Country Chatter

This week we had a really funny bunny thing happen.

Jill’s phone rang, “I am stuck in the bunny pen.” Jill was busy and she knew I would get a big kick out of this. “Lauren is stuck in the bunny pen. Would you like to go let her out?” Immediately the mischievous instinct took over. I say to Wray, one of our employees, “Lauren is stuck in the bunny pen. Would you like to go with me to let her out?” You should have send him grin!

We hopped on the golf cart to go 100 feet and drove past Kevin and Rich who were working on the side of the warehouse. We spread the news. Lauren is stuck in the bunny pen. You want to go along to let her out. Away we all went with big grins and wise cracks forming in our heads.

There was talk of just leaving her there for a while. Rich said he could bring her water and I offered her a pillow but after some good ribbing and empty threats we let her out.

The latch to the pen is tricky. This problem has happened before. If you go in and shut the door too tight it latches and there is no escape. So I rigged up a cord and threaded it through the wire and put a big ring on it so that it would not slip back through the wire and lock me in when I was using it for chickens. The problem was Lauren shut the door and it latched. When she tried to open it by pulling the emergency cord, the cord broke. She was stuck.

Oh dear Lauren, you sure gave us all a good laugh in the midst of a hard week. Thanks for the good laugh. This is the end of my funny bunny story.

What a year! It is one that will go down in the archives of my mind as very difficult and challenging. The whole year we just hopscotched from one mud puddle to the next. It was a good thing we had our wading boots on and an umbrella over our heads. However, I have to say it was not all gloom and doom. Through it all the sun shone brightly. We saw and basked in it.

The year started with the first puddle. In January our granddaughter Karla had a very serious and life-threating sledding accident when she careened into a post, shattering her spleen and a kidney. The weather was too bad for med-flight to transfer her from Harrisonburg to Charlottesville to the trauma center so an ambulance inched it way over the icy Afton Mountain while paramedics manually squeezed blood into her veins. They made it and she has made full recovery. She had the worse possible injury to her spleen but with modern technology the doctor was able to repair it. The kidney had been without blood flow for 12 hours. After 4 hours, medically it is considered dead and non-reviveable (if that is a word!). Going against the advice of all her colleagues, the doctor said, “I have to try.” God heard our prayers and miracleously blood began flowing and the kidney was restored to health. God can do the impossible and she is a walking miracle. The sun shone bright revealing God’s tender care for her.

The next puddle was in March when my dad left this world and went to be with Jesus. Death is never easy and we miss daddy but do not miss the suffering and demented condition he was in. Dementia is a cruel taskmasker. Mother had passed away three years prior from cancer so now the reins of the family are officially in the hands of the next generation. The sun shone bright as we grateful gathered to remember daddy and reflected on our godly family heritage.

On Mother’s Day the sun glowed with sunshine. Our daughter Jill and her husband Obe came for the day and announced that they were moving to Powhatan in 2025. We never saw this coming and our hearts overflowed with shock and joy. They had been praying and seeking God’s wisdom. This was brewing in their minds for quite awhile. Jill had a dream, a vision for the tired farm and store to revitalize and give it new life. It was time to make a change and easy to welcome it. Jill was ready to leave the corporate world and return to the farm to help her dad. Gene has been struggling with his health (long-haul covid) for several years and it was becoming more and mored challenging for him to do what needed to be done on the farm. He needed help and until that moment we didn’t have a path to move forward.

The reality of the next puddle was not anticipated or predicted.

Two weeks later Gene was in the emergency room with severe septic shock due to an exploded gall bladder and had a 50% chance of making it. The next five months were a blur of surgeries, medical procedures, scans, relapses, therapy, doctors, nurses, pain meds, infections and sleepless nights. Several times he came home from the hospital and within days was back in the ER. More than once we wondered if he really was going to make it. Our days were filled with discouragement and uncertainity. Finally on September 5 he came home and little by little he is getting better. It is a long road to recovery. He had lost 43 lbs. and had to regain strength to even stand and walk. The mud in those puddles was thick and sticky, threatening to sink us but God’s arms were around us through the support, encouragement, prayers and love of family and friends. We are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

This Christmas season we as a family were reflecting on the events of the past year and the unimaginable blessing, hope and joy that the announcement from Jill on Mother’s Day held. It was our lifeline as our ship was sinking and we grabbed hold of it with all our strength and held on. What looked dark and unnaviagable has become full of hope and anticipation.

Change is coming to the farm and store as the next generations, full of energy and vision, are involved. It is good and we see the blessings that have come out of the hard times. The sun has burst through the storm clouds and glued our family together in way we never dreamed possible. So with great gusto we wave goodbye to 2024 and look forward to the changes of 2025. Stay tuned.

To make it easier to read/find the blog post about Gene’s medical crisis I have put the links to my blog posts in order on this page.

• Gene’s Memorial Weekend Crisis: It started May 20, 2024
• Gene’s Medical Crisis: Part 2
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 3: The Hospital Blur
• Gene’s Medical Crisis: Part 4-A Song in the Night
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 5: The Pacer’s Speedway
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 6: The Big Move
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 7: Therapy and Healing
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 8: Enduring
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 9: Home
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 10: The Energy Tank
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 11: A Bump In the Road
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 12: Home Again
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 13: So Much Better
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 14: A Rough Ride
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 15: More Surgery
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 16: Recovery
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 17: The Continuing Story
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 18: We Feel the Love
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 19: One Step Closer to Home
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 20: C-Diff
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 21: Home
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 22: One Week and Counting
• Gene’s Medical Crisis-Part 23: It Just Takes Time
• Gene’s Medical crisis-Part 24: Six Months and Counting

It has been six months since this horrible medical crisis started. In some ways it is hard to believe and in other ways it seems eons ago. The other day Gene read through all my blogs post and it helped him to fill in some gaps and to bring some mental clarity to what he endured. Last night I read through them. This Thanksgiving season I am so grateful to God for healing Gene and that we are soundly on this side of the ordeal. He is improving. As I read, I was reminded of how much I did not share, how close we came to losing him and some really tough and hard stuff he went through.

