A Happy If Brief Reconnection!

This morning online I stumbled across a woman and her husband who we went to Bible School with back in 1976! After the school term ended we went our separate ways, but occasionally reconnected. The last time we saw the husband was in our home in Alberta several years before we moved to Tokyo, so it has been about thirty years since our last contact. So today I decided to take a chance and send her an email to say hello and I received a lovely response so we have been sending emails back and forth all day today. Geographically we are rather far removed from each other and likely won’t be in touch again, but it was so great to get caught up with each other. Both husbands are church ministers who are now “retreading” rather than retiring. It was a cool and unexpected way to enjoy my day! 

Me Do It Myself!!

Do you remember saying that as a kid when your mom went to zip up your winter parka or tie your shoes and you wanted to do it on your own at last?  Or maybe you went through this scenario with your own toddlers as they were growing up.  

Well, this morning after my husband left for a day of meetings I got online and went back to attempting to solve our banking and credit card issues from yesterday. After a lot of frustration and fiddling about I FINALLY figured out what to do to solve the problem!!  I can now access my card information and my balances, payments and statements just like everyone else who does such things online!!  There were no interruptions of the kind that happen when my husband and I try to figure out website access protocols together. We continually interrupt each other with not helpful questions and distract each other constantly. So this morning I decided to get some self-confidence going for the first time in a few years and solve the issues if I could.  Thanking God that I actually did!  He may just be restoring me to a higher level of confidence that has been missing for a long time.

Over the past couple of decades I have lost so much confidence in my own abilities that I am afraid to even try to solve anything like computer access issues on my own.  I have become so terrified of making a mistake that I don't even try to do things like that by myself any more. Ridiculous? Yes!  Has my husband been the one to make me feel the overwhelming lack of confidence?  Not remotely. He has done nothing but encourage me to figure things out on my own, to have some faith that my brain hasn't completely atrophied at this point, to try to get back to who I "used to be" twenty years or more ago when I was living on my own and raising a child on my own so much of the time because my husband was working out of town or even out of the country.  A few things happened in the meantime to strip me of my confidence, but I am finding lately that there is a need for me to try to restore it.  I need to stop being afraid of making a mistake, particularly with the computer, and get moving forward. 

I have learned much about the necessity of being more confident in my own ability to figure things out from my friend Nan. Since her husband Cee passed away on the way to two years ago she has been forced to figure out all manner of things on her own that she never thought possible she could do without help. She has had to solve one frustrating and/or frightening issue after another in recent months and she is developing problem solving skills, finding solutions to issues like she never thought would be possible by herself.  Nan has become my "heroine" of problem solving for the sometimes seemingly hopeless issues that have come along in her life.   So, I would like to thank Nan for all she has been teaching me, without even knowing she has, about relying less on my husband for problem solving and getting off my duff to figure out a few things on my own.  It feels good!

AND after a few more house chores before lunch I am going over to see a good friend for the afternoon...coffee and visiting....in an air conditioned house on this VERY HOT day.  YAY! 

Sufficiently Suffonsified!!!

 We went out for lunch at DarBar after church today....somehow lunch out with friends, laughing and visiting and enjoying some sustenance together seemed a particularly fitting way to celebrate Pentecost Sunday!  The restaurant was packed out and as the only Caucasians among the the patrons we got the hint that their Indian food is indeed as delicious as we always have thought it to be. What a great time we had.

The church was all decorated this morning with red banners depicting the flaming tongues that came upon the disciples on the very first Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was released to dwell in God's followers, the sermon was about how miracles like of speaking in tongues, healings etc., all depend on being properly utilized in a spirit of love toward others, that heaven and earth are likely not so separated as we have sometimes been led to believe and that apparently inexplicable miracles are actually just "WOW" moments when the veil of heaven is pulled back temporarily for us to see what God is capable of...or words to that effect.  It was a very good, encouraging sermon. All the teaching today has give me hope for the presently upsetting circumstances our son finds himself in over his immigration status in the country where he lives....prayer request, should you be so inclined. (I don't want to go into details here or have any political discussions in the Comments, but you are welcome to contact me directly, friends and family, for more details if you want them.  Thanks.)  We are also rejoicing today in the news that one of our former churches of attendance while my husband was doing his Anglican postulancy has, after about a 2 year wait, hired a new priest....presently in the USA, but apparently happy to return with his young family to Canada. Congratulations to that parish!!

My husband is presently down in the cool of the basement chatting on the phone with our son.  We are just under +30C at the moment, after having a skiff of snow on the ground only a week ago, so I expect we may have some significant thunder storm activity either tonight or later in this week of predicted highs between +31C and +34C.  Yup....just checked the local weather report and we are under a thunderstorm watch...so far only at the initial Yellow Level, meaning likely only minimal damage if the storm develops at all and hopefully we will not progress for the next few hours from yellow level to orange level, (storm more likely and with minor damage possible), to the more frightening red level with almost a surety that there will be a storm and a very real possibility of significant damage with hail and high winds.  Red level we prefer to avoid!!

