June 16 - “Not-a-hurricane from Mexico”

We ate breakfast in the presence of a rain squall. The not-a-hurricane from Mexico is approaching here now, catching up with a weak cold front. It’s supposed to rain all week. Bring it on. 

Speaking of rain, yesterday was shower day number two for the patient. Not number two of all time, of course, just since she’s had the four holes poked into her shoulder. It’s a tiring experience for all concerned. She handled it like a trooper (of course). She did decide that it would be appropriate to take a dose of the pain meds and/or muscle relaxers before the cleansing procedure rather than after. Check. 

Helen from home group brought over some Olive Garden spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner. Always a treat to get anything from there. Thanks, Helen!

‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭4‬:‭8‬ says, Above all, maintain an intense love for each other, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Father, bless Helen for thinking of us up at Olive Garden. Amen. 

June 15 - “Can you say … stir crazy?”

Watered the backyard. Chris supervised … closely. 60 seconds here. 45 seconds there. Nope. Just 30 there. Stop. That’s enough. I do it like this. Phew. That green thumb of hers takes work!

Next we got Chris all prepped and ready for church … online. We started with Columbus Avenue in Waco. Saw a video of what Caleb and the rest of the mission team are doing in Del Rio. Then we listened to Josh preach. Chris dozed on and off. Hey. That’s the same as a lot of folks do every Sunday. 

When that ended we switched over to Facebook for Seaside’s live stream of the service there. Chris was in and out on that one as well. She got pretty frustrated that she wasn’t her former self. Gotta give it time and have some patience. 

Kel and Christina and the kids (sans Jachin bur plus Kaylee) stopped by after church. They couldn’t stay long, though. In fact they didn’t even sit down. But … company! Whee!  Oh, and they left us some cookies. Can’t beat the cookies. 

I must confess … we spent the rest of the day watching baseball and a Hallmark movie. Chris is trying to do more and more - really testing her limits. But I don’t blame her. Can you say … stir crazy?

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭31‬ says, What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

Father, please give Chris patience. Amen. 

June 14 - “Way to go, Southpaw”

Well, I guess I can expand my repertoire of possible job prospects for if I ever get tired of being retired. What’s that, you may ask? Why, home health care specialist and hair stylist extraordinaire. 

Yep. This guy helped Chris with her very first post-op and post ER visit. Even washed her hair. She was, in her words, “full of hospital funk.” OK. OK. She did aide the aide considerably with her one good hand. But I gave it my best shot. 

Then I found her hairbrush (Hmm. There’s a song in there somewhere. “Where is my hairbrush …”). In fact she has two of those things. One is just for when she breaks out the hair dryer. Kinda round. The other one looks like a human being hairbrush. Only used after the round one or if the hair has not been washed. Phew! So many rules. She taught me how to work both of them, though. Now I’m a pro, and she feels … well … clean. 

Oh, and I failed to mention … we took off her big shoulder-pad looking bandage. Now she just has four taped X’s and the magic marker arrow indicating which was the right/correct shoulder surgery site. 

Janell came over for a while so I could have an outing. And how dare I leave my patient? Where could I possibly be going that would warrant such a breach of protocol? Well, Walmart, of course. We were out of bananas. We also needed some chocolate milk. Key items, you know. As a plus, I was able to sneak in some people watching. Gotta feed that habit … so, thanks, Janell. 

That bath really rejuvenated Chris. She read through all the surgeon’s notes from the operation (on MyChart). Even copied them for easier future reference. 

She moved around a lot more, squeezing her stress/ therapy ball and taking laps around the house. She did have to crash every so often to take her meds and ice the arm, though. It was kind of fun to watch her try to do more and more by herself ..  left-handed. Way to go, Southpaw. 

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭43‬:‭2‬ says, I will be with you when you pass through the waters, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. You will not be scorched when you walk through the fire, and the flame will not burn you.

Father, thanks for Chris’ efforts to return to self-sustainability. Amen. 

June 13 - “Here we go again”

Can’t decide if Freddy likes the idea of Chris staying in one place all day so she can be found without roaming the house or backyard … or if she knows something weird is afoot and doesn’t want to miss something, but she just can’t figure this whole thing out. Either way, she is definitely staying close by (read here, “under foot”).

Well, apparently Freddy knew something we didn’t. 

