We’ve had a busy day on this hot Saturday. This morning I had an appointment to take our Cadillac to the dealer because our “check engine” light had come on. With today’s engines you never know if that is something serious or just a loose gas cap. (Yes, that can cause the light to come on.) Well of course it couldn’t be something cheap. It was a stuck Evap Purge Valve. Got ay idea hat that is, cause I sure don’t. I think the best way for me to describe it; it is a $77.00 piece of equipment that costs another hundred to to remove and replace. Now do you know? Me either, —- but the light went out. The diagnostics also said that I needed to flush my brake fluid, another $100.00. My grandson says that that was just a dealer “service up-charge” that seldom if ever needs to be done. What do I know? Any way, two hours and $300.00 later, the Cadillac was back on the road. Also according to the “diagnosis” I need to start thinking about new tires and an alignment. Well, I just bought tires a year ago but not through the dealer so they don’t have a record of it. And, when we go to Lisa and Gary’s House in September, if it needs an alignment, I’ll have either Gary or Matthew do it for me.

From there we went to Panera Bread Co. and had lunch.  I had a bowl of clam chowder and a grilled cheese sandwich and Ms Kate had  caprisea sandwich and clam chowder. That took us up to time to go have my infusion. I now am down to only eighteen left to have done. That is an exciting thought. I can hardly wait to be done with all of this stuff. We are at four and a half months since the accident. I don’t know who this haas been harder on, me or Ms. Kate. Yes, I’m the one with the injury but she is the one who has had to step up and do everything including pushing me around all over the hospital everyday for weeks. Bless her heart though, she has not complained even once and has just taken it in stride. I did in fact marry angel.

I’m preaching the sermon tomorrow and it is going to be a sermon on achieving freedom through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Independence Day is next week and this will be my “4th of July” sermon. Bless Pastor Art’s heart, he has plugged the sermon of Facebook very well. I know the congregation might be smaller tomorrow though because some people are on vacation. It is the nature of the beast. But, we take what we get and we are blessed to have a dedicated congregation. The weather is going to be hot, hot, hot tomorrow so I’m glad we will be indoors.

That’s it for today. Don’t forget to attend your house of worship tomorrow. You live in a land that has the freedom to worship without worry of persecution. Never forget that; always be grateful to God for that privilege and thank a serviceman or woman and a veteran for making it possible. God bless America!

Thursday, June 27th. This month is just about gone isn’t it. That means the year is almost half over and I have been laid up for almost all of it. But, things are improving exponentially. I am officially half way through my antibiotic infusions with only three weeks to go. Three weeks from today I have my last infusion and they will pull my PICC line out and then I can take a shower. Next week Dr. Richardson will relieve me of all of my leg dressing and I think I am going to soak my foot in a pan of warm water for about an hour. I have not been able to wash it since this began on February 16th. Just the thought of it makes me say “Yuk”!!

I have begun walking on the leg despite what the doctor said. It gives me no pain although I might have overdone it just a bit yesterday. The splint area is uncomfortable to walk on so I have to watch how I step down on it. But, it is good to get off of the knee scooter. I’m using a cane most of the time although it works better if I use my walker. I’m anxious to see what the next step will be with the brace. I’ve been on Google several times and looked at all of the different styles of braces that they use. Some are very simple and others are very complicated and bulky looking. The prices range from less than a hundred dollars to several hundred dollars. I doubt that I am going to need anything that is complicated or bulky. I just hope it is comfortable, and I can walk well with it. I’m not looking to run any marathons; (I’m not particularly looking to run at all). But I do want to be able to get around anywhere I need to, especially up and down steps. That might require a little cane use until I get comfortable. 

The sun is shining brightly this morning again. The persistent showers and storms arre keeping the ground soaked. Yesterday afternoon we had another storm come through and at least a couple of areas got over five inches again. I’m not a real fan of the hot and muggy weather days but we really need a couple of weeks like that or the corn is never going to grow. It need some hot humid days to grow. So many of our farmers are not going to get their crops out this year. I hope they have some kind of insurance. I see some wheat fields that are looking ready for harvest but the combines can’t get in to get it because the ground is too muddy. The next problem will be if we get a really hard wind, the wheat will be blown down and impossible to combine. Farming life might look fun and even romantic, but it is a constant gamble with things over which man has zero control. 

