~PRAYER REQUESTS ~

Finally!  

A Halloween where we got rid of the majority 

of our treats!

Marissa and Summer were here early. Rissi wanted to hand out treats in the worse way!  So Gary blasted Halloween music via Pandora streaming it to our Bose speaker and we took our party and our big basket of treats outside.  We danced in the rain, sang Monster Mash, and lured trick or treaters in....

And Rissi was in seventh heaven, handing out treats to 

all the kids.

A memorable Halloween!

On a sad note, my brother has been 

diagnosed with lung cancer.

We are not sure how bad, (we just know there is a large mass on his lung)...  or what his options are at this time.  Waiting for him to have a pet scan.

His only concern:  Koda

Jimmy goes nowhere without Koda!  Koda is his best friend and buddy.  Koda would be lost without Jimmy.  

He loves his dog as much as he loves his own life.  Maybe more.  Please, if you pray, send one up for Jimmy and for Koda.  

And on another sad note:

Summer goes in for surgery on her eyes (to drain cysts) on Friday.  This, another prayer request.

James 5:16King James Version (KJV)

 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

January Storms

A husband who is having vision problems and might have glaucoma, who also is suffering serious bouts of nausea and sickness from his crohns disease.  A 12 month old grandson who is having a major surgery.  A dear sister, who is in poor health to begin with, falls and breaks her arm.  A dog, who has nobody to give him the attention he needs, sits on the porch and waits.  A brother, down on his luck, tries to drink away his troubles and winds up in the hospital with heart problems.

Throw a few relationship problems into that mix and what you have: a quagmire.

January is off to a stormy start.  And I'm not talking about the weather.

But God is good.

  Romans 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.


After going to the specialist, Gary's eyes might not be as bad as they thought.  Another test is scheduled to determine the severity of the glaucoma that they are pretty sure that he has.  His colonoscopy yesterday looked good, but we are awaiting the results of the biopsy.  He is feeling better.

Jasper's (the grandson) surgery was a success...  and after just 5 days in the hospital he is coming home today.

Waiting to be released

No surgery was needed for my sister as hers was a clean break.  She is home from the hospital, arm in a sling, and moving slowly.

I found a loving home for Cabot (my grand dog)

Here he is... living the good life.  Caged no more!

My brother is stable and we (his siblings) are coming together to try and find help for him and his predicament.  

As far as the relationship issues...  all in God's hands.  

And the music plays over and over again in my head...  and I feel a peace.  

Gracie's Surgery

  
No barking at passersby.  No begging for food.  No being underfoot or pawing my face at 6AM. No hogging the bed or snoring.  No demanding attention and jumping on guests.  No pleading for walks or dragging dog food through the house.


~only silence~

Dear Diary,


It happened right after I went for my walk yesterday.  I had this urge to pee and I needed to go right back outside.  Mom said I was just trying her patience and that I'd already peed a zillion times on our walk.  But she left me go out anyway.  


When I first went - I thought, huh!  Maybe mom was right.  Maybe I don't have to go after all.  But then when I went back inside I had that feeling again.  After about an hour of hearing her and dad complaining about who was going to take me out next, they decided to give me the silent treatment.  So I paced and I pawed and I finally plopped down in front of them and pleaded, 'p-l-e-a-s-e take me out!' But still, they ignored me.  


Now I may look a little scruffy right now (pre-grooming) but I still have my standards for good hygiene and I needed to go OUT!  


I thought for sure this would get there attention:  I went to my toy box and picked out my newest one - the one they love the most - and I started pacing with it in my mouth. 'Look!' I pleaded... 'I'm carrying you're favorite toy.  Now can I go out?'  Still, nothing.


  After a long night of pacing and faux-peeing on the floor while mom followed me around with a flashlight,  I started to be sick to my stomach.  That's when Mom started to cry.  After making some phone calls, she loaded me into the Buick, and here I am.  


I was supposed to have surgery today, but they must not have given me enough medicine because I tried to bite the doc.  I think I heard someone say they're going to try again tomorrow.  I'm so woozy right now...  I just need to get home to mom and dad.  I'll bet they're worried. Gracie.

Emergency Visit to The Animal Hospital

Hi Everyone.

It's 3:30 AM and I just got back from an emergency visit to the animal hospital.  Gracie has bladder stones and a blockage.  

Please pray for her, that she does okay with the procedures that she will have to go through and for  possible surgery.

I have a choice to make. The vet is going to try to push the stone that is causing the blockage back up through the urethra and into the bladder, however he feels that he should then do surgery to remove the stones so this doesn't happen again weeks from now.  OR if it is a certain kind of stone, a special diet might work... but this is not as effective.    

Surgery?  Or not?  I want what's best for Gracie. 

I miss my girl already.  

Oops- Wrong Room.

Ok, I'm home.  Lying in bed, not the best at typing in bed but  bear with me.  No photos... though hubby took a horrible one of me in the recovery room and sent it to all family members. i could have killed him.  but since he is taking such good care of me and even spent the night sleeping in a rickety old recliner in my room, i will spare his life.

I was nervous going in, and hoped for some of those good drugs Sharon talked about to calm me down.  (I hate taking those types of drugs, but it was the lesser of 2 evils).

