Visit From My Sister

My sister, Shari, came here on February 25th in preparation to celebrate my 70th birthday (on March 2nd).  We did what we always do...ate, drank, talked, and commiserated about being old.  (Shari is 75.)

Shari had to come on a bit different route than usual because of some road construction close to my home.  (Less than five miles from here.)  I had given her instructions, but she got bumfuzzled and managed to have a fender-bender with another car at an intersection maybe a mile from here.  Ugh!

I'll get the dates wrong, but we had a good time.  It was her whole focus to take me somewhere special to eat for my birthday.  I mulled it over in my mind for days...and then, out of nowhere, my daughter in Seattle suggested that we needed to see a show.  BINGO!  I checked to see what Beef and Boards Dinner Theater in Indy was showing.  Turned out to be Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, which I had never seen but always wanted to.  Thus, in an instant, our birthday decision was made and paid for.  (Thank you, Shari!!)

Thereafter, before and after--whatever--we shopped at Kohl's so Shari could spend her coupons.  (She spent it all on me.)  We drove up to Indy's north side to shop at Trader Joe's.  Shari LOVES the Charles Shaw white zinfandel that TJ's sells, so she buys a whole case, because it's cheap.  (Called "Two-Buck Chuck" by many.)  We ate at Waffle House one morning; Bob Evans another day...and, of course, the piece-de-resistance:  Beef and Boards Dinner Theater.  Interspersed in there were visits to the orthopedist for steroid knee shots due to my injury.  (See previous post.)

My Birthday was March 2nd.  We left for Beef and Boards plenty early.  I had good directions to get there but had never driven there myself, even though I had been there two times before.  I got us in the right neighborhood but kept turning the wrong say until Shari said, "Go that way.  We haven't done that before."  And there it was.  She got stuck dropping me off at the door and parking the car because I really wasn't walking well with the knee injury.  The food was pretty good.  (Our server carried my buffet-served foods back to the table for me so I could utilize my hands to get up the stairs.)  They announced my birthday from the stage, along with others (but mine got the most applause because I was the oldest)!  The show was fantastic. The trip home was easy, so we basked in the afterglow for a day or two.  What a great time!!

Shari was slated to go home on March 6th.  Her dog was in a boarding kennel at home...and she was worried about getting her bills paid.  What I haven't mentioned so far is that on her arrival, she had only just barely been released by her doctor to come here.  She was being treated for pneumonia for the second time since September and had antibiotics to take, etc.  But when it came time to go home, she really wasn't feeling well.  Complained of feeling jittery and weak.  We postponed her trip for a couple of days.  At one point, she had mixed an alcoholic drink with meds that clearly said not to...and suddenly, she was on the floor, unable to get up.  A friend was here.  The two of us got her up, and after the friend left, I got Shari to her bed.  I figured that would be the end of it...but suddenly, she was up again and on the floor again.  I tried to get her back to the bed but couldn't, so I called the paramedics.  They checked her for a stroke and took her "vitals".  By this time, she was answering them clearly, so we both went to bed.  I was getting scared....

A day or two later, Shari began to complain of severe chest pain.  She was certain it wasn't heart-related, but she was VERY uncomfortable, shaky on her feet, nauseated, and had chills and a fever.  I called for the paramedics again and determined she needed to go to the ER.  I got there maybe 30 minutes behind the ambulance that transported her.  They x-rayed her lungs, gave her morphine and a prescription for pain meds and antibiotics, saying her pneumonia was back, big time, and that she should check in with her doctor when she got home.  Then sent her back to my house.

Go home?  She was almost 200 miles from home and not capable of driving due to her condition and the meds she was given.  In the course of all of this, I had an MRI on my knee which showed a torn meniscus.  She drives a Tahoe.  I couldn't even get in it to drive her home if I needed to!  Thus, we called her daughter and son-in-law to drive over from Greenview, IL, to drive her and her car back to Springfield, IL--March 18th, a full 12 days after her original departure date, with no relief in sight.

Laurie and Danny got here about noon.  They got her packed up, fed (although she couldn't eat much), and headed back west at about 4:00.  I breathed a sigh of relief.  I wasn't happy for her to leave, but she was very, very sick, and there was virtually nothing I could do for her here.  I could barely take care of myself!  I was happy that she would be on her own turf with her own support system and doctors that know her.

They got home safely.  This was last Sunday.  Laurie stayed with her that night and called Shari's pulmonologist for an appointment the next morning.  Her earliest appointment was Wednesday, at which point, the doctor plopped her in the hospital, where she still is as of this writing.  She was/is quite ill, and it happened right under my nose!

I have talked to her almost every day by phone.  Her biggest regret is that she can't be here for my knee surgery which isn't even scheduled yet.  She is worried about me when she is a whole lot sicker than I am!!!!

I don't know what God has in store for either of us, but I DO know that she doesn't have to be here for me to know that she loves me.  And I hope she understands the same about me.

May the Lord watch between thee and me, while we are apart, one from the other, dear sister.  I love you!  Get well!