What Happened to Steve?

Dear Subscribers to Expat Journal,

This is Stephen’s brother, Joel.

Today, I gained administrative rights to this site and want you to know why you haven’t heard from Steve since June of 2019.

You might recall, at that time Steve and I had been traveling the world for over 7 years and were currently in Macedonia. We had come from Greece. In Thessalonika, Steve experienced something strange while sleeping, awaking to find his vision slightly impaired. He thought a virus caused it. But we continued traveling.

In Macedonia, his vision deteriorated, as did his endurance.

In Prilep, he had a severe episode of dizziness, headaches, and fatigue. So much so, we had him hospitalized. But it was a tiny town with few facilities. A very kindly doctor had him transported to Skopje by ambulance. Upon examination, including a CT Scan and MRI, they confirmed Steve had suffered a rather serious stroke, one located in the vision center of his brain. Upon release, with his vision still obstructed, we still considered traveling on. Steve is extremely stubborn. His son decided to join us in Skopje, and we all moved on to Kosovo. Almost immediately, Steve had several more episodes and we had him hospitalized again. Very primitive. Doctors told us we had to get him back to the U.S. for proper treatment. We needed one week to get Steve capable of traveling, and then we managed to sneak him on a plane to Istanbul, then to the U.S.

At the hospital here in Temecula, he promptly had another episode. After several days, the doctors assigned him to hospice. We rented a small apartment. Steve was rarely conscious and had no appetite. His son and I figured he had weeks to live.

But Steve is stubborn.

After awhile, he began to show signs of improvement. After a couple of months, we took him off hospice, and I have been caregiving for him ever since. Sometimes, we would go out using the wheelchair and even eat lunches at Rodrigo’s Mexican restaurant. At some point, however, Steve had another episode and he has been bedridden ever since. His stamina is poor and his strength is worse. He retains most of his mental acuity, and his vision has improved enough for him to watch movies on our big screen TV, which we purchased at the beginning of this year. Before that, we listened to audio books all day.

So, here we are. I figured out how to get admin rights to his site. Steve could not see well enough to use his computer, so his blog posts ended rather abruptly, and I wanted to let you know why.

If you are interested, my monthly Newsletter recounts our travels from the beginning, using Steve’s magnificent photos to illustrate each story. As of this month, we’ve gotten to Honduras (3 years into our travels.) If you want to see these short pieces, please subscribe at: http://bit.ly/2qIixCo

Most of Steve’s best photos from our 7-1/2 year journey are available to view and purchase as prints at: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/stephen-dennstedt

You should know that Steve absolutely loved writing his blog, and he misses it terribly. I know he would love to hear from you if you are so inclined. Housebound, it is all too easy for him to feel forgotten and unneeded. Sad, but that’s how it is.

I do hope you’ll “transfer” your subscription over to my Newsletter and continue to share our wonderful adventures while traveling the world.

Sincerely,

Joel R. Dennstedt

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