Life in West Virginia: MY SURGERY IS OVER BUT I AM STILL

Monday, February 23, 2009

MY SURGERY IS OVER BUT I AM STILL

in the hospital at CCMH. I had a severe headache that started on Saturday evening and they suspected a tear from the surgery and spinal fluid leakage and I have been on bed rest for over 24 hours now. I am in severe pain now, whereas I had been doing really well on Saturday following the surgery on Friday, walking really well, not much pain.

But after lying in bed for just 3 hours last night, the pain started setting in; my left leg hurts worse than when I ruptured my disc back in 05 and my back is seizing up and I am miserable. He said that I can't get out of bed to start walking until 12noon tomorrow and after I get walking, maybe go home tomorrow evening. I have had only 3 hours sleep Friday night, (because I was knocked out all day in surgery) 3 or 4 hours Saturday night because of my headache and then last night I finally got 4 hours from 4 am to 8 am after they gave me pain meds and a muscle relaxer and valium, but I think at that point, I slept from just total exhaustion.

Kim is going to go to work in North Dakota and is probably leaving Saturday. This is going to be strange for us again. I never really got used to him leaving town to work last year but he has got to go back to work. He loves his Grandpa but K is broke and even though it's not much money to live out there on the farm and his Grandpa pays the HH bills and for K's car and stuff, K needs his own money and needs to get money going back into his pension and health insurance, etc. No one helps with the wood and no one has a clue how difficult it is to keep an old farmhouse warm, chainsaws sharp, wood stacked and dry, haul logs in from somewhere else when you have a car (although Shannon has helped alot, along with Steve and Mike* hauling and other friends have helped split and stack and carry wood . . . . without them we don't know what we would have done if not for all that help; however, it was just not enough) not when you:

still have to start the furnance, put more wood in at 10am; then again at 2pm; check it at 5 or 6; then again at 9; again at 12mid; 4am; then again at 6 or 7am; make sure Grandpa has eaten and taken his meds; wash all his clothes, do dishes, run sweeper, clean up mess from wood where everyone carried it in; fix helpers food since they helped, clean up house where they track back and forth up and downstairs; reassure Grandpa that there is plenty of wood or that they will be back in a little bit with a load or they went to get the last load or they are splitting it now; make sure Grandpa ate again.

Tell Grandpa K is checking furnance now; tell Grandpa K is in building welding; that K is coming up from furnance; that K is coming back up from taking Shannon to his car down at the bottom of the hill that K is just right outside and it goes on and on and on and on; at some point, I have to spend time with Punkin, go to Dr appts, go grocery shopping for Mom's and K's; WIC appt's, DHHR; Family Law Master court hearings that I prepare for during a period of MONTHS and cram all my paperwork together and get in order over two nights; the hearing which gets cancelled and the notices are mailed out the morning of the hearing but the guard acts like I am some dumbass saying "There are no hearings scheduled this morning" like I am there on the wrong day or something;

We love Grandpa so much but it's been a long winter and K needs to go back to work and make some money; he is tired of being broke and having no help except me and I can't do much physically to help him; no one is helping with the wood at all and no one ever did help keep the furnance going and he is just exhausted physically and mentally.

Hopefully, I will be out of here tomorrow evening . . . . if you wish to see some photos of the Life at K's in WV, wood and all, check out the link to my photo blog shortly . . . .