September 24 - “An escape”

An escape is in the works. Before that cardiologist could put the quiatus on us, we decided to hit the road. Not going as far as planned, though. The four days we lost put a crimp in things. But our Plan QRST looms as lots of fun anyway. Details to be revealed as they unfold. Stay tuned. 

We were all loaded up and on the road by 9:53. Chris’ goal was 10, so not far off. It was a Saturday, but hey, we were on vacation. Why not live dangerously? We went to the ferry. The line wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, but we definitely had to wait. We thought it cute - or maybe a little scary - when Siri told us, without any pauses, “Enter the ferry, then exit the ferry.”  Wait. Like right after each other? But … it’s wet. 

We continued on a generally easterly track. We thought we would find a sign that said we were entering Louisiana, but it never showed up. How did we miss that one?  Twilight Zoned out, I guess. 

We didn’t miss our exit for lunch, though. Nathan and April and Cailyn highly recommend that we try out Steamboat Bill’s on I10 in Lake Charles. Why not? She stuck with the shrimp salad - spicy shrimp salad, that is. I went with my go-to in places like that - popcorn shrimp. Really good stuff. Just a little bit of heat that hit you in back of the throat. Just enough to burn off anything unhealthy, right?  

From there it was ever Eastward toward our goal hotel of night one in Hammond, Loozianny. 

And what to our wondering eyes should appear?

But a football stadium ever so near.

And who was the visiting team, pray tell?

‘Twas the HCU Huskies and that rang a bell. 

We hurried on over to see and to cheer. 

And who was that youngster we saw oh so clear? 

‘Twas none but our Jachin, a trainer he is. 

And after we watched him, he sure was a whiz. 

We saw the game, too, like an afterthought 

The Huskies won, so our trip’s not for naught. 

Whew. That’s enough rhyming for one day. I have to record, however, that the stadium scoreboard’s big commercial before the game was for champagne something or other. The picture was of a Bud Lite, but they never said those words. 

We had to trek all the way around the stadium to find the only entrance we were allowed to take for the visiting team fans. And once inside, we found ourselves in the one half of a section that had been allotted to HCU fans. We made the best of it, though. We were sitting on the front row right at the 50 yard line with some other old timers. We made some new friends, especially when I co-opted one of the home team’s patented cheers. Our neighbors got a big kick out of that. 

After the game we made our way back to the hotel and had a snack. Headed to bed around ten or maybe 10:30. Big day today. I think. 

Oh, here’s an afterthought for ya. I got the results of my stress test test on My Chart. Seems the doc recommended “further testing procedures.”  Guess that means I’ll end up getting a heart cath after all. Eventually. Gee whiz. It’s a shame I’m already out of town. Escaped. 

Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭7 says, Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Father, thanks for getting us this far. Help us to cram in as much fun as we can. Amen. 

September 23 - “ESE Day”

I had an interesting greeting from Chris yesterday morning. She came into the office as usual, gave me a morning kiss as usual, sat down and said, “Are you ready?” Well, there’s an intro to what promised to be a “full” day. Yep. It was ESE Day. And that doesn’t translate to “easy.”  Nope that stands for Exercise Stress Echocardiogram Day. Woohoo!

But first …  Christina posted this on her Facebook feed:

Ezra after getting home from an evening with the grandparents- “Fact mom. If we weren’t eating sweets, we were watching tv!”

So … which grandparents could he possibly be referring to? 

OK. Back to the test. This whole idea of “taking ultrasound pictures” in conjunction with the treadmill I’m almost certain is related to the prior usage of alien technology to fry the nerves in my back. They were no doubt worried that some alien microbes might have been inadvertently injected into my system. Said microbes are known to certain scientists to thrive in most alien artifacts. They can also travel across great distances by hitching a ride, so to speak, on the very laser-like beams used to treat my back. The worry, then, was that some of these little critters might be growing inside my heart. The supposed “ultrasound” was actually a targeted effort to destroy the microbes before they could begin their process of reproduction. Now, THAT would have been a whole other story altogether. 

They took some pictures before the test that revealed nothing, but those critters are pretty sneaky. Then after I stayed on the treadmill for 10 minutes (and ran the last few, to the sheer amazement of the tech), they squirted some colorful anti-alien dye through an IV in my arm. If there had been tiny extraterrestrial beings lurking within, they would be engulfed by the dye, making it impossible to hide, thus guaranteeing that they would be drawn out and demolished by the hot gel-enhanced micro illuminator … er … I mean … the “ultrasound machine.”

