Crossroads

Home oxygen set-up

     Judy has come to  a milestone that she didn't want to reach:  the doctors have suggested that she begin using oxygen with activity.  Oxygen is the one thing that medicine has to offer that will prolong her life, they say. They tell her pretend that it's a pill.  It will help. But Judy is dismayed.  "I think of it as a dividing line," she says.  And, "I didn't think this time would come so soon."
   The oxygen company delivered standard  tanks the day after the doctor prescribed oxygen.  Judy pulls the tanks, which last about one hour, behind her in a rolling duffel bag. She drags a tank behind her to use the oxygen when she goes to her ukulele lessons and when she walks at the mall. She uses it when she walks from the parked car to her destination. I think the oxygen makes her feel better and less tired, but she won't yet grant it that power.  She just quietly uses it, and doesn't complain about having a shadow.  When I tell about what  it was like to have toddler and not be able even to shift your weight, much less leave the room, without upsetting him, she makes no comment.

Elegba

    I learned from Ysaye Barnwell of Sweet Honey in the Rock about Elegba, the Yoruba  god of the crossroads.  Elegba has been called a divine trickster.  When you come to a crossroads, you must make and offering to him. The best offerings involve doing something silly.  Judy's offering at her crossroads was to go without oxygen on an airplane trip to Fresno.  She then stayed without oxygen in the foothills of the Sierras at a week-long  autoharp festival.
    Even for those of us on Medicare, long delays related to insurance put us in the position of doing risky things. Judy is supposed to get a portable oxygen concentrator, which lasts about 3 hours and can be used on an airplane.  The insurance company has not yet given the OK for the concentrator, so Judy  went on her trip without oxygen.   Thank goodness, her only scary time was when she was at an altitude of 6500 feet.

Makeshift portable oxygen

     Yesterday the doc called Judy to say he wants her to take a high dose of Prednisone for 6 weeks and then to taper off it.  There is a chance that taking the steroid will act as a shock treatment to stop the momentum of the scarring of her lungs, at least for a while.  The drug will weaken her immune system and make her more vulnerable to pneumonia and other infections, which are lethal threats to her compromised lungs.   Judy will have to take an antibiotic along with the steroid.
    I have heard that high doses of steroids make people irritable and aggressive. (Can I go live somewhere else for 6 weeks?) Judy anticipates that they will give her a voracious appetite, and is thinking of strategies to keep from gaining weight.   Both of us are saying, "Wait a minute!  What's with the high- level medical treatment?  It's just a little cough, shortness of breath, and fatigue, isn't it?"
   I think Elegba is laughing.