In the advocacy world, May is a twofer for veterans with ALS. Not only is May the month of the military caregiver but it is also ALS awareness month. Lucky us, right?! This month I am going to do my best to share with you the real story. Not the one I polish just enough for prime time or where I use humor to soften the blow of what living an ALS life looks like from the perspective of the wife and caregiver.

As I pull back the curtain, let me give you the highlights of the last six months to show you what has been going on:

November 2020-As if dealing with ALS and Covid wasn’t enough, the Big He developed a kidney stone which sent us to the emergency room due to the pain.

December 2020-The pesky kidney stone was still causing problems so we went back to the emergency room where an MRI showed the stone had not moved. The Big He was admitted to the ICU because that is the place you put people on ventilators. The ICU has several pods and we were placed in the one that did not have active Covid patients. The Big He had a procedure to remove the stone which went well until he developed sepsis. He got sick, like really sick. It scared me. It scared him once he came back to the living and was able to understand exactly how sick he had gotten. Two days after the scariest part of the sepsis we were sent home. Not because he re-bounded so well, but because we needed to get out due to the increasing Covid cases.

January 2021-The Big He developed pneumonia. We were on it very earlier and were able to avoid a hospital visit but it was pneumonia and he already has a weakened immune and respiratory system so it was another scary moment.

February 2021-Winter came and she was called SNOVID. Texas was hit hard. We did good regarding electricity because in early Fall 2020 I had a natural gas whole house generator installed as a “just in case”. Never in my wildest dreams (and I have a crazy imagination) did I consider losing power to winter. Our part of Texas does not have a real winter. It may get cold for a day or two but not multiple winter storms in a row. We had to get help from neighbors to ensure we had enough distilled water for the Big He’s humidifier that is part of his ventilator circuit. The paid caregiver help we use, for the most part, could not get to us except for a few days and only for a few hours. So the Little He and I were it. Emergency services were limited and no guarantee they could get to us if something did happen. I spent my days and nights scared. Scared something would happen that I would not be able to handle.

March 2021-This was the month of the broken down caregiver. During March I had to go to the ER due to fever (101 plus) and belly pain. My trip to the ER could not happen until the Big He’s care was covered. Luckily this all happened on a night that we would have skilled care. After five hours in the ER I was released. I had developed acute diverticulitis. WTH??? It took two good days for me to feel well enough to start really helping with the Big He again. The infection took me down hard! Maybe two weeks after the ER visit, I made another ER visit. This time because I had sliced my wrist while doing dishes. Four staples and helluva lot of pain, I was home. The paid caregivers had to really step up along with the Big He to allow me the chance to let my wrist heal…you know so I didn’t pull any staples out. Which did happen. Well not out but one staple was so twisted I had to remove it just a few days after it was placed.

April came and went without issue, well not huge like the previous months. I did realize though that the past several months had really traumatized me in the sense that I am not as prepared as I thought I was. That you can “what if” and prepare all you want and you are really not ready for what life throws at you.

All my love,

The She