A nurse walks in the room eyeballing her clipboard.  "Phyllis?"  "no, Bobbi."  Oops. wrong patient.  A long wait and a million of the same questions over and over again from a half a dozen different white coats.  I'm thinking, I wish Sharon were here, she'd get me good drugs.  Finally the anesthesiologist. He said he'd set me up.  A half hour later and ten minutes past scheduled surgery I asked the nurse if he was going to bring me something.  It was too late. 

 Then i was wheeled back to the big white medicine-smelling room and everyone stood over me saying, "everything is going to be alright".  I knew what they were about to do to me and i wanted to run away.  But there was no turning back.

Now, i've had surgeries before under general anisthesia and i woke up nice.  ahh.  But this time i was nauseas and still afraid.  There wasn't a lot of compassion there, just workers going about their duties.

In my room later the nausea  meds kept me whoosie for quite some time.  "For pain, push the morphine button" the nurse said.  I am thankful to say i didn't have to use it, and that once the surgery was over i had  little pain with no meds.

Last night Gary witnessed the nurse giving me the wrong bag in my IV, then changing it about ten minutes later.  They said it was just a change the doc ordered, but after what i saw there im not sure.  One mistake after another after another.  I had to tell them what i should do most of the time.  Yesterday was liquid diet, this morning solids.  After I ate my breakfast this morning the nurses assistant came in smiling and handing me a cup of jello telling me I'd graduated to a liquid diet.  Oops.  Wrong room.  The list goes on and on....  but what really put the icing on the cake (there's that cake again)...  was this morning the nurses assistant took me for a long walk down the hall.  Doc came in later saying I wasn't supposed to walk outside of the room.  Then when it came time for me to go home...  I asked my nurse (her name was Hazel) what do I do?  Just leave?  "yep, you can go." she said.  Okay, so the doc doesn't want me to walk down the hall... yet it was okay for me to walk down four halls to the parking lot and then to my car???    I remained patient, but I was feeling pretty badly and hubby was sick as well... and... we just wanted to get in the car for our 1 1/2 hour drive home.  "Can I have a wheelchair?"  I asked politely.  Hazel looked puzzled.  Like she wasn't quite sure what that was.  Turns out there was a wheelchair alright... but someone else was using it.  Go back into bed and wait (with long robe, slippers, and winter coat on). 

The hospital is new just last month.  Brand spanking new hospital and only one wheelchair per floor?  They told us from the get-go that they didn't have all the bugs out yet.  HUH?  I hope they're not talking about bed bugs.  And by the looks of the old sheets and hospital gowns that they drug from the old hospital, I was thinking they might be talking about just that.  

Now, don't get this hospital confused with our new hospital here in Cumberland.  It is awesome.

Good to be back.  Thank you so much for your prayers, well wishes, good thoughts, and cards.  

You are very much loved and appreciated.

I Think I'm Okay

I'm glad to have the holidays over and Christmas cleaned up.  Now to focus on what lies ahead.

On January 21 I'll go to Hagerstown to have my surgery.  I was hoping I wouldn't have to go out of town, but an hour away isn't too bad.  

I am such a baby about anything hospital- or medical related.  It could be from being coddled when I was little...  So many nights I can remember going into Mom and Dad's room saying I didn't feel well and I always ended up right in between them in bed.  I felt safe there, like nothing could ever harm me....  Now mom and dad are gone...  and the baby remains> lol.  

Or it could be from taking care of Mom for so many years before she died at age 69.  I knew if I took good care of her I'd have no regrets.  And I don't.  But I do have a lot of painful memories of all the bad stuff she had to go through.  Probably one of the worse times was after she had her heart attack and she was taken out of ICU and put in a room on 4th floor.  I was staying with her, sleeping in the recliner.  When she couldn't get her breath and they had to code her it scared me so badly.  

Then years later, days before she died when I was with her and she seemed okay and was talking to me...  and suddenly she got a terrified look in her eyes, then began shaking and having a grand mal seizure.  I was alone with her at the time.  I went running down the hall screaming for someone to help.  She never came to after that.  She had grand mal seizures about every 10 minutes for three days....  before she let go.  

I could go on and on about the many scares Mom gave me,  But I'd be writing all night.  Maybe that's why I'm terrified of hospitals, doctors, medicine and the dreaded 'being put to sleep'.  Yikes!!!  

But it will all be fine, I know that. 

It's a stupid lesion, no big deal....  (in a really nasty place) >  

But thank you, my blogging friends for your support.  I have found the sweetest, most genuine awesome bunch of people here in blogland...   

I left the doctors office in a sort of shock on that 10th day in November, then blogged about my unpleasant experience.  I was immediately comforted by Mildred who said she'd be praying for me.   Sharon made me smile and gave me words wisdom. She is such a strong person... I admire her gusto.  Melodie was there with comforting words...  and Betty and Liz were praying.  Jim told me not to start making up stories in my head as to what it might be.  How did he know that I was doing just that?  Just that simple sentence from him made me feel better!!  

In later posts many of my other new blogging friends chimed in with comforting, thoughtful, loving words.  

So let me see.  I have God.   I have a wonderful husband, cute & cuddly pup, awesome kids and grandkids, plenty of good God-filled friends, and a collection of the most outstanding friends I've met in blog-land...

And I'm going to get a two-week vacation from work.

  I think I'm okay.