I gotta say, the hardest part about the whole thing was lying flat on my back. Even my alien ray-enhanced back had a very difficult time with that. Quite painful. Oh, and the other hard part came after all that treadmill running. I had to quickly lie back down on the table, expel what little air was left in my lungs, and then hold my breath … numerous times. If that didn’t raise my heart rate … and draw the evil critters out … I don’t know what would. 

The RN and tech and doctor watching from the room next door apparently didn’t see anything that critically concerned them. They did let me go home, after all. I guess that’s code for “we got ‘em all.” I wasn’t technically released to go on our long trip, though. Only the cardiologist who ordered the test can approve such a radical move. They told us the results would be available on My Chart by the end of the day (which they weren’t). BUT … my cardiologist probably wouldn’t see them before the middle of next week. 

So it’s on to Plan B. Or maybe it’s C or D or whatever iteration we are on now. Today we are planning to sneak away for a trip all right. This one will have to be a bit closer to home, though. Details to follow. Stay tuned …

Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭6‬ ‭says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Father, please give my doc the nudge he needs to check out these results sooner rather than later. Amen. 

September 22 - “What’s my name?”

I decided to take my regular day off yesterday to allow some physical recuperation before my big test today. Exercise stress echocardiogram. Big name for lying on a table while they do a sonogram, then walking/running on a treadmill while hooked up to cables and an IV. Then, upon the signal of the crew chief, I leap from the treadmill to a bed where they shoot me up with some dye, then redo the sonogram. Sounds like a ride at DisneyWorld. Wheee!

I received a call requesting some important information. Noa was doing a school project and needed to o know the history of our last name. About the best we could do was that it is Welsh and means “Little.” She asked if anyone in our family knew a lot about our family name and stuff. Oh, boy. That would easily be your Uncle Jay, Noa. He knows everything about family names and stuff. I did share the story about my middle name, which is pretty much hers as well - Ray, or in her case - Rae. Ezra then wanted to know what I knew about his middle name. Chuckling, I asked him what his middle name was. “Kelley,” he sheepishly replied. After some “What’s!” and “How did that happen?’s,” Chris had time to look it up on the internet. “Brave Warrior.”  Yup. That’s us, Ezra. Me and your Daddy and you. 

Speaking of those two munchkins, they joined their older brother Josiah and came over to our house for a few hours last night. Mom and Dad went to the Galveston Urban Ministries Gala event. We had a good time of pizza and games and watching crazy obstacle course TV shows. 

Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭5‬ ‭says, Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

‭‭

Father, please be with these techs who will be doing this test today. And please light a fire under the doc’s who have to read it so we can get some answers quickly and literally get on the road. Amen. 

September 21 - “Staycation Day Two”

“Staycation “ Day Two. Woke up still hoping to hear about a cancellation that would open up an earlier slot for me to get this test in. Even 24 hours would be an improvement. I did get a call, but it was just to confirm the appointment on Friday. Oh, well. 

We did decide on another staycation kind of outing. You know. Kind of like Walmart was the day before. And what could be  our exciting excursion for the day? How about some yardwork? 

But first … Chris made a new recipe. It was filled with luscious cinnamon-y, brown sugar-y, heavy cream-ery goodness. Kind of like breakfast bread on steroids. That’s some majorly good stuff. 

The yard work was pretty typical. We mowed and edged and Chris did the sweeping. The bulk of the afternoon we spent watching the Astros. Now that was a gem of a game. About time. Walk off hit in the bottom of the ninth to assure them at least one more day in first place. Perhaps this will turn them around for these last few weeks of the season. 

Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭4‬ says, Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Father, I guess we’re set for the test tomorrow. So will you help me with some patience to get through today?  Amen. 

September 20 - “Grease Pill and Blood Skinnier”

And so began day one of waiting for the call to get this new stress done. I gotta admit, I was pretty sad about not getting to head out on the trip. Kinda mad at the whole crazy set of circumstances as well. The clock is ticking, you know. And we’ve got things to see, places to go. Best word of encouragement so far? I can’t remember which one it was, but one of my loyal family members offered to go buy me a can of Spam, since I couldn’t get to the Spam Museum in Minnesota. Sigh. I faithfully took my first dose of the Grease Pill (greases the blood vessels so cholesterol won’t stick as easy) and Blood Skinnier (makes the blood thinner so it doesn’t slosh around when it should be flowing freely). We’ll see how those pan out … for the rest of my life! 

I checked My Chart online yesterday afternoon, and lo and behold, I actually had an appointment listed for the Big Test. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until Friday afternoon. There was an option for if I wanted them to notify me should a cancellation arise. Yes, please! So we officially entered the “wait yet again for an earlier time slot to appear” portal. 