It was lovely to get out today for fellowship, friends, fun and food.  The hot air as we exited the restaurant after our meal was kind of shocking to experience after such a long, cold start to spring. Here it is nearly the first of June, technically summer, and our spring is finally arriving.  If next week's temperatures are anything to go by, it is possible we pretty much will bypass the spring altogether and head immediately into summer as of today. Such an interesting climate around here!

Life Is Finally Getting Back To Normal Again!! YAY!!

It has been a busy and productive couple of days around here.  My husband is nearly back to fully functional, no more issues with his tummy and even the CFS exhaustion seems to be dissipating rapidly.  He hasn't had to nap in either morning or afternoon for most of this week and this morning he was able to go to the lab for some fasting blood work after not eating for over twelve hours, with just a few sips of water to keep his tummy feeling full.  I am so grateful to God for helping him get back on his feet again.  He is teaching tomorrow for the Anglicans and has no stress at all about it, is looking forward to it and did not crash and burn today as he was completing some notes for his talk.  Thank you Lord and prayer warriors!!  What a blessing.

Enjoyed my weekly visit with my coffee buddy yesterday as planned and we had a very nice time this week at Creme drinking London Fogs.  In the afternoon we attended a Bible study that was so good. It has taken us since last September to get about half way through the Sermon On The Mount and will continue on this coming September after the summer break. 

Today was very positive. My husband picked up a camping refrigerator at Princess Auto that he ordered about a week ago.  After it sits for the required number of hours he will test it out both here in the house and, when the rain finally stops tonight and the parking lot is dry tomorrow, using the plug in attachment in the rear compartment of our car.  He splurged big time to ensure he could get a unit with a super duper cold compartment with sufficient voltage to keep things cold for over 24 hours.  When he goes camping next month he and his friend will be able to get pretty much anything needing to be refrigerated into this unit.  It is really easy to move. Not only does it have handles on the sides for picking it up, it also has a retractable handle and is on wheels for rolling along.  I don't know how much use he will actually get out of it over the next couple of years, but I am happy he felt free to buy something expensive for himself for a change!!!  YAY HUSBAND! You too deserve a real treat occasionally!! 

We spent the afternoon at the bank where the mess up happened in regard to the monthly credit limit for our American credit card.  We got some other things straightened out and taken care of for our upcoming vacation AND the woman we deal with there told us that just  yesterday she finally got a response to the email she sent nearly three weeks ago now when we first applied for the card and everything went south.  Apparently there is still a CHANCE that sometime in the next two to three weeks we will get the final answer on our request to have the credit limit changed to what was automatically approved in the first place before the screw up.  So, there is hope.  In the meantime we have come up with another plan that will help us pay for the larger expenses down south that will work if absolutely necessary but does require a lot of fiddling about with finances in the meantime. For now we are content to wait to see what happens.  Either way I think we will be covered now. Hallelujah!

Did a bit of grocery shopping after the bank appointment at SaveOn and discovered some 0 sugar snacks for me to try that aren't so high in fat as some of the other snacks I have seen.  We'll see if the flavour is worth the price. 

After a nice morning the rain appeared once again in the late afternoon and only about 35 minutes from here a tornado touched down in a farmer's field.  Still waiting to find out if it did any damage but looking at the photo the farmer took of it from a couple of fields away it had a substantially sized funnel. Hopefully it disappeared soon after it touched down before it could damage any of his newly planted crop or outbuildings.  This tornado season we may actually have some real tornadoes in the area.  Since our temperature highs next week are going to climb suddenly from the plus mid teens Centigrade to the mid plus 30's in less than 48 hours, I expect we are in for some good storms as a result.  Hopefully no one will be hurt or have any damage from strong winds next week. And please Lord, let there be no hail...please, please, please.....

Tomorrow morning there is a special church ladies' breakfast at the home of Carol!!  We are going to share that time and a meal together in her building's party room.  I am taking a selection of cheeses.  It will be a large group who gathers to celebrate her miraculous recovery.  She is still weak and outside the home uses a walker to support herself, but around home she walks very well on her own.  She has been at the church service for the past three Sundays looking, apart from the walker, as if nothing ever happened to her. Amazing...how grateful to God we all are.

We are praying for Bret again as he is falling into deep depression once again after seeing a lot of improvement for a couple of months.  Please, should the Lord so remind you, pray that he will stop resisting the offered supports and medical help. He is paranoid about going for treatment after a not great experience YEARS ago, but without that medical intervention he isn't likely to improve much.  Praying very much for him and for his worried extended family.  So far he has not been talking about suicide again, but you never know what a person is really thinking when so distressed and afraid.  

Looking forward to church on Sunday. Our pastor and another fellow are going to be talking about heaven and hell over the next two weeks. Looking forward to it. Since I will be out of town for the second talk I am grateful for ZOOM recordings so I can watch and hear the class when I get home.

I have discovered that when I carry a heavy bag of groceries in the hand that is on the same side as my operated hip, I barely limp at all. Why the heck is that???  No bag, super limp; bag, hardly any limp.  I have to figure out why that is and try to adjust my foot and leg placement once again so I can do as well without the bag as with. Always learning new things this old woman....now if I could just learn as many new things about technology I would be SO MUCH better off!! hahahaha  BUT, I have no real interest in putting my entire life on my mobile phone....just can't quite get into it, even though I do envy people who pay for their groceries by holding their phones up to the debit machines.  Maybe one day......sigh......

