Pine Ridge Resort News & Views

Been quite a few weeks since I’ve added to my blog.  For our family, it has been a very difficult few weeks and I haven’t spent much time thinking about writing.  As with many people of my generation, we are learning what it is like to care for an elderly parent who is having several health issues.

But our problems didn’t start out with my father.  Shortly before Thanksgiving, Donna made some move she wasn’t supposed to make and pinched or pulled something in her back that let to sciatica.  For those of you who are not familiar with sciatica, count your blessings.  It is a nerve pain that begins in your lower back and extends down a leg.  It is an extremely disabling pain that left her unable to walk for almost three weeks.  She was out of work for five weeks and wasn’t able to return to school until after Christmas break and then only half time for a couple of weeks.  Now she is back to work full time but still has to be careful not to put too much strain on her back.

We had planned to travel to Portland, OR., to visit son Evan for Christmas but sitting in a plane for three hours was not in the cards.  As a matter of fact, she probably could not have ridden in the car long enough to get to the airport.  Fortunately, NWA has  extended the time we can use our tickets for up to a year so we still intend to make the trip.

Then, just when Donna was beginning to feel better, my father suffered a stroke.  It happened on Christmas Day.  A second stroke occurred a few days later when he was in the hospital.  For the past four weeks now, Dad has been in a rehabilitation center in the Twin Cities working to overcome the effects of the two strokes.

We have good days and then bad days.  The worst effect was the damage to his throat so that he could not eat and he has had a feeding tube through his stomach for all this time.  It is only in the last few days that he has been able to eat pureed food and there is still a risk that some of the food will enter his lungs.  He is also very weak and cannot move around without help.

The strokes also seemed to hasten the onset of his dementia. That causes problems with his care because he can’t understand why he has to be in a care center and he doesn’t like strangers around him changing his clothes and taking care of him. Some days, he doesn’t even want us kids around.

We fear there are hard decisions to be made in the near future.  Now that he is eating, it is time to remove the feeding tube.  He will be happy that is gone but there are times when he just refuses to eat and so we fear he will deteriorate further.  The different therapy professionals who have been working with him say that he has reached a plateau  and they do not think he will recover enough to be able to live on his own again. He has made it clear to us that he doesn’t not want to live in a nursing home.  Difficult decisions to face.

Here at the resort, I guess things have gone fine.  I spend three to four days a week down in the Cities with Dad leaving Donna to take care of herself.  Fortunately, she is now able to do that.  Reservations are in very good shape for the coming summer with many new reservations coming in every week.  January has always been a time for lots of activity as folks work out their plans for the summer.

With the early snow in December, we had several parties reserve time for winter vacations. Unfortunately, we have not had much new snow since early December but the ground is white and people have been able to enjoy the outdoors more this winter than in past years.  And the snow insulated the ground so that septic systems are not freezing up this year.  A tremendous good thing, especially with me being gone so much.

Our kids have been busy this winter but I think I’ll wait to write more about them later.  Leah is still in New Zealand and having a ball.  Evan’s jealousy finally got the better of him and he took a month off his work and is leaving to join Leah on April 1.  I’ll fill you in on their travels in a later post.

Probably enough for now.  Almost time to watch the Super Bowl.  I don’t have a favorite in the game but it helps to take your mind off other things for awhile. Just hope it’s a good game.  Take care all.