PAIN! - San Antonio, TX - Dec 2009

Whew, life has been a challenge ever since leaving Elephant Butte, New Mexico 12 days ago. Our schedule had us arriving at Government Canyon State Natural Area in San Antonio, Texas on Dec. 1st, where we had secured a volunteer position for two months. We had planned to take three days to travel the 700 miles, but on the morning of the third day Frank got up, bent over to put on his shoes and his back immediately seized up and he was in excruciating pain.

He managed to roll back down onto the bed, grimacing and yelping in pain, and was finally able to get into a position that kept the pain to a minimum, but he was not able to move from there. I got him started on ibuprofen and then alternated ice and heat, but after two hours he was still in agony when he tried to move.

We were only about 60 miles away from San Antonio, so we decided to continue on to Government Canyon in hopes that Frank would recover soon and in the meantime I could cover the 25 hours/week of volunteer time that was expected.

Now, I'm fairly confident that I know how to do everything to break camp, but I had not actually done all the outside preparation nor driven the RV in a long time, so I was nervous to say the least. I broke camp, hitched up the car and drove the RV into San Antonio, arrived at the park, unhitched, got the RV backed down a long driveway, got the RV up on blocks to get level and got the utilities connected -- all of that while Frank stayed in bed and tried not to move. Doing all of this alone renewed my respect for the solo travelers out there. Having to do all work without a partner really adds another level of complexity and logistics to the process.

On top of all that, the travel day was miserable. It was cold and it rained all day so I had to break camp in the rain, drive in the rain and set up camp in the rain. Of course, all of that was on top of taking care of Frank who cannot move out of bed, so that meant feeding, medicating, ice/heat treatments and bathroom needs. Oh yes, did I also mention that I had to care for our two elderly dogs who also had to eat, take medicine and go out frequently for bathroom needs. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end of the day.

We were warmly greeted by the staff at Government Canyon and they were so gracious and understanding of the situation. They were willing to adjust our work schedule however was necessary to accommodate our needs. For the first three days, I only needed to fill out paperwork, read the host manual, get our uniforms and take a tour of the grounds.

Our official training wasn't to begin until Friday, so we had time to see if Frank's condition was going to improve. Those three days were a blur for me. Between Frank's constant care and the dog's needs, I had very little sleep and was pretty much running on fumes. I was in contact with Frank's family (most of them live in San Antonio and two of his sisters are nurses) and they offered up pain medicine, muscle relaxers and a TENS unit to see if that would get Frank over the worst. I left Frank only for a couple of hours to go out to get all that plus make a grocery run since we were out of food.

On top of everything else, my cell phone bit the dust and Frank's had died about a month earlier, so I had no way of contacting the outside world without driving over to the park's headquarters and using their phone. So, while I was out I also made a stop at the Verizon store where I bought two new phones. Sadly, I had to haggle with them over a new contract and I was so tired that I got a tad bit loud and uncouth when they tried to stick us with a lesser plan for more money. But, I discovered that adopting a crazed, whacked-out bitch persona worked and after 30 minutes of ranting, I got a better plan for the same monthly rate -- a life's lesson learned.

Back at camp with our new phones, I discovered that we were in a very weak signal area and I could not complete a call without it getting dropped. I tried making several calls that day trying to line up a doctor's appointment for Frank and every time the call was dropped about mid-conversation. Talk about frustrating. These new phones had no way of adding an external antenna like our old phones, so I couldn't do anything about it except to drive about a mile away to get into an area with a good signal.

Okay, so after three days of incredible pain (both mine and Frank's -- ha ha) Frank is no better and I'm a wreck. He cannot even think about moving without agony and there was no way he could get from the bed to the car so I could drive him to the doctor. Our only option at this point seemed to be to call EMS and see if they could figure out a way to get a back board in the RV and somehow carry him out. I even considered driving the RV to the emergency room, but after numerous (often dropped) phone calls, I found out that the ER staff are not allowed to come into the RV and carry him out and I would still have to call EMS for that.

Okay, at this point I decided that there was no way I could keep up this pace on very little sleep and also do any volunteer work, so on Friday morning I told the volunteer coordinator that I just couldn't do it and that we needed to move because had to make arrangements for Frank to get some treatment and our new phones weren't working out at the state park and anyway it might be awhile before either one of us would be able to do any volunteer work.

So, once again, I packed up and broke camp and this time headed for Blazing Star RV -- where we usually stay when in San Antonio. The drive was only a few miles and one of Frank's friends (thanks Mike!) helped me shuttle the car so I didn't have to add the task of hitching/unhitching the car for that short distance.

Once settled into Blazing Star, I made a call to EMS and also a couple of medical transport companies and got the information that their assistance would cost us somewhere around $750 and that's if they didn't have to do too much "above and beyond" the normal. Knowing that we'd have to pay for that out of our pocket, Frank decided that he wanted to tough it out and see if things would improve on their own. That was okay with me, but it meant that I was going to have to continue to be available 24/7 as his nurse until he was able to get out of bed

I spent Friday/Saturday taking care of Frank and the dogs. One of my chores was to get a memory foam mattress topper for the bed. Frank was complaining of having sore hips and shoulders from being in bed so long, so he thought this would help. Okay -- here's a visual for you -- imagine trying to get a king-sized mattress topper on the bed with someone (who can barely move) still in the bed. Since we don't have a "walk around" type bed, it was a challenge, but I got it done and it has helped a lot.

By Saturday night, Frank was still no better and the nurses in the family convinced him that it was time to get to the emergency room. A couple of his stronger siblings (mind you, we're all getting up there in age and with various physical ailments of our own) offered to help get Frank out of the RV and into the ER if I could drive the RV over to the ER.

So once again, on Sunday afternoon I packed up the RV and broke camp and drove over to the emergency room where I met up with Frank's family. Somehow (and thanks to a double dose of pain pills) we managed to get Frank out of bed, down our very narrow hallway, down the entry door steps and into a wheelchair. Whew!

We waited about 2 hours in the ER until he was seen. The nurse practitioner deemed his injury just a very severe muscle spasm and didn't think there was any nerve damage, so didn't order an MRI. She sent us home with mega-steroids, pain pills and muscle relaxers.

So now it's time to get Frank back into the RV. The good news is that all this moving around (oh yeah, and the double dose of pain pills) actually helped Frank determine how far he could go before hitting the pain position, so he was able to pretty much get himself back into the RV and back into bed with a minimum amount of pain. By now it was around 7:30 pm and dark outside and I had to drive the RV back to Blazing Star and park and get set up in the dark and in the rain and cold -- oh boy, that was fun.

Over the next two days, thanks to the steroids, Frank's pain lessened and his range of motion improved quite a bit. By Tuesday, he was able to get up and take care of his bathroom needs (thank goodness, because the pain pills had caused him to be constipated this whole time and the nurse practitioner told him that once he was mobile again to take a very strong laxative to get things moving.) Well, the laxative worked and he had to get up about every two hours over the next 24 hours.

So now, it's Wednesday and things are better and the sun is shining. Frank can sit up in his chair for about an hour at a time and has even been on his computer this morning. He can manage his pill schedule, get himself dressed, brush his teeth and take care of his bathroom needs, but he still hasn't been able to get into the shower. I was able to get a solid six hours of sleep last night and finally feel like my energy is coming back.

Today, Frank is going to try and go outside and take a short walk down the driveway and get some fresh air. Life is improving and hopefully things will be back to normal soon so we can visit with our family and friends and begin enjoying the holiday season.