How's Luth?

December 2009

The post prior to this one was back in April, 2009.  Back then Luth was well enough to walk around.  The bad news was that the money raised by my SOS had run out.  We couldn’t buy any more of the $3000/mo medicine that Luth had to take.  By then the US recession was in full burn.  My office mates who had helped me raise funds were all out of a job like myself and our counterparts in the US were in no better luck.  So we just sucked it in and hoped that we wouldn’t need the medicine anymore.  Luth continued to stick to her ‘organic’ diet and all seemed well.  At least for a while it was.

By June I’d noticed that Luth would tire easily.  There would again be some sort of neck pain or back pain, but they would go away soon enough.  By July, it was apparent Luth needed to go back to Iressa.  But by then it was out of the question – yes I had a new job, but my take home wasn’t even enough to cover our monthly household bills.  Friends were helping me out with some of the bills – but I really didn’t know how else to source an additional $3000/mo.

Tita Cory died in early August.  And this affected Luth very much.  She got depressed.  And the headaches came back.  Surely more trouble headed our way.  But Luth didn’t want to go to the hospital.  And as it had been in the past – just as it all looked so bleak – a bit of good news came our way.  A doctor-friend had a patient who had been using a generic version of Iressa from India.  And she had apparently recovered pretty well.  And the best news yet – this cost only a tenth of Iressa – $300!  I was soon communicating with the family of this patient of his – so I could also buy some of this medicine.

By early September, the headaches had gotten, much, much worse.  Yet Luth still did not wish to be confined – until it came to a point I guess where the pain was unbearable not to Luth but to myself.  So Luth was confined.  She continued to weaken at the hospital – and I think on the 4th day she couldn’t walk anymore.  She started sleeping continuously and she would no longer react to us… and we started to prepare ourselves for the worst.

The first bottle of our Indian medicine came I think on the 3rd day of her confinement.  We continued to give her the medicines via NG tube.

It was on the 10th day I think when I moved her head and she yelled out.  And when I asked her if it was painful, she answered in that unmistakably sarcastic what-do-you-think-duh-tone that could only be Luth’s: “Oo!”.  She was back.

We were discharged a few weeks later.  But Luth still needed to undergo Physical Therapy.  She still could not sit-up by herself, much less walk.  I would have wanted her to continue with part of the therapy in the hospital but by then the hospital bills were already going way overboard.  I remember the doctor saying that Luth had to be able to sit-up and recover quickly or else it could take some time.  Something like the longer you stay on your back, the longer it takes for you to relearn to walk again.

I guess we are taking the longer route.

It is now about 2 1/2 months since we’ve been discharged from the hospital.  Luth is still undergoing Physical Therapy.  She’s definitely stronger – but it will definitely still take a while before she can sit up and walk.  She’s not in pain.  She’s eating well.  And she’s laughing with us.  No Facebook just yet.