This is a difficult post to write, and I/we have been postponing a blog posting because how do we even to start? So, perhaps the short version is best. My (Kim's) father has been in a nursing home in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada for the last year and a half, and I have been making visits in the fall to see my Dad and visit with my Mom, and my brother and his family. The last visit my father did not know who I was, but that was still ok, because he always knew who my mother was and still could joke around with the staff there. He enjoyed someone bringing him ( aka sneaking in ) a peanut butter sandwich, or a Timmy's coffee or his favorite: Ice cream. In December, he started to fail, and passed on Christmas Day. He was a great Dad, husband of almost 60 years to Mom, and grandfather and great grandfather.
My mothers brother, Bob, is a year younger than my mother, and with his wife, Joyce were extremely close to my parents. They stood up for each other at their weddings and we were always together with their family. My aunt Joyce passed away also while I was still there, on January 14th. I had the honour of spending the whole night before her passing with my Uncle Bob, whom I love dearly.
My flight back to Palm Springs was booked for the 15th, and I dearly would have wanted to stay for her funeral on the following Friday, but I was sick with a terrible bad cold and hacking cough, and felt I was feeling so low, I just wanted to get back to Donald, the beautiful southwest, and get this cold/cough behind me. The swimming pool at the Sands was calling my name, as just prior to leaving for Toronto on December 28 , I was up to swimming 60 plus laps, or 3/4 of a mile. I have a great teacher, my neighbour Deb! While in Toronto, I took advantage of the treadmill in my mothers' condo building and loved doing 4 plus miles a day on that.
My mother developed this cold and cough while I was there, and understandably so, as it is the season for that and her immune system was probably low due to my father's passing. Four days before I left to fly back to the southwest I thought I caught her cold.
Well, turns out when I flew to Toronto on December 28, I developed blood clot(s) with no indication of doing so ( no leg swelling, no readiness, no leg heat... ) those clots moved to my lungs, and hence my shortness of breath and excessive coughing. I of course still thought I had a cold, and did not seek medical assistance till Wednesday....and we can't say enough about the angels at Eisenhower Memorial hospital in Rancho Mirage, Ca. I am a very very lucky lady to have caught this and survived. Some of the doctors could not understand how I was walking around,speaking and conversing with them with Pulmonary Embolii, other than the swimming had increased my lung capacity and strength so much that that was perhaps the reason.
So, I am mostly fixed up and on the way back to health, even though it will still be a journey. Speaking of journeys, yes we are on our way back to Canada, and will finish out the winter in Victoria under the supervision of my GP , and the BC medical system. We hope to leave Tuesday or Wednesday from the southwest, and are so very sad to be leaving our friends who have given us so very much support and love over this past January, it is impossible to put into words how grateful we are. The upside is, is that I have survived, and I'm looking forward to "playing" with our friends again, and seeing and enjoying our family.
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