October 16, 2010

Psalm 116:1 I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.

There are many promises in the Word of God... but right now this is the one that I am holding on to.

A little update on me and then on to my parents...

As most of you know by now I have good days, not so good days, and then some bad days.

The last two days qualified as bad days and have been spent in bed. Wednesday I went to the doctor for a follow up visit; I was still suffering the affects of a COPD flare up but it was determined that the benefits of receiving the flu shot outweighed the risks of getting the shot while still sick.

What qualifies as a bad day for me is a combination of 'paralyzed stomach' (you can google this), a minor case of the stomach flu (from the flu shot), and an increase to the 'COPD' flare up (once again, from the flu shot).

I won't go into details, but if you are looking for investment advice I would suggest Kimberly-Clark... the makers of Depends... lol!

I've been waiting until I started recovering from the 'flare up' to start on my newest medication; but since that doesn't seem to be happening my very good friend (Jeralynn) is going to hunt it down for me.

The name of this new medication is Asafoetida; it's actually an Indian herb. It's nickname is devil's dung... it has received this name because of its strong pungent smell due to the presence of sulfur compounds.

I have just purchased empty capsules and once they arrive, along with the asafoetid, the capsules will need to be filled. Any volunteers? If this stuff works like it's suppose to I'm hoping to see a decrease in two areas; the paralysis (all digestive disorders) and the bronchitis/asthma/COPD... I'll keep you posted.

Onto my parents... please continue to pray for them... now more then ever before.

As a quick side note... the picture of my family was taken this past May when my parents were out here assisting me with the recovery of my neck surgery.

My father seems to be holding strong; although watching my mother go through this is proving to be one of the biggest trials in his life.

His daily routine goes something like this; he wakes up and goes to heart rehab... then it's off to compression therapy (external counter pulsation - you can google it). From there he's off to see my mother, home for a nap, back to see my mother and then back home. You wouldn't know that less then two months ago we were planning his funeral.

Let me first tell you that mom has been moved to a rehabilitation hospital; she will be there for the next 1 - 2 months. If you know her (even if you don't) and you would like to send her a card this is her address:

Sunset Lake Health and Rehabilitation Center
Mildrene Young
832 Sunset Lake Blvd.
Venice, FL 34292

I am not releasing her phone number right now; as you continue to read you will see that she is not able to take phone calls at this time.

I will try to explain this to the best of my knowledge; this information may change over the next few days as I become more familiar with her condition.

Please know that I am only sharing some of these details so that you can know how to pray... otherwise, I wouldn't be making some of this information public.

It is confirmed that her pelvic is broken in three places... because of the way it broke she is having muscle spasms every time she moves any part of her body.

The muscles spasm in an attempt at holding the pelvic bone together. To say this is causing her excruciating pain is putting it mildly.

She is being given morphine in addition to other pain medications, but as I will explain this doesn't always bring relief. It is my understanding that she is being given morphine every 8 hours (or as needed).

Example, when she moves and starts having muscle spasms (say 1:00) they will give her a shot of morphine... this will take away the immediate pain. The spasms take approximately 2 - 3 hours to work themselves out. As you may or may not know, morphine wears off as time goes by... that said, if she then moves again at (say 4:00) she starts into spasms again; this time the spasms are more intense as the morphine has begun to wear off and the cycle continues until her next dose (at 9:00pm).

I've only spoke with her a couple of times; during one of the calls she dropped the phone and all I could hear was a blood curdling scream.

I called yesterday and was able to speak with both my mother and father. When speaking with my mother (about 2 minutes) she spent a great deal of energy trying to make sense.. it was a combination of my guessing what she was trying to say and what she was actually able to say.

When I spoke with my father he told me that upon his arrival she was choking. He called the nurses in and they immediately sat her up in a better position and aided her in swallowing (with that she started screaming in pain). This doesn't happen constantly but it occurred frequently yesterday (I'm not sure yet how last night or today has gone).

Our brains tell our bodies how and when to do everything... with her brain being overwhelmed it doesn't seem to be sending the signals to her swallowing reflexes to swallow. What I mean by overwhelmed is the amount of pain she has had for the last several days; this combined with the fact that she's not sleeping properly and on a large amount of pain meds.

Today, Saturday, she will be starting physical therapy... this is expected to cause her even more pain then she is already in; but this is a necessary part of her healing.

Now you may understand my reference to the scripture in the beginning...

Psalm 116:1 I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.

The Lord I love is not answering my prayers the way I would have Him answer my prayers... if He was then my mother would no longer be in pain. I don't know why He is allowing her to remain in this pain... I may never know the reason.

The one thing you need to know; my Lord does hear my voice, my prayers, my requests. He is allowing this to take place for a reason, again, it may be a reason that I will never have an answer for.

Regardless, the Lord I serve remains in control; He reigns, He lives, He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

There are many of you who don't know my Lord as your Savior... you have witnessed the trials and tribulations of my life and most recently that of my family.

As you have read my story you have seen that coming to know my Heavenly Father as your Savior doesn't mean that you will be free of worry, strife, illness, or even financial worries.

The one thing it does mean is that I know where I will spend eternity and my mother has the joy (not free of pain necessarily) of knowing where she will spend eternity.

Each one of our lives will be over in a vapor and the instant each of our lives end all that will ever have mattered is where we will spend eternity.

With much love,

Diana

P.S. This should have gone out much earlier and to those of you who this is meant for I apologize. My deepest sympathies to the family of my cousin Rosie who passed away just a couple of weeks ago; you continue to be in my thoughts and prayers.