December update

December started out with a thankful heart since we were in the hospital almost the whole month of November. We were excited to be back home and preparing to celebrate Christmas with Erika’s family a little early this year, as they were heading out to Seattle for Christmas this year. My brother Jon came into town so we could celebrate dads birthday, and what a blessing that was. It seemed like it was more like our birthday he was such a gift from God during that time! That day he was supposed to leave to head up to meet up with his wife, and her family. I ended up heading to the hospital. Erika was checking in on me with my home health aide, and had ended up calling Jon during the day to see if he was able to wake me up. If you remember in November when I was in the ICU and my good friend Spencer came to see me, and I woke up to talk to him like no one else had tried to talk to me. Well since I didn’t respond to Jon, Erika, and my dad thought it would be best to call the ambulance. So they came to get me at home and take me down to Methodist ER because I was completely incoherent. I was told I woke up a little in the ambulance, but by time I reached the ER I was completely out. I wasn’t even budging when they were trying to start an IV, except for when the Dr was trying to get it started in my neck. At that point my head jerked, still out of it, and tried to bite him. See that was the 3rd time on 3 separate occations. Two out of three times they got! Here’s the thing if you have never had an IV in your neck it really hurts! Even a few days after mind you. I had no idea what was happening, and remember nothing may be the last two days. If you or someone in your family has ever experienced a UTI, you know how scary and mind altering they can become. I feel like my brain was scrambled. It felt like I could retain information for 2-10 minutes but it has gotten a lot better. Apparently we’ll just say while under the influence of the infection. But apparently I was cursing like a sailor. They asked if I was normally like that and they said no. My friend Spencer I reconnected after he with move back to Minnesota was actually chaplain two different hospitals.. When I asked him to come visit me I told him I building B. I broke down crying with my brother Justin and him. Because I couldn’t believe the situation I was in. He told me that he used to work for that unit and they call that the behavioral unit. I’ll tell you this the only time I have felt that afraid in my life escapes me. On the last day there was an individual that followed Erica into my room and I asked him what are you doing and he said trying to talk to her but she’s not having it I said no she’s not. An interesting thing was there was maybe a 60 or 70-year-old woman with the body of a eight-year-old girl. But she was walking the unit with a baby doll. She even accused my brother of stealing her baby. Now our nieces & nephews love the mess out of him. But stealing the babies is not in his repertoire. My dad said it reminded him of his early days of ministry serving the Lord in Scranton Pennsylvania. But I believe the small church was in somewhat of the inner-city but he ministered to prostitutes drug dealers and other characters. See Christ came to save the lost and not perfect people. Yes the same place of the show The Office. Which a couple years ago one of his friends son which was the son of Ken Rudolph which he was a funny guy. But Baptist Bible College of Clark Summit established a Dr. Charles Ware and Ken Rudolph scholarship. Because they embodied Grace Relations. At that time their were two recipients of the scholarship. However I don’t remember any episodes with Baptist Bible College of Clarks Summit. Well he proceeded to play the recording. Just glad it wasn’t a video, but anyhow of my ranting and raving. We ended up going into the hospital the Wednesday before Christmas, and ended up being in there past Christmas Day. I believe it was Thanksgiving and maybe Christmas of last year 2022 that I was in the hospital and wasn’t going to do it again this year. Jon was able to spend some time up at the hospital with me to give Erika a break, and even stayed overnight at the hospital and overnight at home staying in the master bedroom with me! But it was for her to be able to spend time with Aubree. It isn’t lost on me the support that we have had left and right. I can remember my cousin Angie also coming out for a few days to help Erika. She stayed in the master bedroom with me and we spent a few nights talking about mom. Because Angie was more like a daughter to her and sister to me. We’ve relied on each other through the years. But it’s because of how many years she had lived with us. It would be easy for us to think about all the struggles we went through in the year 2022, but we know we are truly blessed. We have the best family, friends, church families, and prayer warriors in our lives. All we can say is thank you for your continued prayers, and know that they give us comfort, and a reminder that our God is the ultimate physician, and he has continued to remind us of the blessings we have all around us. Well that’s it for now! I will be posting January’s update tomorrow!

Until next time may the Lord be with you! #Grace Relations