Confession is good for the soul. . . . . . .sometimes, but not always!

My favorite time of day with my Mom is morning.  Not early, but when Memama wakes on her own.  After many years of being an early riser, Memama no longer is up with the chickens.  I attribute this to her age and to her hearing loss.  I don't have a problem with this, as she has paid her dues.

On a usual morning, I will slip in and check on her, then move to the kitchen to make her coffee and get her meds where she can't miss them.  I will hear some banging around from her walker and know that she is making a bathroom trip, so I give her a few minutes before going to tell her the coffee is ready and make an inquiry as to what she would like for breakfast.  This will range from sausage pancakes on a stick to sausage egg and cheese biscuits, to oat meal, the fried eggs and bacon with biscuits to scrambled eggs or bacon and egg sandwiches, but sometimes she just wants a breakfast bar.

By the time she gets her robe and makes her way to the kitchen table, her breakfast is usually ready and waiting.

It is during these morning sit downs that we have many very open heart to heart talks.

The past few days have been extremely painful for Memama.  She is doing great, especially to just be eighteen days after her fall that caused her compression fracture in her back.  Physical therapy comes three days a week and they work her out and positive results are obvious.

Yesterday Memama was sitting at the table telling me that "her back was really hurting".  I responded that she had only taken a pain pill and it would take a few minutes for it to take affect.

In her next breath she told me, "I don't know why the good LORD keeps me here." 

I told her, "Maybe GOD is punishing you for not trusting that he knows what he is doing?"

She responded, "It's just hard to understand because I am old and hurting and I can't do what I use to do".

I said, "It will all come in GOD's time, I confessed that many mornings when I slip down the hall to the door of her room I have to look closely to be sure she is breathing.  I continued, that I know it will fall on me some day to make my morning check to find her cold and still."

She told me, "I don't wish that for any of you."

There was a long silence as we both pondered what the other had said.

Finally I told her "You are sounding a lot like Pepa".  His phrase was "If this is the way it is going to be, I just wish the good LORD would take me".  I said, "Be careful what you wish for, because obviously at some point GOD was listening to Pepa".

I wouldn't take for this past year with my Mom and for what ever time GOD chooses to give us.

FATHER, thank YOU for special times. special memories.  I continue to lift up Memama for YOUR gifts of healing and care and comfort.

Catching up.

The good news is that wet weather really messes with the DSL ISP here.  The even better news is that my service was very poor last week.

We received almost three and a half inches of rain.  The cotton is perked up and responding well.  With just a little more help, we might make a cotton crop.  Another rain the first couple of weeks of August would be grand!

Rian was down last week.  He was a bundle of energy.  He would have loved to crawled on a tractor for five straight days but it was too wet.  So he and the hands did a lot of cleaning and fixing at the barn.

His boys have gone to their Aunt Crystal's destination wedding in Colorado but they should be returning today.  Hopefully Rian will bring them with him next trip down.

They have fished for trout with a great uncle in Colorado and they have gone up Pike's Peak.  They seem to have really enjoyed the mountains.

Recently Reid ran in his first "mini" triathalon.  Swimmings, bike riding and running.  He came in fourth in his age group.  Not bad for his first attempt.

I am hopeful if Reid enjoys things like this that he can keep a level head about his training and not get into the "self punishment" grind his Mother had gotten into where she would run until her socks were bloody.

Memama is doing pretty good.  She is spending a little more time up and in her chair each day.  She is still experiencing some pain but is gradually stretching the time span between pain pills.

The other night I followed her to bed and was giving her eye drops.  When she got in bed she was right on the edge.  I told her she was too close to the edge and to move her bottom toward the middle of the bed.  Very quickly and seemingly effortlessly, she moved across the bed.  I told her she was doing very well!  She responded "I am aren't I!"

I then told her that by the time it was dry, she should be ready to chop cotton!

Well, I had better get.  Have a day!

FATHER, Thank YOU for YOUR rain blessing.  Thankl YOU for the progress Memama is making.  We continue to ask for YOUR healing and care for her.

extended absence

Well, that was more of an extended absence than I had planned.  The computer messed up, so I swapped them out, then the modem went out and I had to pick one up in Abilene last week,  I just got the new modem installed last night.

Sunday,  Memama was standing in front of her vanity, getting ready for church when her legs gave out and she just sat down.  Immediately her back was hurting.  I was in Abilene and Kyle had already gone to work, so she crawled to her bed and got in it.  Stephanie and her family were headed home to Huntsville and stopped by to say goodbye and learned of Memama's spill. 

Pat and Hag carried Memama to the ER at Sweetwater where they did x-rays revealing, a broken back.  They said she needed to be transferred to Abilene to see a neurosurgeon and called an ambulance.  In Abilene, after a long time in the ER, the doctors admitted her, saying that they didn't think she needed a neurosurgeon, but a diagnostic radiologist instead.  The radiologist decided the bet treatment would be to inject cement into the break to stabilize it and said it should minimize the pain.  Our problem was that Memama's blood thickness was too thick.  They stopped giving her coumadin but after two days her blood thickness remained at 1.8.  The doctors wanted it at 1.5 or lower to do the procedure.  The finally began giving her shots of vitamin K to help thicken her blood.  On Wednesday morning her blood thickness was at 1.2, so we went on the schedule.  About 1 in the afternoon they picked her up and took her down for the procedure.

She had a good night Wednesday night and Thursday morning the physical therapist got her up and she walked to the nurses station and back with a walker.  She sat in a chair and ate breakfast and while she was out of bed they changed bed linens and took her to shower.  When she got back I convinced her to walk again as her doctor was on the floor.  As luck would have it as she was coming out of the room with her walker, the doctor was trying to come in.  She made her trek and returned to hear him say "You are doing so well I am going to let you go home." 

Steve and Jani had come over, and we began a three hour wait for paperwork.  Finally about 2:30 Memama was in the car and we headed west.

She is not pain free but she is doing well.  She is very happy to be in her own bed.  Last night she got up and came into the kitchen and ate a sandwich and this morning Frances, the housekeeper, cooked breakfast and Memama came to the table and cleaned her plate.

This afternoon we have had home healthcare here.  We had requested Rolling Plains Home Health because a Roscoe nativel, Becky (Landfried) Tomlin works there, and it is nice to have people you know helping.  Becky came and spent about an hour and a half with Memama and Pat and now Michelle, the PT is on her way.

Hopefully we are well on our way to a speedy and complete recovery.

It has kind of been a crazy week because I stayed in Abilene all week  and took the early shift at the hospital, then around two or three in the afternoon Pat or Coach would come and relieve me.  Wednesday was a long day, I arrived at the hospital at 6:57 and didn't leave until 7:30, waiting for the doctor to make his rounds.

Hospitals wear me out!

One interesting thing is that the hospitalist doctor we ended up with was an acquaintance of Rian's.

Small world.

Hope you have had a good week/month.

FATHER, we ask YOUR gifts of healing for Memama.  That you would comfort her and take away her pain.  We thank YOU for the medical people and the work they do.  We ask for a speedy and complete recovery.  FATHER, we ask for a rain blessing as our crops are stressed from the hot and dry conditions.  Blessed be YOUR name!