The last two months were so eventful and so crazy - I have to think hard to bring it all under one hat - so to speak....but I will try.
Beginning with a wonderful event, anticipated with a kind of wonder - on February 10th we were visited by Dieter's half-sister Ursula. We knew that Dieter's father had produced a love child towards the end of World War II, but that was all we ever knew from other sources than Dieters's dad.. One of our relatives living in Pennsylvania had worked with a geneology site and the result was that it turned out to be true. The picture we saw on fb confirmed it right away, she had Dieter's eyes - and it turned out later that both of them shared the disliking of working with the internet. We talked that evening for about 3 hours till Ursula went to her hotel in town. Dieter looked exhausted and almost sick. Towards the morning hours of Febr. 11th I was awakening to Dieter's call to me that he feels very sick. He said: "I am going to faint". He was standing in our small RV Bath room and slid down unconsciously in front of the vanity with his head hanging over the 2 steps down to our kitchen/living quarters. Even though I have been working in the nursing field for almost all my life, I did not see the severity of this short fainting. He went back to bed, asked for a Tylenol, a bit of water and said: It all will be fine in the morning. It was'nt. I called 911 and the paramedics came rushing in right after I completed my call. Ursula were wondering what was going on when she did not hear anything from me for some early morning hours. In the meantime ( I had driven to the hospital with the emergency vehicle) I learned in the ER that Dieter was seriously sick. His Lab results and technical tests indicated that he had a bowel obstruction and his kidneys were in the process of shutting down completely. I called Ursula and she came with her rental car to the hospital, we talked shortly with Dieter and then left together. She had already looked out for a restaurant to provide lunch for her - and now we were driving to the same fish restaurant and had dinner, the both of us. We talked things over for some hours and established a pretty good bond of being related. I knew already from Dieter that he had liked her. The rest is future!! The other day Ursula and I visited Dieter together, so she could say "Auf Wiedersehen" to him. Meaanwhile our oldest grandson had told us that his daughter - our oldest great grand daughter - comes from France with her mother to see her Opa and Oma again. We had seen her one time only before on our visit to Germany in 2012. We were also looking forward to that visit, as you can imagine! On Febr. 15th that meeting took place in Dieter's hospital room ( he was now in the Cardiology since 2 days because he had had "A-Fib" and a heart valve not working correctly). Our great grand daughter is 12 years old and speaks French and a little bit of German and her mother speaks French and Emglish. Dieter was glad he could do a little bit of conversation with her in German, and I translated it to her mother into English. That has been an 2 hour event, sadly, but we were glad anyway that it could happen at all. The other day Dieter had surgery to relieve his bowel obstruction, with was caused by adhesions from his earlier almost fatal bowel blockage surgery in 2005 in St.Augustine, Florida. That same day Dieter received his first hemodialysis in the Zephyrhills Hospital ( Febr. 16th 2019). Since then Dieter has today his 22nd dialysis overall. Dieter had been released from the hospital on Febr. 28th. At first he had to drive for the dialysis traetments from our park to Land O' Lakes, a city just 20 miles from us, but it was a route under construction and involved the Interstate 75 partially. I drove with him all the time - just in case he would have needed my assistance. It has been awfully time-consuming and nerve shattering. We have a Dialysis Center just 3.2 miles away from our park, but no chair was available for Dieter. All the "snowbirds" ( campers from the northern states) contributed to the almost no available chairs in your neighborhood. I am happy to report that Dieter is served by the nearest Dialysis Center in town now, only 3.2 miles, as I have stated. And I stay home. He was assigned the third shift - meaning being there at 3:30 PM ( 15:30 Uhr). Sometimes the Center calls him in earlier. So he is at home again mostly before 8 PM ( 20:00 Uhr). On Dialysis days ( Tueday, Thursday. Saturday) we have the main course on midday, on the non-dialysis days we have it like we always had - lunch at noon and dinner at 5 PM. We had to follow up on "Follow-Up" visits with all specialists involved ( Family Doctor, Cardiologist, Nephrologist, Gastroenterologist, 2 Surgeons and the Eye Doctor, who treats Dieter with Injections for his age-related macular degeneration. Since Dieter has to take a blood thinner since 2005, he has now to report for the Warfarin check every week. Hopefully this will be soon behind us. Besides all that, I have to order new medicines, the heart doctor will try to get his heart under control without katheterizing it to fix the valve. From now on our goal is to see the doctors only when absolutely necessary. Dieter is still somewhat weak, can walk short distances only and his frequently tired, specially at mornings. But he sleeps good, has good appetite - - and is able to drive our "monster-truck" wherever it has to go !! By now our park - and any other parks - start to empty out. Our cat Ellie can see farther ahead instead of just staring at the next motorhome or Fifth Wheel or Trailer. I am sorry for the long read, but I hope you all get your insights out of it - - like being glad about your status quo. If you have any doubts about any personal ailments or health issues - please - refer to all the search engines available in our modern days ( just type the question you actually have ) - -and afterwards make appointments with your health care providers to keep you going. Friends and relatives know that I am a "strong woman", which does not mean that I cannot fall into a deep hole sometimes - but I know how to get myself out of it just by relaxing, hear some favorite music, talk to friends and have a drink. I will spare you of some pictures I took of Dieter while he was not "photogen", but I changed my fb cover photo to remind myself what my man meant to me all the time. Love is my religion, and I stick to it to my end.
8 Comments
Karin
4/7/2019 09:02:00 am
Thank you, Debbie. It was 2005 when Dieter's life was saved by good doctors in St. Augustine - 14 years ago. I now hope for good luck in this matter for the next 14 years, he will be 100 years then.....We always joke around reaching 100.....♥
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Lorelei
4/6/2019 10:42:45 pm
Stay strong gf.
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Karin
4/7/2019 09:21:20 am
Music is a great gift and a blessing. You picked the right melodies, Lorelei, big thanks!
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Julie Bierens
4/7/2019 12:16:18 am
So glad things are looking better for you and Deter. I know how much you two are in love. I can feel it in your writings. Much success with all that is going on. Hugs
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Karin
4/7/2019 09:06:24 am
Thanks for visiting my website and the good wishes, Julie. Big hugs from me to you and your hubby! XX ♥
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Antoinette Givant
4/7/2019 02:38:40 am
Hi Karin,
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KarinBig thanks
4/7/2019 09:08:41 am
Big Thanks to You, Antoinette! And a Hug!
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Author : Karin
I love to write and work on my websites. The computer is a fascinating and useful tool. Archives
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