It's been a very long time since I have posted....

Hi Friends & Family, As many of you know from 8/3/2014 until now times have been a little tough family wise. My mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and I needed to place her in a ALF (assisted living facility) in the Memory Care Center. She did fine there until she fell three times in a row and broke her left thumb. She was hospitalized after it was determined at the same time as her falls that she has pneumonia. After five days in the hospital the doctors felt her best hope for getting her back to the ALF would be rehab in a nursing home/rehab facility. She went in 2/27/15 with the hopes of coming out in about three weeks. This, unfortunately, did not work out for her. She declined and now is going to live fulltime in the nursing home. I had so hoped that we could avoid this for years to come but it is what is best for her safety to be there. For me and my family 8/3/14 will be a date I will NEVER forget. It is when my son was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis of his left buttock. What was thought to be an ingrown hair was much, much more. After being admitted to one hospital in Ft. Lauderdale for a week and three surgeries, he was then transferred to a hospital in Coral Gables for three more surgeries and inpatient hyperbaric chamber treatments. He then had one more surgery to give him a colostomy. After seven weeks in a hospital bed between the two hospitals he was then transferred to a nursing home in North Miami for four weeks. I still drove him daily to get his outpatient hyperbaric treatments and he received physical therapy and wound care in the nursing home. Before he was discharged from the hospital he had developed a DVT (deep vein thrombosis) of his left lower calf. He was then placed on blood thinners for six months. He was discharged home where I did his wound care for another 6 weeks. He was admitted to the Coral Gables hospital again to begin some reconstruction surgeries. That resulted in more hyperbaric treatments until the end of January 2015. Finally he was able to go home again and follow up extensively with all his physicians. (Or which there were many at that point) He just finished surgery #8 at the Coral Gables hospital last week. This was to reverse his colostomy (finally) and he did well from that procedure. He is home now and I am with him until the doctors say he can drive. Once he can drive I can finally and permanently head back home to Georgia. I have missed my husband, Jeff, who has been a rock for me. He had handled everything on his own while I have been gone. I have only been able to go home a few times for a few days to a week at a time during these past nine months. I have asked a lot of him and I miss him terribly but he is the best! My son is getting back on his feet. Mom mother is stable in her new home. I can't wait to get back home and do some RV'ing again. Take care everyone, Jody