I had my beautiful living room rug
deep cleaned and have rolled it up and stored it.
Scruffy rings the doorbell when he has to go out.
She comes and 'looks at me' or, if I am sleeping,
she sneezes in my face.
Yep-wouldn't you know I would get a dog like that?!
She is so sweet I would forgive her anything.
She is half Scruffy's size but can chase him off if she so chooses.
They play beautifully together and it has given
me great joy to watch them bond.
He taught her a couple of naughty tricks-
no surprise there, right?
Anyway, I guess that's all I've got.
Just wanted everyone to know what has
been going on in my life.
Several of you have reached out to me
and I thank you for that.
I have not been a very good blogger
these past months and few years.
I hope to get back to it because I love
keeping in contact with all of you!
Keep us in your prayers and I will try to
"be a good girl"
and you all know that I am NOT very good at that!
Much love to all of you~
ps- Still got my sense of humor-
thank the good Lord---otherwise---
well....jail time does not appeal to me at all.
