Thursday afternoon and I am doing something that I have been waiting to do for six weeks. I a actually in he sun porch, sitting in my recliner, and just sat here an took a nap. I cannot begin to describe toyou how wonderful that makes me feel. The fact tat it is a wonderful day, 67 degrees, partly cloudy with only a hint of a breeze makes it even better. Ms. Kate is sitting across from me in her recliner and is softly snoring through her nap. It is as if I got struck by a bolt of normal for a change. How blessed do I feel!!

Since I couldn’t make the staff meeting yesterday at work because ofdoctor’s appointments, I went to the church today aand we held our meeting. It ws good to again be doing something normal. I am slowly able to increase the tings I can do. The biggest drawback is that I can’t drive and that means that Ms. Kate has to take me everywhere we go. I know it totally disrupts her schedule and I’m a total pain in the butt. Worse yet, as I am still none walking, there is very little that I can do around the house. She. Has. To do everything; all of the things that I always did that were “my job” plus all of the things she routinely does. I will be so glad when I get over alll of this, but —- I fear that time is not close. I guess though, it makes us each appreciate all of the little things that each of us does for the other one. Ms. Kate is due for a whole mess of pampering when this crap is all over.

My bird feeders are empty again. I knew what little we filled the other day would not last very long. It has rained hard again so I can’t even take my knee rover out and fill the bird feeders. There is so much work to be done out there and I feel like such a slug for not having it done. I talked to Theresa Purdy’s today and told her that I have work for Nick to do if he is interested. I expect he will be over as soon as the yards dry out some more.

I the meantime, I’m going to sit here and enjoy the birdsong and cool air and the sounds that are all so familiar from the sunporch. It is such a blessing to be out here and writing my blog. I give thanks to God Almighy. Peace.

Hello Wednesday. I hope you are going to be filled with good news from the two doctors I am going to see today. I have an appointment with my orthopedic doctor at 1045 and I think he is going to remove my stitches from the surgery and then I guess he will either put me in another soft cast or maybe he will go with a hard cast this time. I really don't know but --- what I do know is that I will be thrilled to have my current soft cast off for even a few minutes. It is driving me nuts. I need some air to the back of my leg and the stitches are rubbing. So even for a few minutes will feel great.

At 1430 I have an appointment with the neurosurgeon. I hope that at last he has a plan that he is prepared to share besides sending me for some more CT Scans and xrays. It has been five and a half weeks since the accident and so far nothing has been done by the doctor that promotes healing with the exception of putting me in a back brace. I guess that is proper protocal but it certainly doesn't give me, the patient, any confidence in a doctor I never met before the accident. We will see what happens I guess but if his answer is to wait for some more xrays --- I'm going to be honked off. If he thinks the best course of action is to just let it heal naturally, then just tell me. and we'll go with that.

Sunday I was blessed to be back in the pulpit giving the sermon. We placed a perfect height stool down in front of the chancel and a music stand for me to use as a pulpit. I wheeled up front on "Trigger", my kneerover. It all worked perfectly. It was so good to be back doing what I love. I'm preaching the next two Sundays as Pastor Art and Dixie head to Gulf Shores Alabama and their condo for some rest and relaxation. I have my sermons done for the next two weeks and am now working on the Maundy Thursday service. I also have three Bible studies to prepare for. Two of them will be our regular Wednesday morning Bible studies and the other will be for a Wednesday evening Lenten meal and Bible study. I'm think of doing that one on the last week of Jesus. It will be hard to cram that into 30 minutes so I'll have to tailor that way back somehow.

Time to head out to my first appointmnet and it takes me a bit to get into the car. I hope you have a fantastic week. I will catch you up tomorrow on what the doctors have to say. Wish me luck. Peace.

Friday morning and a pleasant one at that! It is fifty degrees and climbing up another seven or eight degrees today. It is wonderful to be sitting here at home doing what Ms. Kate and I normally do which is not a lot of anything first thing in the morning except be on our individual computers playing our silly games and listening to You Tube videos and me writing my blog. The thing missing is watching my birds because it is still difficult to get into the Sun Porch and I still don’t have my feeders filled. So, as I go by the window, I see there is not a lot happening out there. I might ask one of the kids next door to come over and fill my feeders for me. I’m betting little Ms. Hannah would do it in a heartbeat.

