I had fourteen cards on his rehab wall to count down the days and help him keep track.
A month ago we would never have dreamed we are at this moment in time. Almost a week in ICU, a week on the stepdown floor and two weeks in rehab. It has been a journey and the longed for day finally arrived. I was suppose to be at the hospital between 10-11 a.m. to pickup him up. At 9:30 he calls. “Are you here yet?” When I said I was just leaving, he said, “Please hurry!”
Gene sitting in his wheelchair, dressed and ready to go.
Gene was so ready to be home. Home to his sofa, homecooked food, and windows that look out over the farm. His recovery is going to take a while, probably all summer. When the medical staff refers to what happened they say, “You were very, very, very, very sick.” It was a close call but God was merciful and spared his life here on earth. We are so grateful.
When we got Gene in the house and he sat down on the sofa, he let out a huge sigh of relief. He was home.
There comes a time when one is weary; weary of the waiting, going, sitting, poking, sticking, pain, interrupted sleep and even the healing process. You are just ready to be done. Healed. No pain. Home. Sleep. Good homecooked food. Working and seeing at it all in the rear-view mirror. I am as ready to be done as Gene is. It is at this point where discouragement nudges its way in, impatience strangles the mind and weariness saps the strength.
This morning I thought of the verse, “Those that wait on the Lord, will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary” (Isaiah 40:31). There is that “don’t want to think about word” wait. The promise that if we wait on the Lord, his timing, his mighty power, our strength will be renewed, we can soar emotionally as an eagle and the stamina to exert energy will come. This is my prayer for today.
One of the things I did when we got to rehab was put up cards on the wall in his room to help him keep track of the days. They had given us a projected stay of 14 days in rehab. We are now at day 9.
By the time this is over it will be a month of hospital and rehab. It is hard for a patient to figure out what day of the month it is much less the day of the week. Each morning we take down the previous day. The end is in sight (hopefully) and we are having to endure. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. I remember a children’s story about Thomas, the little train that was chuggin up a mountain, and the going got tough…..I think I can, I think I can…… Lord give us the grace to endure and chug this mountain. I think we can, I think we can, I know we will.
So much is happening and happening at an amazing rate of speed. I started a blog post and didn’t get it finished and now I have to start over.
Sheltering Arms Rehabilitation Center. It is huge and they are getting ready to add another floor!
This week I started coming home for the night because I felt like I could. He wasn’t needing me for anything during the night that pushing the red call button on his remote wouldn;t take care of. For days he couldn’t push the call button, hold a cup to drink or use the cell phone. That really started changing this week.
Tuesday afternoon our Pastor and a friend came in and prayed over him and anointed him with oil. That is a scriptural teaching from James 5:14-15.
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
In the sermon on the mount, Jesus said, “Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open to you.” (Matthew 7:7) Jesus wants us to petition him. He is ready and wanting to help. It is important to acknowledge our need of his healing care.
Wednesday morning I called to check on him and he answered his cell phone. His voice sounded so much better-almost like normal. He said he felt so much better. It was a change he could see and feel. I heard hope and a lift in his spirit. All I could say was thank-you Jesus. Thank you for your healing touch. A little later he called me which means he could figure out how to make a call and get it to work! He was sitting in a chair which is a part of his therapy.
He did therapy well and when I went in after lunch I stopped at the nurses station to ask how he was doing. They were bubbling with excitement over the change, they could hardly believe it. I told them that he had been anointed the evening before and Jesus was healing him.
This morning (Thursday) I called in first thing and he said he had rough night. He said he tried to escape in the middle of the night. He got his feet and clothes all tangle up together, got confused, and I am not sure what all transpired, but they finally got him settled down and everything worked out. Apparently his “get out of jail” card didn’t work!!!
Today is evaluation day with doctors and nurses and then they will meet with us at 2 to give us an update on his progress, a targeted discharge date, and what to expect when he comes home. He is so wanting to come home but several goals have to be met first. I am ready to be done with the hospital also but want him to be physically ready for me to care for him.
Right now I am praising God for his healing and the change that has happened. I feel like we are on a good path right now.
