ORO VALLEY, ARIZONA
Hey gang, Richard here, what a great summer we’ve had in the house Lisa built! Last summer we’d just gotten Lisa home after a year and a half of moving from one hospital and one crisis to another. Getting our home remodeled, equipped, supplied and staffed for Lisa to be safe and comfortable was a huge undertaking that spilled over through last summer and fall.
But this year we’re chillin’ in the desert! Lisa’s medical care team has smoothly handled the inevitable challenges and kept her healthy and stable. Michael has kept me in stitches (and somehow kept himself out of them) and our friends and family have kept all of us going.
The summer has been filled with quiet mornings, busy days, restful nights and fun–filled weekends punctuated by visits from friends and family, exciting trips and (for Tucson) pretty mild temperatures.
Lisa insisted that despite our living in the desert we would have some grass in the backyard for kids and pets. Boy, was she right! Michael uses the grass to develop his horsemanship skills. I use it to protect my knees and hands as I play the role of horse. Bucking him off is an important part of learning, right?
Our backyard
has definitely been a mini-oasis where Michael has become swimmer, gardener and engineer. With Lisa on our back porch under her ceiling fan, Michael plays shark attack (he’s the shark) in the pool, pulls weeds from the flower and
vegetable beds (ok, he hasn’t quite figured out the difference between petunias and weeds) and organizes his trains and trucks in the excavation of his quarry (or what some might think of as a sandbox).
Local landscapers call this the “mini-oasis” concept that permits the area immediately around the back of the house to have grass, fruit trees and other water-hogging plants before the transition to traditional desert adapted vegetation on the other side of the backyard fence. I ran chicken wire along the bottom of the fence to keep the rabbits out that were eating the grass (which I welcomed) but carpeted the area with ….fertilizer (which on my hands and knees playing horse, I don’t).
The fence has worked pretty well with the rabbit
s, but hasn’t stopped the parade of other desert wildlife into our yard. Our wild summer visitors have included a bobcat, rattlesnake, tarantula, G
ila monster and a herd of Javelina. We have a covey of Gambel’s quail Michael has watched grow up feeding at our seed block out the kitchen window along with the white winged doves. So far, I’ve been able to escort the predators out of the yard without harm to them or our brood. Michael has, of course, been an invaluable aid in these events. “Kitty, daddy, kitty!”
We’ve had other wild visitors this summer. Lisa and I are both career prosecutors, and I’ve been involved with National Dist-
rict Attorney’s Association for many years. In fact, it was an NDAA board meeting here in Tucson a few years ago that sold me on the place. Well, NDAA’s summer conference was in Tucson this year. That brought many of Lisa’s friends from all over the country here and definitely called for a party. The weather was ordered up by the visitor’s bureau and the food came from my trusty Oklahoma Joe smoker and our favorite local Mexican restaurant. Old friends and new got to spend time with Lisa, meet Michael, my Dad and Sherry and our Tucson gang. I’m not sure if it was Lisa’s sangria recipe (which I followed to the letter) or the company, but it was a wonderful time.
We were particularly glad to have our long time friends from Oklahoma, Suzanne McLain Atwood and Trent Bagget here. Lisa had served on several important boards with them and so, having them sitting on Lisa’s porch together while our beautiful Pusch Ridge turned deep pink as the sun set, was special.
LISA’S CARE SYSTEM WORKS.
After tweaking and transitions over the last year, I’m confident we have Lisa in a safer, more comfortable place than any in the world. We had the chance to try it all out this summer and the system (along with Lisa) passed with flying colors. We have a doctor, nurse practitioner, and therapists all making house calls when needed for routine care. Lab technicians also come to our home for routine blood tests and x-rays. For trips to her physiatrist for spasticity treatments or tests or treatments at the hospital that can’t be done at home, good people at Coyote Run transport Lisa and Patrice along with her “go-bag” get her there and back safely without the drama and expense of ambulances.
When Lisa’s G-tube needed replacing this summer, her team of caregivers handled it in an afternoon at our nearby hospital and had her home before bedtime. Later in the summer Patrice and I noticed subtle changes in her condition that might have been overlooked without the consistency of care we can provide. When the symptoms continued, Lisa’s medical team ordered up blood work and then more tests by our old friends at Oro Valley NW Medical Center. A complete set of tests using all the high-tech equipment there identified the problem (her G-tube had moved) which was immediately corrected and resolved the symptoms right away.
Lisa was 
tested, treated and cared for by many of the same folks who saved her life after the cardiac arrest two years ago. They were amazed at how well Lisa has done (if you remember, she was flown out by helicopter with a life-threatening reaction to a medicine that was blistering her skin and linings of her lungs). More delight came when they saw Michael. Because, when they first saw him he was wrapped like a burrito to be with his mom when they’d help smuggle him in to visit, now, he’s 2 and a half, and ready to “help” them run their hospital.
Bottom line: Lisa is in a home modified and equipped with the best bed, lift system and other stuff available anywhere in the world. She is cared for by folks who know her and love her with the skills, training and facilities to handle the kinds of complications (Michael with Cousins Will & Catharine)
her brain injury make inevitable while keeping her in her home with her family. While I’m proud to be one of these caregivers each night (my shift) I know it’s more than just one person who makes Lisa’s safety and comfort possible and I’m grateful to them all.
MY MOM
This is Lisa’s update, so I don’t try and do too much of my stuff here, which is pretty boring anyway. But my writing of this update was interrupted by the passing of the person who got Lisa and I together- my mom, Beverly Adele Wintory. You can read her memoriam at http://obituaries.galesburg.com/Link.asp?I=LS000117543209X
I wanted to share with you that story since most
folks wonder what the heck Lisa was thinking when she married me anyway. It’s your basic “boy gets girl, boy loses girl because he’s an idiot”, when my mother comes into the picture.
After my mom’s stroke and move back to Illinois, she came to visit me in Oklahoma each summer. It was during one of those visits after "boy" had been repeatedly told he’d lost the girl (by the girl) we begin. My mom was again reminding me how much she believed Lisa and I should be together and asking if I’d called her. After the usual “she’s already told me to leave her alone” “you should call her” exchange, I picked up the phone just to shut my mom up by letting her hear Lisa tell me to get lost.
I dial the number. It rings. Lisa answers. I say, “I know I’m an idiot. I know I’m a bigger idiot for calling you again after you’ve told me to get lost repeatedly. But my mother is making me call you to….” Lisa interrupts and asks “Your mom! How is she?” One topic led to another and to dinner for the 3 of us and the rest, as they say, is history.
Lisa and I were really glad to have mom make what turned out to be her last visit to Tucson while our home was being built. We got to show her all the sights and had a great time together. Lisa’s love for her was enough to give me the chance that led to our marriage, home and Michael. We’ll miss mom’s weekly calls to visit with us and Michael will miss yelling “HI, GRANDMA!” into the phone. Mom’s real understanding of our situation was always a source of support and strength for me and comfort, I believe, for Lisa.
Richard...
Please direct your questions or comments to: mlwintory@msn.com
