Hello everyone!
I apologize to all of you that were expecting to read a post by me yesterday.I was a very busy man yesterday and things at my "web",the household if you will,were very chaotic.
First,inexplicably,I lost my cell phone when I went out to the clubs on Sunday evening.I was absolutely going stir crazy trying to find it inside my house as well as the two cars that I drive regularly on a day-to-day basis.Luckily for me,my cell phone was found when I returned to the club on Monday night and it is now in my posssession.I had to have it turned off when I called my wireless phone company just in case if somebody stole it attempting to make some long distance phone calls and Lord only knows whatever criminal intent that they may have had in mind.I am expected to go to my wireless company today to have it reactivated.
The topic to my blog today is about my grandmother,Thelma Autry.She is the mother to my late father,Carlton;who died back in 1998 at the ago of 60 due to complications of multiple myeloma.
I remember those days when I stayed with her and my late grandfather,Henry at their house when my mother Gladys had to go on numerous boat trips at her job.My mother is a marine biologist and has been for over 30 years.She isn't slowing down and is not expected to retire from her job anytime soon.Anyway,when I stayed spending my days and nights with my grandparents when Mom was away,it was lots and lots of fun;especially with my grandfather on the weekends.Like me,my grandfather was a huge wrestling fan and we watched every single wrestling program that was on:World Class Championship Wrestling,Southeastern/Continental Championship Wrestling,Mid-South and Georgia/World Championship Wrestling.I miss my grandfather and those days that we shared together immensely.My grandmother,like my mother was a wonderful cook and made several terrific meals for Grandpa and myself to enjoy.
My grandmother is around 91 years old.When you reach that age in your life,it is truly a blessing.I am very grateful that the Good Lord has let her live this long.She can be a very nice lady once you get to know her,but at the same time she can be very rude,vile and mean.Maybe it has to due to senility and old age,I suppose.She was staying with my brother,Michael,his wife and my sister-in-law,Brenda and his son,my nephew Chris.Due to seversal arguments and irreconcilable differences,my brother and his family could not stand the type of things that she was doing at their house;being nasty and rude,making his house very dirty and unliveable.Therefore,the decision was made to have my grandmother live with me and my mother.Grandma came to live with us during late spring/early summer and she has been staying with us since then.She has been very forgetful(no personal knock against her) and sometimes Mom and I had to constantly remind her to take her medications,to get up early and not sleep late and not do things that she wasn't supposed to do that would do her,ourselves and our house harm.Almost like telling your 5 year old kid not to touch the stove because it is very hot.Your kid doesn't listen to you and does it anyway,eventually burning themselves badly.I'm sure you can understand and relate to our situation.
When we try to help her in ways that would benefit her,she always copped some bad,nasty attitude,talking very sassy as if she wanted to be left alone;not wanting to be bothered by anybody when we absoultely did nothing wrong to her except trying to help her.When you act as stubborn like she was,sometimes it's best to leave well enough alone.Don't get me wrong,I love my grandmother,but some days it was nearly impossible to be around her and have even remotely a friendly conversation with her.Pretty much on a daily basis,I went on about my business,my Mom went on about hers and so did my grandmother.
Yesterday,I was very concerned about my grandmother.It was around 3:00 PM in the afternoon.She goes to bed around 8 PM-8:30 PM at night.When I went to check on her,her door was locked and I knocked on her door to see if she was all right.She told me that she was,hwne in reality she really wasn't.She said that she couldn't see the door to her room.My grandmother is blind in one of her eyes and really that was due to her not going to see her eye doctor.I'll tell you all some very good and strong advice about that later.She told me that she was on the ground.I believe that she had collapsed to the floor.This is a situation my Mom and I had told her about many,many times;the risks to what happens to her when she sleeps really late.I told her to crawl to the door and to unlock it just for me to see if she was O.K. She crawled to the door and she unlocked it.When I unlocked the door,I saw her exactly as I had just described,on the floor as if she had collapsed.According to my calculations,she slept for nearly 19 hours.She told me that she couldn't see.I helped her up and guided her to the bathroom.She grabbed me by my left arm and I helped her to the bathroom for her to get situated.After when she used it,I helped her to her favorite chair in the living room.I gave her a banana just for her to get her blood sugar level back up.She doesn't have diabetes,but take it from one who used to have that disease and understood its complications,giving her a banana to eat was very helpful.