This was suppose to happen on Monday but would you believe, it is happening today (Friday) at 5 p.m.-the big move to Sheltering Arms Rehabilitation Center. A bed became available so the surgeon snatched it and released him to go. He really is getting better!
He looks good today even with his almost two week growth of beard stubble. We are so grateful for God’s healing touch on his body.
He still deals with pain. He can take a few steps with assistance and his brain fog is getting better.
Our goal now is to regain strength, get him safely walking and able to take care of his personal needs.
I call it the “Pacer’s Speedway “. In layman’s terms it is a called a hallway. All rooms open to the speedway. It is where the wives of the patient go to talk on their cell phones. Incidentally I have never seen a man on the track!!!!
The long hallway.
Pacers are easily recognized by their mindless intentional pacing from one end of the hall to the other, lapping again and again, with a cell phone glued to their ear. They usually are clueless to the other walkers, mostly looking down, intent in conversation about their loved one that is in a room that opens to the speedway.
The end with the window. Large windows with the next picture showing the view.The view!!!!
Fellow members of the Pacer’s Club will identify with this marathon!
It has felt like one step forward, two steps back, two steps forward, one step back but now I think we are on a forward path with shuffled steps. It has not been a straight line forward but a windy zig zagged path to climb.
Yesterday he had his fourth stent procedure (plus his emergency surgery) to insert a larger stent and stop a duct leak that was still putting bile into the abdomen. I saw an almost immediate improvement and the bile drainage is decreasing. This is great news. Each surgery and procedure has taken a mental and physical toll. He has sat in a chair a few times but he now needs to regain his strength and do therapy to walk and take care of his physical needs so that he can come home.
He is expected to make a full recovery and be able to again do the things he loved to do before- get on this tractor and farming, but it is going to take some time. The summer will have to be dedicated to healing.
Our plan is for him to be moved, hopefully this weekend, to Sheltering Arms Rehabilitation Center for 7-14 days. We have heard good things about them and it seems to be the number one option.
We are so appreciative of the care he has received at St. Francis. Being a catholic hospital it is faith based and a very lovely facility. They have a bell tower that sometimes chimes comforting hymns. Music plays when a baby is born. One nurse told me that they pray when they come to work.
Bell tower. Water spouts and waterfalls inside and out.Lots of flowers
There is a bird that sings his song every night, all night long, in the darkness outside our window. Using Merlin, my bird app, I have identified the anonymous singer as a Goldfinch. It has nightly reminded me to sing my praise, give my worship to God on my bed in the dark times. It will be heard.
In the hospital all days blur together. It is hard enough for family but for the patient it is impossible. Gene is complaining about having to look all day at the nurses schedule board hanging on the wall at the foot of his bed. He usually enjoys watching TV but he has been too ill that it bothers and confuses him. I forget which day they moved him out of ICU but it was good to bid farewell knowing that we were making progress. The care he received there was tops. They had a nurse’s desk right outside the door where they could watch two rooms at a time. They were caring and professional even when their patients became dillusional and uncooperative.
This is the view from his bed.
Gene had four surgical procedures in eight days; the emergency surgery to remove his gall bladder and appendix, and three to put in a stent. Last Thursday they attempted to remove a gall stone that was in the bile duct and insert a stent by using a scope going through the stomach, into the small intestine and up into the duct. It was not successful. The next day they tried again by making a small incision in his abdomen wall, to laposcopically go through the liver and down into the bile duct. It was challenging but they were able get the stone and insert the stent. The stent was to cover the hole leaking bile into the abdomen, allowing it to heal and help redirect the bile into the intestine.
Last evening complications developed and things began going downhill fast. His white blood count soared to above where they were when he had emergency surgery. His kidney numbers, heart beat, labored breathing and liver all were signs of organ distress. We were concerned his organs were failing. This morning first thing they took him back into the OR and they went back in the third time to change the stent to a larger size to help reduce the bile leaking into the abdomen.
