[LindaSue]

Thank you for your continued prayers for Jerry. As you may have read on my updates page, the doctor won't let him go back to work until a week from tomorrow at the earliest. Frankly, I don't see how Jerry could work anyway and it's hard to imagine him getting better enough to go back. It's all he can handle to just walk around the house. If Jerry has to quit his job we'll really be up a creek with no income or insurance. He may qualify for disability now after his bleeding episode but that wouldn't even cover his medical bills let alone pay the rent or put food on the table. I will have to look for a job once the dust settles and Jerry gets on the transplant list but I won't be able to earn enough to support us or pay the medical bills. I've never been so scared in my life as I am right now.
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[Guest]

LindaSue,

I'm so sorry your are going through this (and Jerry too of course. I'm sure he's as worried as you are). Please know our thoughts and prayers are with you guys, and you're never far from our heats and minds.

I know you're really scared right now. I raised my kids, sometimes not knowing where the next meal would be coming from, so although I didn't have medical issues to deal with on top of it, I can relate.

Somehow, time goes by, and money issues go with it, and there will come a better day, so hang in there. You do so much for so many, it's got to come back to you.

[mgonser]

LindaSue, I am so very sorry that you are going through this. We are lifting our prayers for you and your husband every day.

I can imagine, how scary it must be to have all those money issues running around your head when all you should be thinking of is your husband. We have been exactly where you are right now. When I had to quit my job because of my MS, my husband just learned there was a company turnover and we had no answers either. It has been 9 years of debt, worry, and just plain scared as my DH ended up having 4 major surgeries during that time. We are still dealing with it. We have not had a furnace in, this will be the 3rd year, but Linda, We give a lot of our worries to our Lord and Savior and he has gotten us this far so I know we have to continue on. We found out that we are a lot stronger than we could ever imagine. We have sold a lot of "things" at the time we thought were important, but not as important as just living simply, it was not easy, we even had to sell our wedding rings. What I am trying to say is you will get through this, take it one day at a time and make decisions together and stay focused and our hospital has social workers who helped us a lot by being the "middle man" for our medical bills. Also, does your husband have long-term disability? Companies sometimes won't offer it up but they have it.

You both are in our hearts. Blessings, Marylyn
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[crazywoman]

So glad you checked in with us LindaSue. And sorry that you & your husband are going thru all this. As the others have said, you are in our thoughts and prayers.
There really is nothing I can say to Help other than lifting you up in prayer, and telling you we love you, and wish you both the very best.

Sorry I am just now finding your post, and have not managed to put in an update in several days. Not sure where the time went, but have had some computer/internet problems, and just LIFE slowing me down.


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Billie
4'8" Started LC WOL Aug 2003

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My mind not only wanders, sometimes it leaves completely.

[crazywoman]

Here are the missing & the latest updates:

10/17/09: Jerry went to the doctor yesterday to get a release for him to go back to work next Tuesday but the doctor said that he doesn't want him to go back to work until after the next varices banding procedure on the 26th. While he was talking with the doctor, he asked him if there was anything that he could do to help make himself better faster so that he could get back to work other than walking as much as he can. The only advice that the doctor gave him was to eat a good diet so Jerry is going to give low carb a try.

Right now, one of Jerry's biggest problems is all the fluid that's building up in his legs, feet and belly. The diuretics that he's on don't seem to be doing any good and he's getting bigger and bigger. He's carrying around at least 20 pounds of excess fluid and probably at least half of that is in his belly. His feet swell up so bad that he can hardly get them into his shoes. His belly is even bigger now than it was before they drained off all that fluid the other day.

(These below were both posted on her site after her post above)

10/19/09: As of today, it looks like Jerry is out of work at least through the end of the year and probably until he gets his transplant since he's not likely to get better between now and then. Jerry went to his store this afternoon to drop off the sick leave paperwork and he passed out on the floor. It took us a while to get him into the car to drive home. His boss contacted the company's HR department and they're going to put out a bulletin to all of their stores for people to donate their sick days to Jerry. He's only got a couple of sick days left for this year and his boss would rather he use sick days than his vacation days to save them as a last resort. The transplant surgeon that he saw this morning said that they will expedite getting him on the transplant list because his condition is very bad. Someone from the transplant committee is supposed to call us within the next two weeks to set up a meeting. I'm not even sure if Jerry can wait that long for a liver but what can we do??? At least it looks like there's hope that Jerry will be placed near the top of the transplant list.

10/20/09: Jerry is back in the hospital. This afternoon he said that he didn't feel right and said his stools were black this morning. He suspected that the varices were bleeding again so he called the doctor who said to take him to the emergency room. I drove him there and they did a few tests and determined that his blood count was very low and the doctor said that he is definitely bleeding again. At least this time we caught it before he began to vomit blood. Jerry was coherent this time but he fell asleep every few minutes in the ER because of his blood count being so low. They were planning to give him two or three units of blood tonight and the doctor was waiting for his team to arrive to do another EGD (banding of the varices) sometime after I left or maybe in the morning. Jerry was still in the ER when I left around 7:00 pm because they had no available rooms in ICU but I assume that he'll be in ICU by tomorrow morning.
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Billie
4'8" Started LC WOL Aug 2003

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My mind not only wanders, sometimes it leaves completely.

[Guest]

Thanks for the updates Billie. I kept saying I needed to go check her site, but I kept getting sidetracked.