You Know Spring Is REALLY Late Arriving When.....

 ......the furnace comes on several times on MAY FIFTEENTH!!!  Yup, May 15 and our furnace has been running for most of the past 24 hours.  Wow, what a miserable spring!  The worst part is that when the heat finally comes it will probably zoom up to nearly unbearable highs, BUT that still be better than this chilly, grey, drizzly time of year.  Fortunately the rain is badly needed so although the cold temperature puts seeding behind for the farmers here, at least the moisture will help a bit once the crop is finally in the ground.  I am very glad we were not living in the small town of Radville SK on Thursday when the wind storm hit: sustained winds of 115km!!  Not good at all. Friends of ours lived there for many years and I bet they are happy right now that they moved away.

I just received word that yesterday's Ascension Day on the church calendar was particularly special for some young friends of ours who had a safe and happy home birth of their new daughter that evening.  Both of their children have been born in their bathtub, delivered by their ever calm and well instructed daddy and loved fiercely and immediately by their mommy.  Even big brother is pretty stoked about the new addition to the family and the grandparents are, of course, over the moon. What a joyous event to lighten the hearts of us all during this bad weather spring.  The wee girl was born right on her due date too!

Tomorrow for entertainment we will begin downloading the spring Sumo Tournament that began a week ago.  We almost forgot about it as we had so many other things on our minds.  Tomorrow we will watch several days worth of highlights and immerse ourselves in another culture's central professional sport....always fun for us. 

Miserable Weather For The Long Weekend Here!

Wow, it is very cold and windy outside still today and now we are forecast to have possibly up to 2cm of snow.  For my husband and I it doesn't matter because we are not going away this Victoria Day weekend, but for friends and neighbours who planned camping and "first weekend of the season at the lake" trips it sounds like they won't have as great a time as hoped for.  That is really too bad.  This year the holiday is incredibly early. Even if it could have happened next weekend there likely would have been better weather for our outdoors loving friends.  I feel badly for all of them.  My husband was able to get over to Kat's in the wind and rain showers this afternoon to pick up some of our herb growing pots we left in her yard last autumn and she kindly gave him a bag of potting soil. Bless her.  Tomorrow morning we have to go over to the house of friends who have once again started our tomato plant for us.  The plant has to be picked up right away from their greenhouse despite the ongoing cold weather because said friends are on their way out of town on a holiday in a couple of days.  Unfortunately we are going to have to put the plant inside at our place and hope there aren't too many spiders and other insects crawling around among its leaves....yukko!!!!  It is way too cold yet to put it outside, even in its plastic wrapping cone.  Now I just need to find somewhere to put it where it will get as much sunlight and warmth as possible until at least next weekend when it will hopefully be warm enough to put it out on the deck even if the wrapping has to remain in place for another week after that.  The weather is so weird and wild and woolly this "spring??"!  

Personally I had a very good day today!  I never did get dressed after I cleaned up for the day because I had nary a commitment away from home for a change, not so much as a trek over to the grocery store was needed.  I felt kind of like a happily punctured balloon all day.  The walking outdoors I have been doing is restoring my overall strength and that is wonderful.  Today I looked at the stack of ironing from Tuesday's laundry and after counting the number of items I realized it was a project that would have to be done over two days as I haven't been able to stand long enough since my surgery to do that many items in one go.  Nope....I did the whole stack and my leg and hip were not the least bit tired. Overall my body wasn't tired. My mind wasn't tired.  FINALLY life is starting a return to my new, limping but still active, normal!  What a relief....and it has only taken ELEVEN months to get to this point, hahahaha.  I am very grateful that my overall strength is indeed being restored.  

Looks like it will be too cold and likely rainy to be walking to church on Sunday, but I will get some walking in at the grocery stores tomorrow and by Monday it should be warm enough to walk longer distances outside again. YAY!  I am adopting a slightly more European concept of grocery shopping, purchasing much smaller loads that I can carry home on foot, therefore walking to the store more often each week.  

My next door neighbour got her weekly ride to the food bank today with her sponsor. Shortly after she arrived home she knocked on my door and handed me a loaf of white bread because there had been extra bread in her box that she doesn't want, a bag of shredded mixed cabbage salad with an enclosed carton of soy sauce dressing, another huge handful of cilantro and a pack of celery which they cannot tolerate eating.  She has to take what she is given of course at the food bank, but neither of her other friends like the flavour of the items she brought to me.  As she handed me each of the items a look of horror crossed her face at the idea that we actually enjoy those things. hahaha  My husband looked at the pack of celery and knew instantly how he would be able to use up the now FOUR bundle of cilantro we have received from her: cream of celery soup!  A goodly sized handful of chopped cilantro on a bowl of that soup is fabulously delicious! God bless my neighbour for her generosity.  At least the food so lovingly donated to the food bank will not go to waste.  Once the soup is made we have a couple of people in need that will enjoy receiving it, along with half a loaf each of that bread, so we will not be the only unexpected recipients of the food items.  Tomorrow when I go to the grocery store I am going to pick up a couple of packages of halal chicken to give to our neighbour.  They get very little meat to eat and I know they like chicken, so I would enjoy getting them a treat.  She gives me food several times a month now, either in grocery form or plates of her marvellous cooking. It is really fun slowly getting to know this woman and her children. If my husband can ever lure her husband out of their place to offer him some simple English language help, we will get to know the whole family better.  Praying for all the right things to happen with our dear neighbours.

