The Year That Was

How to begin…

So, the last few years had been uneventful. My life was very normal and no big events had happened. Tommy and I were relatively healthy. I only had to take vitamins and antihistamines. And it was all about to come down crashing.

Summer of 2023 I went down to the DR to see visit my mom. The last 10 or fifteen years I was going at least twice a year since she was in her 90s and my sister Jackie and I were keeping an eye on her. She was strong as heck, but, still, age was catching up. I went there and stayed a few weeks. I then went back in October for her birthday. We had quite a birthday party with friends and family. Jackie hired a makeup artist who made my mother look like a movie star and she felt like a queen. Everything was lovely.

Thanksgiving of 2024 we drove to St. Louis to stay with Libby Jo for the week in her apartment. It was cold and beautiful. Unfortunately, a few days in Tommy got COVID. We knew that’s what it was in no time. So, I was sharing a bed with Tommy and he was sick as could be. Thanksgiving night, instead of the normal meal, I made tacos for Libby and her friends while Tommy was in bed. A couple of days later we headed back to Florida. It was obvious to me that even though I had had all my COVID shots I was still in danger of catching it. But there was nothing I could do. I wore a mask as much as I could but it wasn’t enough.

Getting into Florida I was starting to not feel so good and it was getting dark, so Tommy took over the driving, thank goodness. By then he wasn’t feeling as bad as the previous days. And what a good thing that was because there was a terrible incident that could have been a disaster if I had been driving. It was already around 9:30 at night and the main highway was in a total stop traffic jam. As soon as we could we got out into the Florida smaller roads. These are mostly two lane highways all over Florida but they do the job of connecting everything and getting around all the lakes. So that’s where we were, in the Florida boonies when a huge dog came out of nowhere and got in front of our car. There was nothing Tommy could do. He tried to slow down but he had a guy that had been tailing us trying to make us go faster. Had Tommy tried to stop he would have hit us. So, Tommy hit the dog then the guy behind us also hit the dog. We had to keep going. No sense stopping. We were sure that dog was dead. We had not realized how much damage that animal had caused to our car either until we got home. How bad could it be? Well, it damaged the whole entire front of the car, the wheel, and more. Good thing we have good insurance. It would have been a lot of money.

By the time we got home late that night I was already running a fever. I had COVID. It was also the worst one I had had. I had it one time before in 2021. Much later than everyone that got the first and second rounds. I can’t remember if Tommy brought it from school or if I got it. It was bad. But this time it was much worse. I was home running a fever for around a week.

Exactly at that time, my brother Ivan went into the hospital. I talked with him on the way in. He was going to see his doctor and call me when he finished. Next I knew, he was hospitalized and I couldn’t go see him because I had COVID. I tried to talk to him a few times but he just faded really fast. A few days later he had passed. I just couldn’t believe it. That fast!

Ivan and I had always been very close. I don’t know if it was that he was the first baby born when I was little or the fact that someone tried to kidnap him at 10 months. Whatever it was, we always kept in touch and were very close. We talked on the phone all the time. To loose him like this and not be able to go see him was a terrible blow for me.

After all that, it was Christmas. The girls were busy that Christmas so it was very quiet and uneventful for Tommy and I. We kind of welcomed it because we were both recovering. COVID had just beat us up so we were not up to a Christmas production.

Right after all this, at the beginning of the year, Jackie called me to let me know Mom was starting to fade. Looking back, I shouldn’t have taken so much so fast after COVID. I needed time to recover. But, I didn’t realize how badly it had hurt me. So, I started going down to the DR every 2 weeks, spent two weeks with my mother and then flew back and spent two weeks in Mount Dora recovering. I did that until March. March 2nd my Mom passed away in her sleep in the morning. I couldn’t get there until the 4th. Then, it was time to organize the funeral and the seaside celebration where we were putting my Father and mother and my brother Pico into the Caribbean Sea. Then it was time to clean up my mother’s house and go through countless drawers and boxes filled with papers. Some very important: birth certificates, documents about my father’s political mayhem, letters, all sorts of historical things, and a billion Kleenex and pens. When we finished sorting things, taking care of the ladies that had been helping take care of my Mother for years, we closed the apartment and headed to Casa de Campo. Jackie’s house in the Casa de Campo area was rented out at the time so we stayed in her apartment in La Romana.

I felt completely exhausted by then. I thought I was just tired but then I started feeling like I was coming down with something. I got a cough and just run down. I still managed to go to a beach side dinner with some of Jackie’s friends that wanted to make us feel better. It was a lovely dinner right by the water.

I decided I better get home if I was going to be sick. So, a couple of days later I flew to Orlando. The airport was a complete disaster. The Trump regime had already taken over and nothing was working. There were army guys in uniforms walking around with machine guns like back in the Trujillo era and the Balaguer afterwards. It took 2 hours to get our luggage and maybe another hour to go through immigration. A complete disaster all while I was running a fever and felt so bad I thought I was hallucinating part of the time. I watched as they were already selecting people in the area to question. We didn’t know ICE was coming, yet. At one point I found a corner and sat down on the floor. Oh yeah, about 1000 people and 4 little benches to sit.

​Finally got through, Tommy picked me up and we got home in the afternoon. I spent the rest of the week in bed running high fevers. Then it was over. Or so I thought. It was actually beginning. A few days went by and I started coughing uncontrollably. I thought it was just a temporary thing until I started feeling that it was deeper and worse than any cough I had ever had. I went to the Walk-In Clinic. They told me I had pneumonia and gave me medication for it. I did everything they told me to do and a week later nothing had changed. I still had a cough and supposedly, pneumonia. I went to my doctor who changed the antibiotic. I went through the whole packet and nothing. I still had pneumonia. So, we were all believing that I had a pneumonia that has been going around that is different and doesn’t react to the antibiotics that I was getting. So, we changed the antibiotics one more time.