LindaSue, if you're looking in here, my prayers are with you guys. I can't even begin to know how scared you must be, so please know that you have many friends with you in spirit, and who are praying for you and Jerry.

I know money is very tight for all of us, but if you guys can see your way clear, please make a donation on LindaSue's website. Every little bit will help her during this very stressful time. She gives so much to all of us, and it would be nice if you can see your way clear to return the favor.

[mac24312]

Linda

U know we are in your prayers GF and all of us give our prayers here on SS and God be with you both.
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[Margot]

Just went over and read the latest up date and grabbed it to post over here.

10/21/09: They were just about to do a colonoscopy on Jerry when I left the hospital this afternoon. I had to get back here because I'm expecting a phone call from a rep from the Social Security office sometime between 2:00 and 4:00 today about getting Jerry on disability soon. I called the main SS number this morning and set everything in motion to get Jerry on disability as soon as his paid leave runs out. I called just to ask some questions but the woman I spoke to thought it would be a good idea to get the process started so it would be all set when the time comes. The person who will call this afternoon will set up a phone interview with Jerry in the next few days. The phone interview will save us the trouble of going to the local SS office for the interview where the wait to see someone could be hours. They know that Jerry is in the hospital and can do the interview on the phone with him there if necessary.

Jerry's doctor said that although he tied off three more varices last night, they were not the cause of the bleeding. The bleeding is coming from somewhere else which is why they're doing a colonoscopy to see if it's coming from his colon. They did give him two units of blood last night so there was definitely enough bleeding to cause his blood count to drop. It looks like Jerry will probably be there for at least a couple more days.
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[crazywoman]

Thanks for posting the update Margot.
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Billie
4'8" Started LC WOL Aug 2003

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My mind not only wanders, sometimes it leaves completely.

[LindaSue]

[Guest]

Here's today's update:

[crazywoman]

LindaSue, Hope the SS gets back to you soon, or you can get hold of the right person (or did).

I hope they find the cause of the bleeding soon! You are both in my prayers.

Anne, Thanks for today's update.
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Billie
4'8" Started LC WOL Aug 2003

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My mind not only wanders, sometimes it leaves completely.

[crazywoman]

I'm running late finding and posting these updates. The were from later 10/23 & yesterday.

10/23/09: Just a quick note to say that Jerry is finally home from the hospital as of this evening. Hopefully this will be the last time until he gets a new liver. Unfortunately, the Social Security agent never did call today so that saga continues.

10/26/09: I don't really have anything new to report on Jerry's condition now that he's home from the hospital. He spends much of the day sleeping because he has trouble sleeping at night due to terrible coughing spells. He thinks that the coughing is caused by the diuretics drying up his saliva which then makes his throat very dry. Too bad that they don't help his edema much anymore but maybe it would be that much worse if he wasn't taking them. Someone from Social Security did finally call today for a phone interview with Jerry. She had to cut it short though and will call him back later today to finish it. They sure do ask a lot of questions.

We're still thinkin of ya LindaSue & Jerry. Lot so prayers goin up too.
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Billie
4'8" Started LC WOL Aug 2003

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My mind not only wanders, sometimes it leaves completely.

[mgonser]

LindaSue, you and Jerry continue to be on our prayer list. I am so sorry you are having to go through so much. Blessings, Marylyn
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[crazywoman]

10/31/09: I don't have anything new to report on Jerry's condition. He's been stable since he got out of the hospital. No better but at least no worse either. He did have his phone interview with Social Security to get on Disability but we haven't heard yet if he'll be approved or when he might start getting his benefits. According to the Social Security site, his condition qualifies him for immediate Disability benefits so he shouldn't have to wait the usual 5-6 months for them to start but the agent's letter that we got said that we'd hear back from her within 60 days. We can't afford to wait that long. Jerry's sick pay stops after next week but he may get a few donated sick days from other employees. We don't know yet how many he'll get. Once those are used up he will be on unpaid leave and will have to pay for his insurance out of pocket. At that point we will be living off of our savings until Jerry's disability checks start coming.

One thing that we did yesterday was have AT&T's DSL installed so that we can save some money on our internet connection. We've been using Charter for TV and internet but it was costing us about $82 per month. Just the internet was $49 per month and it would cost $59 per month if we dropped the cable TV connection. With AT&T we won't have to have cable TV and the 6 mbps DSL connection is only $35 per month. We've heard that DSL is very reliable, unlike Charter's cable internet which was constantly going out. We've used Charter for many years but we were fed up with the internet dying all the time.

Also, the liver transplant evaluation meetings have been set up for the week after next. We'll have to go there for two or three days in a row from 8am until 5pm each day. We have no idea yet what we'll be doing there all that time.

The other thing that's happened in the past few days is that our grown son moved back home. He just lost his job and can't afford his apartment any longer. So, he will be paying us room and board which will help us pay our bills. He did have a promising job interview yesterday and he's pretty sure that he'll get the job. Now that Jerry is no longer able to work or do chores around the house, our son will be here to help with things like mowing the lawn and driving Jerry to doctor's appointments.

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Prayers still being lifted for you & your family!!!

LindaSue, I wondered if you had any children. Couldn't remember if you had ever mentioned any on any of the forum post I've seen or not.
Hate that your son lost his job, but glad he can be there to help out with bills and chores. Hoping & praying that he does get that job.

Wishing you all the best!


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Billie
4'8" Started LC WOL Aug 2003

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My mind not only wanders, sometimes it leaves completely.