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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

So life isn't treating you fairly

Well let me tell you about Tom and Barb, two friends originally from Montreal who, like all us seniors, looked forward to "The Golden Years".

This past spring Barb discovered a lump in her breast, her mother Mona's health was not good so they decided not to tell mom of Barb's impending health problems. Barb made the trips to visit her mom some 70 miles away and would take care of her for a week then head back home for her biopsy. Although her brother lived with their mom he did not have Barbs endurance.

Well Mona passed away a few days before Canada Day, we all attended the funeral east of Toronto  after which Pat and I went to spend the weekend with friends Pauline and Harry in Cobourg, also formerly of the Montreal area.

When we arrived home we noticed an alarming message on FaceBook. Pat called Barb only to be informed that their house had been destroyed by fire.

In the ensuing months Barb's biopsy didn't heal properly and her radiation treatments had to be postponed. Tom had all the insurance claims to work out as they not only lost the house, they lost all three cars.

The bright spot was that they found an excellent builder who appears to have taken good care of tearing the house down and rebuilding. In the meantime the insurance put them in a condo near the hospital where Barb was to get her radiation treatments.

They have been very excited about the new house and have run around ordering new furniture.

Just as things appeared to going well Tom's aunt Lil who lives with his mom Maggie in the same town as Tom and Barb had a stroke, so not only were they running to the hospital for Barb, but now they had to run back and forth for aunt Lil. The travel triangle was Mississauga to Milton to Oakville and back. Aunt Lil has returned to her home however she cannot stay there and must go into a seniors home and Tom and Barb have been dealing with this unresolved dilemma.

As if this wasn't enough Tom was diagnosed with COPD and asthma.

Well as life will have it Tom had issues breathing this past Friday and after visiting his doctor he was admitted to hospital with a lung infection. Since the hospital in Milton didn't have a room for him he was transferred here to Burlington this morning, Tom is in ICU on a respirator and they don't think he will be able to go home for Christmas....  wherever home may be. To compound his difficulties he has a hereditary blood disorder that causes clotting.

I have run out of cliche's to say to the two of them however there are only 15 days left in 2012 and then it is all up hill from there.

 
I have tried to hold back on Tom's condition hoping that there would be some improvement however his condition remains the same, he is in a respirator and sedated. There was some concern with regard to his heart rate this morning which was at 40. I assume that it had something to do with the sedation. For the time being all is well.

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