It didn’t take long to start seeing improvement and this evening I finally feel like we are really on the road to recovery. Family and friends are invaluable in times like this. A heartfelt thanks to Lauren who is becoming quite the farm girl. Tomorrow she gets to put on her cowboy hat and learn how to drive a tractor to feed hay. Wray, Tim, Steve, Philip, Dave, Luke, Jesse and Jamie for helping with the hay and Bob who went to Weyers Cave for more bale wrap. We had some challenges but they got it done just before the rain started. Then there is Summer who is keeping the store running, and Kevin who helped feed the cows hay. And what would I have done without Jill, Obe, Karla and Ryan. Passion Community Church has provided more food than we can eat! Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you EVERYONE. We have felt your love and care. You have been the arms of Jesus to us and your prayers have carried us through. There were some who have volunteered to help and we appreciate your care. This is going to be a long recovery, we just may need you yet!
I do not know when he will get to come home…. they are several physical goals he has to reach. Stay tuned for the next update.
Today (Thursday) Gene had his second surgical procedure with the goal of removing a gall stone stuck in his bile duct and inserting a stent to stop the leakage of bile into his abdomen. They weren’t able to get it when they removed the gall bladder because there was too much inflamation and damage in the area. Unfortunately, it was not successful. They inserted a scope down his throat, through his stomach, into his bowel and then tried to thread it up into the bile duct. They work for an hour but could not penetrate the bile duct opening. They said it was like it was glued shut. So, now we have to go to plan B.
Before his surgery today, the surgeon picked up a dry-erase marker and walked over to the window and used it as his drawing board. I thought that was very neat. He made it so easy to understand. When we complimented him he said I came from a family of mechanics. I know the value of drawings!
Tomorrow (Friday) afternoon they are going to do the same procedure but go through his liver instead of his bowel. This will be a little bigger deal and involves the assistance of radiology to open a path through the liver. I don’t know what all that means.
It was a little discouraging today but we have to stay focused on getting better and being grateful for the progress. He has not been allowed to eat a regular meal yet and the liquid diet of tomato soup, jello, apple juice, pudding and ice-cream is getting old! He has had tomato soup about every meal and today I asked them to please not send tomato soup. It blows my mind that for patients so sick in intensive care and with stomach issues that they think they will eat tomato soup with apple juice to drink, cherry jello and chocolate pudding for dessert! That combination is enough to make your stomach churn! One day in intensive care he was craving fried chicken in the middle of the night. He wants comfort food and calories. You need calories to heal! I understand the reasons for the liquid diet but somehow it seems the dietary options could be better.
I am asking that as you think of Gene, pray for God’s continued healing touch and that the surgeon will be successful in retrieving the gall stone and inserting a stent tomorrow.
The last week and a half has been quite a ride. Let me share our story.
Gene has been dealing with long-haul covid for the last two years. He struggles with fatigue and extreme exhaustion and breathing difficulties. He recently made comment that he has felt better the last several weeks than he has since he had covid.
Monday (May20) came and he did not feel good with pain and discomfort in his stomach. He could hardly eat and felt bad enough that he couldn’t work. He started cutting hay one day and I had to go to the field to pick him up. He thought he had a stomach bug. By Wednesday it was worse with sharp piercing pain in his stomach. Some of the medicines he was on for long-haul covid has given him trouble with acid reflux and that really flared up. He started suspecting a stomach ulcer and Dr. Goggle confirmed all his symptoms. He called the family doctor to get an appointment and they had no openings until the following Tuesday. He asked for the doctor to call him but instead she had her secretary call with an over-the- counter 14-day treatment to try. It seemed to help.
Friday he developed severe back pain in the right kidney area. He has had more than his share of kidney stones and knows that routine well. He was really discouraged. He felt like he was not only dealing with an ulcer but now also a kidney stone. His history of passing them is not good. By evening it was intense, so he called his Urologist. They couldn’t see him until the next morning (Saturday). The last time he had a stone the Urologist had told him to not go to the ER but to call them directly, they can handle night attacks at their office complex-but that didn’t happen. He suffered through the night and by morning he was in intense pain. I had to use a wheelchair to get him into the Urology office. They did an x-ray and could not find a kidney stone. By then the pain had lessen so they thought he must have passed it. They gave him some pain medicine, scheduled a CT scan and sent him home with instructions in case it flared up again.