Gene continues to improve even though at times it seems slow. This is a journey and it is taking time. One of the things he can’t do yet is drive. Two weeks ago his doctor did give him his “learners permit” for the golf cart if he had an adult with him. He is doing therapy three days a week, still uses a walker although he will probably graduate from it soon, has become more stable on his feet, is gaining weight-25 lbs so far, taking his own showers, dressing himself and becoming more involved in the daily farm decision making. He has starting going to church again-just for the worship service but hey, that is an improvement. He is making his own coffee in the mornings and walking around the house more and has not fallen for several weeks which is a big deal! He had a real issue with stablilty and lack of core strength.

I do have a story….

Three weeks ago, he graduated himself to a cane (without therapy’s permission) and went on a little adventure. I was just ready to walk out of the house to go to work at our store when I heard the front door close. I went to look and there he went plodding across the yard, the cattle guard and down the drive in the pasture.

He was told to walk more but not like this! I went to the kitchen to do a quick thing and tried to decide what I was going to do. Do I let him go or do I go after him??? I went back to the front door and looked again and didn’t see him. I went outside on the walk and I could see him a good ways down the road on the ground.

I hopped on the golf cart and went to his rescue. He could not get up and had skined both knees, bloodied two fingers, split his forehead, bruised his shoulder and had a cut on his forearm. Now pray tell me, what would he have done if I hadn’t seen him go. He would have laid there until Tim fed hay to the cows or I had gone to the house to check on him an hour or so later. If he had left one minute later, I would have been gone and would not have known he wasn’t in the house. He did not tell me he was going nor did he have his cell phone with him. He said he started picking up speed as he walked and couldn’t slow himself down and lost his balance.

The next day his therapist was not happy, read him the riot act, and took his cane away. If he had broken a hip, he would have ended up back in the hospital, probably required surgery in the abdomen area which they said he just can not have again. With his age, all that he has been through and his still weakened condition, it probably would have done him in. It sobered him. Oh the trials of a caregiver!!!

Six months ago, we could hardly imagine where we are at now. The promise of his surgeon, “you will get better” is starting to feel within reach even though the goal post has moved several times: September, October, Christmas. Probably a more realistic goal is spring. He has a lot of muscle to rebuild.

Home. He is home again and this time to stay-I hope. They have warned us this is an up and down road but I don’t like that warning as it seems infections are an ongoing issue. But we have to hope, hope that C-Diff was the last one.

He was scheduled to come home on Friday (today) but yesterday morning when the doctor talked to me about when I could come get him I realized that Friday mornings in the store can be a little tough to get away. I asked if Thursday afternoon/evening was an option and they consented. By 6 p.m. we were home.

On the way home I buzzed by Burger King and got him a Whopper Jr. and we shared some fries. He ate it all. He had a good night and this morning was making some phone calls and trying to get emotionally back into the groove of home.

Mentally he is doing much better and physically he is still very weak but improving. He can walk across the room with the walker although somewhat wobbly. I weighed him this morning and oh my, I almost don’t want to tell you what he weighs. Before this started May 27 he weighed 183. Today he is 140 lbs and it is not a healthy look on a man his size. It is no wonder he is so weak. So I need to think cheese, gravy, meat, bread, ice-cream and lots of things made with mushroom soup and cream cheese! I can guarentee it could/would/will put weight on me!

We welcome visitors, you make his day. The steady stream coming by his hospital/rehab room kept him going and encouraged. The home health nurse and therapist will be coming in and there will be numerous doctor visits for awhile so you may want to give me a quick buzz or text to make sure he is available before you come.

Our main prayer concern for the present time is continued healing and NO MORE INFECTIONS OR SET BACKS!

It has now been six weeks since this medical nightmare began and finally things are going so much better. Six weeks is often the magic goal for surgery healing and this week there has been a definite turn around. He no longer has a lot of pain and his drain tubes have all been removed. He is eating well and sitting up more and more. Last night he actually joined us for supper at the kitchen table and this morning he joined us on the patio as we drank our early morning coffee. Last evening I drove him around the fields in the car to check on his cows. From the front seat of the car, he walked Jill through the process of catching and sorting cows in the corral as Steve is taking a load of calves to market for us this week. This afternoon Jill took him for a golf cart ride to check on several different farming projects.

We are so grateful for God’s continued healing touch. The biggest challenge now is getting his strength and energy back. As he likes to say, “my energy tank gets empty really fast.” He still walks with a walker and with supervision! He can be a irratic driver with loose steering!!!

This has been a rough ride. It has been so good to have Gene home but he has not progressed as we hoped and yesterday I began to suspect that we had another bump in the road. He fell in the morning and Miles had to help me get him up. He was lethargic all day and by evening was running fever and his blood pressure had dropped some. We decided it was time to take him to the emergency room. Lauren and I were unable to get him in the car so we had to call the rescue squad.

Today he will be having another surgery to insert another drain into his abdomen as he has developed some infection. The drains and stents have been causing us some issues. Please keep us in your prayers. Jesus is the ultimate healer. Hopefully this is just a little bump in the road and he will soon be back on the road to recovery.