All of this time off from physically working outside has allowed me to get ahead in my sermon writing. I’m ready to start my August 25th Sermon. Ms. Kate and I are hoping to take a week of real vacation in September and at this rate I’ll have my sermons done for September in the next couple of weeks. 

I think I will stop now and maybe do some reading. I’ve had a Stephen King novel sitting beside my chair all this time and have not touched it. I have read several other religious and theology books though so the time hasn’t been wasted. I hope your day brings you joy. Call a friend today Nd see how they are doing. Take time to inventory your life and look at all of the blessings God has provided for you and then give God praise for them. If by chance you are having some issue in your life, stop and talk to our Savior, Jesus Christ. You are never alone in this world. The God that created you is always by your side. Peace. 

Look, up in the sky!! It’s a meteor! It’s the end of the world! Oh, —- it’s the sun. I hadn’t seen it in so long I’d forgotten what it looked like. LOL

Happy Tuesday my friends. Yes, it is a bright and beautiful morning. The sun is shining brightly, the sky is a brilliant blue, and I see only a few clouds way high in the sky. It is supposed to be a little less humid today for one day and the weather pattern that has brought all of the rain has finally broken and is moving on.

As you know, I had office hours yesterday morning and I got in some good sermon writing time. I’m working on my August 11 sermon and it started coming together pretty good. When we left there we went to the Gerst House, a local German restaurant for lunch. We really like their food. It is housed in what was for years a hardware/feed store called Heldt & Voelkers. I used to love going into the hardware/feed store. It had been around forever and the two old guys that owned and operated it knew where every nut, bolt, and seed was located. It smelled so good in there. There is a certain oder to a place that sells seed and livestock feed. I can’t describe it other than to say it smells “country”. Everybody on the west side of our town shopped for their garden seed. They had a wall of drawers that held the seeds and they would sell you as much or as little as you needed. They also had a second story and a basement where they stored their stuff. Rumor has it that when they sold out the stuff they had in the upper and lower floors went for a fortune because most of it was “new antique”. I’m glad to say that the owners of the restaurant/bar have kept much of the original facade which is one of the reasons that it is so popular.

After lunch we of course went to the hospital for my infusion. I now have twenty three more days of that which means I am just about half way done with them. I have started walking on my leg much more even though the doctor said to wait. But, I have no pain and I’m not over doing it. I am amazed at how well it is doing now. Thanks be to God, not only for His healing power but also for doctors like I have. Doctor Richardson is a wonderful doctor and it is apparent that he cares about me as a patient. I have another week in this splint and wrapping. Then, on to the next step. Speaking of steps, I went down my garage steps yesterday to get in the car because of rain, or maybe I told you that already.

Now, it is time for me to get to the kitchen sink and wash my hair. I’ll be so glad when I can get back in the shower. But, I’m prohibited from that because of my PICC line. That will come out on July 17th. It will be a great 75th birthday celebration.  That’s all I have for you today.I hope your day is sunny and bright and full of God’s love and the Holy Spirit. Peace.

Monday morning and it is still raining, or at least raining again. But the good news is that it forced me to get to the garage and car via the garage steps instead of taking the scooter around. I found out that I can make it. I'm still official "non-weight bearing" on the leg but, desparate times call for desparate action and the leg got tested. I used a cane and the handrail and made it down just fine. Yes, I did put weight on the leg and it worked just fine and had zero pain with it. Praise be to God. I think it is healed to about the 98% level anyway. My only irritation and "pain" comes from the bandages rubbing on my leg. Come on July 2nd! That's the day the leg gets freed.

We had a great service yesterday. We had 76 in attendance including four of our friends from Ft. Branch. Bob, Brenda, Connie and Ruth all came down for the service. It was really great to see them again. I had so many good comments about my sermon yesterday. I thought it was a pretty good one but I was surprised at how many folks made such wonderful comments. Pastor Art asked me this morning how I was going to beat my yesterday's sermon. LOL He said to me after church, "Now that was a Baptist sermon.!

