The "New Adventure" Began...

I sit here this morning knowing that this will be another very full day, as have been the past 6 days, but in a different way. I wrote in the last post about being ready for a new adventure and I have been provided one - and as typical, not in the way I expected. The Eternal Wise One continually surprises me with twists and turns. And in the end I am grateful.

A little history first: Dan's aunt Peggy is a frail, tiny (79 pounds dripping wet) never married woman who has had multiple health problems over the past couple of years. Three years ago she decided she could no longer live in her rural farm home by herself - she and her bachelor brother had kept up the Korinek family homestead for their whole lives (uncle Vic died a little over 4 years ago). Anyway, aunt Peggy decided to sell the farm and take up residence at an assisted living facility. She did well there until her health started giving her problems among which were multiple ulcers (eventually diagnosed and treated). Then the not so fun time followed quickly.

With her having very severe osteoporosis, she sustained a fall two years ago and broke BOTH shoulders! The very day she was released from the rehab unit, all healed, she fell again and sustained a compression fracture of one of the vertebra in her low back. Now, this is a stubborn woman we're talking about and after various treatments that didn't work, she finally agreed to see an orthopedic surgeon. He was new in town and very skilled at a procedure called a kyphoplasty - a relatively safe surgical procedure that decompressed the fracture and inserts bone cement to hold the vertebra in close to normal position, thereby relieving the back pain. Right up to the the moment the nurses took her into the operating room, aunt Peggy was still convinced having this done would not help her severe pain. To our delight and her surprise, that evening she was pain-free and very mobile again. Three months later another compression fracture occurred and we were back again for another successful kyphoplasty.

Over the course of the past year, there were some other, turned out a few but not all, lesser medical dilemmas but ones that still kept me arranging for appointments and running her to doctors and exams quite often. Now, you may wonder...if this is Dan's aunt, why was I the one attending to her? Simple answer: We had long developed a wonderful relationship, eventually I became the only one here whose advice she valued on these health matters and she had named me as her durable power of attorney for health care. She has ALWAYS been very good to both Dan and me and ALWAYS so very grateful for anything and everything we have done for her and with her for the 20 years I have known her and all the years Dan has known her.

Okay, back to the story: Early last fall, you guessed it, another compression fracture and another kyphoplasty. This event was complicated at bit. Though the back procedure was again a huge success, about a week prior to the surgery she became severely dehydrated which necessitated hospitalization for a few days. But the kyphoplasty was able to be done on schedule. And this time when she was released from the hospital, she was transferred to a rehab unit to regain her strength through some physical therapy. While in rehab, she developed abdominal pain. So...back to the emergency room and another admission to the hospital - this time to treat an impending bowel obstruction. After three days she was back at the rehab unit until released back to her apartment at assisted living on Christmas Eve. At that time she was up, walking pain-free with her walker and feeling quite good, until...three days later. You guessed it, severe back pain again. After an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon and another impending MRI, she got to the point that the pain was so severe I took her to the ER again, and she was admitted again. The MRI was done and...she had TWO new compression fractures! Kyphoplasty was done the following day and they were once again successful. So...back to her apartment she went.

All was well until I got a call from the facility's nurse on January 6th. You guessed it again - severe low back pain. I phoned the doctor, had an MRI scheduled for January 8th and stopped in to see aunt Peggy both on the 6th and again on the 7th. When I got there on the 7th, I found her pain to be so severe that she had not been able to even move in bed and had not been eating. Up until Jan. 6th, she had been up and around by herself and going to eat in the main dining room. Well, it was back to the ER again in a wink. They were able to do the MRI almost immediately and gave her some pain medication, which made her sick to her stomach and caused her to vomit. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise so to speak because after testing that, they found she was bleeding somewhere in her intestinal tract. And she was admitted to the hospital.

During the course of this most recent hospitalization the doctors found multiple esophageal ulcers. The MRI of her back showed ALL previously untreated vertebra were fractured and other problems none of which could be treated either surgically or with therapy. For this once very recently independently mobile little lady, her future fate was sealed. She would be bed-ridden for the duration of her life. The ulcers were being treated with IV then oral medications with success (so far), and she had to receive a blood transfusion to boost up her blood count, but decisions ultimately had to be made. To make this very long story a bit shorter, yesterday she was admitted to a nursing home - this will be a permanent living situation for her this time. Through the course of each hospitalization I spent many hours each day with her and kept in close contact with her doctors. Aunt Peggy ultimately made the decision to go to the nursing home - she is after all of sound mind and very capable of making those decisions...IF she has good and complete information (that's where I come in - as her advocate). I'm not saying this to in any way boast; I'm saying it because it's the way it has been and still is.

Throughout every medical and surgical dilemma aunt Peggy faced, Dan and I have been very attentive to keep other extended family up to date on what was going on and what was being done to help her.

Today will be another very full day attending to transporting many of aunt Peggy's personal belongings from her apartment to the nursing home, and then sitting with her for a time. In her mind, her fate is sealed: once permanently in a nursing home she feels she is now in the proverbial situation of having one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. She cannot even move in bed without severe pain and is stuck there for the duration. She is refusing to eat much - but I for some reason have been able to coax her to at least eat a little soup from time to time. Don't know how long she'll agree to even that. Aunt Peggy welcomed me with open arms into her life 20 years ago and into her life decisions over the past 5 years even with my "warts" and all. She has NEVER judged me in any matter and I am so very grateful for her trust in and genuine love for me - a love that is returned to her in great appreciation and abundance.