from DW in Texas

she wrote:

DW...I can't thank you enough for your posts...(just wish they were more often)...They HELP so much in my darkening world...I truly look forward to reading them over & over... You actually make me feel there is something else in my life besides dh & all that goes with it...please know you have a gift & pray you'll continue sharing/posting your "lifeline" for others...DW in Texas

Thanks.  Now that hubby is back living here I'm sure I will have more to post.  I have always said that if my "writing" will help one other person, I will keep it up.  :)

So an update on hubby.  In 2011, he had spinal fusion surgery.  You can go back through this blog and find the posts as it was a horrific experience.  It was his lower back that was fused and the surgeon said that in 5-10 years his upper back would need it.  He has been in excruciating pain and the X-rays show that yes, sooner than expected, he now needs the upper back fused.  I told him we could at least talk to the surgeon. 

But I will not do what I did last time.  People say that I "saved" him by becoming his advocate.  There truly were a hundred things that went wrong in that hospitalization.  But I cannot do it again.  First, we have moved and it would be about 50 miles to the hospital and I won't be "on call" to make that drive in the middle of the night.  I promise I will be there during the surgery and I will go every 3-4 days and spend time, but I will not be the advocate again.  Second - I'm older and wiser now.  I have a friend who's hubby had to go to the VA hospital which was about an hour from their home.  She simply couldn't do the commute and visited him once a week.  I think he was in for 3 weeks.  She said it kept her sane and I do understand that - there is something about being in a hospital 24/7 and not being the patient, not having access to mind-numbing drugs, that just isn't quite right!  LOL!!!

Hubby does not have the referral yet.  So it might be a few before we see the surgeon.  In the meantime, he is spending just about 24/7 in his room, either sitting in a chair, or in bed.  No exercise.  No socialization.  I doubt he could due to the pain.

But I am so dang busy I can't pay attention!  It's fall and today I had to drain and cover the fountains and pond, take off the pergola cover, take down the screens from the gazebo (yes, we have both!) and get ready for snow.  OK - I will never be ready for snow!  Then we drove an hour to the nearest town with a PetSmart to get some pet food and other supplies.  Love living in a tiny village....not so much when it comes to getting stuff you need.  And of course, Walmart doesn't carry the stuff we need.  Came home and finished in the yard - think I'm ready for winter here!  

If you want to contact me, you can do the yahoo email, but I may not get to it if I forget.  You can always post a comment here and post it anonymously and those send alerts to my "real" email.  :o)  Sorry, but I still feel the need to keep myself hidden so that I can be as honest as possible about what happens to the body of a non-compliant diabetic.  Yes, I have wondered how much of his back problems are due to his high sugars eating away at nerve endings and other tissues.....or is it just something that would have happened regardless?

Todays suggestion - find something you love to do (gardening/crafting/genealogy.....) and do it with so much passion that you don't have time to think about diabetes.  After all, it's not your disease.  :)

DW