By most measures, 2024 was not an easy year for me and mine. Just from the health challenges, such as my cancer/bowel obstruction surgery and major depression, I was looking forward to closing the page on 2024 and starting fresh in 2025. We had only one health challenge left to navigate as 2024 drew to a close – my husband’s total left knee replacement on December 16.
We sailed into the surgery with the wind at our backs and no holds barred. And, by December 31, 2024, we hoped we had survived the headwinds of 2024 and were entering smoother sailing in 2025.
Until January 4, when my husband’s leg started spontaneously draining again. He immediately returned to the orthopedist, and was informed his leg is now infected. But, I thought, that can’t be too bad, since we caught it early.
So, I rocked along hopefully until last Friday, when the entire family (me, Mark, our daughter and the three dogs) were snow bound – SNOW BOUND! – in Birmingham, Alabama. Then Mark started feeling worse Friday and by Friday night, I had joined him. I was absolutely miserable on Saturday, so I gingerly eased the car out of the garage over the unfortunately not completely clear roads to find an urgent care that was open. Driving in Alabama after a snow/ice storm is not for the faint of heart. Too many people assume that you should drive normally and only discover how wrong they are after they are completely and hopelessly stuck somewhere.
The only urgent care facility I found available opened at 11, so I hung around the parking lot for about an hour. Once I got seen, I learned I was positive for Flu A. I asked how that differed from Flu B and got a non-committal shrug. Essentially, I was given a prescription for cough medicine, five days’ worth of Tamiflu and wished the best of luck going forward. (Mark used Telehealth, which was safer, but basically had the same result). My fever finally broke Sunday night, so I worked from home Monday to avoid infecting anyone else and figured we were back on track for normal Tuesday.
Monday night, unbeknownst to me, while I was asleep, my daughter had a severe nausea attack and my (still recovering from knee surgery and the flu himself) husband dragged her to the ER at midnight. They didn’t wake me up.
The alarm went off on Tuesday, and I looked at my phone like I always do first thing and saw a text from Kayla’s boyfriend telling me he knew she was at the hospital and asking if she was okay. My first thought was, “Of course she’s not at the hospital; I would know.” But then I saw the other five texts my husband had sent me throughout the night. Not only had they gone without telling me, but they had also come back at 5:30 a.m. without waking me up.
My husband went back to the doctor to check his leg Tuesday afternoon, where we were told that if the darn thing doesn’t stop draining by Friday, the doctor will have to re-open the wound and do more surgery.
So now, on Thursday, I am flu-free, although my voice sounds like a cross between a bullfrog and Darth Vader, Kayla is better, and we are waiting to see if Mark’s leg will miraculously stop draining tonight to avoid an extra surgery.
2024 seems to have inserted itself into 2025 against my express wishes. Maybe that means when we finally turn the corner into what I wanted 2025 to be, it will stick around that much longer.
How is your 2025 going so far? I hope it is better than mine.
P.S. My small problems pale in comparison to what is going on in California right now; my heart and prayers are with the people going through those terrible fires. Please consider donating to the American Red Cross to help them if you can.