So … for our big activity on our first day of “vacation,” we went over to Walmart. Why not? We picked up some fruit and a few other things. Mainly we just walked around like we didn’t have anyplace better to be. 

And our big day one special meal? Chris made some chicken and dumplings. Yumm. That’s a double “umm.”  

Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭3‬ ‭says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Father, it would sure be nice to get this test done before Friday. Amen. 

September 19 - “Doctor Day”

Chris’ visit with the oncologist was at best, anticlimactic. The fellow who came in first didn’t seem to know much of anything. Needs some seasoning, I guess. But then the actual doctor came in. He stepped in the room. Didn’t even sit down. Proclaimed, “All looks good. Come back and see me in 3 months. Let’s get you out of here.” No, seriously. That’s exactly what he said. Now, Chris did stop him and ask the questions she had, and he was good about answering them. The whole thing just took about ten minutes. 

My visit was in the afternoon. Cardiologist for me.  Yep. Right to the heart of the matter. Get it? And boy, did they ever “get it”. 

First off, we had to drive clear to Angleton to see the guy we wanted - Chris’ cardiologist. First available appointment of course. For those of you who have never heard to Angleton, it’s about an hour roughly south of us. 

The fellow and ultimately the real doc had a hard time figuring me out. I don’t really have any symptoms, so they couldn’t go off of that. Instead they used the results of that stress test I took a month or two ago along with what parts of the heart they could see in the CT scan of my back from even further ago. Piecing those together, I could tell the cardiologist didn’t feel really comfortable with just medication. And when he heard we were planning a trip that included hiking, he balked even more (and so did Chris).  

I did my best to put everything off for the three weeks of our trip. Even offered my body for whatever they wanted to do in exchange for the temporary reprieve. But the guy is an interventionist. I knew he would want to cover all the bases, and that would probably mean going straight to the heart cath level. 

I think we reached a sort of uneasy compromise, but it was one Chris was on board with, so here we go. In a nut shell, I now have to join the ranks of the hordes who take a baby aspirin every day. I also have to take an anti-cholesterol medicine. Both of those were apparently non-negotiables. 

On top of that, I also have to do another stress test, but this time with an echocardiogram to boot. They are seeing if it will simply show a repeat of what the basic stress test showed, or if that one happened to be a false positive, or if it shows something more serious. In the case of the latter, then I’ll probably have to have a full-on heart cath like Chris did. The fellow assured me he would do his best to get me worked in as soon as possible. I offered to drive straight over from there, but for some reason he didn’t seem to take my offer seriously. I just have to wait for a phone call. 

So … all of that means that our trip to the Great Northern wastelands is on hold for the time being. In the meantime, we’re off to Randall’s pharmacy for some more drugs. 

Psalms‬ ‭34‬:‭4‬-‭5‬ ‭says, I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.

Father, could you grease some wheels to get these tests done as soon as possible? It does help that I already trust this guy. Give him some of the supernatural wisdom of yours. Amen. 

September 18 - “Cardiology Day”

Today we go to the cardiologist. And by “we” I mean “me.”  Well, Chris is coming along, of course.  I know it’s not that big of a news announcement, with the past couple of years we have had.  However … this time the one seeing the heart dude is me. That makes it plenty big news. Yup.  If you ever don’t want to get sent to the cardiologist, don’t tell your PCP that you had heartburn and belching.  That could get you a stress test, which in turn could result in said trip to the heart guy. And the only symptom (other than that heartburn, which, I might add, ceased immediately upon ingestion of the pill that PCP gave me) was a slight dip in the readout on the heart monitor that quickly went away. Chris is preparing me for a possible heart cath.  OK, bring it on … AFTER we get back from our trip to the Great Northern Land of the Ridiculous Coldishness.  

We went to church with Josh and family yesterday. It was a very special day for AnnaGrace. She joined all the little rising first graders at the front of the church to receive a gift Bible. She was pretty pleased, but she was beyond excited to find that in Sunday School, there was an all-out party going on to celebrate their achievement. She even had a donut with blue icing! Hard to top that, but the helium balloon almost did the trick. 

We went along with Christi to a meeting they had after church for those interested in going on their upcoming (June of 2024) youth mission trip. And why did this one in particular hold special interest for us? It will be to Denia, Spain. And there is a possibility that we could join in as sponsors. We’d have to come up with $3000, which covers virtually everything for both of us. We assured the missions pastor that we didn’t want to take anyone’s spot, but we were possibly interested. We’ll

Have to pray about that one. 

Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭26 says, In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

Father, give us your wisdom about this mission trip. Amen.