Cancer

This journey began back in November when Larry started to complain about a backache. He was having trouble sleeping laying down flat on the bed. Fortunately, we have a Tempurpedic bed and he was able to raise the head of the bed enough so the pain was minimal. We had previously planned a trip to Arizona for Thanksgiving to visit our son, Tyler and his family. While we were there, he suffered quite a bit with the back pain. He had to literally live on their couch the entire time we were there, as he couldn't sleep in the bed. It was hard for him to get up off the couch when it was time to eat or use the bathroom, but with help he managed pretty well.

After arriving home we contacted our doctor, who finally ordered an x-ray of his back, which showed a herniated disk and swollen nodes on both sides of the spine. They prescribed pain pills to help him endure the pain. They gave him Tramadol and Narco for the pain. I made the mistake of telling him that Narco is very addictive, so he rarely took it because he didn't want to be a "Junkie". Finally, the doctor sent him to see a pain specialist, who told him that at his age he shouldn't be worrying about becoming addicted and that he should just take the pills on a regular basis.

In February Larry started having problems with his knees. At first it just started to feel like they were going to buckle and not hold him up. He has had problems with his right leg for many years. It usually only happened occasionally. But now it started happening with both of his knees. I mentioned it to the doctor and asked if maybe he could have an appointment with an orthopedic doctor to see what could be causing the problem. We were finally able to get an appointment on April 13th. He was having so much trouble walking that I used one of our walkers that has feet rests that can be attached so I could push him into the office as I didn't have a wheelchair.  Once we were in the office, one of the male nurses was trying to help him out of the chair and onto the table, but even though the wheels were locked, the chair moved back a little and Larry promptly fell to the floor, hurting his legs and back on the chair. The doctor came in and with the help of the male nurse they were able to get him back into the walker. The doctor told us the chair was a piece of junk and that we should throw it away and get a decent wheelchair. He moved his legs around while he sat in the chair and told us it was not a bone issue, but that it was a nerve problem and that we needed to have him see a neurologist. One step forward and two steps backward is the way it was beginning to feel.

So, back to the primary care doctor to get a referral to see a neurologist. We were not able to get in to see Doctor Oliver until May 1. In the meantime, on April 15th he had a regular appointment with his podiatrist to have his feet checked, for which I was grateful as he had managed to somehow hurt one of the toes on his right foot. I was so glad that the podiatrist was able to check it out. The doctor put some antibiotic and a bandage on it and told us to come back in 2 weeks. Larry felt up to using our black walker to walk into the office on this appointment. He had to stop and rest on a bench on the way back out to the car, as he was struggling. Two weeks later on the return appointment he was not able to walk on his own. I had borrowed a wheelchair from my friend, Juanita.

April 23, Cindy and I met up at Jordan Ford to check out the possibility of purchasing a mobility van so that it would be easier for me to transport Larry, as lifting a wheelchair in and out of the trunk of my car was hurting my back. She left her van there to see what they would give her for it on trade-in and we went next door to Alamo Mobility, a company that specializes in van modifications and mobility vehicles of all kinds. We tried out one van, but it didn't quite fit the bill. They had just received another vehicle at their other location, so we made an appointment for the next day to go and check it out. It was perfect! We ended up trading in Cindy's van and our GMC pickup for the new vehicle. It is a 2007 Toyota Van. It is in great condition, even though it has just over 95,000 miles on it. The driver seat is modified, as the previous owner also drove the van and they were handicapped. The seat electronically can move back and forth and rotate halfway around for easily getting into a wheelchair. It makes it so much easier for me to use it. With the new van, Larry was able to use his electric wheelchair when we went to the doctors office. It was great. He loved the mobility it provided for him. It was a little scary the first couple of times with him going up and down the ramp, but he quickly got the hang of it. I struggled at first when it came to setting the clamps that then attached to the chair to make it secure for driving. We to several doctor appointments using the van which was great! We also stopped one day on the way home and had lunch at Jim's Restaurant. Larry felt so free!

May 1st arrived and we went to see Doctor Oliver. He did multiple neurological tests and was unable to come to any definitive conclusions, but decided to do a brain and neck CT scan to see if there was possibly any fluid on the brain that could be causing the problem. In the meantime, I heard from my brother Matt that Medicare pays for everything once you go on hospice. I made the mistake of mentioning it to the visiting nurse, who then passed onto the doctor and the next day we had a chaplin and nurse from a hospice facility come and talk with us. I told them that we weren't really ready to go on hospice yet, as we really wanted to find out the cause of the difficulty with walking and the back pain. The next day the doctor called to see if we were going on hospice. When I told them no, that we wanted to get the scans, they went ahead and processed the paper work for him to get the two CT scans, which we did on Friday, May 8th. Tory went with us and we stopped at Jim's Restaurant and had a late lunch. Larry really enjoyed being out and about.

Sunday, May 10th at about 12:20 pm, Larry was sitting in his lounge chair and raised it up, as he had many times before. The padding that had been put on the chair to protect it, suddenly slid forward and of course, so did Larry, causing him to fall to the floor with the right leg under him and the left leg bent off to the left side.