Barbara Busch

@SonniSings 🫶💙⚡️

@SanJoseSharks Harder please. Yes, sir.

What a game.

@MuuMuse !!!!

Sorry to be a corny gay but it’s insane that this is real in my lifetime and maybe all the mass psychosis this show has unleashed in people (myself included) really is a net positive.

@hudsonwupdates Shh..keep writing! ;) 🫶

“It feels really surreal sitting here writing the next Ilya and Shane book whilst watching jokes about Ilya and Shane happen live from Hollywood at the Golden Globes.” - Rachel Reid talking about ‘Unrivaled’ via Instagram

@TheCancerSutra "Dunked"...we see what you did there :) ⛹️‍♂️

Day 7 hip replacement update: I have accidentally dunked my hand into the toilet on consecutive days. #thankscancer #melanoma #hipreplacement #bionic #fuckcancer

@charliersmith1 Girl. That is OK!! 🫶❤️💕

Being honest, I’m not in a good place mentally or physically today. But I’ve made it out of house, so marathon #4… let’s do this!! 😊 justgiving.com/page/charlie-s…

@charliersmith1 Amazing!!

Day #2… marathon #2… COMPLETE!! 😀 justgiving.com/page/charlie-s…

@mikejwhelan Oh my!!!!!! That's amazing!!!

BELLA I've been working with her everyday for hours flexing her back legs, massaging her muscles giving her her meds and today is the first day that I see incredible progress and hope. Add Vet Rehab Tech to my Caregiving to my resume. 💙🐾🐾

@thatdudereed_ I PROMISE you that is completely normal to feel that way. You have got this!!! 💪

I really struggle with wondering if lll ever beat this mental health war

@John_Dabell What the WHAT??!!! That is amazing..truly superhuman! 💕

I'm going to show folks. 2 weeks ago today, I was in ICU with a collapsed lung and multi-organ failure. Life-saving expertise, care and support from so many talented people means that today, I'm walking around my local ponds with a chest drain and feeding tube - managed to do 2.5 miles so I'm happy with that. Yes, there are plenty of challenges ahead, loads, in fact, but I owe it to my lifesavers to get back on my feet. My family need me and I need them.

@John_Dabell Soooo much love for you and your family during this time. You have given infinite strength to others in your years🫶 I hope you feel a bit of that returned to you now.🫶

Still in ICU but off ventilator. In a bad way. Had multiple organ failure and life-saving op. Told I'm doing well but it doesn't feel like that. Being fed through my nose. This is the most undignified experience of my life. Need help with all personal care. No photo. Too rough.

@mikejwhelan Hello,friend 🫶

I Thought I’d Be Gone First. by Michael Whelan I thought I’d be the one to go first. Stage 4 head and neck and lymph node cancer in 2022. Odds so bad even the doctors stopped pretending. I made peace with dying. I braced for it. I thought Rebecca would be the one holding my hand at the end. But I was wrong. I survived. For a while, I thought it was because I was so tough. A life-long fighter. Resilient. Too damn stubborn to quit. But I’ve learned the truth, and it’s not strength it’s purpose. I survived to take care of Rebecca. Period. End of sentence. That’s it. That’s the reason. The Slow Disappearance People think caregiving is noble. Holy, even. But they don’t see the erosion. You don’t lose yourself all at once. It happens in fragments. First, the lunches with friends. Then the hobbies. No more golf invitations. Coffees. Then your dreams. Then the simple act of waking up and knowing what day it is without checking your phone. You become a shadow in your own life. The world keeps spinning and you’re stuck in this shrinking orbit-pill bottles, early morning catheter changes, bathing, insurance battles, hallucinations, rehab denials, ER visits, another trip to the pharmacy, the store to reload our refrigerator, late-night panic attacks. And the silence. My God, the silence. Friends fade away. People stop calling. No one wants to witness the slow-motion wreckage of a disease that doesn’t take a day off. So you stop talking. Stop reaching out. Stop believing anyone still sees you. Except Twitter If I didn’t have Twitter, I’m not sure I’d have anyone at all. I know it sounds ridiculous. A grown man clinging to an app. But Twitter became my proof of existence. My tiny rebellion against disappearing. There, I’m not invisible. There, I’m not just “the caregiver.” I’m a storyteller. A fighter. A man still tethered to hope by threads of language and love. I post about Rebecca. About Bella, belly-up on the bed demanding rubs. About the absurdity of life, the broken medical system, the way Parkinson’s can hollow out the person you love in slow, merciless increments. I share all of my mistakes. And people listen. Strangers reach back. For one fleeting moment, I’m seen. Without that? I think I might have stopped writing a long time ago. And if I’d stopped writing… I don’t know that I’d still be. The Twist of Fate I thought cancer would take me. I thought Parkinson’s would leave us untouched. But life is cruel like that it rewrites your ending without your consent. I’m still here. Rebecca’s fading. Every day, a little more of her slips away. Memories, words, movements. Sometimes she looks at me and I can see her fighting to remember who I am. And it breaks me in ways I don’t have words for though I keep trying to find them. People call me strong. Brave. But strength isn’t heroic. Sometimes it’s just the absence of choice. Why I Write I write because otherwise I'd vanish. I write because somewhere out there, another husband or wife is awake at 3 a.m., scrolling in the dark, thinking they're the only one drowning. I write so they know they aren't alone. Twitter isn’t salvation. But it’s a connection. And connection for me is oxygen. I thought I survived cancer because I was unbreakable. Now I know I survived because she needs me. That doesn’t make it any easier. It just makes it harder to imagine who I’ll be when she’s gone. Some nights, I lie in the dark, listening to her breathe, and I can feel time slipping through my hands like water. And I wonder not for the first time if, when she leaves, I’ll finally go with her. Because this… this half-life without her? I’m not sure I want it. But then Bella jumps onto the bed. And Twitter lights up with strangers who feel like friends. And I write one more line, one more story, another chapter, one more fragment of myself out into the world. And I remember: I’m still here. For now. And for tonight, that has to be enough.

