I haven’t felt up to posting since we left Quartzsite, AZ. We have spent the past six weeks facing one medical challenge after another while visiting the Tracy Elks’ Club!
Larry has had Chronic Kidney Disease since prior to 2000. We continued to travel with the help of two great doctors—who helped us work around his disease. The one thing we have always put first is “do no harm to the kidneys.” Larry hasn’t gotten to his “well-aged-wine” stage without a lot of scars and mars on and in his body. Since mid-January, we have been hard pressed to stick to that slogan!
It was like pulling a thread on a sweater and watching the arm fall off. It started with both of us being in back/sciatic pain for the first three weeks.
The night we left Quartzsite, AZ, I re-injured a muscle in my groin which triggered sciatic nerve pain down my leg. About the same time, Larry’s lower back went in to muscle spasms. We spent the first few weeks trying to get the other to drive the car—because we hurt too much. We tried pillows and all sorts of ways to be more comfortable in the driver’s seat. Eventually we found wonderful—and I do mean “Wonderful!!” gel seat pads at Costco which have helped us heal and drive.
After having two successful skin-cancer-removal surgeries in 2013 without affecting kidney function, we got too complacent. During the first doctor visit in January, Larry asked for a referral to have his carpal tunnel syndrome fixed on his left wrist. In retrospect, bad mistake. It opened the door to numerous doctor appointments—up two a day as we saw a rheumatologist, two neurologists, a surgery scheduler (who referred him to the surgeon prior to agreeing to do the surgery), an ophthalmologist, ER physician and even an Internist. Oh, add his nephrololgist and the Infusion Therapy department to the list.
As Larry was seeing doctor after doctor, I picked up a UTI and then intestinal distress after the antibiotic. You would think 4 weeks of suffering would result in some weight loss—no such luck.
Meanwhile Larry’s nephrologist scheduled 6 weekly visits in the Infusion Therapy department to receive iron via IV instead of daily pills. I knew we should have stayed out in the desert for another month or two!!
The worst part of all this suffering was that it appears Larry had another reaction to a new medicine that triggered a bout of Shingles. Of all the things he has, the Shingles attack has been the worst. It started with a tingling on his scalp and throbbing pain in his eye. It quickly progressed to extreme light sensitivity, which meant no reading, TV watching or rides in the bright sunlight. He has suffered more from this curse than anything else that has been thrown at him in years!! He basically slept away the first 10 days. I had him scheduled for a Shingles shot in March—isn’t that the way it always goes?
And if that wasn’t enough, he ended up in the ER last Sunday—with some intestinal issues which resulted in having an Endoscopy. He has acid issues and apparently the ulcer-causing bacteria. That will mean more medicine—which could more reactions.
The ER doctor summed up his medical history in the nicest way: “Mr. Jennings, you are a very complicated man. You have many layers!” Isn’t that the sweetest way of saying: You have so many things going on, where do I start??
Even the Honda started having “medical issues.” We noticed a rumble sound/feeling at medium speeds. I Goggled the symptoms and found articles suggesting flushing the transmission fluid. So far, It has helped. We are having the transmission fluid changed again next week—for additional insurance.
And that is why even though the weather has been wonderful, the hills are green and trees are blooming, I just haven’t had the energy to take photos or write the blog. Some days were just too painful to think about—much less write.
I hope we have turned the corner and life will be a bit easier! Larry is still facing another four weeks of IVs for iron, along with the scalp and eye pain, and seeing the surgeon about possibly having wrist surgery. As there are problems with the wrist that bothers him, we are hoping they will fix the other wrist—that also has carpal tunnel syndrome. Yikes, he is falling apart—we have to get away from the doctors!
We managed to get in one day of riding around Tracy and spotted this:
See, even wine grapes need medicine to fix what ails them!
If you are free from pain today, offer a prayer of thanks! No matter what else is going on in your life, you are blessed! Feeling fine and enjoying good health is something we take for granted—until something goes wrong. We will get past all this trauma because our eyes are on our goal—summer in Salem, OR. And we acknowledge—it could be so much worse! We are thankful for all the good things going on in out lives. This too shall pass!
