Oh! What a year! (Looking Back at 2006)

Member Name: jayjolynn

Product:	Looking Back at 2006
Date:	15/01/07 (304 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good news!

Disadvantages: Bad news!

2006 on rewind

Well, I have enjoyed reading all your reviews on 2006 and you have persuaded me to join in the fun!

2006 was a very mixed year for me having being diagnosed with ‘probable MS’ and my Father dying (11 months after my Mum), so it has been eventful, though not really exciting, except for one month which for me was the highlight of the year!!

JANUARY I was still living in Spain, and was by now getting worried about certain symptoms I had been encountering so after weeks of trawling through internet sites diagnosing myself with Parkinson’s, Stroke, even the terminal ones (why do people do this?) as well as other illnesses, but one thing kept jumping out at me was Multiple Sclerosis! All the symptoms I had, pointed to it, but I was told by my brother & partner to stop looking up awful things on these Medical sites! So, I chose to listen to them (a change for me), until the day came when I could no longer speak without a drawl, I could no longer walk, I couldn’t swallow, and had lost 5 stone over a period of 3 months.
It was this January day in Spain, with the sun shining ( sorry, I had to include that!), that I first met the Spanish Doctor who took X-Rays and tests. It was only 4 days later she phoned to ask if I could go back to her.
My brother took me there, as he was the one who spoke fluent Spanish (as I can only speak enough to get basic ingredients to make a pie)!

Yes, she wanted to make an urgent appointment to see a Neurologist. We agreed and she assured us there would be an appointment within the next couple of weeks. Well, if you know the Spanish, 2 weeks means 2 months , 2 years, who knows! She showed us the X Rays they had taken and she had seen something at the top of my spine? She tried to point it out to me but it was like showing me something from ‘Where’s Willy’!!!

She did some more tests on me, while there, and said she thought it was coming from the brain, so that’s where she needed a Neurologist to see me!

Daughter getting married and wants the event in Las Vegas! Yikes!

FEBRUARY brought no news though I will say this for the Doctor, she did keep in touch by phone to ask about my well being…..though it was such a shame I never understood a quarter of what she was saying! She could have told me anything for all I know!
I lived actually as a skeleton, and for me if you knew me, that is no joke! I have always been a ‘mean’ figure of a woman, but my health deteriorated further while waiting for appointments!

Somewhere in the middle of February, I got an appointment card to attend the hospital in Malaga….when? In May!
I rang the Doc up, and she was livid and starting ranting about the hospital ignoring the urgency, yikes that started me wondering what the heck she was thinking!

February in Spain is kind of like being in between the ‘out of season ‘ bit and a sense of living in normality! It is nice to spend time down in the Chiriongitos without the tourists over whelming the place! It really is a much nicer place to be out of season! I enjoyed February albeit, I was now on walking sticks to aid me walking!

Daughter still wanting wedding in Las Vegas! Yikes! Need to really get this sorted!

MARCH came and went with a few Bbq’s by the pool etc, and as my niece is Spanish we spent a lot of time with her, when she visited every weekend.
By now though , the family were getting increasingly worried about my health at this point, so it was decided I should go home to seek out medical care there, as the Spanish system were in no way in a hurry!

By 30th March, I was on a flight home with embarrassing assistance from the airport authorities having had to have the motorised buggy thingy to assist me!
The flight took 3 and a bit hours and I sat there on my own wondering what the rest of 2006 would bring me! By this time I needed assistance with a wheelchair to get me to and from the terminals, which thoroughly embarrassed me as I have always been one to ‘soldier on’ no matter what!

OMG! Daughter putting pressure on me with this damn wedding!


APRIL was a funny month for me! Not that it was funny haha….just it was a month which everything came into perspective!

Within about 5 days of being ‘home’ I had fallen! That’s without a drink too! I had started to fall a lot through imbalance etc…. and of course my daughter had taken me to the hospital!
I cannot tell you what a blessing that was, as as soon as they X Rayed me for breakages etc (and finding nothing broken), they were almost like Bees round a Honey Pot to find out what was indeed wrong with me!
They had had a neurologist come down to give me a once over, and immediately he had seen me and tested me, got me an appointment for the Neurologist for the Monday morning! This was Friday! Wow, was I impressed!

On the Monday, I had the brain scan and a Lumbar Puncture and ended up in the MS Clinic! I must say, it wasn’t the best day of my life! Ha ha….I could think of better things I had done in my life!

Almost about an hour later, the consultant took me to a private room to tell me that yes, it could be ‘possible MS’ There was nothing ‘conclusive’ at this point, but they would just keep an eye on me!

By now…getting wedding arrangements sorted out! Yikes!

MAY came and I was already tending the physiotherapy classes at the hospital and getting a good response from my weary limbs! Things started to look better, and I was soon walking albeit with a walking stick, though a lot better and the numbness I had been enduring was fading! Whoa! Could this be it all ending!!!
We attended my Nephew’s wedding which was a grand affair, and it was great to see my Dad there in fine form, with his new suit on which we all had a fight with him to buy as he was trying to tell us his old 1970’would suffice!

