Here is the code:

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Miracle Man. No cane, no walker, no wheel chair. In SAMs no less! 45 pounds less of him to love. And most importantly no staph!

TEXAS kills!

Image by Chris Devers via Flickr

As in Earnesttalks.com?  If you haven’t enjoyed my stories before, by all means check me out.

I haven’t been around for a while because, to be honest, I got bored with blogging.  I turned it all over to Ron and believed he would keep up.  He didn’t.

Now I admit that he hasn’t had the best 2011 (nasal surgery in January, staph infection in his knee in March, long recovery since then) but still, he could have done a post or two.  Well, I don’t think he’s going to do it so I may as well.

OK, this is not really about age-gap relationships.   After all, that’s not my job – it’s Ron’s and he hasn’t done well with his blogs recently.  My job is to watch folks, tell stories, and have fun.  He claims to not remember much of 2011 so he can’t tell us anything new right now.  What a whiner!

So why have I come out of retirement?  It’s like this.  Everywhere I go, Ron follows and like it or not, I have to watch him as he lives his (our) life.  Tonight, as he worked much later than he should, he reached into his “stash” for his drug of choice – peanut butter and Club crackers.  Not unusual, right?

No, it’s not unusual.  In fact, I was hanging out with him when he first discovered Club crackers.  I don’t remember how young he was but he was still a child.  Club crackers rule!   Unfortunately, back then the choice between saltines and Club crackers was his parent’s, not his, the cheaper saltines were almost always their purchase of choice.

Did you ever wonder why you do certain things?  In Ron’s case he likes to talk about the affect Reeses Cups had on his later financial life.  Tonight I looked at that box of crackers and realized that it also represented part of his measure of the success of his life.  Weird, huh?  He was never hungry as a child.  He can tell you, however, how important Reese’s Cups can become in your life if you aren’t careful.

OK, enough, already.  So he likes Club crackers.  So what?  Think about it.  What do you have now simply because you couldn’t have it when you first wanted it?  Just a question.  By the way, Club crackers are a good way to coax the dogs back into the house.

Now, I’m not sure how Ron justified the airplane, but I surely enjoyed flying it.

Good to be back, folks, even if it’s only an observation of the life of Ron.  He seems to be regaining most of his brain tissue from the (prescribed) drugs and may even be posting soon.

Love you all,

Earnest Talks

Image via Wikipedia

Sometimes time flies even when you’re not having fun!

Posted by Gayle

Can it possibly be 45 days since Ron found out he had a staph infection in his knee?  In some moments it feels like it happened yesterday.  In other moments it seems like it has been with us forever.  He came home from the hospital on the 29th of March after 19 days in Le Maison Baylor (even using French doesn’t make it glamorous.)  He is recovering and it is a very slow process.   He won’t be back to work until at least the 10th of May and that date is not set in stone. Hard physical therapy started last week and they are definitely of the mind “no pain no gain.”  One of his doctor’s told him with an infection of this magnitude, if rehabilitation doesn’t hurt it’s not working.  Everyone acknowledges it’s a painful process.  I have to admit I really wouldn’t want to trade places with him.  Even with the staph bacteria out of his body, recovery time is unknown.  Staph infections don’t follow any specific trend… except they all make their hosts miserable for a lot longer than anyone believes possible.

Emotionally, it’s challenging for both of us.  For me, I don’t feel like I should be having a hard time because it’s not happening in my body.  Of course if I were talking to a client I would be validating how hard it is to be the caregiver.  I’d be espousing “self-care” too.  But knowing what’s okay and doing what’s right are two different things.  I’ve melted down a couple of times with Ron and amazingly he is able to muster up care and concern for me.  He never plays the “buck up – it’s worse for me than you” card.

He’s had some pretty down days too.  Besides dealing with the pain and weakness (he’s lost 35 pounds since this ordeal began,) he’s bored and lonely.  I’m working during the day and while I’m technically at home with him – I’m not much company.  On the nights I go to yoga, he’s on his way to bed when I return.  He looked at me one day and said “it’s just not fair, I didn’t do anything to deserve this.”  That was a very sad moment.  It’s true. There is no finger to point.  At times like these, you just have to play the hand you are dealt.  And we all know what it’s like to have a crappy hand.

Even with the sadness and the pain, I think we are both fairing pretty well.  The world hasn’t stopped rotating on it’s axis.  Good days follow bad days.  Progress can be measured.  My new favorite saying is… “it is what it is.”  I can wish it were something else and it wouldn’t change a thing.  I could concoct some positive spin, but that would just be a load of bull you-know-what.  So for now (and really always)…. it is what it is.

Related articles

• Staph Infections And Why They Suck (pinkbananaworld.com)