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These last couple of months have been dominated by Barbara's interactions with the medical community. It has been lots of fun but unfortunately, my intuition suggests that we have yet to identified the underlying cause(s) of her illnesses. I include this image of our calendar for part of this period, not because I expect you will be able to read it, but simply to graphically illustrate the number of entries, each representing as many as four physician visits.
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You may recall that a few years ago on a trip to visit her daughters in the southeastern United States, Barbara became unresponsive and spend some time in a hospital in Biloxi Mississippi. The recent episodes here are quite similar. On Tuesday, 30 October, Barbara made a routine visit to the pain clinic on the campus of the Veterans Administration Hospital. When I arrived at our rendezvous point to pick her up, she was sitting on the sidewalk, leaning against a post, marginally responsive. With the help of a passerby I got her in the car and took her to the emergency room. There they treated her for a stroke. Later an MRI (12 December) refuted that diagnosis. Barbara did not have a stroke and the cause of her problems are still undiagnosed. Barbara stayed in the hospital four days and was released Saturday, 2 November. Three days later (Tuesday 7 November) when I arose, I found her lying on the kitchen floor unable to get up or even talk. She also had a large bruise on the left side of her face. A call to 911 resulted in an ambulance ride to the Oro Valley Hospital.
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The emergency room doctor there determined that she had no gag reflex and decided to intubate her. She remained sedated for four days until Friday, 10 November. Barbara described this procedure as being quite unpleasant. She came home Sunday, 12 November, very weak and has been recovering slowly since then.
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I didn't realize that bruises were mobile, but this one moved from left eye to right eye, and then down her cheek to her upper lip. It took slightly less than a month to disappear. After that excitement, it was onward with the cancer treatment. She was receiving a mixture of methotrexate and 5-flurouracil once per week intravenously, and cyclophosphamide daily as an oral pill. After three weeks, the oncologist concluded that Barbara could not tolerate chemotherapy, and terminated that treatment.It was then on to radiation. This protocol called for 18 daily (excluding weekends and holidays) doses. Friday 20, December marks the last day of this therapy. |
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I don't have an in depth understanding of military regulations, but some combination of Andrea being deployed overseas and Barbara being hospitalized in intensive care with both her diagnosis and the prognosis unknown, triggered some program involving the Red Cross. The resulted was that Andrea received two weeks leave and a round trip plane ticket home. A short time later she was joined by her husband Michael Restivo, son Athen, and dog Jacks who flew here from South Carolina. Barbara was still very weak but enjoyed the company. The visit ended all too soon. I cannot explain the absence of images from this visit. I had hoped to get photos of Andrea in her uniform, but she didn't bring one with her. I understand she has enough stripes on her sleeve that a normal person wearing that uniform would struggle to lift their arms.
This is a somewhat dated image that I lifted from facebook. |
Brian Cox, a member of our ward and a friend of mine, stopped by here for a short visit.
As he was leaving, he made the mistake of asking if there was anything he could do for us. Barbara asked him to charge the AC unit on her "Maroon Beast." Since I had the freon, tools, and knowledge I was a bit embarrassed by that request but it quickly turned into a mechanics nightmare. When we attempted to open the hood, the latch release mechanism failed. This mechanism consists of a cable, on the end of which is pressed a small piece of metal called a choke. This choke is then passed through the larger portion of a keyhole shaped opening on the latch release, moved to the small end of the keyhole, and wedged into a depression there. Our mechanism failed when the cable and choke managed to work their way out of the depression, then to, and through, the larger opening of the keyhole. Mercedes is a brand whose engineers have spent time pondering strategies designed to impede unauthorized entry into their vehicles and have developed some expertise in that area. It took 1½ days, a trip to Harbor Freight, and two trips to a junk yard, but in the end, at the cost of sacrificing the little plastic box in which the latch release was enscounced, we managed to open the hood. Brian, I owe you one!
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I came close to joining Brian in another of his adventures. There is a yearly auto race called the "Gambler 500." The rules are a bit nebulous, but briefly, you start with a car worth $500 or less, make modifications you think necessary, and race it across 500 miles of unmaintained, primitive roads in two days. The winner isn't he who finishes first, but rather he who finishes in the car least likely to finish. Style points are also awarded for helping other drivers who have suffered mechanical failures and cleaning the environment. After the smoke cleared and the dust settled, they declared Brian this years winner. Does that race sound like fun to anyone besides me?
Barbara bought someone a Yoda Chia Pet for Christmas, but liked it so well she decided to keep it...
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Nancy Fiander, (Barbara's oldest sister) came for a short visit. Nancy was just diagnosed with the exact same type of cancer from which Barbara is recovering, so they had much to discuss. Unfortunately, Barbara had doctor appointments every day Nancy was here so we didn't get to show off our local dinosaur track attraction. Maybe next time...
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A big piece of history rolled through Benson October 17. Big Boy No. 4014, the world's largest steam locomotive weighing in at 1.2 million pounds, made a whistle stop in Benson as part of Union Pacific's "Great Race Across the Southwest." The event celebrates the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad's completion. The engine's size was massive!
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Most of the time, adults look like adults and children look like children. It is, however, occasionally possible to momentarily glimpse the future adult in the face of a child. I think this is one of those cases. This is the face Janelle's children will see just prior to the "How many times do I have to tell you to..." lecture.Am I wrong? |
This, and the following are random images captured at our Thanksgiving get together.
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Various people worked the controls on my camera so I don't know who to thank for each image.
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We came,
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We ate,
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We visited
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And we went home.
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All of the traveling was done without fatalities
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Who could ask for a better holiday?
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Mylinda and Serra.
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Kyle and Symantha.
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Piper.
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Lit and Sabrina.
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Mylinda has been talking about moving from Oklahoma for several years now, and last summer she finally did it.
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Zeke finished work on his masters degree, Mylinda completed her technical program, and out of the blue Spartan informed Zeke that his services were no longer needed.
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Everything came together, their house sold and they started dragging their stuff across the continent.
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Zeke got a couple of employment offers, chose the most stable (boring), and the rest, as they say, is history. They are currently bivouacked at Jimmy Elis' house (between the Post Office and the Courthouse) and are actively house-hunting.
They have been most helpful to us, and I suspect also to Zeke's father. |