Living On Oxygen for Life
You probably are thinking this post is about the horrible Coronavirus that is going around and maybe it is a little bit. However, that’s not my main focus here because I’m sure we are all needing something else to occupy our minds for a little while. So, while this post may seem a little scary, I truly feel it can be uplifting as well.
Let me start at the beginning and tell you what has happened here in our house. It all started on January 14th, 2020. K and I were getting in the car about to drive off to select the vanity top stone to complete our bathroom renovation. Remember that little pipe leak we had last August 2019? Well, it still hadn’t been finished yet by January. We had turned the whole situation into a bathroom remodel and it prolonged the project. What a chore that was. =o) Anyway, as K got into the driver’s seat of our car, he just suddenly leaned his head on the steering wheel and then started looking around. He told me that something wasn’t right and that he was starting to feel dizzy and the world was spinning. At first, I thought it was just low blood sugar. I encouraged him to go back in the house and eat something. K is a man who will power through any illness. He’s a tough cookie and he doesn’t complain unless something really serious is happening. So, yes, this was scaring me.
K ate a donut and drank a little soda (I know, not the food I was hoping he’d pick to eat) and he decided we could still go to the stone place but I would drive. He did NOT tell me how he felt other than he was “fine.” We were in the stone shop and we picked out the stone that we wanted as our vanity top but I was watching him the whole time. It was apparent that he was NOT “fine.” So many things were going through my head. A lot of self-doubt. How am I going to be able to care for him? How was I going to drive him everywhere? What about his job? Are we going to be financially ok? PLEASE, PLEASE God let him be ok. I was in panic mode. I had not prepared myself to be the caretaker of both of us. Maybe it’s just a short bout of something but I was wrong.
I called my sister right away. She’s a PA and she thought it sounded like he was experiencing Positional Vertigo. She recommended doing some Vertigo excerises (Epley Maneuver) that I looked up on YouTube. Meanwhile I got him an appointment with our family doctor asap who diagnosed him with the same thing as what my sister thought it was and recommended the same home therapy. It didn’t help and he was walking as if he was on a ship at high sea, holding the wall to walk. He would lie on the couch holding his head. Every person is different with Vertigo. Some recover quickly. Some have it for a long time. The doctor, at first, thought he would be better in a week or two. He wasn’t. Paperwork had to be filled out to get him a leave from work and for the short term disability that we had luckily purchased (HIGHLY RECOMMEND!).
So after nearly a couple of weeks, he was referred to a Physical Therapist. I was still driving him around. I was exhausted. I had done more things in that time period physically than I had in a long time. However, he was starting to show signs of improvement.
He was home for six months from Vertigo. In a twisted way, it was somewhat of a blessing. With Covid just ramping up, he was home with me. It was the longest time we’ve ever spent together and it taught me a lot of patience and strength. He has been my strength when I needed it but I found that I could rise to the challenge of the occasion when called upon. It was stressful and so not easy but we learned a lot about our strength together as a team.
He’s doing so much better now for which I’m vastly thankful for. I kept thinking in my mind that it was suppose to only be my body that falls apart. However, everyone gets old and bodies wear down over time. I just wasn’t ready for his to trip me up. It was shocking. Life happens. God was watching out for us.
Living On O2 for Life 