I called my Mom and told her about Grandma's situation.She immediately came home from work.She came home and Grandma told her what happened to her.Mom helped her to her room to get dressed and took Grandma to the hospital.A few hours later,Mom called me and told me about Grandma's condition.From what the doctors and nurses told her,Grandma suffered a stroke to her eye or something of that nature and the early prognosis is that Grandma may be totally blind.A blood clot formed near the back of her eye.A neurologist and other eye specialists are going to see Grandma today to see what the deal is.Although I am hoping and praying that my grandmother isn't blind,but that just could very well might be the case.
Like I stated earlier,my grandmother went for months on end not going to see her eye doctor,which probably led to her blindness in one eye.When she did got to see her eye doctor,the eye doctor gave her some eye drops to use on her good eye to save the vision on that eye.I really couldn't tell you if my grandmother used her eye drops like she was supposed on a day-to-day basis,but my gut feeling is that she didn't.
There was a time in my life when I was a diabetic that I took everything in my life for granted;acting like nothing could ever happen to me and that everything is O.K.I,like my grandmother,neglected to get regular eye check-ups and sooner or later,it caught up with me.It was discovered I got diabetic retinopathy.
Diabetic retinopathy is an eye disease where blood vessels and arteries in the retina become weakened and form small,dot-like hemmorages;which leads to swelling or edema in the retina and decreased vision.Circulation problems cause area of the retina to be oxygen deprived causing the eye to have spots or floaters;rainbow-like rings.If you saw a street light lamp being lit at night,that's what I basically saw;those rainbow-like rings.Later phases of diabetic retinopathy could mean continued abnormal vessel growth and scar tissue causes retinal detachment and glaucoma.
During this stage in my life back then,my blood sugar levels,my diabetes,my blood pressure and my health were going out of control.My body and my eyes paid a heavy price.Soon,my vision got bad and my kidneys failed me.These are the some of the risks of diabetes,kidney failure and blindness.I went to my eye doctor and he told me that I had diabetic retinopathy.I had to have two laser eye surgeries to seal those leaky blood vessels in my eye and prevent new ones from forming.
Two years ago because of my kidney failure,I had to go on dialysis about 3 days a week.I was on a list to receive a kidney transplant.About a year and a half ago,I received not only a kidney transplant,but a pancreaas transplant too.Thanks to my new pancreas,I do not have diabetes anymore.No more taking any insulin shots twice a day,no more worrying about going into insulin shock and slipping unconscious into a comatose state.None of that any more!I am very and truly blessed for what I have.
I have been taking very,very good care of myself since my double transplant suregery.I have been taking my anti-rejection medications when I am supposed to and I visit my kidney doctor and my eye doctor on a regular basis.My constant visits to my eye doctor have been nothing short of extraordinary!Even though I still have complications of diabetic retinopathy,to this point I have had no complications of my eye disease and my vision is vastly improving.
If I can give any advice to anybody out there,it is this:
If you have a doctor,a foot doctor,an eye doctor or even a back doctor for that matter,go see them regularly!Don't think for one minute that you're feeling fine,that evrything about you is O.K. and that you feel you really don't need to see your doctor,you do!Go see your doctor,get your regular check-ups and do exactly what your doctor tells you to do.Your health is very important to you and DO NOT EVER take that ot take anything in life for granted.
Also,if you would sometime today,PLEASE say a prayer for my grandmother Thelma,for me and for my family as well!
THANK YOU!
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