sigh

Wow - has it ever been a long couple of weeks. 

 

My uncle is really sick, for one thing.  An otherwise healthy man, he had what was thought to be some sort of herniated disc or something in his neck (between the C1 and C4 area, I think).  It ended up not being that, though.  It was a staph infection in his neck, which required emergency surgery to remove the infection.  This was discovered while he was already in the hospital for renal failure.  He had been taking ibuprofen for the neck pain, but not eating or drinking, so his kidneys shut down. 

 

He has been regaining kidney function day-by-day, but during the emergency surgery, his heart stopped at least once, which caused a blood clot.  The clot then traveled to his spine, of all things.  He is now paralyzed from the chest down.  I cried like he had died when I found out.  He's such a strong man, and I never would have expected something like that to happen to him, of all people.  It's very hard to watch my favorite uncle suffering. 

 

I went to see him yesterday again, and he is on a ventilator as well.  He can communicate somewhat, but it is extremely difficult to understand him.  The nurses, my mom and aunts can understand him more than I can, but they've been around him more.  I talked to him a couple of times, and I feel bad that I couldn't understand him.  I was able to figure out that he was thirsty once, though.  I gave him those sponges that you can wet and let him drink from.  The other time, I had to get the nurse to figure it out. 

 

He knows he is paralyzed, or at least he has been told at least once.  No one is sure yet if he has retained everything he hears, or if he's even hearing everything. 

 

Other than that, things don't suck, they just cost a lot. 

 

Oh, and the cute little neighborhood feral kitty got hit and killed last night or this morning.  That just started my day off badly. 

 

Dangit. 

 

Well, Christmas is coming up.  I am going to visit my Uncle both days, and then we're getting together with the families over three days.  That might make things better.