Saturday, December 19, 2009

Winter Break

It's been over a week since I last wrote. I apologize, but it has been rather busy.

Dennis was in the hospital until Monday evening. He had another swallow video, and this time they are recommending thickening all liquids to honey consistency. This should cut down on his Coke intake, at the very least. They also took him off of his night time sedatives, because they seem to be causing his throat to relax too much.

The first night home was horrendous. "ur ee." "i illo uffica e." "ake eh eel air off eh ed!!" (Turn me, my pillow is suffocating me and take the wheel chair off of the bed). These hallucinations went on most of the night, and I crawled back to work the next morning.

He has improved since then. Well, he did ask me if it was time for him to go to hospice care, and other such nonsense. After reminding him that he promised he would live for at least another year, he calmed down a bit.

Then...

We went to the Mayo Clinic for a yearly follow-up appointment. After all the poking and prodding, the questioning and the tests, he was declared to be still in stage 4 of his disease. Now this is good news. Although a few of his symptoms have become more problematic lately, he hasn't deteriorated to the point of knocking on deaths door. Or, in MSA speak, another autonomic system has not been affected since last year.

This is good news to take us into the holiday season. Jane and Ralph arrived yesterday from London and Dennis and I leave for wine country in California in one week. It should be a good two week vacation for me, with my now cheered up love and family around, as well as a spa retreat with great California wine!

Happy holidays, one and all.

Until later,
Ann and Dennis

2 comments:

Ann Viveros said...

Enjoy your holidays Ann and Dennis! Yay to spas and wine country!! xxoo

At Odds with Living said...

So glad to see your blog. Was getting concerned. Good news about Dennis. So, you're coming to my little part of the world--well, actually I'm in Southern California, but we have wineries down here too, but the WINE COUNTY is indeed beautiful and what a great trip for you and Dennis. Have a Merry Christmas and wonderful New Year! Mary Lou