Josh called as Chris finished up changing shirts and washing her face. And while we talked, she began to pale out. Said she didn’t feel so good. Sat on the toilet for a bit, then eased to the floor to keep from falling there. BP this time was 96/59. Way low for two days in a row. And I almost called 9-1-1 on this one. Probably would have if we weren’t talking to Josh. She gradually came back to me, but then she couldn’t get up. When she turned to roll over, she couldn’t bear weight on her injured knee. There was nothing I could do to help her. 

As it turned out, Josh just happened to be texting with Nathan, who is still in Colorado. That’s all it took. Nathan got on the phone with the fire department guys at station 4. They came right out and got her up and in a chair. Their presence and urging, along with Nathan’s commanding voice on the phone, finally convinced her to go to the ER. The guys even helped her to the car so she couldn’t change her mind. 

Right after we got into a room, someone delivered a lunch. Obviously it was not ours, but I jokingly volunteered to eat it. The nurse said go for it. French fries and chicken strips. Fries were soggy. Strips were really good though. 

Our nurse was working on the IV when another one opened the door. She frantically spewed out, “Your patient in the other room just threw up what looks like bodily organs. It’s all over the wall and floor. It’s everywhere. I’m gonna have to help you clean it up.” 

I couldn’t let that pass. I told them if there was a kidney or liver on the floor, I’d like to go see it. 

Our nurse was cool, calm and collected. She continued working on Chris and replied that she would be there as soon as could. I tried to come up with other stuff for her to do to keep her from that room. She finally left us, though. 

Oh! The IV. Stuck her five times. Finally had to bring in the ultrasound machine because they couldn’t find a vein. With the help of the miracle machine they found a vein. Oh, and as far as she could tell, there were no babies in there. 

They also did one test I didn’t expect. They did a a CT scan of her head. Good news! There was stuff in there. 

After all the poking and imaging and such, they went with dehydrated or vaso-vagal. Recommend adjusting blood pressure meds. They said we could leave when the IV bag ran out. Chris immediately set about plotting to squeeze it to make it go faster. Turns out she didn’t have to. Our nurse put it on a pump and turned on the juice! Back home by about 4:00. Not the most satisfying of days, but glad we did it just to make sure. 

Now we wait to get an appointment with her PCP for a follow up. There were several unanswered questions that have arisen after we saw the doctor’s notes and the radiologist’s report. 

Oh, and Cathy and Lauren from home group brought over some food for dinner. Thanks, you two. Really hit the spot. 

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13‬:‭4‬ says, Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not conceited,

Father, thank you for the guys from Station 4 and for our really great nurses today. Not to mention the support and encouragement from our kids. Bless ‘em. Amen. 

June 12 - “… about to pass out”

I had a little bit of a scare at breakfast yesterday. We were sitting at the table (about 8 steps from the recliner, so small victories, right?). Suddenly Chris lowered her head to the table and said, “I think I’m about to pass out.” I waited with her like that for a long 2 minutes or so. She did respond to me when I asked if she was still with me. “I just don’t feel good.”  I gotta admit … I had my finger on the ol’ 9-1-1 trigger. 

Finally she said, “Let’s take my blood pressure.” Great! Something I can do. We hooked her up. First take: 69/37. My finger was back on the trigger. Never seen it that low.

Together, we managed to navigate her back to the recliner. There we retook her blood pressure twice: 90/46, pulse 45 and 91/45, pulse 46. Still pretty low, but on the rise. She didn’t take the pain meds or the muscle relaxer at that point. 

After about ten minutes of crashing out in the recliner, we took the BP again. 114/46, pulse 49. Still low, but on the rise. My 9-1-1 trigger finger finally relaxed. 

We iced her shoulder, and she began wiggling her fingers. Yay! We have movement! However, with that movement came an ache traveling up that arm. She asked for the pain med right away, though. Back on track there. 

Kel stopped by on his way to the church. Brought us some beans and rice for lunch. 

Chris had a fun phone call. No. Not the one from the recovery room, although we appreciated them checking in on her. She spent some time chatting with our good friend Diane up in Midlothian (had to get that mention in. She reads the blog!). 

I finally started a new puzzle. It’s just a 1000 piecer, but the pieces are large, so it takes up my whole work space. Time to pull out the cool little drawers. Oh. And it’s a Christmassy one. Gingerbread Village. Love that Christmas. 

