Into each life, some rain must fall.
I came to my sister's on Tuesday, Nov. 22nd. Thursday was Thanksgiving. On Friday, the word came that my brother-in-law's brother-in-law--his twin sister's husband--had passed away from lung cancer. He had just been put in hospice and wasn't expected to live long. He didn't. The man's final wishes were to have a very private funeral with only immediate family attending. Jim was encouraged by his sister not to come. Jim wouldn't be dissuaded. The rest of us who would not attend convinced Jim to take the trip to Lafayette, IN, and back in two days rather than one. It was sad but expected.
More recently...Saturday, Dec. 11th...I fell. I was wearing slippers on a slippery floor. (Maybe that's why they're called "slippers"?) It happened so fast, I can't even say what happened. I careened off of several surfaces trying to catch myself, but down I went. Nothing broken except my dignity--and the handle on a laundry basket.
The really embarrassing part of it all was that I was on the floor and could NOT get up on my own. Three of us struggled and struggled to try to get me up, with little success. Finally--FINALLY--I was able to get on my knees and Jim could slide a library stool under my behind. From there, I could somewhat easily get to a chair. Hallelujah! I'm finding bruises a couple of days later... This gives new meaning of the advertisement that starts with some old lady on the floor calling Life Alert: "I've fallen, and I can't get up!" I found a few bumps and bruises but nothing was broken except the handle on that basket that was, unfortunately, in the path of the fallen on her way down.
The very next day, Sunday, Dec. 12th, I got up in time for Shari to say that Jim was sick. He had somewhat fallen in the bedroom and was complaining of dizziness and a fuzzy brain. With help, he managed to get down the stairs to the living room to his recliner. Not too long later, he decided he wanted to use the bathroom, but when he got up--with help--he floundered and fell in the middle of the room. As with me, we had trouble getting him up. When it finally happened, we got him plunked back down in the recliner and declared that he would be staying there until Shari decided she was going to call the paramedics to get him checked out (against his protestations).
The ambulance arrived mere minutes after Shari got off the phone. They took his "vitals" and found nothing alarming, but they seemed to notice some weakness on his left side so decided to transport him to the hospital to determine why he was falling. Shari followed right behind. Diagnosis: stroke! Jim had a small blood clot on his brain which was sucked out with tube snaked up through vessels in his groin--done quickly enough that the clot hadn't been there long enough to do much damage. Jim was released to come home on that Tuesday afternoon with NO orders for physical therapy or anything else by way of follow-up. He was prescribed an adult aspirin as a blood thinner, and was wearing a heart monitor to check for A-fib. One and done!
On Thursday, Dec. 16th, "we" began having trouble with the heart monitor. Shari had gone to a doctor appointment that had already been postponed once, so Jim and I were holding down the fort. The heart monitor said it needed to be recharged. The phone that goes with the monitor was beeping incessantly. Jim didn't have a clue how to charge it. I was TRYING to help but he was getting irritated by the beeping. Although I got the sensor in the charge unit, the phone kept beeping...and he kept yelling at it to shut up! He called on the phone for support, but he and the poor gal on the other end of the line weren't communicating, and the monitor came OFF.
While Jim had his t-shirt pulled up, I noticed a slight rash on his belly. I mentioned it to Shari when she came home, but she said it was just how his sensitive skin is. A day or two later, he had a roaring, itchy, angry rash over most of his torso, front and back...and was miserable. There were calls to the doctor who decided that it was the aspirin that was causing the rash and decided to send a prescription for Plavix, instead. Slowly, slowly, over the course of a week, the rash got better (with the help of a lot of Benadryl and Hydrocortisone creams.) We're still waiting on the Plavix. (Don't get me started!!)
And then came the ankle. At first, Jim thought he had somehow strained his Achilles tendon. By the next day, it was his whole foot, without explanations. We started icing, elevating, and using anti-inflammatories....plus yet another call to the doctor. As of today, Dec. 28th, both the foot and rash are much better.
And in between, there was Christmas. Next entry. Whew!