Ken,
Sending my good thoughts your way also... I just went through something similar to your situation this past year... in Dec 2013 my wife came down with an infection, they called it a septic infection... she spent about 4 months in either the hospital or nursing center treating that, then had a small stroke after she got home, so back to the hospital for another month, with the infection back, and it had attached itself to her mitral valve in her heart, so we had open heart surgery to replace that, then another round of antibiotics at home to continue the treatment on the infection. Now she's having trouble with her back as the infection ate away some of the disc in her lower back and allowed two of the bones to contact bone on bone and they fused together. She's good for about 15 minutes standing then she has to get off her feet. Doctors only give her a 50/50 or less chance that any surgery would help. Plus she's diabetic. She's also suffered from Atrial fibulations since in her 20's... she on pretty heavy doses of blood thinners, so that has to be checked every month....
Take good care of her, she's precious.