 

We Are Sorry Local Friends And Family If It Does Indeed Rain Tonight! Our Bad.......

 My husband washed the car yesterday when he had a sudden burst of energy late in the morning. Sigh....so OF COURSE our 30% chance of rain tonight appears to be turning into a 100% certainty. Dang it...he did such a marvellous job washing the outside and painstakingly detailing the inside.  It wore him right out so after lunch he slept for 6 hours. Good old CFS, but at least he had the joy of knowing he accomplished something between naps yesterday. Oh gosh, it was fun for me to drive it to church this morning. It looked great.  He can be proud of the work he did on it.

Church went well today.  Our adult class was led by the associate minister and she went through many Scriptures in the Bible that talk about peace and how deeply meaningful the word Shalom actually is.  My husband stayed home to sleep but woke up just in time to take in the class on Zoom. YAY!  He accidentally activated his translator, so the words being spoken appeared at the bottom of the computer screen. hahaha  There were some real lulus, thanks in part to a bit of fuzz coming through the mic being used in the classroom. When the minister told us that we cannot force peace upon other people the words that appeared onscreen were, "We cannot force pizza upon other people." hahaha That one was a true gem of a mistake. Love it.

In the sermon the minister told us how much it bothers him when people, himself included, use the word "Just" so much in spontaneous prayers.  So often we say things like "If you could Just heal so and so....", or "If you could Just make this or that happen....".  To our minister it sounds like God's own children think they are bothering him or are afraid of being presumptuous with their requests; either that or trying to manipulate the Lord by sounding insincerely humble.  One of the examples he gave of how much God wants us to interact with him, how we are not bothering him, was how Jesus, when John the Baptist was beheaded and he was grieving, still issued the invitation to his followers to come to be with him.  He didn't just walk away to grieve alone for some long period of time.  Out of that time frame came the miracle of the loaves and fishes.  I have some thinking to do about my own prayer life.  I couldn't resist after that sermon: when I went forward during the communion to receive the elements from the minister I whispered, "I Just thank you for these elements." hahaha  He nearly lost it right then and there, trying to keep a straight face while his shoulders were heaving with laughter. Bad me....teehee.

A friend and I went out to DarBar for yummy lunch after church.  We had a deeply personal talk, one of those types of conversations I rarely have a chance to participate in because of course it isn't always appropriate with everyone a person knows. It was very meaningful and I think we were able to help each other at least a little bit with some personal issues we both struggle with.  It was an unexpected and incredible blessing. 

I came home to find my husband having a much better day today.  He woke up at 5am but realized he didn't need to eat or drink anything and went back to sleep until just before 8am.  By 8:45am he was back asleep, but he slept less than 45 minutes and has been awake ever since.  Yes, he is very tired and that exhaustion is going to take at least a couple of weeks to be back under control if things go the way they usually go for him with this miserable disease, but to see his face a normal colour after five or six weeks of ashy grey is most encouraging.  The graph line rarely goes in a straight line during recovery from such a heavy and long episode of CFS symptoms, but even one or two days of improvement in a row usually signals that he is starting to recover to some extent.  I am encouraged AND still praying constantly for relief for him.

Tomorrow morning I have to call my surgeon to set up my one year checkup in June.  Oh how I pray that the surgeon won't be too terribly shocked and disappointed that I am still limping around, still trying to strengthen the muscles in my thigh. I think at this point I have to accept the fact that the tendon is too damaged to fully recover, but I am okay with that. Them's the breaks kid.  (Or, should I say the RESULT of the breaks? hahaha)   

It is going to be a busy week, just the kind I enjoy most and I am grateful for that!   

Carol’s Update!

 Fantastic news: Carol has been cleared to return home early next week! A rehab interim facility will not be necessary after all because of her diligence with physiotherapy and normal test results for her heart and lungs, the restoration of her cognitive abilities and her level of mobility. Thank you prayers warriors and thank you God for granting Carol her healing. Wonderful news!

Another Excellent Update From Caro's Family

  On this glorious, sort of warm, sunny skies with forming white thunderhead clouds kind of day, I am delighted to have another report about Carol's progress.  Her family is thrilled and you prayer warriors have certainly made a difference to her recovery.  Here is the latest:

So far as Carol and I can tell there are no deficits or lasting injury to her brain. She is as sharp as I’ve ever known her and likely ready to get her word game streak back up and running.

Her heart tests are all showing no damage and no lingering weakness! What a relief and huge answered prayer!

Her persistent cough is also gone! I’m delighted about this one!

No news (good news) about the kidneys.

Now for the muscles. She had the weekend and today off of formal/attended physio therapy. However, as we know that doesn’t mean she took those days off. In fact she has excelled at the “homework” her PT gave on Friday and is stretching even hose goals! Also she is noting improved finger strength. Previously her fingers were not strong enough to do her routine inhaler. Today they were!!!!
She is up to the bathroom without assist (except a watchful eye from the nurse)!!! Her goal tomorrow is to be able to brush her teeth standing without leaning! Such great incredible progress.

