Happy Birthday, Ray!

     Today is Ray's 38th birthday! That's his birthday cookie in the picture above. We did his birthday dinner last night since the kids are staying with my parents this weekend. Lydia was a huge help, since Ray and I both felt horrible. My cold has turned into bronchitis, and Ray has gotten my cold. I was really hoping that I wouldn't get bronchitis this year, but I started the year with it, and now I'm ending the year with it.

     Ray almost didn't make it this far. A few years ago, when Alex (also pictured above) was just a baby, Ray almost died on me. He went into a diabetic coma and was unresponsive for 10 hours. The doctors were so sure he was going to die that they got together and prayed for him. He was so acidotic that he holds the record around here for the most potassium pumped into a person. The hospital pharmacy had to order more K+ from other pharmacies just to have enough for him. He was so deficient in nutrition because of inability to process what he was eating due to lack of insulin that he was literally starving to death. He had lines running into each arm, a line in his chest, a tube down his nose, and he was on a respirator.  He was in the hospital for 5 days, but he only remembers the last two or three days of it. It was beyond horrible, and he's still recovering.

     The last six years have been tough. When Ray got out of the hospital, he could barely walk. He couldn't move around well. He was beyond thin. I had a six-year-old daughter, a two-year-old son, a baby, and a thirty-two-year-old man to take care of, no money coming in, and I was overwhelmed. I didn't really have much help. Ray was not only having physical problems, but memory, mood, and mental problems, as well. But I put on a brave face and pretended that I could handle it all.

     I wish I had known about Paleo years ago. Maybe it would have helped. It has been a big help in getting him better, but he still has a long way to go. I'm just glad that we've been able to have these extra six years, and I hope we have many more. Happy Birthday, Ray!

     The plans for today are just to rest and watch some of the shows we got for Christmas and try to get well. I hate being sick.