Renee's Health
Renee had Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (PPMS). Of the people who get MS, only 10% get PPMS, so the focus is primarily on the 90% who get RRMS (Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis).
Major stressful events will take something that's just lying there dormant and activate it. In Renee's case, her Father, Donald, died in 2012 of Alzheimer's. Renee was in Texas helping her mom deal with his decline and eventual death and noticed the first major symptoms while she was down there. Additionally, she had a collapsed vertebrae disc between her L5 and S1 and lifting something out of the trunk of a car exacerbated it, basically also kicking that into a major issue about the same time.
We ended up at the Mayo Clinic in early 2013 and within 10 minutes the doctor pegged her for MS. Tests ensued and it was verified. She was also advised against back surgery for the collapsed disc because MS is worse with the level of stress that surgery would have imposed.
We learned to live with MS for a while, but it ate away at the things Renee enjoyed doing.
In 2018 we had to leave our four-level split home in Andover, MN that we had been in for 11 years (and loved) because she could no longer go up and down stairs. We lived in apartments in Minnetonka then Apple Valley to be close to Julie and Mario, until we decided we wanted to live closer to her knitting friends. We bought a rambler in Maple Grove and I had it modified to accommodate her needs. We moved in in July 2019, and spent several months just getting things together and decorated the way she wanted it so we could invite people over. Then Covid hit.
On Labor Day of 2020, at the height of Covid before any vaccine came out, I took Renee to the ER because of how physically sick she was. She was afraid of catching Covid at the hospital but that fear almost caused her to die. Renee had undiagnosed Diverticulitis, her bowel had perforated, and a CAT Scan revealed she had necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating bacteria). They gave her the choice to live or die. She was then taken for emergency surgery and spent the next 38 days in the hospital. I was allowed to stay with her every day in the ICU and the regular hospital rooms; we had a lot more to learn to keep her safe.
We spent the next three years healing the wound resulting from the necrotizing fasciitis and along the way had to tackle a sacral bone infection and multiple hospital visits when her electrolytes went completely awry.
We celebrated her 60th birthday (2023) with a surprise visit of some family members (Kate, Dane, Diane, Danny) and she had a wonderful several-day visit that was priceless.
David came up with Dane and Danny at the end of September 2023. Two weeks later I took her to the hospital for the last time. She had contracted pneumonia and had a pulmonary embolism. I'm told that someone in her condition with both of those things happening at the same time didn't have a chance. She died on October 16, 2023 of Hypoxia and Pneumonia.
The world lost an amazing woman that day.
Contacts
Chris Arnold (Husband)
chris@arniegroup.com
(612) 695-3196
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