Tuesday we hope she will be seen by Physio again and given the clearance to walk with watchful assist of family and/or friends.

She is awaiting word on rehab placement. It may be as far away as 150km. In that case she will instead look more into home health options. Especially as she is improving so quickly.

Oh how effective this groups prayers have been. 

I am hoping Carol can get into a rehab facility MUCH closer than 150km away, if her improvements continue at this rate of speed with no unexpected set backs.  So grateful her physiotherapy is helping her so much each and every day!

My husband began his day with a tummy episode threatening, partly because he fell asleep last evening without his usual small snack. He woke up too early....6:30am....because the tummy ache was threatening to hit him pretty hard.  BUT he had a small bowl of yogurt and some water, then decided to go back to bed. He slept for another nearly 90 minutes and woke up just in time to pick up his friend for a men's breakfast meeting.  He looked absolutely horrible when he left and I had a feeling he MAY arrive home in someone else's car before being gone more than a half hour, but he not only survived the meeting, he was able to stop at the wood shop afterwards and pick up his soldering gun for a small home repair he wants to do this week. Whew...he dodged a bullet again today after a kind of miserable weekend, particularly on the Saturday....yikes.  So grateful this latest round of attacks seems to be lessening and I pray he will soon be back to as full health as he ever is capable of being.

Our daughter in law must have arrived home safely last evening as we haven't heard anything yet and if she had not arrived our son would have been calling us. So happy she seems to have had a good week away.  Our son has to balance his home life, job and finalizing a couple of art works for the Esther 3 art fair in May. What a busy pair. I am guessing our daughter in law may not have had today off  from her usual full time job today, but it would be wonderful if she had the day to regroup and rest a bit.

Day two of this week's physiotherapy went as well as Day one did yesterday.  I am hoping to get Day three and four done prior to the weekend as I would really like to take two days off in a row.  Walking more correctly now is helping my full weight bearing balance exercises and vice versa.  It has been a good week thus far for small bits of progress once again.  It is most disappointing that the tendon on the operated leg will likely never fully heal due to the amount of damage it sustained previously, but as long as I can fully weight bear soon for the full required 30 seconds, I will consider myself sufficiently healed.  The "hitch in my getalong" is far less pronounced since I started rolling my foot forward properly when walking without my cane. Praise the Lord for that! 

Finally did the ironing that has been sitting draped over my husband's favourite reading chair in his little library room for the past few days.  It doesn't usually take me this long to get ironing completed after doing a day of laundry, but wow, for some reason there seemed to be so many other things to do each day that I didn't get to it until now.  Oh well....

It is a beautiful day here and I am going to enjoy every moment of the good weather before we will apparently be hit with quite a bit of freezing rain overnight tomorrow, turning to snowfall the following morning.  Sigh....SPRING, WHERE THE HECK ARE YA'???

I am hoping like ten bears my husband will be well enough tomorrow before the weather turns rotten again to come out shopping for a few items with me.  I have GOT to find some brown and navy blue socks. The usual "cheapsy" retail stores are only carrying black, white and grey socks along with some horrific patterned ones, so maybe I will just be content to pay more for the colours I want that can't be found at the places I already looked.  

Such Sweet Hopes For Us Regarding Housing...But The Biggest Problem I Have Won't Necessarily Be Solved By Moving...Sigh....

Today various friends have told me how much they are praying for us to find a better quality place to live in.  One of the things motivating their prayers is that having neighbours on the other side of the wall has, in a few cases over the past 11 years, been a struggle.  The only issue these days with the neighbours next door is that their youngest boy thumps up and down the stairs at all hours of the day and night. Tonight they have company who also have a little boy about the same age and they are banging and crashing about on the stairs so much that they sound like they are coming right through the walls. Even putting my ear plugs in is not deadening the noise enough to sleep right now...at 11:10pm. My friends are concerned about such things because they know I have "bionic hearing" when I go to bed at night, particularly  when the outside noise has subsided for the overnight hours.  If the kids next door were still going to school during the weekdays they wouldn't be thumping about so late at night, but since they all stopped attending, for whatever reason, Sunday nights are like all the other nights and worse when these particular visitors come over and stay on into the wee hours of the morning.  I suspect that since no one is working and no kids are in school they feel free to live on Middle Eastern time. Sigh... I will be fine and eventually I will be tired enough to fall asleep, plus I have no commitments other than physiotherapy tomorrow.  So, all will be well.

Since some of my friends have been here when the stair thumping is going on during the day and they have heard it with their own ears, they are appalled to think that we have to listen to that late at night...that we have to listen to it at all. This is motivating quite a movement among them to pray us into a better, quieter place. God bless them richly for caring so much, BUT I think what I have not been able to communicate clearly is that no matter where I move I will likely experience noise related sleep issues.  Moving out of here is no guarantee I will not end up living close to someone who leaves their dog out all night, tethered and barking in their backyard. Someone in a nearby residence may be prone to playing very loud music until all hours of the early morning.  There may be neighbours who are truckers and leave their semi cabs running all night long in preparation for the next day's long haul.  There may be people with kids who make as much noise outside after I have gone to bed as the little guys next door are making inside right now.  There may be people having back yard bbq guests for half the night.  Etc. etc. etc. etc....let your imagination run wild.  

