Bacl again, for now

[Anne Wright]

I just got finished reading the thread I started years ago when I stopped in here - it ended in 2015!


The years since have not been great. My MIL got horribly ill in 2016, went into the hospital, to a nursing home, back home, then her final stint in hospital at the end of the year and died in mid-January 2017.


Meanwhile I had a heart murmur and began the rounds of cardiologists. Eventually they decided that I had stenosis of the aortic valve and needed a replacement. In an effort to avoid my chest being cracked open I signed up for a trial of transarterial valve replacement (TAVR) which replaces the valve sort of like doing a stent. During the final test to get me into the trial, the found a mass on my kidney. That kicked me into a category already approved for TAVR so in October 2017 I got a new valve and November lost a kidney.


My Mom passed away in October 2018 at 97. She had the same aortic valve problem I did but never got it fixed so we think that is what took her peacefully in her sleep.



By 2019 my back had given out completely so they did a spinal fusion (L5-S1) which stabilized it but the nerve damage over the years has left me with problems. As soon as the back healed, Ralph and I left the country!


July 2019 we took the Queen Elizabeth out of Fort Lauderdale with stops in New York, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Iceland. Got off early (skipped Dublin and Southampton) in Glasgow, drove around Northern Scotland, went to the Orkneys, down the east coast to Dover, back to Bury St. Edmund where I took a needlework class and tour that ended in London. We stayed in London for a week, drove into Wales, then down into the Cornish Peninsula to Land's End, back to Stonehenge, and the Isle of Wight. We took a Royal Caribbean ship out of Southampton which stopped at four Caribbean islands, and got home about four months after we left.


This was our Trip of a Lifetime - and I am so glad we did it because who know when a trip like that will be possible again. Since we got back we added on to the house since as we emptied both parents' houses we had to have places to put stuff, mostly genealogy and some furniture. We inherited the genealogy of both sides - and both sides were heavily into family history.


Other than that life have been pretty boring - NOT. I've been using jAlbum to create photo pages of family history. I have my grandfather's photos from 1911 to 1951 on my website and my Dad's family pictures up to 1990.


Our trip to the UK is documented up to London on my blog - but I am a terrible narrator and stalled out - between no internet in Northern Scotland and bricking my travel laptop in Bury St. Edmund, I was way behind anyway and just haven't had the energy to finish. I plan to put the trip into the photo pages which are so much easier and faster to deal with.



My website is http://woodswell.com/ Links for the blog and the photos are at the top. My grandfather was David Morgan Wright and my father was Orrin Hughitt Wright - oh, and my mother's pictures from her time as a Navy Nurse are under Freddie Tucker, Navy Nurse.

[Andrew B.]

Hi Anne. Good to see you. You've been through a lot! I'm glad you were able to deal with the health issues and take your fantastic trip.

[Anne Wright]

Thanks, Andrew! It's not been a good twenty years. I've average one operation every 1.5 years at this point, not counting dental procedures. The trip made life worth it though. I've got some questions about web design but that is for the appropriate section.

[Andrew B.]

Originally Posted by Anne Wright

Thanks, Andrew! It's not been a good twenty years. I've average one operation every 1.5 years at this point, not counting dental procedures.

Not fun. That's for sure. I'd be commenting more but a bad reaction to a Covid vaccine is leaving me with not much energy.

I hope you stick around.

[Steve Rindsberg]

Welcome back, Anne. I'd spend longer on a reply but I'm getting ready for a drive from Ohio to a conference in Clearwater Beach. I'll wave airily in what I imagine might be your direction as we pass T-town. ;-)

My wife has been through much the same mill as you, though for a while she was jamming her operations together. I think nurses are wonderful folks, but I'd rather get to know them socially than professionally. Still, they're great to have on your side professionally as well, so I takes what I gets.

FWIW, her most recent was massive surgery to correct a badly curved spine. For years, different doctors and surgeons had been telling her to forget it, can't help with surgery, but our GP has kept researching the problem for her. He'd been tracking a new clinic affiliated with the local university; they'd been doing near-miraculous work, so he suggested that she see their spine guy. He was very confident that he could help, laid out exactly how major the surgery was and what kind of pain she'd be in for a year afterwards. Complete transparency. She had the surgery and once she was on her feet and walking again, said that while there was still some residual pain from the surgery, the old "grinding" pain that she'd lived with 24x7 for the last ten years or more was *gone*. She's said more than once that it's given her her life back. If you'd like to know more about the surgeon/clinic, let me know.

[Anne Wright]

Steve, I'm happy to hear your wife got help for her spine. It's so important to go to the right specialist.



Here in Tallahassee we have Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic. They started to treat the athletes at FSU but will treat anyone. Back in 1993 their shoulder specialist rebuilt my left shoulder when my colt (inadvertently) tried to rip my arm off. They've cleaned up both knees, replaced both of them, made my arms functional again (carpal tunnel), cleaned up the other shoulder, and now the back.


As for jamming surgeries together, my record was having both knees replaced (not at the same time) and one carpal tunnel with ulnar nerve relocation all in the same year. The plan was to get the other arm done in a few more months but that was the year my father declined and it took a year to go back.


My back problem started with a fall from a horse back in 1981. It didn't show on the original X-rays, but I cracked L5. I was fit enough for years that it didn't act up, though I had a bad spasm in 1999 that put me in bed for a few days. When my valve went bad, I couldn't walk or do much and lost all muscle tone which was what held my back together, Plus two major operations in just over a month didn't help.


I think the nerve impingement had gotten so bad before there is not much that can be done to fix it. I just need to push through the pain. I got physical therapy which helped but between Covid and breaking my foot last fall, I haven't kept up with those exercises. Right now I am doing them again in hopes it will help.


When you drive through Valdosta, wave to the west. My farm is not far south of the Georgia border so you'll be waving at us!

[Steve Rindsberg]

Will wave as instructed! ;-)

What a mess it becomes when the back acts up. I've had a few issues, but luckily, they've either sorted themselves out with rest or a course of prednisone did the job. Not NEARLY what you and my wife have had to cope with, but it certainly has given me a fierce case of empathy.

[woody649]

My goodness, what a saga! My own recent medical history doesn't begin to compare.

Good for you for taking that trip. I would love to be able to do that ... and I would love even more to have been able to do it when my wife was alive.

[Steve Rindsberg]

I'm sorry to hear you've lost your wife; for me, there was never any question. Put everything else aside, take care of mine.

[Andrew B.]

Originally Posted by Steve Rindsberg

If you'd like to know more about the surgeon/clinic, let me know.

I'd like to know so I can pass the info to my sister.