My sister

is perhaps the best monitor of what's going on with my husband. She only sees him once every couple of months.....not every day like I do. So when there are gradual changes in him physically - she notices them. Simply because they are so gradual, I'm unaware of them.

She was down today and commented on his labored breathing. I had not noticed that at all....until she mentioned it. He is still suffering from an infection in both knees and his left wrist and I had to wonder if the labored breathing is just part of his pain level. She didn't think so. She thinks it's due to his weight which I am going to guess is up to about 300# at this point. Might be around 275.

She also pointed out how often he said today that I was never around....that I was always traveling....that he missed me when I wasn't here. Well, we have both been traveling more this year in the past...but it's not just me. He was in gone a week on business, then 3 weeks at his parent's house and now he is going to be gone a week or 2 on business.....and I was gone 3 weeks on business. So yeah...we haven't been together much in the last 3 months, but it's interesting that he sees it as just me being gone! LOL!!

He did pass on dessert tonight and said that he has learned sugar brings on his joint infections and irritate them and I thought that was great! I think this is the first time he has passed on dessert. At the same time, it's an indicator that the pain is substantial enough that he's willing to make changes in his diet to improve it. That's good!

more infections

I've been traveling and teaching the past few weeks and am back home. He actually did pretty well while I was gone. Only a couple of minor crisis! But he has a pretty bad infection in his left knee and left wrist and a really bad looking spot on his left ankle. I honestly don't know how the poor guy manages to move at all.