The problem is not with the noisemakers as much as it is with my low level OCD and my nighttime Super Hearing. Moving won't solve that.  Even living in the country wouldn't help.  My past experiences with that are that someone's cows are constantly mooing or their horses whinnying or the half tons are back firing coming home after midnight from a visit to town, or farmers are starting their farm machinery at 5am.  It isn't possible to get away from the noises, SO I am extremely grateful that God is helping me, answering my friends' prayers that I can learn to cope with the little peoples' nocturnal activities next door without it being my own anger and frustration that are keeping me awake as much as the noise.

I am super grateful for all the people praying we can move to a better place. There are other pertinent reasons why we are needing to move out of here as soon as it is possible, but the noise factor isn't all that relevant with me being the way I am. Don't stop praying friends, don't stop praying. Perhaps God is helping me deal with some of my mental health issues by keeping me right here for awhile longer. Ya' never know.....

PS my daughter in law will be flying home tomorrow and thus avoided the bad weather around Dallas today, so I am most relieved about that. There is another happy answer to prayer!

 

 

Update For Carol

The latest update came in late last night. Carol is now medically stable, no more dialysis, the tube to the carotid artery has been removed so sleeping will be easier, more comfortable. However she is very weak between the full body slam of the illness and the subsequent weeks in bed. The medical team wants to have her moved to a short term rehab facility until she regains her strength. It is going to be a long, long road for the rest of her recovery, but after nearly losing her the family and friends are so very grateful for the hope of a full recovery. Thanks to all of you for your prayers.

Carol Continues To Recover Well

Here is tonight's update from the family:

Easter Monday Update

I love that in Canada today is a stat holiday. Except when it means Carol doesn’t get physio therapy today

However even without those mobility professionals she was up in a chair for 1.5hr today!!!! What an accomplishment. And also how exhausting. Keep praying for strength to return and stamina. I am sooooo pleased and thankful how she is doing. 

We can confirm she is most likely to have the dialysis catheter removed asap as it is no longer needed! Thank you for praying for her kidneys!!!

Hoping for more update on her heart (tests to be done still) tomorrow or shortly. No troubles at all there these last few days. 

Her mind is clear as ever now! We just got off the phone and had such a great chat that included remembering our humorous conversation from the day before she was admitted to hospital. So thankfully no gaps in memory there. Likely graciously there are a couple gaps from when she was intubated and the days following that. 

Sleep is a huge prayer need now. With the roommate situation she is generally woke around midnight and struggles getting back to sleep. She uses that time to do some in bed exercises . Next time we all have insomnia we will giggle and either pray for Carol or do exercises with her. 

So!!!! I’ll be bold. Let’s pray she can be discharged into home health by Friday. I know it’s a stretch but I know Carol is resilient and determined to do all Physio and the team asks of her. 

 

Carol’s Holy Saturday Update

There are more bits of good news today. Carlos’s white blood count is finally dropping, she is out of ICU, she is able to sit on the edge of the bed for a few minutes several times a day and her kidneys continue to create proper output, so it is possible no more dialysis will be needed, although depending on tomorrow’s blood work she may need one more treatment. 

Prayer concerns are that the heart and kidneys will continue to get stronger and more efficient and that her overall muscle strength can be rebuilt quickly. Also, she does have a roommate so that complicates the already difficult task of trying to sleep overnight in an active hospital ward.

We will download her visiting sign up sheet and go to visit her in person this coming week, Lord willing. 

From The Sublime To The Ridiculous To The Sublimely Ridiculous!

This has been a most memorable Good Friday!

We began our day at an Anglican church with a dear friend and her parents who are visiting from the Northwest Territories. It was an excellent Good Friday service at the church:  the reading of the Passion of Christ scriptures from John 18 and 19, two solemn hymns, the stripped altar, a reminder in the priest's sermon as to why Jesus had to be sacrificed for the sake of all of us, and a tribute to the black draped cross at the front of the church.  It was very spiritually moving and we enjoyed it very much...the spiritual and emotional weight of what happened to our Lord on our behalf sat heavily upon us as we made our way silently out of the church afterwards.  

