Tuesday 14 April 2009 - Hanging in Here

I have been blessed with wonderful friends and family who have all come forward and taken all of the burdens and worries off of my shoulders and allowed me to stay sane. I am still very numb and it all seems so unreal.

The viewing for Larry will be on Thursday and the Service on Friday at 11am. The custom here is that the deceased will lay in an open casket for people to come and pay their respects and then the funeral is held afterwards and on to the cemetary. This is not a custom that I am used to because we always just had the funeral or cremation ceremony, most of the time in a closed casket and it was all done the same day. Afterwards we went on to the family home to mingle a bit and have snacks etc., so this is very foreign to me and I am not too sure how I am going to handle it as during the viewing the family will stand with the casket and greet all the mourners as they come to pay their respects. This is done in three 2 hour shifts over the 2 days.

My only solace is that I have this vision of Larry, with his body whole again and able to walk and ride, with his family who have preceded him and the one horse that he so dearly loved that we lost shortly after coming over to USA. Please keep him in your prayers. I may not post in the next few days because I am totally shattered.

I want to thank everyone for their notes and condolences, I will get to you all as soon as things have calmed down, all of your kind words are greatly appreciated by me and his family and I find them very comforting. (((((Hugs))))

Lori
xx

Monday 13th April 2009

I am writing this because I just don't know what else to do with myself at the moment. I received a phone call at just before 5am this morning to tell me that Larry had gone into cardiac arrest and that they had been unable to revive him and that he had passed away. I am numb and needed to vent.

Thanks all for all your prayers and thoughts. I will probably not be in contact for a few days. ((((Hugs)))))

Lori

12 April 2009

It is hard to absorb the fact that it will be 2 years since Taxes was born on 15 April 2007. Here was one of his first pictures when he was only a few hours old, it was cold had been snowing and was muddy and miserable. He got his first day outside when he was 3 days old but didnt like to get his feet muddy. I don't have and newer pics of him right now but when they have finished shedding I will post some.

I have had a long trying day so will not post any more on my saga, but yes it does seem to have a happy ending, after today I am not too sure though. I will elaborate tomorrow.

Happy Easter everyone!! ((((Hugs))))

Lori

Saturday 11 April 2009 - Life's Little Tests

Not my usual type of shot but this is one that I shot when Lisa and I went on Safari and got lost last week LOL. I thought it was a bit of irony considering the auto industry situation at the moment.

(Click on pic to enlarge)

I have just had a dreadful week as some of you know. I didnt post on here when it all started but did on Facebook so this will be old news to some of you, sorry.

I woke up last Saturday morning to my husband in a non responsive condition. He was breathing and that was about it!!! I called 911 and they were there in minutes. When we got to the local town hospital the EMTs had got a breathing tube into him and had determined that he had a temperature of 105 and was in critical condition. Other than that they couldnt tell me much more and arranged immediately to have him taken by helicopter to a hospital in Fort Wayne who are better equipped to deal with these extreme cases. It was a different hospital to the one he normally goes to in Fort Wayne, about 10 miles further on. Our neighbor Richard brought me home and I arranged lists of telephone numbers and things that I thought I would need as he was critical and they really didn't think he would survive as they didnt know how long his temp had been that high.

I have to say this hospital was like night and day compared to the one we normally go to, these people actually show that they care, are extremely efficient and obviously enjoy their jobs. I am convinced now that L wouldnt have survived if he had gone to his usual hospital which is where I told them his records were and where he normally went, but they decided to take him to the other for whatever reason, I dont know why but I am so glad. I dont know what the man above has in store for Larry but he has defied the odds over the past 26 years so many times that there has got to be a special purpose for him.

When I arrived at the hospital his sister and daughter joined me and we just had to wait. His temp peaked at 105.9 and they had to put him onto a thermal blanket which pumps cold water through it. He was diagnosed with sepsis brought on by a bladder infection which is common with quadraplegic patients as they have a catheter and any foreign object in one's body will react so we had had these infections before but never this bad. They thought he may have had a small heart attack as a result and he was on a ventilator which was doing the breathing for him. His blood sugar was 315 (normal is around 100) also brought about by the fever, kidney stones which were also infected because of the bladder infection, the one being about 1.5 inches across. He had a small one in his other kidney and a large one about the same size in his Gall bladder. He also had pneumonia.

The doctor had no good news for us, he was comatose and they had him sedated because of the tube down his throat for the ventilator so he wouldnt try to pull it out. We all slept in the waiting room that night after speaking to the doctor who said "he is a VERY sick man" and literally told us that he didnt expect him to survive and if he did then the chance would be that he would have to stay on a ventilator or have some type of permanent mental damage. Because he was in the Critical Care unit they don't allow family to stay in the rooms out of visiting hours so we were directed to the lounge. I didn't sleep a wink all night, you couldnt turn the lights out and could only dim them slightly so it was a bit hard to sleep on two chairs pushed together with bright spotlights above you.

To be continued ........

((((Hugs)))) everyone, dont forget to visit my Etsy shop the link is on the top right side of my blog. I did a lot of crocheting over the past week so I will be posting a lot more LOL.

Lori
xx