Looking forward to Jules and Jim coming over tomorrow. It will be great to see them. I haven’t seen Jules since the accident first happened and I was initially in the hospital. I thik she will be surprised at how well I’m getting around now. I haven’t seen Jim since before the accident. So, it will be great to see them, and the dogs too as long as they don’t decide to be my lap-dogs. I’m not ready for that.

Ms. Kate says she has some running around to do today and I’m trying to convince her to go do it and leave me here. I don’t think she trusts me to be here alone. LOL I’ve promised her I will behave myself and not do anything foolish. It would be good for her to get out and away from me for a bit and concentrate on just her for a few moments. But, I know what she is feeling. If the situation were reversed, I probably would be reluctant to leave her alone too. In fact I have been there and done that with her through a stroke, a knee replacement, two heart attacks and a double by-pass surgery. We two are certainly a matched pair.

I’m anxious to see what the CT Scan is going to show that I’m having on Monday. The spine is much better and I’m off of all of my pain medicines however, I still need my back brace. With out it I can certainly tell that I have had a injury. Putting it on in the morning just kind of pulls everything back into place. I’ll know what the prognosis is for that Wednesday afternoon. Wednesdaay morning I go to the Orthopedic Doctor for him to look at the tendon and check the progress there.

I’m looking forward to Sunday and getting back to the pulpit and seeing all of our church friends. MMy message this week is on “Being Grateful” because i have so much to be grateful for. I still shudder at the “could have been” possibilities.

That’s it for today. Have a blessed weekend. Peace.

Wow and good morning. It has been a week since I have been on and it has been a good week. I told you that we had gone t my sister-in-law Karen’s house for some of my recuperation. That went very well but I am glad to say that I am finally back in my own home now. Her haouse is great and easy to move round in and she was a very gracious hostess but “There’s no place like home.”

We bought a portable ramp for me to get in and out of the house from the sun porch. It works well but takes me a few moments to navigate. And I have learned to get in and out of the sun porch from the out side. Again, it takes not being in a hurry. I use “Trigger” which is what I call my knee scooter to get arounnd the house most of the time. I have my wheelchair but I use it just to get around in the kitchen and the family room. Our house has halls that are in reality too narrow to use the wheelchair and Trigger gets me there in good stead.

We have swappped beds and are sleeping in the guest room . Julie and Jim are coming down this weekend. I think Julie is coming down Friday evening and Jim is coming for a turn-around trip on Saturday to do a bunch of chores for Ms. Kate. If he has time, he will also take the snow blade off of the John Deere and put the mower deck on. But there are bunch of things that are stacking up that Ms. Kate needs help with. Jule’s primary mission from us is going to help get Kate back on line with her computer or take her and buy a new one. Then there are also documents down stairs that we need to get so we can do our taxes. The problem is that I only know where some of them are. If I were down there I could probably find them quickly but telling someone else where to find them isn’t easy.

I went to work yesterday! We had our weekly staff meeting and it was wonderful to be back there being involved. After the meeting, we went to the sanctuary to assess how hard it was going to be for me to preach on Sunday. What we found out was that it isn’t going to be difficult at all. One of our fellows has a really nice stool that he uses before the service when he is passing out bulletins. He is letting me use that and I can roll Trigger right up to it and take a seat. Where there is aa will, there is a way, and God haas God’s hand in this whole process. I’m preaching the next three Sundays and Art and Dixie are going to go on vacation for awhile. I’ll have extra Bible studies to work on and a meeting or two but it is so wonderful to be back.

The bird feeders are all empty and yet the birds keep coming back looking for food. Maybe by Saturday it will be warm enough to get Trigger outside and I can fill some feeders.

That is it for today. It is great to be back with you. Thanks for your prayers as I continue to go through this. Peace.

Good morning on this cloudy, stormy, windy weather day. I hope you are in a place where you can be safe quickly if something bad comes your way. The entire country is under something callled a “bomb hurricane” I think and there will most likely be a series of tornados running rampant across America. So stay safe my friends.

