Guess enough has happened lately that I should put it down in writing. My head is spinning sometimes!

Ray recovered from his broken arm last summer physically, but never mentally. Refused to walk so got weaker and weaker, despite weekly therapy sessions. Still sleeping on the couch in the den too, I got used to that. Upstairs was like my own private apartment so I wasn't complaining all that much, really.

So out of nowhere, he got pneumonia right after Memorial Day this spring. I had him in the hospital for two days and they recommended rehab. No no no I said like Amy Winehouse, and brought him right home (turned out to be immediately, no lingering after you go against the doctor's orders!) Like I told them, I took him out a few times a week, on all kinds of adventures, and he had PT every Monday and an aide in every Weds and Fri for a change of pace. He didn't seem as enthusiastic as he used to be about things in general, but I figured he was still recovering.

Then a couple of weeks ago, we had a fun dinner of take-out Mexican food, and he ate so much of it I was amazed (and pleased!). His appetite had been off and on, but had been getting a lot better in general. A few hours later we went to sleep, and then a few hours after than he called me in a weird way. I went down and he was breathing really funny, short and deep. I wasn't thinking pneumonia necessarily but told him if it didn't stop in an hour or so I was calling EMT. Then about an hour later, he started throwing up and diarrhea and I'm figuring food poisioning now. Finally around 5AM he calmed down so I said let's get some sleep and THEN I'll call EMT if you're not better. Because I know we'll be in ER for at least 10 or 12 hours and I'm too tired to take that right now, without a nap.

So I slept until around 10, a new world record for me. He didn't stir until 5:30 PM, his breathing was better but when I took him in the bathroom he couldn't sit on the toilet and all that good stuff. So, EMT and off to the hospital, as we've done so many times before. The EMT guy was even saying, oh I remember this and that from the last time! The wildest thing was, our next door neighbors were having the giantest party ever and there wasn't a space anywhere along our dead end street, but somehow the ambulance managed to back into our driveway anyway.

So. Double pneumonia. He's been in two weeks now and seems on the road to recovery. Worst of all, he has a stomach tube, first temporary in the nose and now implanted. He is off to a SNF for rehab Monday supposedly although everything seems to take so much longer than they say. We shall see.

After he first went in, I was freaking out so all I did was clean the house and mow the lawn and stuff like that. Then my family three hours upstate were having a grand gathering since my sister from California was coming in for the week; I decided to take advantage of the little freedom I now had. I went to see Ray earlier than usual and then took off in a northerly direction. I would return the next afternoon and he'd never be the wiser, he doesn't like me coming later in the day anyway. So I get up there, have the most amazing time, then go to leave the next morning and the Prius has lost it's entire dashboard navigation system on the dashboard. No MPH, gas readings, everything you need on a long distance drive. Luckily my family has a Toyota dealer five minutes away that is like family, so we go there hoping it's a fuse or something but they say say it's a major thing and will take at least a week for the parts to come in.

So I freak out a little and my sister takes over and says, take Mom's car and when your car is done you can exchange them somehow. In a panic I agreed, meanwhile Mom decided she hates the Prius so she rented something else from Toyota and my car is just sitting there waiting to be fixed. And I have her 2001 Camry which has bald tires and a squeaky steering wheel! Oh well guess it could always be worse ;-)

I promise to update futher in the next week or two........