A little medical history Part I and ramblings...

Okay, so here goes. My major health issues started in 1999. My family and I had just moved to Birmingham in August after Tony had started a new job with Specialty Products and Insulation. He was the branch manager and I started working there as the secretary. About a month after we moved there, my father was hospitalized for a hole in his lung. He was expected to heal a return home after a few days. He was in a small hospital in Fayetteville, TN. He didn't heal so a small town surgeon decided that he needed surgery on his lung. Two days after surgery, he developed a high fever and nearly died. He was med flighted to Huntsville Hosptial where they found he had a MRSA (multi-resistent staph infection). He was in the hospital there for 3 months in and out of isolation, ICU and regular rooms.

My mother, brother and myself took turns staying with dad. Because of my new job and living in Birmingham, I would come up on weekends to relieve my mom and at times when he was in ICU, I would stay there for the duration. My mom and I would make a sleeping roll and sleep on the floor in the ICU waiting room. We were there for every visiting hour which were sometimes in the middle of the night. We would go to her home in Tennessee during the day between visiting hours to shower change and return. We always tried to look refreshed and had our make up on so as not to worry dad. After a while he was moved to regular room and I went back to coming only on weekends.

In December of that year he started to decline and it became clear that he would not recover. I would come up as often as I could and on Dec. 13, 1999, he lost his battle.

During the trips back and forth from Huntsville to Birmingham, I noticed that I was increasingly feeling ill, but of course attributed it to lack of rest and stress. In January of 2000. I went to the doctor and found I had high blood pressure, was hyponthyroid and had developed a rare neurological eye disorder called Adie's pupil. Adie's pupil causes one of your eyes to dialted and stay that way. It doesn't react to the changes in light as your pupils normally would. This disorder caused me to have blurred vision and headaches, but I was told there was nothing that could be done about it and that it would correct itself in about a year. I was put on medication for blood pressure and thyroid. I was hoping these changes would make me feel better, but I continued to feel poorly.

I will write more tomorrow, as there is alot more to my medical history. Boring as well.

Yesterday we went to Tony's therapy sessions and I learned how to help him at home with his "homework". We went to Walgreen's afterwards to check out stuff for Easter baskets. I know, my kids are 26 and 24, but I still make them Easter baskets. Came home and did some laundry and read my favorite blogs, Jan, Mary Lou and a few others from some ladies I have come to "know" through bresatcancer.org message boards. Some really nice ladies there and alot of good information. I don't post there very much, but read there often.

Danielle came home with sinuses really bothering her. I boiled a pot of water with cloves in it and had her lean over it with a towel over her head. That really seemed to help. Later she pimped out my myspace page. HA, HA!

The rest of the evening I spent online searching for a Mother/Son song to dance to at Adam's wedding reception. I'm thinking maybe "A Wonderful Life" by Louis Armstrong. Adam can imitate that song very well and always makes me laugh. What do you think?

Well enough rambling for today.