Posts
This month
has had it’s ups and downs. Dealing not
only with physical issues but mental and emotional ones as well. Toss in a little family drama and home
repairs. It’s been quite a month.
George has
had problems with his belly not properly draining for a good portion of the
month. Not sure what is going on. He asks for the drain to be put on frequently
because he is feeling full or bloated, yet nothing comes out. I think when he has a buildup, it creates
other issues for him such as the need to use the bathroom frequently.
He’s
exhausted more and more with little energy to expend. He’ll fall asleep at least twice a day for
one or two hours. He won’t hear anything
going on during that time.
His fistula
is beginning to put out more mucin and such.
The hole might even be wider than before.
Mentally he
is having a hard time with all of this.
It is worrisome. Wondering what
is going on and the mind goes to dark places.
During the
month there has been some family drama going on – I think we’ve resolved these
things.
Home issues
have arisen. Another problem with the
garage door. I thought it might be
something covered under warranty with the new spring we had installed in early
June, so I called the same company. The
tech came out and spent 45 minutes trying to figure out why the door wouldn’t
shut completely. I asked if it could be
something with the new spring and he said no.
He was not able to fix it and said “maybe the door is broken inside so
when the door is closing the energy is not properly dispersing…” I called another company out to fix it and
their tech figured out the problem within 30 seconds and had the door fixed in
two minutes! AND it had to do with the new spring which needed an
adjustment! Arghhh!!
We also
found out that our house phone was not working when someone said they’d tried
to call but no one answered. I looked at
the handset and noticed a “Line in use” display. This had happened before. I went around and
unplugged/replugged phones and couldn’t get that message to clear. I eventually got around to calling AT&T
and the earliest schedule time was a week later. The tech found an issue at the box (a block
away) and fixed the lines. We have
absolutely no idea how long the phones had not been working (as we don’t use
the land line often) but estimate the line went perhaps as long ago as June
1. (Should have noticed that we weren’t
getting robocalls!!) Interestingly
within a few hours the phone rang. It
was someone from hospice which puzzles me as I have told them that my cell
should be the default phone number! Of
course, since then we’ve gotten a robocall – though not as much as before so
maybe the two months of no answer got our number removed – at least for the
short term.
On the
upside, we had visits from old friends this month. My former pastor, James, and his wife came
for a visit when they were in the area for a wedding (he lives in Arizona
now). Steve and Vernita, who moved to
Washington last December, also came for a visit while they were in town. Stan, a long-time friend of George’s, paid a
visit. George had some phone calls from
former co-workers. I was able to go out
for a lunch and a dinner with friends as well as take in a movie with Cathy. Earlier in the month (or maybe it was in
June), we got a chance to see our friends Rob and Angie who were visiting from
Tennessee. I have to remember to be
thankful for these things.
I am
looking forward to my brother and sister-in-law coming from Thailand for a
visit in August. Since I have a list of
projects on my to-do list, I am going to enlist help in getting one or two
things checked off my list with their help.
Planning a family barbecue with the kids. I feel bad for George because there is not a
thing we can barbecue that he can eat.
He used to be the best grill cooker, making tasty steaks and
chicken. It’s been a very long time
since he’s had a burger and longer still since he had steak.
As we move
into August, we are all too aware that things are changing. He believes one of the tumors is now the size
of a baseball. He feels the tumor burden
more and more. He is more and more
tired. These will continue to get
worse. We do our best to enjoy
moments. Sometimes it’s when I’m
changing his dressings and we find ourselves laughing about something we heard
or saw – or we just get plain silly.
Sometimes it’s when we are settling in for the night. I want to remember
these moments – even if I don’t remember exactly what we were laughing
about.