My husband and I travelled in our car in near silence as we went to the designated restaurant to meet the same friends there along with the rest of their family.  The restaurant was Fuddruckers, a place my husband and I have never been to before.  It was jarring, in a happy sort of way, to walk into the restaurant bubbling over with people and noise and music and the smell of yummy food wafting through the air.  We lined up and placed our order, (my husband and I had salads that were most delicious, huge and with a good variety of ingredients), obediently carried to our table the flashing alarm beepers that would let us know when our order was ready to be picked up at the counter, lined up to get our cold drinks while we waited and began animated conversations with our friends around the table.  To me it was like walking from a graveyard into a bustling market and I enjoyed that sensation.  It was like walking into the hope of the coming resurrection which we will celebrate with our own church congregation on Sunday morning....although I kind of doubt we will make it to the 6:30am sunrise service....for some odd reason. hahaha

After a restful afternoon of napping and physiotherapy my husband went online to find us some kind of interesting movie to watch this evening. He picked The Annihilation of Fisher, starring James Earl Jones, Margot Robbie and Lynn Redgrave, released back in 1999.  For any of you older adults reading this blog, do check it out if you are not aware of it. It is funny, quirky and an amazingly accurate commentary on what happens to people whose hopes and dreams and sense of purpose are taken away from them, particularly as they age.  It isn't a kids' movie, it is for adults who will be able to look through and past the oddness of the characters to understand what can happen to us in light of loss of ideals in our lives. We thoroughly enjoyed it. The script is so well written and the acting is marvellous.  Lynn Redgrave was such a good actress and she excels in her role here.

Tomorrow is a day of no commitments away from home...at least not thus far and I do hope it may remain that way as my husband is still struggling with exhaustion and resulting tummy issues.  We do have to come up with a dessert or two for Easter Dinner on Sunday evening, but that can be done at any time of the day. I will do physio again and then take Sunday off.  The weather should be very fine tomorrow so that will add to the joy (hopefully) of the day. Although the start of the week is considerably chillier than tomorrow will be, there is no snow or freezing rain forecast until mid week. YAY! 

A GOOD Good Friday Update On Our Dear Friend!

From Carols' family:

Happy Amazing Good Friday to all!

Today Carol is getting healthier and stronger! She has been transferred to a ward!

She continues to be off oxygen completely now. So much more comfortable.
She still has a nasty sounding cough so we will pray that God heals that completely.

Her kidney lab work is trending slowly in the right direction. So nephrology will decide tomorrow if they will do dialysis again or not.

No update on her heart test. Likely Tuesday Cardio will check in again.

Please pray with us she continues to be blessed with no complications and no new infections. That has been such a gift thus far.

Also we are praying her strength returns. That the unit staff would somehow make the time to help her with sitting on the edge of the bed (or even up in a chair) to help regain her health and strength.

We have so so so much to thank God for this evening. The kids and I were at our Good Friday service down here in SF. It has definitely felt like a bizarre Holy Week for sure. So thankful for His presence and the community He has blessed Carol with!

Thank you all! 

A Positive Health Update

Thanks so much for your continuing prayers for Carol.  Here is the most positive news yet from her family:

Wow. I thought yesterday was a lot to say. Today we are sooooo delighted to share she has successfully been extubated. She is breathing on her own. She is answering questions with a whisper even! She so far seems quite clear minded.

So very many answered prayers!
She had another round of dialysis today. They may do another round tomorrow depending on her morning bloodwork.

So!
Please continue to pray for her mind to clear and for Gods peace to cover her as she begins to process the journey she has been on and has ahead.
Pray for her kidneys to pick up on their work. So that she doesn’t need another round tomorrow.
Pray over her heart. She had a rhythm anomaly. Pray it doesn’t return and her heart strengthens.
Continue to pray against infections and complications.

Thank you thank you thank you!

Winter Is Hanging On...In Other Words A Typical March For Us!

We had some heavy snow this morning that left us with our back deck covered in about 5cm of snow, which our neighbour shovelled off for us, after borrowing our shovel and push broom to do both his place and ours, then he shovelled a pathway out to our car as well.  He wanted to thank us for shovelling for his family when he was out of town working for a few weeks.  At least that is what we are assuming as he doesn't yet speak any English at all.  That is our prayer for him and for his family: that the English language will come easily enough to them not to have them frustrated all the time with communications struggles.  Mom is doing fairly well in a short period of time and the kids are learning at school, but Dad dad has not had the opportunities to be in English classes or to be surrounded by native English speakers since the family arrived here nearly three months ago.  Glad we have an excellent shovel and broom to share with them.

This afternoon's heavier traffic melted the snow on the streets, turning them to a slush covered mess and now, late in the afternoon we have more teensy snowflakes falling.  This system is to pass by tomorrow morning, so I hope we have seen the bulk of this system's snowfall.  

We received another encouraging update about Carol this afternoon from her family, so here is part of that information for you prayer warriors out there:

(Monday) Today’s update includes a lot!
The first time they were able to have her sitting up in a supported chair with the ventilator! It continues to be doing minimal work to support her own efforts of breathing.

Her lungs continue to be improving! The fungus that they found they believe is non-troublesome, but they are going to grow and test it as well.

Her kidneys have continued to not improve as hoped so they are doing dialysis today (currently probably actually as we speak!). Tomorrow they will reevaluate and possibly do a second round which they expect is all that she will need.

She is starting to show more alertness, which is so encouraging but we expect this to actually improve most after the dialysis.

Thank you all so much for being with us in this time. The prayers are being so effective and are so appreciated each one! 

My husband is having a nap this afternoon. Neither of us slept well last night and I can put my issue down to having ingested a full cup of caffeinated coffee at my friends' house yesterday afternoon. Duh....I have been saying with boring regularity that I am not going to do that again when I visit these dear friends, but I caved again yesterday because, dang it, the flavour of that coffee was just so GOOD!!!!  I am paying for it today: insufficient sleep, wired up emotions overnight and now I can hardly keep my eyes open long enough to post this blog entry!