I'm in the office until about noon today and then we'll go somewhere to have lunch and then I have my infuson appointment at 1430 as usual. I think I'm down to twenty four more days of this. How will we ever fill our time when we don't have to stop in the middle of the day to go do these infusions? As I've said before, having them done is not a problem; it is taking the time to get there, find a place to park, signing in to the hospital every day and then getting up to the Outpatient Oncology lab for a 30 minute treatment. We use up three hours of the day everyday just for this. Maybe after the 2nd of July I can get my brce and walk on my own, Ms. Kate won't have to go with me and she can stay home and do some things that she wants to do with out interruption.

I left you for a few hours, left the office, had lunch, went for my infusion and now we are home. When we left the office it had been raining fairly hard. Now, Bless the Lord, the sun is shining and the sky is a brilliant blue. How nice it is to see that. While we were gone someone. I suspect it was Dan, mowed my yard. It really looks great.

Time to move on to other things, like maybe a nap. So I'll drop off for today. Twenty three more infusion days!!! Have a blessed day. Shalomn.

And Saturday has arrived bringing along rain and thunder and lightening. I don’t know anybody that isn’t really tired of rain. Even our weather forecaster are apologizing for having to bring us that news.

I was up too early today. Not that it was actually early, but I was up before I wanted to be.  I lay there listening to the storm and decided that I might as well get up and get the coffee pot going and get my day somewhat started. So here I am at 0845 already working on my blog. I’ve already played my Criminal Case and my Bingo games, taken my morning meds and had a half cup of coffee. That just about winds up all of the excitement I’ll have today. Now, just wait for time to go for my daily infusion. I’m glad I check my calendar because my appointment is a half an hour earlier today and tomorrow. I don’t know why. Maybe they are shorter staffed or have shorter office hours on the weekend. But, Ms. Kate and I are always a little early anyway.

Tomorrow is Sunday and I’m in the pulpit. It will be good to be back. In actuality, I only missed one Sunday with all of this last bout. I was supposed to be off on vacation anyway. Now I will preach tomorrow and next Sunday and it all evens out again. I’ve been using my time to write sermons and create worship services. I’m currently working on an August sermon.

I’m done for today. I hope your weekend is fully blessed and I also as always, pray you will take the time to visit your house of worship. Peace.

Good morning! It is Friday, June 21st, and that makes it officially the first day of summer. So — Welcome summer!

Yesterday was a good day because I got my 22 stitches taken out of my leg. I have to admit that I had some trepidation about that process. I’ve had stitches taken out before, in fact in the same area just a couple of months ago, and it wasn’t pleasant. If they get a little “in-grown” it smarts when they pull them out. But, the young technician was very gentle with it yesterday and only a couple of them gave me any notice. After the stitches were out, she put my splint back on and wrapped me up again to protect the scar. Dr. Richardson said that he was debating on whether to leave it open or wrap it again but he decided to leave it protected for a couple of more weeks. He is going on vacation until the 1st of July and my next appointment with him is on the 2nd of July. At that point he will be taking off all of my dressing and I’ll need to go get fitted for my brace. I truly hope this brace thing works out. I asked hm if I will be doing physical therapy and he said that I should have some therapy just to loosen up the ankle some, but since I won’t be able to walk without the brace anyway, any therapy beyond that would not be of benefit. I reckon we’ll see. And, he did say that the Achilles’ tendon could actually regenerate; he says it has been known to happen. I reckon God will take care of that and I don’t have to worry myself about it. I mean, —- there is nothing I could do to make it happen.

It is a bright, hot day out there today and we are expecting severe thunderstorms this afternoon and evening. I just hope it holds off until we get back from the hospital and my infusion appointment. I don’t want Ms. Kate to have to be pushing me across the parking lot in a thunderstorm. Our weather pattern forecast totally sucks for the remainder of the week and into next week. I know that we will be crying for rain at some point but right now we really do not need any more rain. A lot of farmers that actually did get their corn and beans out will have to re-plant because of flooding. And, it isn’t just here. This is happening all across the midwest where the majority of our grain is grown. So, hopefully, this whole storm thing is about done with for awhile.

