When I’m NOT the Only Sick One

It’s easy to get hung up on your own problems, until …..

For several years now I’ve been writing little blurbs every few weeks about me. That’s what this blog was set up to do – focus on prostate cancer, what’s happening in the research field, but mostly how I cope (or don’t), what worries me, how my prostate cancer is progressing, what hurts, what doesn’t work any more, and on and on.

A couple of weeks ago my wife Carol started to cough a lot and feel weak. After a couple of days I convinced her to see a doctor in Arizona near where we were staying. Diagnosis - bronchitis and sinusitis; here’s a bunch of medicine. Should start to get better in a few of days. Five days later she felt worse. In addition to weakness and coughing she now had earaches and headaches. Back to the doctor. Ear infection, antibiotics, pain pills, and keep taking all the other meds, too. Then came the fever – higher at night, lower in the daytime. Finally when we got to Boise, now with an added fever, she ended up in Emergency for an IV of fluids to combat dehydration.

To complicate matters, we were in the process (slowly) of heading home from Arizona to Oregon by way of Las Vegas and Boise. We stopped often and Carol sleeps a lot on the way. Bertha (our big red truck) has reclining seats and a pretty smooth ride. I have come to realize just how much I depend on Carol to tell me where something is in the suitcase, where we turn off the freeway to get to the next Starbucks, or where the motel reservation printout is.

Friends have told us they had a similar set of symptoms and it took three or four weeks before they were back to normal. That’s a long time. She doesn’t complain except that she’s annoyed she can’t walk without feeling weak and dizzy and that she nods off in the middle of a conversation or watching a TV show.

Home in Oregon and its back to the doctor (three different locations – three doctors). I wish I could do more to help. Other than being there and doing what she needs at the moment, I feel pretty worthless. But we’ll both feel better in a week or two – for sure!

axman