In the middle of this, it was Elizabeth’s graduation and we were all going to St. Louis to be there for her. I had to go because I couldn’t stay in Mount Dora by myself, sick. But, I stayed in the apartment most of the time. I was very sick and running fevers. And had terrible sweats. I would wet the bed and whatever I was wearing. A terrible time.

We came back home and I just felt sicker and sicker. Then I was seeing double. At some point I told Tommy to take me to the my regular doctor in Winter Park. I got to her office and she saw how sick I was. She immediately sent me across to the Advent Health Winter Park hospital across the street. This was the first of 5 hospital visits. I was there for around 10 days. I had every test there is. Every kind of X-ray, scans, everything they could think of. At the end of it all there was nothing wrong with me according to everything. An enigma. The eye doctor did think I had some syndrome with my eyes and gave me some medication. At least I started seeing normally.

I went home and was recuperating when my red blood cells started going down. I went to Advent Health Waterman Hospital and I got two blood transfusions. They also found out I had a stomach ulcer. So, I had to get medication for that. I was there for around 4 or 5 days.

A week or two later my hemoglobin was down to 4 from 12-14. So, I had to go back to the hospital. This time back to the Winter Park Hospital. I was there for around 8 days while they tried to get my blood back to normal. It started going up enough and they sent me home.

I was home for maybe a couple of weeks and one night I got this terrible headache. I had to keep taking Tylenol until it finally stopped. I came out to the living room to watch a movie with Tommy and all of a sudden I couldn’t speak English anymore. I was saying everything in Spanish. It was really crazy. Words were just not coming. By the morning Tommy had enough and took me back to the hospital again. This time I was really bad off. I couldn’t recognize anything. They would show me a photo of a horse or a dog and I didn’t know what they were. I was lying in the bed not recognizing anything. I couldn’t walk, talk or think. I would sleep for about 15 minutes and wake up. It was just horrible. So, the tests started again. This time there was a test done in my spine and another one in my head. Then they figured it out. I had Herpes 2 in my head. It had eaten my red blood cells, pushed my brain to the side, eaten all my salt in my body and was creating havoc. At least we now knew what it was. Tommy went above and beyond with everything. Going to work he came by the hospital. He talked to the doctors and the nurses and found out what was happening. Then went to work. After work he came and sat with me until he had to go home because the dog needed to go out. He made sure everything was organized with the doctors and the medicines. He was there for everything. He did a great job. I don’t know what would have happened if I didn’t have him looking over me. There was one night that they wanted to give me a transfusion that I understood was the wrong medication. I called Tommy. He fought with the group wanting to give me this until they understood that they were wrong. It was just one of those things.

Now, in two days my doctors had gotten together and figured out a plan of attack. They were the attack team. My HIV doctor gave me a medicine that controls the Herpes 2 virus. They were also getting my saline back up. And getting more blood transfusions. Then my blood doctor found this medicine that attacks that virus and keeps it in check and had just been made available in this country. It is also intravenous. I got 4 of those and more blood transfusions, one every week. The thing is that I was in the hospital for 10 days. When I came out we had a plan of attack. By the time I came out I was down to 120 pounds. The lightest I had been since 2005. I had been to in the hospital 5 times. I had taken around 30 different types of medications. I don’t know how many blood transfusions. But through it all, with the exception of a hospital doctor and a nurse that I won’t name, I have to say that I had the nicest, most amazing and dedicated nurses and doctors in the hospitals through this entire ordeal. I don’t know what it would have been like without them. The hospital teams were above and beyond what you remember they were like some years ago. They have come a long way. Specially, in the Advent Health Winter Park Hospital and the Advent Health Orlando where I went to get special scans.

It has been a few months since the last hospital stay. I have gotten more and more of my weight and my energy back. I am able to do most things now days. I walk with my dog for around an hour every morning. I ride my bike. I cook, clean, garden, etc. Although I have decided to not go to the extremes I used to go to before last year. I am taking my time doing things. I don’t try to push myself the way I used to. If I feel I need a nap, I take one. If I am tired I stop. A few weeks ago I modeled as Lady Danbury in a Bridgerton Fashion Show done by my friend Margaret where she designed and sewed all the costumes. It was great fun to get back to modeling. I have modeled for her for years now.

I drive Tommy to work in Winter Park Mondays and Wednesdays so that he doesn’t have to. He’s been doing that drive for 29 years. It is the least I can do. Overall, I am back. I don’t know if I will need more transfusions or more medicines ion the future, but, for now, I am taking what I have: LIFE!!!

About the Herpes 2:
A few years ago I had a doctor who I am not going to mention who had replaced my regular gynecologist. She said I had a problem and needed a small surgery. After the surgery, I had a long time recovering from something that was supposed to be a small operation. Kind of mindless. I kept spotting for weeks. I felt bad. It was not what I had read was supposed to happen. I went to see that doctor and she made it seem like it was all normal. But it was not what she had said. Anyhow, after that I started getting herpes 2 bumps for the first time in my life. I had gotten Herpes 1 from a boyfriend when I was 17. I had never even heard of it until I got it. It was terrible and I have had to deal with that my whole life since. But this was different and I was now in my late 60s. So, that doctor infected me with Herpes 2 on top of doing a botched up job with the operation. Needless to say I have never gone back to that doctor or the entire organization. And that is the virus I had in my brain that almost killed me last year.