Cancer/illnesses, and caregiver, support thread

[gnalan]

Changing Drs can be tough, especially when you build a solid relationship with them and trust them with your life. I hope things work out for you, and that you can find someone closer, if possible, to continue your treatments.

[gnalan]

Big scare today. I woke up and my dad was slumped over in his recliner, almost unresponsive. Had an ambulance come out to check him out, and they took him to the hospital. When he got there he was barely breathing, and they had to give him Narcan to get him to wake up.

Very scary. We now have Narcan nasal spray on hand, in case it happens again. He's been on pain meds since his back surgery in 1985, and is on some pretty potent opiates. Normally he's ok on his meds, and about taking them the way they're meant to be taken, so I'm hoping the news about my mom didn't cause him to do anything "stupid" because of it. They've been married 40+ years, and I know neither of them want to see the other one pass away.

I don't want to lose either of my parents, but the sad reality of life is that we all die. I don't like it, but I know that I can't control it. I can only control me, and what I do, and try to take care of myself the best I can. I'll do my best to take care of my parents while they're still here, because I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them.

[abscate]

Thanks for reminding me , foggy. I’m quadruple vaxxed and will Covid test before our meet.

[gnalan]

New measurements on my knees today. Total bend on my left knee is up to 89 degrees, and the right knee is up to 78 degrees. My ankle is slowly improving, too, or at least it feels like it is. Still doesn't bend very far upwards, but I'm working on it. I have the best physical therapists, and they've been taking very good care of me. Plus having some amazing Drs have helped as well.

I feel like I can do anything I set my mind to, as long as I stick to it and work at it everyday. There was a long time where I never thought that would be possible with anything. My self esteem hasn't always been as high as it is now.

I still see my counselor every week, which had helped tremendously (especially in the last couple of weeks with all that's going on with my parents).

Thank you all for your support. I'm really glad I found this site, which I wouldn't have if I wouldn't have bought my S60.

Thank you, Matt, for giving me a place to have a thread like this, so I could open up, and to vent when needed, and for others to have a place to post too.

To those that have read this thread, it was started as a thread for anyone that needs to talk/vent and give each other support. Being a caregiver is hard. Being sick is hard. Battling with all that you have in you can definitely be hard, whether it's taking care of yourself, someone else, and even more so when trying to do both at the same time. Please feel free to post here if you want/need to. That includes you too, Matt, with what you're dealing with if you feel the need to.

I'm not going anywhere. I just wanted to give a quick update, and to thank those that have followed along with everything I've gone through, and am going through now, and to let others know it's ok to post here too. It's turned into more of a thread about me, but the intention was a place for everyone to post if wanted/needed.

[volvolugnut]

MVS is quite an amazing place.
volvolugnut

[gnalan]

MVS is quite an amazing place.
volvolugnut

That it is, and the people here are amazing. This is the only car forum I've been on that welcomes everyone without bashing anyone. (At least I haven't seen any shenanigans like that anywhere.) Volvo owners are a great group of people, and I'm proud to be a Volvo owner.

[abscate]

We have a distinct group of people who are passionate about their cars and who aren’t Richard Heads here on MVS. Thst is indeed a rarity.

Thanks to all of you here. From the Mods.

[Krons]

I feel like I can do anything I set my mind to, as long as I stick to it and work at it everyday. There was a long time where I never thought that would be possible with anything. My self esteem hasn't always been as high as it is now.

This is the best thing I've seen today!

Confidence and self esteem are so important. I've been in the downward spiral toward depression before and it can be hard to pull out of. Keeping going always helps, I keep pushing on ticking off my to do list vs lounging around. I had a 13 mile bicycle ride yesterday and a 14.5 mile one today. Finally feel I'm getting in the groove of an exercise habit. My motorcycle is jealous.

[gnalan]

I had a 13 mile bicycle ride yesterday and a 14.5 mile one today. Finally feel I'm getting in the groove of an exercise habit. My motorcycle is jealous.

That's awesome! I've never been able to ride a bicycle, I couldn't keep my balance for some reason. Never had that problem on a dirt bike though. Once it got going the power/speed kept it upright, and even leaning as far as I felt safe enough to, as long as I kept feeding it some throttle it stayed on its wheels. Only wrecked it once, and that was pretty painful. I made sure I wore a helmet every time after that.

[gnalan]

Bit of a scare today. I somehow lost my balance after carrying in a heavy box of non-carparts.

I went to go on my first walk of the day, and, thankfully, I always keep ahold of the screen door when I'm walking down the steps. For some reason I lost my balance, and started leaning backwards with nothing to hold onto but the screen door. I thought I was going to fall backwards off of the steps onto the concrete, but I got lucky when the screen stopped opening at the usual spot it stops at. I regained my balance, stood up, came back into the house to calm down for a couple of minutes, and then right back out the door for my walk (which was close to a half of a mile). I didn't realize I had any injuries until I was walking and noticed my hand was bleeding, thankfully not bad enough that a bandaid couldn't fix. I was more worried about my legs, and the near fall I almost had, to even inspect my arms or hands for any injuries.

Aside from the little cut on my hand, and my nerves rattled a bit, all is ok. I've learned to not be afraid of failure or success, as much as I can be anyways, so I just shrugged it off and tried again.

I had PT yesterday, and I go back again on Thursday. I'm going to ask if there's something I can do to help with balance, even though today is the first day I've been that close to falling.

I see my counselor this week, too, like I do every week. I need to stay on top of my mental health just as much as I do my physical health. When one starts to go downhill it tends to bring the other one down with it, and I've come too far to let that happen anymore.

I can only do as much as my mind/body will let me, and even then I tend to push myself just a little bit further. It doesn't seem like much at the time, but the more I push just that little bit each time the more it builds up over time.