That's it for today. I need to get myself dressed and ready to go for today’s infusion. How fun is that??? I hope you have a pleasant weekend. Peace.

Ahhh Wednesday, you midweek cutie. Everybody loves to see Wednesday get here because the work-week is half over and the promise of another weekend is on the horizon.

I went to work today for the weekly staff meeting. It never amounts to much. Art and I go over the calendar of upcoming events, talk about issues in the overall state of the church and any problems that we might need to address with parishioners. It’s all pretty benign. Ms. Kate of course has to sit there through it because I need her to help me in and out of the car. She takes along her IPad and or some cards to work on while Art and I settled all of the world’s problems.

We were very lucky today again at finding a handicap parking space. We try to get as close s we can. Then she goes inside and gets a wheelchair and brings it out to the car, and then she wheels me in to the facility. Today the weather folks had predicted severe weather and thunderstorms. We got to the hospital an hour early and was lucky enough to find an up close spot. We sat there for a bit while I made a call to a parishioner that he asked me to call her. When I was done, Ms. Kate went in and got my chair and wheeled me in. We were still forty five minutes early but the infusion folks had room so they took us early. When we were about done I started getting severe thunderstorm warnings on my IPhone. We got outside and the sky was really turning dark. But, we got home and in too the garage, I got on my knee scooter and rode around the sidewalks to the back of the house and into the sunporch. I had hardly closed the sunporch door when the sky opened up and a downpour began. It didn’t last long but I would not have wanted that to happen while Ms. Kate was pushing me through the hospital parking lot. Once again, God took care of us. Now we are sitting in the sunporch, watching the rain as it comes and goes in waves. It won’t be but a few minutes and we will both be snoozing our afternoon nap.

Something drained our Hummingbird feeder last night. It is completely empty today and it was over half full yesterday. It hasn’t been pulled over or knocked off of the hanger, it is just empty. We’ll need to fill it again.

That’s it. Time to close my eyes and as my dad used to say; “check my eyelids for holes”. Have a most blessed evening. Take time to give God thanks for today’s blessings. Peace.

Tuesday morning and another soaking wet day. It isn’t raining at the moment but “boy-howdy”, it rained last night. I woke up around 0600 and it was pouring like crazy. Ms. Kate said it did that off and on throughout the night. There is a front stalled out to the north of us and it i allowing trains of rain to come up from the Gulf coast. That leaves us with hot, muggy, and rainy days. Some towns to the east of us have been getting rain in the amount of six and seven inches at a time. Roads are flooded in many places and washed away in others. The east coast of the country isn’t faring any better. We are supposed to be in Virginia Beach, VA today and it is hot and muggy there today too. This is the day we were supposed to go to Williamsburg. It would be miserable walking around there on a day like today.

My inability to get out and feed my birds on a regular basis since February has really taken a toll on my Backyard Buffet. This morning I have only had one lone cardinal come around rechecking the feeders. Of course the squirrels haven’t given up yet. Right now I have two playing on the roof of the sunporch. I hear them running around and sliding around on that slick surface. Ms. Kate can’t really help me by filling them because she can’t reach them. I can’t do it because I can’t stand on one leg that long. So, they will just have to wait awhile longer. I had gotten back to feeding them some before the infection in my leg took me down three weeks ago. But, once I can walk again and the ground actually dries out, I’ll be back out there and as soon as I do, the guests will start arriving again and maybe life in the mornings will be back to normal. I could ask one of the boys next door to come over and fill them and I bet they would.

Thursday morning, bright and early I go to have my stitches taken out. I don't know why that excites me so much but it does. Once they are out, he will wrap it back up for another week I think and I still will not be allowed to put weight on it. Although, I have to admit that I have put it down once in awhile just to steady myself and I have had no pain with it. But walking is going to be another matter for sure. I have a feeling that I am going to have to learn how to handle that and I guess that with out a brace it would hold me up. I’m not sure how all of that works, but I’m about to find out.

Time to get busy doing something, even it is only getting cleaned up for the day. I hope your day is full of blessings and love. I send you God’s blessings. Peace.

