Update from Camille Yahm

Dear ones, this is an update on events of the last week of 2013, in case you haven't heard.  On January 6, I was to visit a surgeon who was to perform exploratory surgery on my abdomen to discover what is causing such pain on one side and giving me moderate fever each day.  Then, "life" happened.  We always have our family members come to celebrate Christmas the weekend before Christmas, and this year we had 14!  What fun!  But on Sunday, the day most were leaving to return home, one granddaughter developed that awful stomach flu and went home sick.  I worried about who might be next, for it is highly contagious.  Then on Christmas Eve Stuart came down with it.  We managed to get through Christmas Day (it tends to be a 24 hour event!).  Then on Thursday morning I waked nauseated and hurried to the bathroom, but fainted en route.  I gashed the back of my head against the hinges on the door, broke a bone in my right foot, and fractured the top two vertebrae in my neck.  Got to ER and 5 days later was released.  Staples have been removed, and foot is still swollen.  However, I'll be in a neck brace for 6 weeks hoping it will begin "cementing" the vertebrae in place.  It is horrendously uncomfortable, but I recognize that it is what will keep me from being paralyzed!!  Maybe some of the pain will subside soon.  It is very difficult sleeping in this strange "get up".

I meet with the spinal doctor on Wednesday and hopefuly he will have positive news.  In the meantime I am wearing a heart monitor for 30 days, since they are trying to determine what caused the low blood pressure that caused the fall.

Daughters Lisa and Melanie continue to make that hour long drive to provide Stuart and me with home cooked meals (yum!), and Christie (our on-call nurse!) checks in every few days to make sure I am following doctors' orders (and hers!!).  I am so blessed with family members who care, including dear Stuart who is a yeoman for every duty he has accepted so willingly.

Hope you had a better Christmas!  And, BTW, I turned 75 on Dec. 28 and had to celebrate in the hospital.  Since I'll be 75 all year, I figure there'll still be time for celebration!!

Love,

Camille 

"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."

   - Edith Wharton, 1862-1937