‭‭James‬ ‭1‬:‭5‬ says, Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him.

Father, please keep Chris’ blood pressure where it needs to be. Amen. 

June 11 - “A neighborhood issue”

We had an interesting neighborhood issue the night we got home. I went out to the car to get the closing mileage. And there, across the street (not the Geran’s. Their next door neighbor- Corrie and Terry), was an ambulance. I stayed out to see which of the two would be loaded up. And I wasn’t alone. Janell came out and chatted briefly. So did another neighbor, Mary. 

Finally, the paramedics appeared. It was Terry they had on the gurney. He had some issues that caused Corrie some concern, so they were taking him to get him checked out. Wow! Enough excitement for one day. 

I set a 2 a.m. alarm call on my phone. That was the time for Chris’ next round of pain meds. She’s been behaving pretty well in taking those meds. The next step was to ice it for 20 minutes every 3-4 hours. She was not too excited about that one. But she took it like a champ. 

Christina, Noa, and Josiah stopped by after their music lessons. They also brought us some food. Good stuff. Thanks, Guys.  

We also had some texts and phone calls throughout the afternoon. Winkles. Huntley’s. LaMarque Vaughans. Waco Vaughans (and Caleb from his mission trip in Del Rio!). Santa Fe Vaughans. Home groupers. Minnesota Gary. Not to mention CVS and Cologuard! Thanks to everyone!

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭27‬:‭14‬ says, Wait for the Lord; be strong and courageous. Wait for the Lord.

Father, thank you for all the expressions of love and concern. Amen. 

June 10 - “Surgical Report”

We started the day with a mini-flurry of activity. We wrote some notes, but the main activity was preparing for the big surgery. 

Chris didn’t have much to add to the big ol’ “Stuff Bag.” The miracle  after-surgery shirt that buttons from the side. Her jacket. A container for her glasses and watch. A notebook to take notes in. Her wallet. Why the wallet? She insisted on driving to the hospital. Kind of her last stab at independence for a while. 

My contributions to the Stuff Bag were a bit more extensive, however. A book to read. My crossword book, in case I get bored with the other book. Phone charger. My long-sleeved shirt. My water bottle. Oh. And did I mention a plethora of snacks? Pretty wide range from a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to some bite-sized Mounds bars. I was plenty set for some stress eating. 

Well, add to that the timing of the whole thing. We had to arrive at 11:30. Yep. Lunchtime. And of course Chris hadn’t eaten since supper the night before. She was getting hungry. 

Once we arrived and got checked in, we had some pretty special visitors. Cailyn and her friend Arwyn rounded the corner. (Hope I got the name right). They stayed and chatted even after they took Chris back to get changed into her runway-quality garb. They didn’t want to come all the way back in, though. Thanks for being there, girls (and for listening to my version of the famous Nana Falls).

Christina came after a bit, and Kel joined her. They stayed in until we were all run out so they could begin the anesthesia stuff. Kel hung out with me, and Christina went to get us some Whataburger. 

We also got texts from Nathan (he’s in Colorado at a training thing). April, Josh, Lauren, and Diane also checked in. 

The surgery took about an hour and a half. The doc explained that everything went almost as expected. It was a bit worse than he expected though. He repaired the biceps tear. He showed me a picture - looked pretty significant to me. He added an extra patch to help with healing the rotator cuff, I think (he wasn’t satisfied with the tissue available), but otherwise all came out well. 

The pharmacy called me to explain her meds. Fortunately I had heard of all of them (I have probably taken all of them at one time or another). They said they would bring them to her in the recovery room. That was a plus, for sure. As it turned out, they delivered them to me in the waiting area. Even better. 

The anticipated 45 minute stay in the recovery room stretched into almost two hours. Fortunately, when they did finally call me back, April swooped in to save the day. By that I mean she stood quietly by - an awe-inspiring … presence. It was so good to have another set of medical ears for those discharged instructions. Thanks so much, April. 

We finally made it home somewhere around 5:30 or 6. Chris settled into the recliner, sipped on some potato soup, and gradually drifted back to sleep. What a day!

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭10‬ says, Those who are persecuted for righteousness are blessed, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

Father, bless Chris’ doc and his team. Ease her pain over the next few days. Amen.