Happy Tuesday afternoon. It is 54 degrees outside and is raining just enough to make it feel even colder. I don’t know where this little shower came from but we will welcome it. 

Today we did another doctor visit for Kate at the cardiac clinic and and yes ——- she is back in AFib. So, that means she will have to have another Cardioversion. Bless her heart. She gets a couple of days of feeling “not bad” and then something else pops up or pops up again. We try to keep the chins up because we now there are folks that are so much worse of than us. But — admittedly we do get a little tired. I can’t imagine trying to go through all that Kate has gone through these past two years without a strong faith and an almighty God to call upon. I don’t know how people do that.  I know I’m not that strong and neither is Kate. 

Kate is trying to get her Christmas cards made for this year. It keeps her busy. She is trying to get them all done in the next week and a half. All of our girls and a son-in-law are coming for the Veterans Day and we have all of her stuff all over the family room and dining room. So time is limited. She normally starts on this in the summer but her summer has been spent doing doctor and hospital stuff. 

That’s it for today. I pray you will have a blessed week. May God bring you peace. 

 Friday, October 11th. I can’t believe it has been a week since I last posted something. I am glad to report that this week has been a much better week for Ms, Kate. It has been a week of appointments though. Wednesday, she had a nephrology appointment. That is to check the functions of the kidneys. The nephrologist informed us that she is in Stage 4 Kidney failure. This was the first we had heard about a kidney failure at all and apparently she has been in stage four since June. So we were in a state of mind that said “what else?????” They tell her that her heart is operating at 30-35% and have her wearing a life vest defibrillator, and now she is in stage four kidney failure. 

Today she had her regular scheduled appointment with out family doctor and he spent a good deal of time talking to her about all of this. He said yes, —- her heart output is bad and yes the numbers indicate that she is in stage four kidney failure. However —- he says that the specialists who see her and advise on the results of stuff fail to consider the mitigating factors that can affect all of those numbers and systems like having four major surgeries this year and five or six hospital stays where doctors constantly change around  her medications. So yes —- her health is not good and she has several things going against her; —- but she is not in the crisis that the specialist doctors who walk in and see her for five minutes make it out to be. He has her starting heart repair therapy and we hope that will increase her heart output and she can take off the life vest. We left there today feeling much more positive about her whole situation. 

BTW, I had my annual physical today and the doctor said he couldn’t find a single thing he could fuss at me about and that I am in excellent shape for an 80 year old guy. Thank you very much God!!!

Yesterday, Kate and I went to the orchard ut in Posey County and picked up a half bushel of Golden Delicious apples. So, there will be a couple of apple pies baking in the oven before this weekend is out. 

That catches you up on our week. Congratulation to my former parish churches. Their new pastor starts this coming Sunday. May God guide him as he starts this new ministry. 

Peace. 

 Good morning and welcome to Friday. I wanted to give a short update on Ms. Kate. We hope to be going home today, and all indications are that we will. However, her Hospitalist said she want a Nephrologist to see her first and render an opinion. Kate’s kidneys aren’t functioning like they should. Now, part of that is reaction to her different medications so they have to figure out a good balance. That imbalance is partially what caused this hospitalization in the first place. So, we don’t want to go home and have to turn right around and come back. 

Yesterday they fitted her with a cardiac life vest. It is a portable defibrillator worn under her clothes and next to skin. In the event her heart should stop,  this device will shock it back into motion. It’s the same effect you see with the “paddles” you see on television. It gives her an alarm when it is going to happen and she has to lay down because it will literally knock her down. Hopefully it never goes off but she has to wear it 24/7 except in the shower. They will keep her wearing this for 3-6 months and then do another ECG to see if her heart is doing any better. 

But —- she is feeling so much better than she did when she came in here and hopefully it will all remain steady. I thank God for any and all progress she has made and I thank all of you who have lifted her up. 

I hope you have a blessed weekend. Continue to pray for all of the hurricane victims. My heart cries for each of them. Take time to give God praise for your abundance of blessings. 

Peace. 

 Welcome to October. Our October started out just crappy. Ms. Kate is once again in-the hospital with congestive heart failure. Each time seems to get a bit worse. She asked me to bring her in first thing Monday morning. She had gotten to the point of hardly being able to breathe, couldn’t lay down to sleep or even lean back in her recliner. She was and is totally worn out. So, we’ve been in here at Deaconess Midtown since then. They are working to get the fluid off of her but are also working on a couple of other heart issues with her. We hope she can go home tomorrow but I’m not overly hopeful about that. So, keep us in your prayers. 

Have a blessed day.