All day Saturday his stomach pain intensified. By evening he was moaning, groaning and writhering in pain. I looked at Dr. Google and ulcers do not create that kind of pain. At 9 p.m. he agreed it was time to go to the ER, something just wasn’t right.
They took us really quick at the St Francis emergency center. It did not take long to to be alerted to some alarming stats. His body temperature was 95, his blood pressure was 78/55 and he was in severe septic shock. As they wheeled him away to a room, the Triage nurse said, “I am starting the septis clock.” All hands were on deck and for the next hours there were multiple people sticking, probing, and doing scans and running tests. About 2:30 a.m. on Sunday morning we learned that a surgeon was in route and within the hour he would be in emergency surgery.
After careful examination of the CT scan and consultation, the surgeon felt it was a lacerated ulcer on his colon where it joins the stomach. But there was one sympton that didn’t quite fit that pointed to the gall bladder. She shared her plan and 2-1/2 hours later the surgery was over with a big twist.
Instead of an ulcer and a three inch cut, it was his gall bladder with a 10 incision on his belly. She didn’t feel it was safe to go in laposcoptically with his low blood pressure fluctuating so drasically because they have to use gas to inflate the abdomen and it stresses the heart. She found the gall bladder had shattered. It was a totally dead, watery, mushy, infected mess. It had affected his appendix which also had to be removed and his liver was a bloody mess.
Now we are in recovery and healing mode. They had him sedated and on a ventilator until noon on Monday. He is improving and doing well, very sore and extremely weak. God was been gracious and spared his life. One nurse commented that 50% of patients that are in his condition do not make it. This surgery was a big deal and he was in critical condition for several days. Jesus is the true physician. We actually are grateful it was not an ulcer because ulcers never really heal. You control them. He should have a full recovery but it will take several months.
He has to have one more surgery before he leaves the hospital to remove a gallstone. There was one stone in the bile duct and she couldn’t get it because of all the swelling and infection. They will use a scope to go down through the stomach and snatch it.
A number of farmers from Passion Community Church and Powhatan Mennonite are planning to come and help make his 110 acres of hay. What a huge blessing and we are so humbly grateful. Family and friends have surrounded us with words of encouragement and support.
Today they are moving him out of ICU. He was able to sit in a chair this morning for an extended period of time. Praise the Lord, he is getting better!
One guy said, “Gene is like an old Timex watch. It takes a beating and keeps on ticking.” Somehow that just seems to fit.
Someone had written the following verse on the board in his Intensive Care room.
The doctor almost bounced into the room today. As he felt my ankle he said, “Does it hurt?” I said, “No”. Then he said, “There has been significant change in your ankle.” I felt a surge of panic as I thought the negative and then he said, “Let me show you the x-rays. Look at them!” I studied them for a minute but failed to see what he was so excited about. When he pointed out the difference I could hardly contain myself. I responded with how much I had been praying for healing.
In the picture on the left (taken in September), see the open gap to the left of the screws? That is my bone that had not healed. In the picture on the right (taken today, November 29), notice that the gap has almost totally filled in. That is an incredible amount of healing in a five-week period of time.
In September when he ordered the bone stimulator for me, he caution that it would take time, could be six weeks or more before we see any difference. Today we are just over five weeks. All I can say is God has been gracious and He is knitting my bone back together. Numerous times when I have been lying in bed or sitting in my lazy boy, I have felt my ankle suddenly start to throb. Not hurt, just throb like a rapid heart throb. At first I was concerned but then I thought, maybe that is God knitting my bone together. The bone stimulator promotes blood flow to the area so that it can jump start healing. That is blood throbbing! Whenever I feel that, I always said, “Thank you Jesus for healing my bone.”
