A Long and Tiring Journey....

Well .. this poor old blog has suffered the loss of my time and energy this last year.

 

Since last March ...it's kind of been a scattering of posts. I started out with a lot of gusto the beginning of last year ..and just about march life started to get a little complicated and something eventually had to give.

 

I tried with all that was in me to keep those proverbial balls of life in the air .. but my arms just got a bit weary and a few of those balls ..(the blog) being one I couldn't catch and well it's just been lookin' sad ever since.

 

 

 

 

Our Journey started last March .. I know I mentioned it back then and a few times thereafter about my Daddy being sick.  It started out with nothing more than him not feeling well and mama and I being concerned it was possibly something to do with Heart Disease ... so we sent him to his Heart Dr. ... and they found through a blood test that he had only 1/2 his blood in his body ..which meant he had an internal bleed some where. That put into motion a whole array of trips to new Dr.s .. trips to the hospital for transfusions ...and the diagnosis was that he had an ulcer and some meds and time would heal it up and all would be fine...

 

 

That began our Long now near a year Journey down a road with twists and turns and bumps along the way...

 

 

 

Finally after 6 months of him not getting any better and his losing all the blood that they kept transfusing him with which meant he was still bleeding .. and the fact that his ability to eat was lessening by greater leaps and bounds as each day passed .. we put our foot down and asked for a specialist.

 

The specialist ordered up a specialist which ordered up a whole lot of special tests ..a long way from home at a hospital where they only do those kind of special tests ...

 

So off our Journey took us in another direction a direction of searching for an answer to 6 months of uncertainty and concern for a man growing sicker and thinner by the day ...

 

By August ..He was unable to eat anything more than a slice of bread and 1 ensure maybe twice a day ..

 

Of course it was in our thoughts just like the Dr.s helping us that he possibly had cancer.

 

The tests that were ordered would give us that answer ..and Praise God there wasn't any cancer.

 

But the special tests with the specialty Dr. did show that Daddy had what they call a non-healing ulcer sittin in a spot you don't want an ulcer to sit. And a part of the intestine called the duodenum  had strictures in it ..(scar tissue) so much so it was blocking off the passage of his food ..so when he tried to eat the food couldn't pass and all that acid the stomach made just washed back over that ulcer and wouldn't let it heal.

 

Well Hooray they finally found the problem ..now what to do about it. Only 1 option and that was major surgery or as the next Dr. we were sent to said..Major Major Surgery ... So quickly they scheduled him for surgery in October .. and on the 16th .. his life and our life got a little topsy turvy...

 

The Surgery went well ..but the pain associated with it was enormous .. he screamed and writhed in paid for near more than 72 hours ..no pain meds would work ..

 

Mama stayed by his side the entire time ..and I sat outside with Flossie Dog and waited for him to finally come to some kind of comfort in his discomfort whatever that was.

 

What was supposed to be a 3 to 5 day stay turned out to be 9 days ..

 

We came home.. and within 24 hours we were back at the hospital ..mind you a hospital near 100 miles from home no less. With a specialty surgery we had to return to that hospital to that Dr. which was fine with us .. but oh what a long drive .. this time we were headed back because he had developed a fever .. which meant in our minds infection ..and it wasn't a surprise on one hand considering the extent of the surgery I believe there 4 surgical sites inside plus they had to cut him from his left to right side right at the rib cage ..so the chances for infection dealing with the gut ..where substantial in our minds.

 

we headed back ..he was admitted again.. given heavy antibiotics and all was good 6 days later we headed back home.

 

We were all tired and weary a bed was like a double edged sword ..it was the gift of rest .. but on the other hand there was no long periods of sleep when you knew daddy needed to be cared for .. so any little wink of sleep we could catch was an absolute blessing.

 

 

6 Days passed after the last hospital visit and the antibiotics had been completed for 2 days and the fever came back again .. And Yep .. off to the hospital we were again.

 

5 more days at the hospital .. the infection had been nipped in the bud once again ..and home again we came...

 

We were now into the busy season with work .. Holidays were hovering and Abbey and I were taking care of Daddy and working like crazy to keep the business going ...

 

As the days passed into weeks ..daddy grew in strength .. he could now eat again .. and even though things were moving slow for him since the recovery period was up to a year for such a massive surgery .. we were all thrilled with his progress ..

 

 

 

About 3 weeks ago ..this prayer above says it all for mama and I ..

 

Daddy started having fevers "crazy fevers" as we called them. His Fever would get to 102 degress then in 15 minute time drop back to normal ..then an hourlater back 100.4 and 10 minutes later down to 99.0.... and then totally disappear for 12 hours...it was the strangest thing ..

 

This went on for 2 weeks ..and Yep we called the Dr. and yep daddy went back on antibiotics.

Basically the Dr.s Could't find where the infection was coming from even when they cat scanned him looking for abcess's  ..there weren't any .. So it was a wait and pray the antibiotics would kill the infection.

2 weeks ago yesterday ... Mama and I were working ...getting our new line of linens ready to photograph ..and Daddy came to the stairs and said to please help him he was in dire pain....

We ran upstairs and he started moaning and hollering the pain was so severe ...So in a flash we were in the truck and headed back to the hospital to the ER ... driving near a 100 miles with someone in dire pain is just plain nerve wracking ... but we made it and I'll admit it was in record time ...

5 hours in ER .. with no results. Pain Meds weren't working now the pain was so severe you could here his hollering down the corridors ..

Cat Scan still showed nothing.

But he had a massive infection "Sepsis" brewing in his  body..

More antibiotics were given .. Pain Meds Upped and still no relief ..the pain only grew more massive.

72 hours later he nor mama had slept ..the Dr.s were doing everything they could for him ...Sunday the pain began radiating into his shoulder so they knew things were progressing and they took him for another cat scan which finally showed a small pocket of fluid at one of the surgical sites ..

They decided on adding a drain ..and in so doing found a greater amount of fluid in the abdomen than what could be seen in the cat scan.

12 Days later .. we finally came home from the hospital ... and he's now resting comfortably. Still in some pain ..has the drain still in ..and is still on antibiotics ..

The journey down this road still continues and we can only hope and pray that this is the end of this illness ..that Healing will now begin and his body will begin recooperating.

So as you can see ..the blog has been on a long list of "To Do's" .. but pretty much near the bottom going on a year now.

Hopefully sometime here in the near future ..I will get the free printables back ...and we can do some cooking and baking in Sweet Magnolias Farm Kitchen .. and just share some fun stuff !

Until then ..I'll just do my periodic updates on our Shop ..

Thanks so much for your sweet comments ..your concerned e-mails..... It's always a salve to one's soul to know people are thinking and caring about you !

Wishing you all a Beautiful February... and  Lovely Valentines !