Tomorrow my husband will participate in the annual Blessing of the Oils ceremony with the Bishop and all his colleagues. Their vials of healing oil will be duly blessed and consecrated for use over the coming year. He always enjoys that service, plus it is a chance to see colleagues from around the city and diocese that he rarely has a chance to connect with any more now that he is "fully retired" (yeah...like church ministers are ever that, right?).  I will use the time he is there to do another good round of physiotherapy like I did today and to get something decent cooked for us to have for dinner in the evening.  We have lived mostly on spaghetti sauce and curly noodles and left over beef tenderloin roast for the past few days and it will all be gone by tonight.  I also need to get moving on ironing my spring and summer clothes that I unpacked last week and are still lying around on the ironing board waiting to be dealt with. Somehow the last couple of spring snowfalls have dampened my enthusiasm at least somewhat for the task.

This Afternoon's Carol Update

Here is the information I just received.  Prayers are definitely helping Carol with her health disaster.  Thank you from the family and of course the prayers need to continue.  Bless you all!

Her lungs continued to improve, and the ventilator settings are becoming quite low! Perhaps later today they will try her on a setting where she has the job of breathing for herself, and they will be minimally supporting her. This is all dependent on her cognition, so that is one of the big factors presently. But as far as her lungs are concerned, they are definitely looking improved! Her poor cognition in that she is not responding other than to painful stimuli is related to her kidneys, being sluggish.

Because the fentanyl that they use to keep her sedated is off, she will slowly be waking up, but the medication itself is actually removed from the system via the kidneys so her sluggish kidneys are causing her arousal to take longer than perhaps normal. They often will give up to three days for this to happen now with this kidney situation. Her kidney function blood tests have plateaued so are no longer worsening, which is great news. We will be praying that they kick back into gear smoothly and no dialysis is needed.

She is still quite swollen and again is expected with cardiac and kidney being sub-optimal. 

They are increasing her stomach feeds so that is also indicative of improvements throughout as well. 

So basically, still not conscious, needing very little respiratory support, awaiting kidney and cardiac function to return to normal and with that will come her cognition as well. 

Continue to pray with us for kidneys, heart, mind, pray against hospital acquired infections and complications, continue to pray for her husband and all the family over this weekend ahead :-)

 

 

Quick Update On Carol

Carol is improving ever so slowly. Her heart is still weak and her kidneys are working too hard due to the amount of fluid intake required to begin dealing with the sepsis and dehydration. She is responding well to the antibiotics. Hopefully as her need for IV fluids decreases she will be able to be tubed to have food sent directly into her stomach.  No one knows when she may regain consciousness. It is going to be a long journey to whatever level of recovery she is able to achieve. We are grateful her husband, who had been away from home the afternoon Carol was hospitalized, arrived home in time to discover her on their bed not lucid and unable to respond, but still alive. We pray she can recover not only her physical abilities but her full mental capacity as well.  Thank you for continuing to pray.

More Small Improvements With Physiotherapy! YAY!

Just so the prayer warriors know, I have no more major updates on Carol at the moment, but her vital signs were stabilizing yesterday and she is fully rehydrated, but was still on full life support at last update yesterday afternoon.  By last night all her children arrived from across the Canada and the USA, so our hope is that their presence will somehow be helpful to her in possibly regaining consciousness.  So grateful that God hears our prayers. We are not helpless to help Carol because we can petition our heavenly father on her behalf. Whatever the outcome we know her husband and children have strong faith and will accept courage from the Lord as they face this painful family trial.

My morning exercises have been bringing some level of encouragement to me as I slog along doing my physiotherapy.  Over the past week I have finally reached the stage of being able to fully weight bear for up to 13 seconds, multiple times per session, on the operated hip.  Almost half way to my goal of 30 consecutive seconds without having to grab a chair for support.  I still have over two months to reach the goal before I see the surgeon. The other bit of encouragement is that when I do my lying side abductions, this week instead of feeling each separate muscle group in my hip and upper leg area contracting to support the lifted leg, they have started tightening cohesively as one unit to give me the strength to hold the leg up the required five seconds and getting more control of lowering my leg back down without it crashing as soon as it gets up in the air.  This morning when my husband did the assisted abductions, where he lifts that leg higher than I can on my own, counts to five and releases it, for the first two of ten lifts I was able to hold it up in the air for the full five seconds before lowering it under my own power.  The other 8 lifts resulted in my leg crashing back down with no control, but that is okay. Until this morning I couldn't hold it up there for even one repetition!!  So, little by little, the discipline is paying off.  This has been one of the most encouraging mornings of physio in some weeks.  Stage one done, now it is time to get ready for our afternoon Bible study, after which I will complete stage two of my routine.  Thanks again to those of you who have indicated you have been praying for my recovery this past 10 months.  Bless your hearts....I am getting there. Don't give up on me....I refuse to give up on myself at this point, although it would be so very easy to just pack it in and tell myself to forget it, it is too much work for too slow a return.  God is helping me to overcome that temptation. Hallelujah!  Thanks for your help and encouragement everyone.