April Fool's

Such an easy day for me to remember now, as I was surely hoping Pete was fooling when he called me last year on April Fool's and told me he had come into rehab and found Kaye unreponsive. Please say you are kidding. I left school and went to meet him at U of L.

Her previous month's ordeal seemed to be nearly over. After nearly dying of heart attack on February 1 and speedy surgery on the 5 th, then nearly not pulling through, we discovered they'd damaged her leg. After 30 days, yes, count them in ICU, she finally went to rehab. She was making progress, the leg, after unending infections, finally appeared to be healing, now what? What went wrong? She fell- fell, then said she was fine and didn't need to go to the hospital. She was terribly mistaken.

Her days at U of L were some of the very worst of my life and needless to say hers. I did not know such sad suffering existed.
We'll do the surgery today. No, we won't. The clot will turn to an oily substance, but it hasn't. We'll do the surgery tomorrow, no, something else has come up. She has an infection in her port site, no she doesn't. The procedure didn't work, we'll try a new one. That didn't work either.
I could go on and on and on. It was one horror after another that continued right on to Kindred and then to Green Valley and she really did not make steady progress until October of this year.

There are so many days that float up to the surface and instantly bring tears- too many too count. Lots of tears today.

Then, there are heroes like my brother-in-law, who refused to believe anything, except her getting better and coming back to him. He took her home against the advice of the docs. He did what rehab was never able to do. He is controlling the C-diff, the e-coli and klebsillia, though they told him of the impossibility to do so. He believed there was more when they said the progress shown in three months was the most there would be- wrong again. And everyday he is my hero as he works at giving her his very best.
I thank God for him.
There were others, the siblings who have not stopped cooking, cleaning and caring for her while working full time and managing full plates already. The people who never stopped praying.

Having someone that is in such need for so long can be a lonely place. Your world becomes a hospital or rehab room. You have trouble finding your joy. You feel quite alone.
Do you know someone is such a state? If so, drop them a card, respond to their updates, leave a message that says you are just checkin' in, surprise them with a little something fun. Let them know they aren't forgotten.

My hope for everyone is that any bad news today was just foolin'.