Thank you, Terry. Stevie's birthday has always been the hardest date for me. Even my dad's which is the day after mine has never been quite as hard. It's always a rough time.
I wish I could help Lori more. She's not open to it, and cut off communication like I said, so I guess I can't. It's sad.
I do have a wonderful family around me. This is always a hard time for me, though. Thanks.
My step-dad's been in the hospital all week. He had major surgery on his left leg in 2009 and almost lost it. It died, and the best vascular surgeon in the state operated for twelve hours to re-build a vein to get blood to his foot. It worked, but it was touchy. He told us at that time that if something goes wrong there's nothing else he can do. Since then, it's always been a matter of waiting until he'd lose it. He was out of veins.
It quit again in April, and there WAS something he could do. There was a new procedure invented since the 2009 surgery. On his leg, he had to do it backwards which had never been done before. It worked great but then quit working again this month. For a few months, he had almost no pain at all then it became overwhelming. He tried again yesterday and it didn't work. It's running a wire through a vein the size of a human hair. He hit a spot that was too blocked and couldn't get through. Then the surgeon opened up the leg to look at the vein. He said it was in too bad a shape to do a graft again. It's also highly likely an amputation would kill him.
So...he's probably going home today. This time there really is nothing left to do. He can't even take the leg! He's getting a major pain patch usually used for cancer patients and hoping pain management will buy time to invent something else.
He's a really good surgeon, but sometimes there really is nothing left to do.
We've been doing that all week. I really appreciate your message. This is my hardest time of the year. It was this time that kicked off my depression/crisis that led me here.
Hopefully this year will be better. I hope my sister can find some peace, too.
((((((((Terry))))))))))