@Tbone7219 Oh I am SO sorry! He was such a bright light here ☀️

I am Tony’s wife and I am sending a message on his Twitter page. It is with my deepest regrets to let you know that Tony passed away 8/6/2025 here at home by my side. He loved this site and loved making everyone laugh. I am so lost without him and life won’t ever be the same.

@mikejwhelan @perfectrose2011 Wendy is correct!

@perfectrose2011 I know nothing about a cystoscopy procedure. nothing

REBECCA'S cystoscopy for tomorrow has been canceled. Her lab test from yesterday came back POSITIVE for another UTI infection. UGH.😢👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨

@SacAppraiser Love this. Love ripples in the wake of grief 💕

My friend passed in May, and I mowed his lawn again. It breaks my heart to do this, but he would do it for me. I want to get his wife through the end of the year so she doesn’t have to think about this. It’s good for me also to let grief come to the surface. Love you buddy.

@drkeithsiau @AmerGastroAssn 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Finally - much needed guidance on GI manifestations in hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, covering MCAS and POTS via @AmerGastroAssn 🆕🔢 1️⃣ The guideline 📄 2️⃣ Beighton score for hypermobility🫸 3️⃣ MCAS diagnosis 🩺 4️⃣ Management 💊 📸: sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

@mikejwhelan Exasperating experience with hospital&ER. We have continuously experienced remarkably the same things--though the medical conditions are completely different. Change needs to come. Take time for YOU! I bought Bella..but I would rather have your peace&rest than a thank you💕

JUST TIRED BUT THANKFUL 😢💙

@LibbyMbc What an honor to to purchase the book:) Following her for a while, I am taken with the cover in a way I didn't notice before:) The details and how L&V's hearts are both covered in loving arms💕I hope she is doing SO well:) ❤️

Hello, I just wanted to let everyone know that Libby's book is now available on Amazon and Kindle. We also have some remaining hard copy versions of the book available on eBay (let me know if anyone is interested in the hard copy version and I'll send you the eBay link). I recently donated several of Libby's book to a hospice social worker. I have also donated copies to the Breast Cancer Supportive Care Center in my city and I will continue to look for places to donate Libby's book (I'm open to ideas if anyone can think of a place that would benefit from Libby's book and would accept a copy as a donation). Libby hoped that her words may offer some comfort to her own daughter as well as to anyone else struggling with illness or death. In alignment with Libby's wishes, any profit from Libby's book will be donated to a charity my family supports such as @densebreastscdn Thanks, as always, to Libby's family on Twitter (now X) for providing Libby with such a kind community in the last years of her life. Your support for her was no small thing and helped carry her through some of her hardest days ❤️For that, I will always be grateful - Libby's sister Kim amazon.com/Ill-Your-Heart…

@mikejwhelan So much love for you and Rebecca...💕🫶

UPDATE Short update. Sadly Parkinson’s comes with more issues as it progresses. Both physical and cognitive. Thursday night she didn't feel well. It was easy to think that her rehab was the cause, but it wasn't. Yesterday she felt worse. She slept and rested until it was obvious that things were getting worse. the ERs are not staffed with neurologists on holiday weekends. They did another blood panel, a sonogram and a CT scan. They found that she has a muscle issue called Rhabdomyolysis. In her case it's from constant tremors of her leg. IV fluids helped flush out the muscle proteins and electrolytes that were causing her legs not to be able to move. The IV fluids can prevent dangerous heart rhythms and loss of kidney function. The other tests found severe bowel obstruction. I want aware but she hadn't had a bowel movement in 7 days. Once flushed out she felt better. The sonogram showed an extended bladder. Her bladder holds too much urine. It's part of the reason for her discomfort and urinary pain and problems. Her DaTscan to look at her brain to determine if there are any other issues on top of her Parkinson’s... Lewy Body, Alzheimer’s, Vascular Dementia, MS or ALS. We had a great consultation with a Neurological Mental Health Therapist. The bottom line. This is the beginning to what will eventually become the end. when I asked they said it could be one year or 15 years. UGH. Hopefully, nutrition, exercise and therapy slows down the process. I will also take care of Rebecca until the day that I can't. A life without her in our home next to me is unimaginable. I'm in touch with our insurance provider to see what they can and cannot provide to make her life a bit easier. Being a three time cancer survivor I'm aware of the horrors that come with the disease. But for me the Neurological diseases are far worse. hopefully next week I'm given a few answers to make her life more comfortable. Thank you everyone for reaching out and supporting us.

@AileenFish @Thehullboy1 ^^^THIS!! Totalllly this! ❤️

@Thehullboy1 It’s so normal to have swings after the challenge you took on and succeeded at. You know you’re strong enough to get past this. Here’s hoping it settles soon.

Haven’t been posting a lot on here recently as going through a bit of a battle in my own head atm. But slowly and steadily we are getting back to it. Love you dad, keep battling my mate ❤️