Last November, Jody's back pain had been getting worse and worse. She was barely able to walk around Thanksgiving and spent most of the weekend in bed. She didn't feel like eating either, and of course, lack of food translates into lack of energy....
We had made several trips to the doctor's office, and the doctors gave her pain pills and muscle relaxers, but it didn't seem to be doing any good.
Finally, on December 5th, the day after her birthday, we went back to the doctor's office, and he sent us to get an MRI at the local hospital.
Well, it turned out that she had sepsis (severe sepsis), ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome), and some of the clots that had developed in her stomach got into her lungs. She was in the hospital for 9 weeks as they worked on her - and went through being intubated and when that didn't work, they performed a tracheotomy.
When she left the hospital on February 12th, she was bedbound for the next 3 months. They needed for her to get some of her strength back before they could do reconstructive back surgery, to fix the holes in her spine from the sepsis. That surgery was on May 11th, and after another month in bed, she was able to sit for short periods of time, which then progressed to some walking.
Pictures of Jody’s new spine…rods and screws hold her new cemented spine to the existing one.
On June 12th, a month after her surgery, she got a cane, ditched the walker, and soon thereafter began aqua therapy, which she does 3 times a week. She is still doing aqua therapy and has just started riding a stationery bike.
My new cane - pink wth blue and purple flowers.
Of course, while she was in the hospital, all NV business pretty much ground to a halt. I was able to communicate via text messages from the hospital, but that really is no way to run a business...
Since February, Jody has had a full time personal assistant, Pearl, who helps Jody with everything...and I mean everything! Just taking Jody to her therapy appointments, doctor's appointments, weekly blood tests for her Coumadin has meant that I can start working again...and that doesn't include what Pearl does in helping out with bathroom stuff, bathing, meal prep and shopping, keeping track of medications, both ordering them from the pharmacy and picking them up and giving them to Jody...making doctor's appointments, etc...She's been a godsend....Thanks, Pearl.
I also found someone wonderful, Linda, to update the web page and she also helped me set up this blog. Jody always wanted to update the website but we realized it was going to be a long time before she would be able to work again...all I can say is thanks, Linda.
As I have talked with people, its incredible how many families have similar stories of family illness...and all of the issues and problems they go through dealing with them. When you're healthy, you don't think about these things. When Jody was in the hospital, our next door neighbors brought me food....it was wonderful. After spending 8-10-12-14 hours a day at the hospital, the last thing I wanted to do was come home and cook.
I hope this explains why i haven't been able to respond to recent inquiries in my normally prompt manner.
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