People have been asking me this month whether I can feel any difference in my ankle. I couldn’t. I could not tell that it had not healed and I could not tell if it had. I had no way to know if God was working in the secret place! Numerous times I thought about Psalms 139 where it talks about God knitting out bodies together in secret in our mother’s womb. It is a beautiful description of how our Creator God works. My ankle did not hurt and I could walk on it just fine because it was screwed together. However, I felt very vulnerable when walking outside or on the gravel driveway.
This Thanksgiving season I had to struggle some to not worry. My accident happened on Mother’s Day which was over 8 months ago. I could hardly bear to think of going through surgery again if my bone didn’t heal. It seemed like everything I picked up to read (several different books, facebook posts, devotions and even our Sunday School lesson on Sunday) was about experiencing God in our struggles, disappointments, suffering, trials and hurts. It is usually in our “difficult times” that we seek God and open ourselves to His work and divine power in our lives.
One book (Dying Outloud) I read was the story of a missionary couple to an unreached people group in a very remote area of the middle east. They lived among the village people for numerous years and learned to love them, pray with and for them and became a part of their life and culture. But they could not seem to reach them to trust in Jesus for salvation. They started praying for supernatural miracles so that the people would see the true God at work. A blind man received his sight and an almost dead person regained health. It was exciting and wonderful and the people were grateful. But then God revealed to the couple through a series of visions that something tragic was going to happen. That tragedy would break the glass ceiling preventing the people hearts from understanding the true God. How we live and how we deal with tragedy often speaks louder and clearer than a miracle. The challenge was to thank God for our difficult times along with our blessings. I began to wonder if God was preparing me for what laid ahead. I admit I began to mentally preparing myself for bad news but I resolved to praise God even if it was not what I wanted to hear.
This has been a rough year, all year long. Gene developed Covid in January and ended up in the hospital with pneumonia. He is still dealing with long-term Covid affects. (That will be another post). Then my journey began in mid-March when I slipped and fell in the rain on wet grass and torn my ham string and calf muscle. That was barely healed when I fell down two steps on Mother’s Day and broke my ankle. From there it was emergency care, doctor’s visits, surgery, a cast, no weight bearing for two months, a walking boot, therapy, therapy and more therapy and then the realization in September that my ankle was not healing, not at all! It was the screws that allowed me to walk without pain.
I admit I began to feel battered and worn. The sea of life was feeling rather rough. In many ways I feel like Gene and I both visibly aged this year. But at the same time, we received many blessings and words of encouragement and prayers from family, church family, friends, employees, customers and even good ole Facebook friends! Yeah for Facebook! It was humbling to be so dependent on others to help with my basic heath care, clean the house, cook meals, do the laundry and the list goes on and on. It was so hard for independent me to say, “I can’t do it”, “Can you do this for me”.
To everyone I say thank-you. I am seeing light at the end of my tunnel and I am chugging towards it. There is a new lightness to my step this evening. God has been faithful and I have felt His presence, His peace and His care. I am grateful for this blessing of healing and praise God for His mercy. Thank you Jesus for granting me healing.
A number of people asked about the book I referenced. It can be found on goggle. “Dying Outloud: No Guilt in Life, No Fear in Death” by Shawn Smucker.
This was copied from “Second Sale” website: Dying Out Loud is the story of Stan, his wife, Ann, their children Elle and Stanley, and their dedication to following God no matter what the cost. They traded the comforts of suburban southern California for the crowded cobblestone streets of the Middle East. They explored remote areas and they befriended nomadic tribes people, courageously bringing a message of hope and freedom to those needing to hear it. But none of those adventures would compare to where God led them next: a journey of visions, revelations, and sorrow. A journey into stage-four cancer, and a journey that beckoned them to walk the shrouded path through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Yet even there they discovered peace, grace, and a new hope for the lost around them.
I am a country gal who enjoys writing, gardening, baking and my family. My husband and I own a retail feed store and it keeps us active and busy. We love living in the country and on our beef farm. We retail natural, Angus, dry-aged beef in our store and a local "natural" store.
My writings, called "From A Grandma's Perspective" are mostly inspired from our five delightful grandchildren. These along with "Life Perspective" can read on our web page at www.hffinc.com under the "Who We Are" tab.
By the way, I love hearing from people who read my blog!!!