Alas, one week later, my Dad who had been complaining of a sore leg, (but to be honest with you, we never really took it seriously as he was always moaning about some pain or other) ,had fallen!
One morning my daughter had phoned him and was worried why he had not answered? Initially she put it down to him being rather deaf but after some time, she tried again….and was concerned enough to go round there (she just live about 3 miles from him) and found him on the floor! She phoned the ambulance services, and when they arrived took him straight to the hospital! She came and picked me up and we drove to the hospital, and on arriving we seemed to wait for ages, but once seen, the Doctors again, said he had not broken anything, but that they were worried about his breathing? After some insistence on our part, he was eventually transferred to another hospital who would carry out tests on him ( after spending 2 nights on a trolley I may add).
We spent every day up at the hospital while they carried out tests!

Yikes! Still trying to sort out this wedding in between times!

JUNE came and I was still attending my own hospital for physiotherapy, when I got the phone call every one dreads. My Dad had Cancer. They had found he had it in his pelvis but at that time they said they though it was secondary to most likely lung Cancer ( as he was always a smoker), so they would need to carry out more tests to see where it had come from. Within another day they asked to see us and informed us it was not lung cancer but bowel cancer! Hey, what’s the differerence? It is cancer where ever it is, and when it is the stage it cannot be cured, it is the same outcome!

We asked how long he had, and they said weeks, most likely months, so we got ourselves prepared for Macmillan Nurses coming in and whatever, and he died! Simple as that! No warnings, he just never woke up one morning.

He died four days after we had heard the bad news! How could that be? Well, when he died, on his death certificate, IT said he had had bronchial Pneumonia, though I still wonder why all through that week, signs were put up about the warnings of the deadly virus which sweeps across hospitals? I will not go into the details just now as this is possibly another review which I feel strong enough to write about now.

Anyway, June was a horrendous month for us, but in a way I am glad we were spared the agony of going through my Dad being in limbo for months,
Life in June was organising Dad’s funeral and dividing up his estate between his Grand children! It was perhaps a good thing for me as I wanted all this sorted out as quickly as possible, therefore taking my mind off what had actually happened!

One nice point ( well, for us , anyway) he died on Fathers Day, so the kids put in his coffin their little contributions to Fathers Day, like his cards they had made him for etc……

Still trying to think of wedding, though it had somewhat taken a back seat at this time.
As my daughter had always wanted her Grandad to walk her down the aisle, it became even more upsetting knowing he would never see his favourite Grandchild get married.

JULY came and I was still attending hospital but feeling better all the time! It was quite uneventful to say the least, as we were still all reeling from the death of my Dad!

I had moved back down South again, for employment reasons, and found it really lonely living away from my family, but had to do this as the job my partner had was too good to give up.

I had to soldier on with the wedding arrangements!

AUGUST, well was my Dad’s birthday so it was still pretty raw at this point but we carried on!
My Daughter’s birthday is also August so we , as usual had the tacky sort of birthday cake…..we do do things in a tacky sort of way in my family, when it comes to birthdays!

Oh still trying to arrange things for wedding!

SEPTEMBER was the same, my elder daughter had a birthday, so the same tacky birthday cake was bought and the usual birthday party was there with us all making great fools of ourselves!!

It actually brought a great sense of ‘life moves on’ strategy for us all……as I know ‘Dad’ would have loved it!
It was getting close to the wedding day so much talk was about the actual visit to Las Vegas!
Oh dear! Was getting in a panic about Las Vegas and the wedding! Arghhh….a Mum should never get involved as they are too ‘involved’ and I think I was more nervous than my daughter!

Still had last minute stuff to settle for wedding and I was totally absorbed in the plans!

OCTOBER! Yeah! It had actually come! The Wedding was here! We (all 45 of us) had arrived in Las Vegas, for the wedding which I had tried to organise for over a year!

It was the highlight of my whole year, although tinged with sadness too!

Alas, Las Vegas hardly has any rain, but you guessed it! Yep, the day of the wedding, it rained and rained, and rained even more! She had chosen an outside wedding beside the wonderful pool of Caesars Palace, and alas it was not to be!

She cried so much that morning I could hardly console her, but we got an inside chapel in Caesars Palace which was so beautiful, that it was really a good second best!
She ended up happy, but it was not what she had planned. The whole day went smoothly though and funnily enough, there was a double rainbow that day, and we wondered if someone was indeed looking over us?
Her new hubby made a speech mentioning Dad, and what he meant to us all , and all he did was make the whole room of people weep! Awww…….it was very emotional but an incredible day!

NOVEMBER was a month of anti climax! Nothing much happened except we were planning our Christmas visit to our kids! I was busy making my cards to all the orders I could not keep up with!

DECEMBER was the month I looked forward to! I was going home to be with my family!

I had a wonderful time and the good news is……I decided I cannot live without my family anymore, so going home for good soon!

Come February I will once again be home in Scotland, where I belong!

2006 was a decider for me!

Hope everyone has a great 2007! Jx

Summary: Up and down year!