It has been a glorious week in Knoxville, Tennessee. The temperatures are comfortable and warming up a bit more. Our flowers, flowering trees, and shrubs are peaking rapidly. The annual Dogwood Arts Festival offers a big weekend celebration with music, food, and all things art on the World’s Fair Site lawn. After two weeks of some serious stuff, I was ready to join in the fun until life threw us a curveball.
My favorite line from the movie City Slickers goes like this–“There’s no such thing as a normal life…there’s just life!” This favored line is accurate, and Helen and I proved it this week. Ease Along with us and get a glimpse of a week with more than a smidgen of ups and downs.
Helen began the week feeling no ill effects from her surgery and was more than capable of functioning somewhat normally. Her caregiver (that would be me) was quite impressed and extremely grateful. In addition, and most importantly, we’ve been overwhelmed and beyond grateful for the love and support sent by friends from across the country. Our neighbors, Helen’s close friends, and gal-pals have been nothing short of amazing with their love, support, and attention. Our church family deserves special mention for the meals sent to us when we had no intention or desire to cook for ourselves. Helen has received a basketful of cards and letters from friends everywhere. Those cards have gone a long way toward keeping her spirits up.
I won’t get into all of the tasks required of a breast cancer patient post-op, but it can get very involved. Nevertheless, Helen was handling things well and was ready to move on to the next step. On Thursday, we went to an office visit with one of the surgeons. Dr. Gibson was pleased with her progress and spent some time explaining the process from this point on very thoroughly. After the surgery, he had covered this with us, but not much of it sank in.
We visited with Dr. Lo, the second surgeon involved in Helen’s operation, on Friday. Dr. Lo was also pleased with her progress and began some of the next steps of her treatment. Again, I’ll leave out the details, but Helen left Dr. Lo’s office in a lot of pain. My solution was to take her to the Waffle House for breakfast. Breakfast helped, but she was still very uncomfortable. I knew it had to be severe because Helen never complains. We planned to attend the Dogwood Arts Festival downtown later in the day, and she assured me that she planned to go after a short rest.
I took her back home, then left to run an errand. When I returned, she looked at me somewhat teary-eyed (very unusual) and said she had suddenly developed a high fever and felt ill. Fortunately, and ironically, she had ordered eight government-issued COVID-19 test kits that arrived the day before. She took the test, and…you guessed it, she tested positive.
We didn’t attend the Festival, and Helen went from bad to worse, then went to bed. Our family doctor called in an anti-viral medication for her, but it was only available at a pharmacy across town. I left her once more to retrieve the medicine, thinking, “How much more can she take?”
It was a long night, but I’m delighted to report that Helen was much better by morning. She still had a fever and was in some pain, but nothing like the previous day. She is now working on her puzzle. I tested negative, but I’m Easin’ Along a long way away from direct contact. I’m sure readers will understand.
There’s no such thing as a normal life. Every once in a while, God will pull you through a keyhole.