Monday, June 17th. I officially have one more month of antibiotic infusions to go. A month from today I will have my last one and then they will pull the PIC-line out of my arm. What is magical about that; you might ask. I can then take a shower. I am prohibited from doing more than “sink-baths” and sink hair washing as long as I have the line in my body. They don’t want to take any chance of infection; nor do I. Between my leg still in a large full-wrap bandage and my arm with tubes coming out of it, I’m limited. I just hope someone will be polite enough to tell me if I stink!!

But —- the good news is that I am back to work. We went to church yesterday and I participated in the service. Today I conducted my regular office hours. Then we came home, had a couple of sandwiches and then it was back in the car and off to the hospital. That has been our life for four solid months. It really felt good to be back in the office. It didn’t matter that I had no one coming in to see me; I was there. I made several calls to parishioners today and that made me feel good.  I am preaching the next two Sundays. This coming Sunday we are hoping to be in the outdoor chapel again. If it is too hot and muggy, we’ll stay inside. We had 83 in church yesterday. It was a nice crowd. Of course the fact that it was Father’s Day might have had something to do with it but I didn’t see any “strangers” so maybe it was just a good attendance Sunday.

Julie and Jim and the pups came down on Saturday and stayed over night. They are both on vacation this week. This is the week that we would have all been in Virginia Beach together. But since we cancelled that trip due to my hospitalization, they all kept their planned vacation days and are each taking other small trips etc. I‘m really glad they did. My kids all work really hard and they need to take sometime to themselves. I had a good Father’s Day. Saturday night we went out to a really nice restaurant to celebrate the day. Yesterday Jim got up on the roof of our house and cleaned out the gutters and cleared a lot of tree debris off of the roof. I’m really glad he did. Last night we had a real gully washer of a storm. One of the hardest rains we have seen in a long time. Jim got the gutters cleared off just in time.

Time for the 1700 news so I’ll drop off. have a blessed evening. God loves you and so do I. Peace.

It’s Friday afternoon. We’ve just got back from my daily trip to Deaconess Hospital for my antibiotic infusion. As of this afternoon I now have 33 more to go to. You know, the procedure isn’t a biggie and it only takes about thirty minutes once they have hooked me up and started the IV to flow. However, it is a daily distraction and time taker. We generally leave here around 1330 for my 1430 appointment. That allows for drive time, find a place to park time, find a wheelchair time, and going to patient registration for my daily new tag/bracelet, and Ms. Kate wheeling me up to the clinic. After I’m done we go back to the car and drive back home, arriving around 1545. It just takes a chunk out of the day. But — only 33 more times for that.

Jim and Julie are coming over tomorrow. For the weekend or at least to celebrate Father’s Day. I don’t really know how long they will be here. I kind of think that Julie is on vacation and may be staying the week. If so, then Jim will drive separately and go home when he’s ready. I never know what is going on.

We are planning on going to church Sunday. I have missed being there. Art said he’d like for me to do the Pastoral Prayer and the Benediction. I have agreed. That saves me a vacation week. I also lan to start back with office hours next week. That’s really going to hose up our days. I’ll be in the office from 0900 -1200, then have the infusion routine in the afternoon. That will happen on Monday and Wednesday and then Thursday I need to be at the doctor’s office at 0745 so he cab take my stitches out. My appointment was for later in the day but he has a surgery to do so I said whatever and whenever. He basically dropped everything to do my emergency surgery two weeks ago so I owe hime that much.

We got home from the hospital yesterday and neighbor Dan was out there mowing my yard. He was pretty quick about it too. I’ve told him he could drive one of the JDs to mow but he uses his self propelled walk-behind. I appreciate hime taking care of it. I’ll be so glad to be able to get back on my JD and start mowing again.

Time to watch the news. I pray you will have a great evening. Peace.

A good Wednesday morning to you. I hope you woke up this morning well rested and ready to take on the day. I had a partially good night but then I woke up and laid there tossing and turning and going over things in my head. I hate nights like that. I don’t know how long that actually lasted but it was long enough to leave me tired this morning. I think the problem is that I am getting too much sleep. Being inactive and having to put my leg up puts me in my recliner way too often and then I drift off to sleep before I know it. Come night time, I fall asleep easily but then around 0230 I wake up and the tossing and turning begins.