Well, the day of the “big appointment” with the neurosurgeon came and went without much fanfare and a lot of disappointment. The doctor came in and told me that my last xrays showed that the compression in my lumbar vertebrae was worse than the first time they took the picture. I already know that because I had gotten the results through “My-Chart”. So, he has ordered a new CT Scan to see if the damage is continuing to progress or if there is maybe some bone chips in the area. Then I have a follow-up with him in two weeks. My interpretation is that he wants it to heal naturally if it can. This was not the news I was hoping to hear. I was really hoping that he would set a date and do a kyphoplasty injection and fix it. That might still happen but it won’t be any time soon. I was not a happy camper when I left his office. But —- I have since mellowed out about it and am not going to stress about it. I know I am getting stronger just by the improvement in my ability to move around. God will handle all of this and I know that. I just have to be patient.

Tomorrow is the surgery on my Achille’s Tendon. I’ll be glad to get there and have that done so the healing process can begin on that. For an injury that took micro-seconds to happen, the healing process sure seems to be and will be long and drawn out. My surgery isn’t until 1530 I and that means I can’t have anything to eat or drink after midnight tonight. Don’t they realiize thaat this man needs coffee??? Do you think they will bring me coffee in the recovery room??

Ahhh, Wednesday! Hump day so they say. I love the GEICO commercial with the camel walking through the office asking “Guess what day it is! Hump Day!” Yes, I’m easily amused.

Today is “THE” day for my appointment with my neurological surgeon. The appointment isn’t until 1600 and I wish it were earlier. I’m just anxious to know what he is going to do. My biggest fear is that he will say that we will just let it heal naturally. That means “X” number of weeks more of pain until it goes away. I am not looking forward to that. My research tells me the kyphoplasty procedure is the way to go. I reckon we will see what happens and pray for the best and pray that it can happen quickly.

It’s a great morning to be watching for barges out on the Ohio River. I’m amazed at how many barges do travel up and down that river. At night time I sit in the living room and watch them. They are all lit up and it really looks cool to see them as they float along and light up the banks of the river with their spotlights. We can hear them coming by the drone of their engines. They seem to go at least once an hour and often more like every twenty minutes.

Karen’s version of a Backyard Buffet remains active. The goofy Bluebird is still flying up and pecking at the windows. It starts at 0600 and goes all day on and off. Sometimes it switches windows. None of us can figure out why in the world it is doing that. She doesn’t get the variety of birds that I do but she has her fair share of cardinals and bluebirds and a couple of wrens. It is pleasant and I enjoy it.

I finished my sermon for the Sunday that I get to return to the pulpit. Hopefully it will be the 24th of March but only time will answer that question.

That’s it for today. I hope your week goes well and I pray you feel the presence of God in your life. I also want to thank you for your prayers on my behalf. I know they are helping. Peace.

Good morning and Happpy Tuesday. It’s the second day of a brand new week and I’m still at my sister-in-law’s house. My days have mainly been spent sitting around and watching the burgees go up and down the Ohio River, which you have to admit, isn’t a bad way to spend a day. I’m very grateful to her for putting up with us while we work our way through doctor’s appointments and stuff. We’ve tried to be good guests but I have to admit that we come with a lot of baggage and equipment just to get me around in the house.

Yesterday was a great day. I was able to get into my own house for a couple of hours and sit in my own recliner in my sunporch. I could only get into the sunroom but I told Ms. Kate that I felt 100% better just being able to do that. Neighbor Dan came over and visited for most of the time we were home which was great except I had hoped to take my nap in my recliner and that didn’t happen. Oh well.

I have two major doctor’s appointments this week. Tomorrow afternoon I meet with the neurosurgeon, Dr. Chou to determine what treatment will be done for my spine. I’m really hoping he will do kyphplasty on it. Everything I read tells me that is the remedy. I hope he doesn’t want to do fusion and don’t think he will because only one vertebrae is involved. The other option is to let it heal naturally with could involved three months of continued back pain. I’m not a fan of that option especially since kyphoplasty would relieve the pain immediately.

