First of all, thank you all for the prayers! They are greatly appreciated! Please continue to pray for us!
My mother doesn't have a blood clot behind her eye, however, we still do not have an answer for the problems she has been having. I assume the doctor will keep on searching for the cause. She has numerous health problems and is prone to falling. She keeps us pretty busy running here and there for appointments, prescriptions, and emergencies. I've had to take her to the ER many times to have stitches in her head from banging it on things when she takes a tumble. She is 77 years old.
My daddy will be 82 in a couple of weeks. We recently found out that he has the aggressive type of prostate cancer. He also has been having mini strokes for awhile now. The mini strokes cause memory problems and weakness in his legs. He has a few other problems but over all he does pretty well. At times it becomes time consuming getting him to his appointments and keeping an eye on him to make sure he doesn't forget his medicines and all. My mother isn't a lot of help with this since she is easily confused too.
We also care for my 79 year old aunt. She doesn't require too much attention since she is amazingly spry and is in pretty good health, but from time to time we do have to help her out with some things. She, and my parents, live 5-7 miles away, so it's not like we have to travel very far to get to them. It's up to Tim (my husband) and me to take care of the three of them 99% of the time because my sister lives in South Carolina.
Tim's mother passed away last May with mesothelioma cancer. Tim cared for her the last year of her life, taking her to all appointments, surgeries, staying at the hospital, and then basically moved in with them the last three months she was alive. Their home is only about a mile from us so it wasn't like he was in another country or anything. Long before she died Tim's daddy started giving us all kinds of trouble! He has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. He has recently had some surgeries (unnecessary) that have turned out to be a nightmare because he developed a severe and deadly infection from it. This, along with the Alzheimer's, means that Tim is having to stay with his daddy now during the day, and his brother has been staying at night (which is a miracle because Len does little to help - EVER!). I'm not sure how much longer Tim can keep this up.
Tim is having problems of his own to boot. First of all, about 12 years ago he was using chemicals to treat some wood logs he was going to use for our log cabin (not sure of the spelling, but I'll take a stab at it - coppernapoline) and it settled in his liver causing liver disease. He is in almost constant pain in his right side and has to take a ton of pain meds. It also causes bouts of nausea and diarrhea. To look at him you would never know anything was wrong, but he sure suffers a lot of the time. He is on partial disability due to all of this. He isn't able to hold down a full time job because he has good days, bad days, and horrible days. On the good days he works with heavy equipment (bulldozers, loaders, etc.) doing jobs for the public... clearing land, building lakes/ponds, chicken house pads, etc. He also does mechanic work on heavy equipment and has the reputation for being the best around! He does welding jobs for the public, and most anything, or any odd job, that is asked of him. He is a jack of all trades! And a good one too! Before the disability he was a steel worker at a steel plant that closed down. He keeps all of the yards in the family mowed - 3 of them + a neighbor's (but I cut our grass) - and does all the maintenance work for all the family. He stays busy constantly.... or was before having to sit with his daddy. We are going to have to work something out about his daddy's situation. Anyway, Tim also has trouble with frequent kidney stones and has been having a lot of pain lately. He went for a scan today (Friday) and will see the doctor on Monday for the results. I sure hope we don't have to go through surgery for that again! Please pray for him!
These things, more or less, are why I had to take a break from teaching. I was needed on the home front! But I miss teaching and need to get back to work for financial reasons. I am very concerned about finding a teaching position with the economy the way it is, and all the cuts in education! Teachers are being laid off or let go right now, and here I am needing to go back to work! In the meantime, I'll hang on at the hotel to fill the gaps. I'm at the hotel now, working 11-7 tonight.
While you are praying, please add me to all of the above. I have severe osteoarthritis, and moderate to severe fibromyalgia. The fibromyalgia that I have isn't the type that causes the muscle pains; the fibromyalgia I have works on the connective tissue, tendons, and ligaments. I'm STIFF and in pain pretty much 24/7. I can't take the types of meds needed for this kind of pain (anti inflammatories) due to having only one kidney. Any other types of meds either do not help much with the pain and stiffness, or I don't take them because of side effects I had rather not have. I take what I can and try to stay as active as possible. I walk on the treadmill, take walks outside, hike occasionally, ride my mountain bike sometimes, and do a little of this and a little of that to keep moving.
Thanks for reading/listening to me ramble!!! I told you I would catch up eventually! You men are probably saying... "Typical long winded woman!" Well, I know plenty of men who can talk circles around any woman I know!!!!
Thanks for reading/listening, and for praying!
Lisa (in Alabama)
TreasureDigger
We sorta take one day at a time and have gotten lazy in our older ages! God Bless! Betty
Betty