Tomorrow morning I meet with my orthopedic surgeon and I am really hoping that he will make me weight bearing again. (Did I tell you this yesterday?) Being weight bearing will get me off of my knee scooter and therefore off of a deteriorating knee and I can move to my walker. This morning I have been researching carbon fiber leg and ankle braces just to get an idea of what I will be in store for on the next part of this never wanted adventure. Dr. Richardson will prescribe for what he thinks I need so right now anything I look at is merely a guess. I will tell you though, none of them are fashion statements and looking at the prospect of wearing one for the rest of my life gives me cause for pause. But I still think it is a better option than having another surgery to take a tendon from one part of the body to put it in another part of the body. I hope to hve timee to ask Dr, Richardson tomorrow what he envisions.

I think Ms. Kate and I are going to go out for brunch today and then we are going to go to the Cadillac dealer and get a battery put in her key fob. Her car’s computer told her that her battery was getting low. From there we will go to my infusion appointment.

Time to go do that. Have a blessed day.

Well Ms. Tuesday, aren't you just a bright ray of sunshine and cooler tempertures? It is nice to see a coule of dry days in a row. It's nice to se the birds looking and sounding more cheerful instead of sitting with their feathers all ruffled up and trying to keep dry.

I don't have much for you this morning; no words of wisdom or witticisms. Today will just be mundane and I'll go for my infusion and then lay around waiting on healing to happen. y yard needs mowing, my flower beds are a mess, my garage is a mess and I am so far behind in doing all of the work around here that I need to do. It is a bit overwhelming, but it is what it is. I gotta heal.

Ms. Kate had a really bad day yesterday. It was one of those days where nothing goes right. She had two things that she wanted to fix for super and nothig turned out like she wanted them to. They were however, --- delicious. BUt it frustrated her beyond words. Here's hoping today will be much better.

That's all I have for you. If you could see me right now, I have my lap top going and am writing this on it. I have my IPad going next to it and am holding a conversation on FB Messenger on it. and I have my IPhone and Ms, Kate's IPhone next to those things and am amswering messeges on them. Gotta quit.

God's pace to each and everyone of you.

Oh, hello Monday, it’s you again. I’m glad to see that you have cooled down a bit and aren’t being a rainy yucky day. That breezy seventy three degrees is going to feel great this afternoon when we get home from my infusion treatment and back to our recliners.

And hello to all of you again too. I hope you had a fantastic weekend I hope that you took time to go to church and celebrate Pentecost Sunday with your fellow Christians. I missed not being able to go to church to celebrate Pentecost. You’ve heard me say before That I think Pentecost and Easter are the two main holidays that I think we as Christians should celebrate. I know people like Christmas and all that, but I see no real significance to the celebration.

Julie came down over the weekend with the pups. It is always great to have her visit with us. And, in reality, her two dogs aren’t any trouble for Ms. Kate and I. Going in and out all day is the only issue with them and Jules or Jim take care of that about 98% of the time.

Ms. Kate and I have gotten into the routine of taking me for my daily infusion. Finding a parking space is the only real issue. Saturday and Sunday it wasn’t too bad. Today is going to be tough because so many of the “seniors” have their doctor’s appointments on the first three days of the week.  Yeh, I know I’m a senior too. But those other people are so “OLD”. LOL Yesterday there was a lady getting ot of her car and into a wheelchair, holding on to her oxygen tank and she looked to be about 90 or so. But as she got out of the car I heard her tell the driver of the car, “I’m not in too bad of shape for 71.” She’s three years younger than me!! Bless her heart, she’s obviously had a tough life. Anyway, we’ll be heading out of here shortly to go do today’s infusion. I have 38 to do yet. Dr. Richardson wanted me to have six weeks of these antibiotics so he can feel certain that I have no infection left in me. I think my last one will be July 17th.

That’s it for today. I hope your day is full of joy and laughter. If it isn’t, never forget God has a hand out waiting for you to take hold of it when you need help. Peace.

