Life
in Normal Is Anything But Normal, Part II
by
Laurie Larsen
In my
last ALERT article, I described our MOVE to Normal, and the comedy of errors
that ensued. In Part II of this
topic, I will describe LIFE in Normal, as we know it.
For the
most part, my family has adjusted well to our move, after the rocky start
initiated by the move itself. We
love our house, and I'm having a great time thinking up decorating ideas, room
by room. The kids love their new daycare center and care providers,
which is important because they spend so much of their day there.
After a
period of adjustment, both Norm's and my jobs are going well, and we realize
that in the first period of instability that State Farm has encountered in my
12-year tenure (can you believe I've been employed by the same company for 12
years?! Now I really feel old!),
our jobs and futures are much safer in Corporate Headquarters than they were in
Pennsylvania.
So,
overall, it's been a great move. Now,
let's get down to the nitty gritty. My
husband's quality of health, which has always been a little on the shaky side,
has completed self-destructed since our relocation to Normal.
First,
his teeth:
Norm
discovered a dental problem early on in our life in Normal, and quite logically,
visited a dentist to get it corrected. All
in all, he had 10 trips to 3 different
dentists before he got the situation under control. It seems that in Bloomington/Normal, there are so few medical
personnel per resident that dentists are completely overbooked.
If you have an hour-long appointment scheduled, and that hour is up, the
dentist closes up shop on your mouth and schedules another appointment, even if
the job isn't done (nerve exposed, unable to eat, you get the idea)!
Then,
his back:
On the
evening of February 7, I went off to a friend's house for an evening of "Bunko"
and female-bonding, and when I returned home, Norm was lying flat on his back on
the floor, unable to move due to pain in his back.
I somehow lugged him into the bathtub and ran warm water on him to loosen
his back muscles. Then I lugged him
into bed where he spent the night resting on a heating pad.
The next morning there was very little relief, so I took him to the ER,
where they injected Demerol into his spine, three times.
The pain
dulled, and they decided to send the patient home.
However, on the way out to the car, he fainted, so they retrieved him and
admitted him immediately. During
his hospitalization they discovered that Norm had a herniated disc (an existing
condition that he's known about) which was inflamed and causing the pain.
Via anti-inflammatory medication, they reduced the swelling and pain
enough to send him home, back to his life in Normal.
However,
he continued to have back pain, and actually got worse so that in May, he was in
such agony that they did a lumbar laminectomy surgery on May 20.
During surgery, the doctor removed a fragment of disc that had embedded
itself in the nerve, and also trimmed back the remaining disc to hopefully
prevent other fragmentations.
The
surgery required six weeks recovery time; no work, no lifting, pushing or
carrying, and very little walking or sitting.
This leads to the next medical problem.
His
stomach:
Two weeks
after surgery, Norm came down with a 103 degree fever, vomiting and diarrhea.
He was admitted back into the hospital to determine why. Although after a few days, they got the fever down and stopped the vomiting (this was essential
because every time he vomited, it wrenched his back and caused potential harm to
the surgical site), he was unable to eat anything. Any slight bit of food caused more vomiting.
They ran every test imaginable to determine the cause; everything came
back negative. Since he was on a
liquid diet for two weeks, he dropped 15 pounds, but boy, what a way to do it.
And
his throat:
Throughout
all this, Norm complained of a sore throat.
Even when the back pain gradually departed, the vomiting stopped and his
eating habits got back to normal, the throat pain persisted.
On July 1 he consulted an Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist and found out
why. He had contracted
mononucleosis, on top of everything else. How,
we don't know. Maybe in the
hospital. Maybe one of the
kids carried it home from daycare but never caught it themselves.
Other:
Well,
you're probably wondering what could possibly be next.
Norm started back to work July 1, half days.
We only had three workdays that week, due to the holiday weekend.
Here's the synopsis of what Norm's week was like:
Day 1: AM -- First day back to work
PM -- Got diagnosis of mono
Day 2: AM -- Backing out of garage at 7:30 AM, and bumped into something. Got out of car and saw that he'd backed into a Driver's Education car which was using our driveway to practice a 3-point turn. Had to go to police station to file report. We owe $250 deductible for damage on our own car, insurance company owes $800 for damage on the Drivers Ed car.
Day 3: AM -- Made it to work and worked through the morning without incident.
PM -- Came home, took nap, backing out of garage around 2:30 PM, guess what: Driver's Ed car in driveway again. Didn't hit him this time!
Day 4: Fourth of July. No incidents.
Day 5:
Out driving and got pulled over by cop for not having front license plate
on car. Car purchased in PA where no front license plate is required, so have
to take car to shop to get it installed.
Now you
are up to date on Life in Normal. Maybe
by next issue I'll have good news to report!