Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Progress report

I was thinking the other day, our far away family needs an update on how Les is doing.
Les' speech is getting more slurred.  He gets "winded" quite easily when talking, has to stop and catch his breath.  Normal walking isn't too bad but if he climbs a hill, etc he gets "winded" sooner than normal.  But he says "course I am almost 55" !! He gets quite fatigued at work. Last week he worked Monday and Tuesday and was exhausted so took Wednesday and Thursday off, worked again Friday. This week was a planned vacation week so is off all week.  Hopes to do some hunting!

He is having a little more of a problem drinking liquids. He learned to tilt his head down when drinking to help that. If he forgets, he chokes!  Eating is not too much of a problem; but it is getting harder to swallow.  He eats a lot slower.  He LOVES to eat and lately has been eating a lot! Sweet stuff doesn't sound good to him, which is kinda weird.  I think knowing he won't be able to eat in the future makes him all that more eager to eat as much as he can! Plus, the clinic is always concerned with weight loss, so we aren't worried about all the eating.  He has also developed an issue with saliva....he doesn't swallow as much as he should voluntarily so has excess saliva in his mouth....all a disease issue.  He started a new med to help with the saliva but thinks it is giving him a sore stomach, so we'll see.

Mentally we are doing pretty good. The shock and rawness is wearing down, but still quite surreal. We both just think this is just a dream.....when he is working and we are going about our life quite normally we can pretend it's not really happening. And that's not such a bad thing, right? But then we have our moments......never really know when that's gonna happen.

A song that's been running through my head "this world is not my home, I'm just a passin' through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore"

1 comment:

  1. Karen...thank you very much for sharing your story. We appreciate so that you are willing to share the hardship along with the happy times. We think if your family often, and continue to keep Les in our prayers. Know all of us in Michigan are in your corner!! Blessings to you all.

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