This post is very hard for me to do - understandable - having been married almost 63 years.
People say when a spouse dies, half of them is taken away with him/her. My resolve is living the rest of my life as full as I will be able to, with wonderful memories popping up all the time.
Living alone now in our big Recreational Vehicle, in my case a so-called Fifth Wheel, has some challenges for me, but by observing most chores Dieter had to do, I can do things around the trailer, which are physically possible for me to manage. The ones affording heavy lifting will have me asking my wonderful neighbors in this resort to help me. And they did already and will do in the future.
My hubby was diagnosed with a potentially fatal blood sickness in 2004, when we were parked in southern Arizona. This rare "blood cancer" means having sticky platelets in the blood, which eventually can render all inner organs useless. In his case his kidneys were involved. The name is "Systemic Primary Amyloidosis". The oncologists in 2004 were fearing, he would lose his kidney functions very soon. We sold our lot in Florence, AZ and were driving to Florida to seek second opinion. The oncologist in Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa confirmed the diagnosis and wanted to administer the third chemo treatment. There is no established treatment for that sickness, it is all trial and error. Dieter rejected it. Oncologist: "Then you will die". Dieter: "OK. then I die".
That was the time I sprang into action with my interest in alternative medicine and searched the internet. I fed him all known foods to boost his Immune System, beginning with Bee Pollen and countless other more or less expensive foods, which is always first defense, or in his case: weapon. And I found out, that Turmeric/Curcumin i.e. in India is consumed in high quantity every day, this results in very low counts of Alzheimer's patients (this sickness is also about sticky platelets in the brain).So I ordered that - and Dieter was feeling and being better and better. It came to the point, that blood panels did not give the hint anymore about his sickness. He was as strong as ever, cleaned the roof of our trailer himself - and we were host campers at BLM lands in northern California, in Susanville, twice. A third time we served both in Island RV Resort in Port Aransas, Texas, for an entire year. Dieter worked outside, guiding campers in and out, dispensing Propane, holding up the Recreation Hall and cleaning facilities. And I was working in the office like crazy, doing Telefone, bookings and releasings via computer, talking to residents, selling equipment, working with money at the bank, also with the cash mashine and credit card reader - the list goes on. This is one of the most famous fishing resorts in the south, on North Padre Island. On Holiday weekends we had to deal with about 60+ trailers coming in in one single day. Then we got help - Dieter had some hosts working with him and I had the manager working with me, doing the phone all day.
Overall, life was normal for us. But over time his age came into play - I guess - his strength was deteriorating slowly. It started in earnest in 2018, when we were moving into Zephyr Palms RV Resort, were we wanted to live permanently, because campers give up to drive around, when hooking up to the pick-up and disconnecting and re-connecting and all the setup becomes difficult to do.
In February 2019 I had to call 911 the first time, of many to follow. He lost his kidney functions then - 15 years later than predicted. He had to get hemodialyses 3 times per week, and he had a couple of surgeries connected to that, and he had an aortic heart valve replacement in Tampa on top of that all. He lost his strength completely in hospital beds and stroke centers and on dialyses chairs.
This is a very short version of all these events. In my website it is written a bit more extensive:Home is where we park our RV
Usually I post some pictures within the posts, but you will find him in all my writings somewhere.
I love you forever, mein Schaetzchen !!
