Reflections From a Country Girl

You know how things go.  At least in some part of your life, you are cruising along with pretty good health, a reasonably good financial life, and good times with family and friends.  The good times happen to some of us longer than others.  However, getting old is not for sissies, so sooner or later we all find ourselves or someone we love with some medical or financial challenges.  

We’ve been pretty fortunate.  

I was in that “cruising along stage” until February 28th.  Three visits to the hospital later, a son who has an emergency appendectomy between my second and third visit to the hospital, and then his contracting shingles after the surgery and we are both in a tailspin.  

This is the first day I’ve felt like writing in over three weeks.  My mental juices are still stunned from all the drugs and stress trying to find out what is going on.  Chest pains, irregular heartbeat, a doctor who suggests major surgery, another who suggest a different procedure, debilitating migraines (which I never had in my life until now) and a body that has dangerously low potassium/electrolytes is enough to unnerve anyone.  Then, when your caretaker is unable to take care of you because he has emergency surgery AND shingles, it makes you silently say “what else?” … but not TOO loud because you are scared of what the answer just might be.  

We’ve been so blessed by having my sister in law and brother in law nearby and very willing to sacrifice their own agendas to help take care of us.  They have gone above and beyond the call of duty.  Words can’t express the appreciation we feel for them.  They have been our advocates when we needed them the most.  

We’ve had friends who have brought food, another who stayed with my son when he was just back from the hospital as he watched the ambulance take me back to the hospital a third time, and still others who have called to check on us.  There are those who are “on call” for the time when we need something and can’t drive to the store to get it.   There are those that helped me lift a bed to get the headboard elevated so I could sleep better and someone that just came by with his loving little dog to spend some time visiting.  There are still others that are saying extra prayers for our improvement as well as prayers for comfort during this time.  

We’ve been fortunate with friends, family, and lots of well times when life was good. 

“So what’s next?”  I can say that without fear because of friends, family and a knowledge that we will be ok no matter what.  

We both have multiple doctor’s appointments this week. Hopefully, my third doctor will be the charm.  If not, I have that backup plan to go out of state to a hospital that is known for specializing in hard to diagnose medical situations holistically.  Six more days of medications five times a day for my son should help rid him of the shingles.  I can’t wait till I can walk again and he is ready to get back to his projects with a passion.

My wish for you today is that you never have to deal with these kind of medical challenges all at once.  However, if you do, I hope you are surrounded by people who love and care for you…be it friends, family and/or good medical people who treat you holistically and discover the causes quickly and effectively.   

~ Joellen

This entry was posted on Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 12:21:pm and is filed under Life & Events, Medical. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.