March Update -- One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Since last time, we have had another set back. Ruthie was just getting into a routine and on Saturday the 16th, she had one of the best days she has had since coming home from her stay at rehab in Abilene. It was a beautiful day and Ruthie enjoyed sitting outside on our little patio reading a few magazines. We invited a few folks to drop by and visit and Ruthie enjoyed chatting with some friends under the sun. That was a great day, and for several days Ruthie was doing really well. Except for a few days of being tired or a little weak from her blood glucose rollercoaster, she was making some serious progress! One day, we were here at the house and I was getting a little upset with her because I felt like she wasn’t trying very hard to be more independent in getting up from her wheelchair to and from the couch. We argued for a few minutes and I ended up walking away from her -- leaving her sitting on the couch with her wheelchair several feet away. I told her “When you’re ready to really try, I will help you to your chair -- but I’m not going to bring it to you!” After several minutes of both of us staring at the tv and not saying a word, she finally said “Come here.” I helped her stand up from the couch and then I handed her the walker that she was given in rehab. I coached her step by step, a little at a time, “OK, put the walker here. Now move this foot. OK, now move that foot. Take the step!” Without my touching her or without me providing any support whatsoever, she walked across the room and sat down in the wheel chair! Awesome, awesome!!! After a short rest, I coached her through walking the full length of the living room...from the tv to the dining room, then back to her chair! I was so proud of her I can’t even describe how happy I was. But her confidence was still lacking so I knew it wasn’t enough just to succeed the one time. I set it in my mind that we would have to walk back and forth through the living room every day for quite a while before she will have the confidence to do so on her own. Ruthie has a serious confidence problem, she doesn’t believe she can do things by herself much anymore -- she is not the same woman she used to be. I miss her independent spirit and from time to time I sit quietly in my own thoughts daydreaming about all the years we had together and so many of the things that we planned on doing but never got
around to it. I can’t help but wonder how many of those dreams are lost. I’m sure anyone would be experiencing these same thoughts...but that hardly makes it easier. A part of her is gone and may never be returned...but Ruthie is still here, still with us...in heart, mind and spirit. Tuesday, March 26th
In the midst of our hectic schedule, we did find the time to run off to Stephenville on Tuesday the 26th. Ruthie was having a great day, she was riding along with me, bobbing her head and singing with the radio...laughing. It was great! After supper, while we were doing some grocery shopping, she suddenly complained about feeling ill and said she was ready to head home. It cut the night short and when we got home she went to bed. Wednesday she refused to go to therapy because she wasn’t feeling good and we slept late until time to go to Abilene for dialysis. After dialysis, we came home and she went straight to bed again. On Thursday, she was still in dire straights, achy all over, feeling nauseous, refusing to eat. We took her by the clinic here in town and they sent us to Eastland Memorial to get her on a fluid IV and possibly transport her to Abilene overnight. Well -- that seemingly simple task turned into an hour and a half emergency room visit; then a helicopter flight to Hendricks followed by about 12-hours laying in the middle of an emergency examination room. Ruthie was transferred to the Hendrick Critical Care Unit early Friday morning after we had left her there alone under the watchful care of Ramona, a wonderful trauma nurse! She then spent the day in the CCU and had dialysis at her bedside. By Saturday morning, she was transferred to the monitoring floor and was finally getting some rest. She has been diagnosed with the flu on top of everything else and as of this writing she has gone 6-days without eating a meal. She looks like she is wasting away and we could use all the prayers you can spare to ask for her appetite to return so she can regain her strength. She was just starting to make some real progress physically and emotionaly and this unexpected detour is weighing on all of us extremely heavily. Mom had the entire family poised to get together for Easter Sunday for the first time in over 10 years, and with my new nephew barely 6-weeks old, the family had extra special reason for all of us to get together.
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Donations may be made to: Farmers & Merchants Bank
Ruth Norris Benefit Fund
930 East Main Eastland, TX 76448 (254) 629-3282 Credit Card donations can be made online at:
www.PeachyTurtle.org But that didn’t happen. Mine and Ruthie’s spirits are both broken, and we are both lonely -- she is isolated by her illness and I am missing the woman she once was. Back in January, one of the therapists told me that the spouse has the roughest road. She said, “You have the toughest job, Mike, because you have to help her get past her disability while at the same time you have to learn to accept it...and you have to mourn the loss of the woman that she was.” I’m starting to understand what she was saying. I’ll be glad to get you home, Ruthie -- because I miss you more than you know.
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Published by Mike W. Norris dba Wolverine Design ● PO Box 1156 www.facebook.com/mycountyline ● Eastland, Texas 76448 ● http://www.mycounty-line.com www.facebook.com/sherriesmom