Saturday again, where did the rest of my week go?  Well, I can tell you about that cause it’s all about me s usual.

I’m home and that is a wonderful thing. I really don’t like being in the hospital but then I doubt many people do. I certainly can’t complain about Deaconess Hospital. The doctors, nurses, technicians, and sanitation people were all great to work with and be around. The care was great, the food wasn’t bad although after while, the menu gets a little old. But, it is the just “not being home” that gets old. So, I am glad to be home and entrenched back in my home and recliners.

However, being home has once again caused a total disruption of the house and Ms. Kate’s schedule. Ms. Kate is once again stuck with doing everything for me. Yes, I know it is what we each signed up to do for each other for life but that doesn’t make it any easier on her. But she has and is totally fulfilling her vow. Our days start out like they always did, each of us on our tech-devices playing our computer games. Then she does work around the house like the daily everything and I sit in my chair or at my new make shift desk and write. The day gets busy around 1300 when e start getting ready t go for my antibiotic infusion. The appointment is at 1430 but we have to be there in time to find a place to park, which is never easy, get me in a wheelchair and get to registration. Then on up to the fifth floor and the oncology infusion suite. (I give God thanks every time that I’m not there for any cancer treatment. ) The infusion takes an hour and then it is reverse the procedure. So, our time from basically 1300 to 1630 is cut out of the day and it is going to be this way until approximately July 17th. Of course, in the meantime I’ll have other doctor’s appointments and stuff to do. Like I said, “it’s all about me” and I’ve told you before, that is NOT the way I like things.

I’m currently back on my scooter for getting around in the house. Once I can put my leg back down, I’ll go back to the walker. The scooter plays heck with my knee and flat out wears me out. But, if I use my walker now, then I have to hold my leg up and hop along. The ideal (I think) will be when I finally can get back to foot-down with my cane. But that won’t happen until after I get my leg/ankle brace. There are so many unknowns at the moment and that only drives me nuts.

But —- let’s take time this morning on this rainy Saturday morning and give God all praise and glory. I totally rely on the fact that God will answer all of the prayers that are going up as plea for my healing. I may not have all the same abilities that I once had but then who says they were all that great. I’m alive, I’m loved, and I kind of have an idea of when I can get back to the pulpit and preach God’s glorious Gospel. What else do I need. I praise God that Ms. Kate is healthy enough to take care of me. We’ve had times in our lives that that could have not been the case. So, let’s thank God for all of the joy in our lives this morning and lift up people who are really hurting. Have a most wonderful day.

Hi y’all. It is Wednesday morning and I thought I would give you just a little catch-up on my progress and what I believe is my journey from this point on. First of all —- It’s all good.

Monday I had my third surgery. The doctor had told me that I would be the last patient on his schedule so it might not be until 1600 hours that he could operate. That was fine by me. I woke up Monday morning and they were taking me through my morning routine of medicine breathing treatments etc, etc. At 0720 my med-tech said they had a schedule change and I was to go to surgery at 0800. They scrambled around here to try to get everything set up on this end and we waited. At 0900 the schedule changed again and I was now to go to surgery at 1500.

I went down to surgery and they put me under and did the surgery. Dr. Richardson told Ms. Kate that everything looked really good. The would was infection free and they had totally removed the Achilles’ tendon during the second surgery. So, while the surgery was a success, the anesthesia was a bummer. They had to give me Narcan (SP) to bring me out of it. I was literally in a different world than anyone or anything around me and it wasn’t until 2000 hours until I was lucid enough that Ms. Kate was comfortable enough to leave me and go home for the night. I told Dr. Richardson and our family doctor, Dr. Jackson about it last night and they both agreed that it was from too many operations in a row and too much anesthesia stacked on top of one another. It wasn’t preventable but it happened. I think I had a flashback from it at 0100 this morning when I saw two surgical people examining my ankle and foot that my nurse said weren’t there. But, they spoke to me and I acknowledged them. So, there is that!!

