SharivilleLife stories from Shari

I drove into the hospital today without any trouble I just followed the big H signs.  It’s a good sized town and the hospital is all the way across town.  Jerry is doing much much better today.  The meds are working to get rid of the fluid in his lungs. He can now lay down and breathe.   The doc’s think he has a double whammy, both congestive heart failure and an upper respiratory infection.  So they are treating with antibiotics also.  Now that I look back, this has been coming on for several months.  He’s been more pale and llistless and not wanting to do anything more than he had to.  I just figured he needed a vacation.  It was a great vacation until about 2 weeks ago when the respiratory infection started, ending with CHF.

With tests we now know that the aortic valve they replaced 7 yrs ago now needs a replacement.  We were never really told the duration of the kind of valve they gave him, we now know 7 yrs and guess what,  it’s been 7 yrs.

As I write this Angie and Tommy are on the road headed here.  Tommy will drive the truck pulling the trailer with Jerry and I will ride with Angie in her car.  We will spend one night on the road as it’s about 700+ miles to Bowling Green and then 25 more miles to this park.  Angie secured a spot in a park with full hookups about 1/2 mile from her house, so its handy.

It’s been trippy driving that truck, but I’m doing OK. I have to remember to account for the big back fenders that stick out.  It gets scary when I have to turn a corner with a car already at the intersection, tight squeeze.  Today I drove it up to the valet parking and asked the guy to park it, as I could barely drive it.  He gave me a funny look.

The staff at this hospital are so helpful.  In fact, Jerry’s day nurse went outside and searched the various parking lots, it’s a big hospital, until she found the truck.  The night before I had followed the ambulance from the small hospital in Cave City, to the big one in bowling Green, about 25 miles. When we got onto the hospital grounds they stopped and told me to park the truck and get in with them, that way I could go straight into the ER and up to the ICU without a hassel.  It was 3 AM and I had no idea where I’d parked the truck.  It was a very scary night for both of us.  But what’s that saying, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going,” guess that’s what happened.  Looking back on Tues. night it seems like a bad dream, that somehow turned out OK.  The nurses were all so good at working together in the ICU.  They got all the tests done, IV meds, all the lines hooked up to the machines and all the labs done.  They used humor to ease some of our fears and Jerry has fun teasing them about their southern drawl, y’all.

Jerry will be discharged tomorrow and then Sat AM we will all hit the road for Keller, where the kids live.  It’s a suburb of Dallas.  With Angie’s help we have decided to go to Dallas, as there is an awsome VA hospital there.  Besides it’s a long way from home and for now home is where this trailer and my cats are.  We will have lots of support with Angie, Tommy and Felecia with us. Liz will continue to hold down the fort at our house in Chico.  God Bless Liz, she’s always been there for me.  With her there I have one less worry.

Tonight back at the trailer, I went over to the laundry room to get that done before the trip and while I was putting the clothes away I realized it was the first time in 35 yrs of camping that Jerry was not there to help me.  It was an empty feeling.  As Angie says we will take one day at a time and one thing at a time until we get it all taken care of.  I will continue to blog as it is actually helpful to keep a running tally of what’s going on.  I know we are in all of your prayers , please keep us there.  I will continue to keep in touch with whats going on.  Thank goodness for computers…………….Hugs  S and J.