Fireflies
Last night, at a campground in Crossville TN, the dog and I went for a walk as it was getting dark. It was raining very lightly, and all around in the edge of the woods, fireflies flew up through the branches, or lingered in the tall grass, flashing their love songs in the twilight. I never grow tired of this buggy miracle, it seems like a special present on a summer evening.
I needed a long walk, as the last few days have been pretty bad.
On Friday night, Don had a stroke while he slept, and when he woke up, his left hand would not obey his brain. He could not get his shirt on nor do up his pants and belt, and tying his shoes was impossible. This dear man, who loves to fix things and be generally handy with all sorts of things, is crushed by the frustration and embarrassment of dropping anything he picks up with his left hand.
It was apparent to me that his left hand was not the only damage, subtle cognitive and visual things are wrong too. And this meant that there was no way he could drive.
This was always something waiting in the wings, no one ever knows how this ending dance will go exactly. The thickening of the blood that cancer brings caused a clot in his brain, and the nearby cells died. The people in the hospital in Clarksville TN emergency and then a neurologist in Nashville, did all the tests. There was no other reason for the clot, and they found he had serious clots in his legs, and he is now on Coumadin to thin his blood out.
He was taken by ambulance to Nashville, I had to let him go alone, because of the dog waiting at the trailer. What a horrible moment that was, leaving him to go by himself, and then coming home to an empty bed.
The Airstream and Darth Vader are now parked by the house of Ken’s platoon seargent., He’s the combat medic grandson stationed at Fort Campbell that we came to visit. Ken is my hero, he helped out in so many ways. I will have to fly back and pick it up once we are settled in VA.
I needed a long walk, as the last few days have been pretty bad.
On Friday night, Don had a stroke while he slept, and when he woke up, his left hand would not obey his brain. He could not get his shirt on nor do up his pants and belt, and tying his shoes was impossible. This dear man, who loves to fix things and be generally handy with all sorts of things, is crushed by the frustration and embarrassment of dropping anything he picks up with his left hand.
It was apparent to me that his left hand was not the only damage, subtle cognitive and visual things are wrong too. And this meant that there was no way he could drive.
This was always something waiting in the wings, no one ever knows how this ending dance will go exactly. The thickening of the blood that cancer brings caused a clot in his brain, and the nearby cells died. The people in the hospital in Clarksville TN emergency and then a neurologist in Nashville, did all the tests. There was no other reason for the clot, and they found he had serious clots in his legs, and he is now on Coumadin to thin his blood out.
He was taken by ambulance to Nashville, I had to let him go alone, because of the dog waiting at the trailer. What a horrible moment that was, leaving him to go by himself, and then coming home to an empty bed.
The Airstream and Darth Vader are now parked by the house of Ken’s platoon seargent., He’s the combat medic grandson stationed at Fort Campbell that we came to visit. Ken is my hero, he helped out in so many ways. I will have to fly back and pick it up once we are settled in VA.
posted by Thistledown24 at 5:58 PM
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