It has been a while since I've been able to give you wonderful people at Daily Kos who gave me the money to move to our beautiful place an update. This place continues to amaze me. I still need to get another dozen boxes from the storage shed so I can have the rest of my decorations and most importantly the rest of my books. I even have a book nook set up for me. The Princess continues to race around like a crazy cat with all this room. I would never have been able to move without your help.
By now you know the battle to save my brother's leg failed. They had to amputate and I had to battle the feeling I failed him. For the first time Reid finally took ownership over what has happened to him health wise. He realizes that his refusal to take care of his diabetes and forty years of smoking has led to where he is now. He realizes he has allowed himself to become crippled by refusing to do his exercises and just sitting and vegetating watching TV or playing computer games. He now has to correct that neglect and exercise if he wants his artificial leg. I can't do it for him. Big sister has done everything she could and now he has to do something for himself.
The by product of all this stress and caring for him has had an unexpected side effect. I have become ill. I ignored, as long as I could while caring for him and getting him in and out of hospitals and after surgery care, the fact I wasn't feeling well. It took a 104°F fever, uncontrolled shaking with cold chills, unable to breathe without laboring, to finally get to a Doctor myself. Numerous rounds of antibiotics trying to find something my body would tolerate didn't work. Finally Medicare authorized a CAT scan. They found growths on my thyroid which after an ultrasound turned out to be a cluster of cysts 3 centimeters long pressing down on the esophagus making it difficult to swallow. I see a specialist in a couple of weeks.
The lung specialist today said I have "ground glass nodules" in my left lung which has caused me to cough up blood. He doesn't think it is cancer but is some sort of serious infection. I go in Friday for a probe and biopsy to see what is going on. Scared doesn't begin to cover it. My niece and her husband will take me to the hospital and their oldest son will take care of Reid while I'm there.
I hate being a patient. I've been a caregiver for over ten years first for my Mom and now my brother. I don't want to be on the other side. So that is where we are now. Prayers, good thoughts, healing energy, and some "do not panic" buttons would be appreciated since my Douglas Adams books are still in storage.
My book nook.
The Princess with her stolen pretzel.