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|  Family's Love Goes the Distance By MARY HERMAN-CAPPOLI
For Robert and Kathy James, a visit to Auburn has always been a pleasure. Each year, the couple makes the seven-hour ride from eastern Maine to spend time with their son Bob and his wife Darlene at their Renaud Drive home. But this past February, Robert and Kathy made an unplanned visit to Auburn. And they've been here ever since. No strangers to central Massachusetts, the Jameses lived in the Auburn area for 25 years before moving to Baileyville, a small rural town about 100 miles east of Bangor. It was there, in the winter of 2002, that Robert's life took an unexpected turn. In early December, after a bout with the flu, the active 65-year-old retired security supervisor fell several times during a walk in the woods. The following night, his hands were too weak to open a pill bottle, and a few days later, when he bent down to pick up his dog, Robert James fell to the kitchen floor. "Suddenly, I had no movement from my neck down. It was like when someone flicks down a light switch, and in an instant there's no energy at all," recalled Robert in a recent interview. Rushed to a small local hospital where doctors were unable to determine the cause of his sudden paralysis, Robert was transferred to a larger medical center in Bangor. It was there that he was diagnosed with Guillain Barre Syndrome. A rare a disorder that strikes only one in 100,000 people, the syndrome is often preceded by a viral or bacterial infection. In Guillain Barre, a person's immune system malfunctions, causing the covering of the body's nerve fibers to deteriorate. Without that covering, the nerves cannot relay impulses to the muscles, which remain healthy but unable to perform. And although the paralysis caused by Guillain Barre often reverses itself, many times a person's condition worsens before it improves. "Unlike many people with Guillain Barre, I never lost my ability to breathe on my own. But for more than three months I couldn't even move in the hospital bed," said Robert, whose initial treatment included protein injections that the immune system uses to attack invading organisms. Six months later Robert had regained limited movement in his fingers, arms, and left leg but still could not get up on his own. An additional three months of home therapy brought little improvement. Throughout that time period, every other weekend Bob and Darlene James would make the 400-mile trek from their Auburn home to be with Robert and Kathy. "Inevitably there would be a snowstorm on the weekends they were coming, but snowstorms and all they would be there," said Kathy. But earlier this year, when it became apparent that Robert was not improving as they had hoped, Bob and Darlene made one last visit to Baileyville. This time, it was to bring Bob's parents to Massachusetts.
In early February, Kathy James moved into her son's Auburn home, and her husband was admitted to Fairlawn Rehabilitation Hospital in Worcester. "My father needed to be at a facility where he could get the kind of treatment that would help him to get better. There wasn't anything like Fairlawn within 100 miles of their home, so we decided to have him come here," said Bob. It is a decision they are glad they made. "After four weeks of therapy I was getting out of the wheelchair, rolling over on my own, combing my hair, and even shaving," said Robert, who has joined his family in Auburn while continuing outpatient treatment at Fairlawn. According to Robert, the reasons for that improvement are clear. "The intensity of the rehabilitation has made a world of difference, and my family has had a big impact on my recovery," he said. "Bob and Darlene have opened up their home to us and give us tremendous emotional support. Also, being around Bob's two daughters and Darlene's three children has been wonderful. They all keep encouraging me to move forward." This past winter, Bob's daughters even helped build a wheelchair ramp so their grandfather could get in and out of their Auburn home. That home is also shared by Darlene's mother, who is temporarily staying with the couple. Although their lives are hectic and their house is full, Bob and Darlene see nothing extraordinary about their generosity. As far as opening up their home to Robert and Kathy, "It was the right thing to do," said Darlene, who views their living arrangement as reminiscent of the way families used to live. "Having them here with us and our children living with their grandparents --- it's just nice to be all together," she said. Come June, when Robert has finished his therapy and seen Bob's youngest daughter graduate from high school, he and Kathy plan to return to Maine, where he hopes to resume his favorite pastimes of fishing and hunting. But their extended family isn't ready to rule out the possibility of their return to Auburn. "The kids are trying to convince them to stay, but Robert needs to try to be independent again," said Darlene. "Then maybe they will return to this area to be with us permanently." | ||||||||||
