Chronology of Illness - 2008 

Dennis' health was fairly stable during January and February.  A minor infection during January and again the last week of  February.  He had also pretty much stopped his pulmonary therapy program.  There was always an excuse whether it was too cold or too windy or he just didn't feel like it.

The first doctor appointments were on 11th March with the Pacemaker Clinic and Dr. Millard. While at the pacemaker appointment, they insisted the cardiologist see Dennis for a few minutes too so we managed to cover all three with just one 150 mile roundtrip. 

Dr. Millard told Dennis that his lungs were doing great but his lack of motivation to perform his pulmonary therapy was going to set him back. He tried to get across to Dennis how important the therapy was for his lung function. Dennis promised that he would make a stronger effort.

April was an up and down month.  Getting him back on track with his therapy program has been a battle to say the least. I had hoped that building our new home would motivate him to work at improving his strength and stamina so he could participate in the design and decision making process, but so far that has not happened. This particular week he has only been through his therapy 2 days which is not enough. 

Also, for those of you that are in the same situation as I am, sometimes you just have to be tough.  I know Dennis gets tired of me pushing him to exercise but I do not quit because I know that if I quit, he will just sit in his chair and his body will quit. That is not an acceptable alternative. 

May and June passed quietly for Dennis with him making only a half-hearted effort on his therapy. In July, I started giving him a new food supplement in hopes that it would improve his overall health. Nothing I try seems to put weight on him and he is terribly thin.  I started with only a couple of ounces twice a day to be sure there were no side affects. On July 18, we had to request a new prescription for Levaquin and Prednison because Dennis noticed he was getting an infection.  We watched very closely in case it got worse but it was never as bad as the previous ones and cleared up with one 10 day treatment. Dennis continued to drink his supplement each day but I increased the amount to 9 ounces a day. We began to notice gradual changes in his skin appearance. He has always had terrible "fatty" cysts on his back along with severe acne. As he continued to drink the supplement, I noticed the cysts were beginning to decrease in size and new ones were not popping up.

In September, we went to see Dr. Millard and Dr. Parmar for a scheduled visit. Dr. Millard tried again to impress on Dennis the importance of his therapy program and was not happy to hear that his efforts to push himself had been less than hoped.  

On October 8th we had to request a new round of Levaquin and Prednisone because Dennis felt like another infection was beginning. Once again it did not become as severe as expected and a 10 day treatment cleared it up.

A flare up on October 31st required another 10 day treatment. Neither of these infections were severe enough for a trip to the doctor much less to the hospital. Things were looking much better for the holidays. 

During all summer and fall, I was working long hours on completing the interior of our new log home and Dennis was on his own most of the time during the day. Needless to say, he did not complete his therapy as he had promised.

We had Thanksgiving in our travel trailer alone because Dennis refused to go to either of our children's homes for dinner.  When Christmas came, I insisted that he had to get out of the house and go to our daughter's and then to our son's. He is becoming quite paranoid about his oxygen and catching a "bug".  Don't know what to do that will get him back on track.  2009