Friday I go to Deaconess Hospital again and. Dr. Richardson will do surgery on my Achille’s tendon and put it back together and reattached it to the heel. The surgery takes about seventy five minutes, then an hour in recovery, and then observation for another hour. I have to be there two and. Half hours before surgery so it is going to be a long day for Ms. Kate. Well, for me too but I’ll be in “la-la” land for a bunch of it. Once my surgery is over, my six to eight weeks of healing begins. This is just a long and slow process but, I must be patient. I just gve thanks to God that I am alive to go through the process.

My job today is to finish the sermon and develop the worship service for the 24th of March. That is the day I hope to be back in the pulpit and back to work. The sermon is half done. While I spend my day doing that, I hope you have a most wonderful day. God is alive and well and has provided a beautiful sunny morning to get my day off to a grand start. Peace my friends.

It is Saturday the 9th of March and this is the first day that I have really been active enough to feel like writing anything.

To catch you up, I left Deaconess/Encompass Health rehabilitation facility on Tuesday and came here to my sister-in-laws house in Newburgh, IN. Her house is much easier for me to get into although still a pain in the butt for all three of us. Wednesday morning we went for an MRI on my ankle to see the severity of the torn Achille's tendon. Unfortunately, the news wasn't good at all. The tendon is completely torn in two. Thursday I had an appointment with the Orthopedic Surgeon and he has scheduled surgery for repair of the tendon next Friday afternoon. My six -eight weeks of recovery time begins then. He said that I will possibly be able to walk on it in six weeks but to not count on it.

Next we address the compressed lumbar fracture. I still don't have an answer on that and won't see the neurosurgeon about that until Wednesday afternoon. I did have follow-up xrays on it yesterday and they showed that the compression had increased by 30-40% since the initial xray's were taken. Not a good scenario. There is a procedure that the surgeon could do called kyphoplasty where they insert a nedle with a balloon into the gap and open it back up and then inject a "cement" type filler in there to solidify it. From what I read, it takes about five minutes for that stuff to harden and I should be good as new. We'll see what he has to say.

My neighbor tells me that the Backyard Buffet is empty and has been for a few days. He sent me a video of the birds out there and I think the birds are organizing for a major riot in the near future. I hope it doesn't spill over into the neighborhood.

Karen has her own set of birds that shefeeds. Most notable are her bluebirds. She has a female bluebird that is just plain nuts. It spends its day sitting on the window sill and flying up and bumping into the window. I awoke this morning at 0600 by this bird bumping into the window. She has a couple of feeders and she feeds her bluebirds meal worms which they love. During the summer she has a lot of hummingbirds and they also will peck at her kitchen window letting her now the feeder is getting empty. Her house sits right on the Ohio River and it ios a beautiful scene out her livingroom up and down the river. I love to watch the barges come by.

I cannot close this without acknowledging the power of God's healing power. As bad as I was hurt, I am exponentially better than I was and am looking forward to getting the surgeries over with and the healing on the way. God is so good. Peace.

Monday morning, March 4th. Today is my last day here in rehabilitation and I’m so very happy to be heading home tomorrow. I can hardly believe the improvement in my condition in the two weeks that I have been in here. This morning my Occupational Therapy consisted of having me do a routine
morning  preparations including shower, shaving myself, brushing my teeth and dressing myself to include putting my two braces off and on by myself. It all went well. Two weeks ago, I couldn’t raise myself off of the bed and now I’m ready to take on the world. That my friends is the power of an Almighty God. There are those that would probably (wrongly) argue that God didn’t reach down and “make me bettter”. However, God did create a body that is capable of healing itself if we do our part by proper exercise, rest, and determination. No, we don’t always return to brand new condition but we can as a minimum return to a state that is tolerable. I have no doubt that in a few weeks, I’ll be well enough to do most of the things I want to do, and my reminder will be a new location for arthritis to bug me at some point.

I’m told it is nine degrees outside. Winter is holding on for dear life. I’m offering up prayers for the families of the 24 people killed in the tornado outbreak yesterday in the south.

Signing off now because I’m going to wheel myself down to Physical Therapy. I pray you will have a blessed day. May Day has already been blessed. Peace.