Today is supposed to be go home day. I’m waiting on the doctor to came take the wound vacuum off of my leg so I can move around. He will remove it, take pictures of the wound, and rewrap it. I also need to wait for the admin folks to catch up with us to set up the in-home antibiotic treatments and whatever else I need. Dr. Richardson will see me next week for a wound check, and then the week after that he will remove the stitches and then I can begin to put my foot down and they will fit me for my brace. The long term hope held out there by my doctor is that maybe in a year I can be back out of the brace in a year. The ankle will “never be the same” of course. But, —- Life is good!  Have a blessed day.

Welcome to Monday. Pull up a chair and wait with me as we wait for the three o’clock hour to arrive. That when I am scheduled to have my surgery. Things got real interesting around here first thing this morning. I was woken at 0500 with this cheery voice telling me “good morning, and that she had to hook up my bag of anti-biotic infusion. That wasn’t too bad because I had already had several hours of good sleep. So, she hooked it up and I knew it is an hour procedure. I drifted on off back to snooze-land. At 0615 the nurse came back in to unhook the medicine bag. While he was in here I asked him to bring me a pain pill which he did. I had had my last one at 2200 hours before I went to sleep for the night. By now it was starting to throb. I’m taking Percocet which works pretty good for me.

I decided to go through y Facebook Messenger and talk to Jules and Lis who wear of course already up and off to work. They are both on Eastern Time Zone so that are moving around at lest an hour before Mom and me and three hours before Heather. Besides, they are both “non-sleepers”.

At about 0720, my nurse came in and said that my surgery had been rescheduled for 0800 which meant they had a lot of prep stuff to do to get me ready. I was thrilled because it meant I didn’t have to sit around all day, not eating anything or drinking anything. They quickly brought in an IV bag and got me started on fluids, and they ordered up me my set of “wipes” so I could sterilize my body with a quick wash down, and they brought me a gown. Well, 0800 came and went and I was still sitting there. About 0830, Dr Jenkins, who is Dr, Richardson’s “Resident” came in to check on me and mark the leg that they would be working on and I asked him if we ready to go and he said “no, the procedure isn’t until 1500 hours. I told him that they had received message up here that I was on the scheduled for 0800. He checked the computer and sure enough I was scheduled for 1500. So, here I am, —- sitting and waiting with two and a half hours until I have my procedure.  But — it’s all good.

I got up out of bed a few minutes ago and that caused a lot of pain. Of course I’m can’t walk on the leg but the pain come from all of the blood rushing down into my leg. I hope that goes away before too long. Once I got back in my recliner in here and got the leg raised, it eventually settled down. I just hope today is the last of surgery for awhile. Patience —- Thou art a bitch!!!

So, that is my minute by minute update. I will let you know how it goes, maybe tomorrow. Until then, May God fully bless you and I thank you for your warm thoughts and prayers. Peace.

A lot has happened since I last wrote a blog and much of it not so good.  If you follow me on Facebook you already know all of this but if you don’t then let me catch you up.. On Wednesday of this week My leg started to swell and I started have a lot of pain. By 1500 hours I could no longer put any weight at all on the leg. I called my Orthopaedic Doctor’s office, explained the problem, and made me an appointment for 0845 the next morning. By roughly 2100 hours on Wednesday The sore on the back of my leg at the incision site and ruptured and was oozing puss.

I got to my doctor’s office and he walked in with his usual great bedside manner and to quote him; “What’s going —- Holy Hell!” He told me that he would be be operating on me that morning and that it may take several surgeries because it was that infected. He sent us to Deaconess Midtown Hospital and said he would meet us there. By 1330 he had operated on the Achilles Heel area and had to remove some of the Achilles Tendon. He scheduled my next surgery for Saturday morning to go back in and continue to clean any infection out. Friday morning I held my self-pity party and you would not have wanted to be around me. Remember, we were supposed to be leaving for Las Vegas today, and Jon’s High School graduation this coming Wednesday. Instead, I’m in the hospital raining everybody's plans.

Saturday morning came and I went back down for the next surgery. This time he ended up taking the entire Achilles Tendon. Tomorrow afternoon I go in for hopefully the final clean out, and with luck I will get to go home either Tuesday or Wednesday.

That’s it. —- That’s my life. God is good, I’m alive and I have wonderful doctors to work on me. I do ask for your prayers. Peace