October 30, 2010

As for me I have something to be so very thankful for today ~ an answer to prayer!

On Wednesday I awoke to find a box had been delivered to my door. I wasn't expecting anything so I didn't open it until Thursday evening. What a wonderful answer to prayer... a box full of nebulizer treatments. For those who aren't familiar with what a nebulizer is; it's one of my life supporting treatments. It clears my airways when nothing else will work... it's often my last step before running to the emergency room or calling 911.

Why is this an answer to prayer for me... because Wednesday night I had used my last two vials thus leaving my supply depleted. The price to purchase a new supply was going to cost me close to $200; since I don't have that kind of money I probably would have waited until things became really bad and gone to the hospital.

I'm still not sure why this showed up at my door... I haven't taken the time to research the "why's"... I just haven't been feeling well enough to even want to figure it out at this point.

As it stands right now, I will continue to praise my Lord for His goodness and mercy. Once again His blessings continue to pour out upon me; definitely not in my timing, but most certainly in His.

Isaiah 55:8-9
⁸ “ For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
⁹ “ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.

With this package arriving at my door it allowed a sliver of light, a sliver of hope, just enough to know that my Lord remains in control and all things will be provided for and come to completion in His timing.

It doesn't appear that this most recent round of antibiotics and steroids did anything to improve my condition. Come Monday morning if there isn't a significant improvement then I will once again call the doctor and we will decide what the next step is.

It's now going on 7 weeks that I've been down with bronchitis...

In addition to bronchitis, side effects to the antibiotics are beginning to surface (I will spare you the exciting details of these side effects).

When a diabetic is sick blood sugars tend to run high; add steroids to the mix and it sends my sugars soaring... this causes the nerve damage in my feet (neuropathy) and nerve damage in my abdomen (stomach paralysis) to act up. Higher sugars also mean that I'm so very tired and all I want to do is sleep.

High sugars also mean an increased usage of diabetic medications... thus causing my supply to dwindle faster than it normally would. But as God showed this past week, He will provide for my needs .

Unfortunately, high sugars sometimes mean that a crash (very low sugars) can come out of the blue... just as happened last night. My sugars had dropped to the mid 30's; I think that last night was the closest I've ever come to passing out. Once again, something to be thankful to God for as both my children, son-in-law, and grandchildren were at home with me when this happened.

I'm truly looking forward to seeing how God is going to provide the medications that are needed between now and the first of the year...

*****

Dad and Mom...

I am once again going to share some information so that you will know how to pray. I'm not putting this information out for any other reason except for you to be able to pray more specifically for my parents.

As a side note I wanted to share my parents ages with you... I think their ages just might come as a surprise to some and even shock others. For the most part, people of their age groups do not experience what they are going through. I'm hoping this will help you better understand the reason this is all so shocking to us.

Mom is a very young 69 years old, in fact she just celebrated her birthday the beginning of October.

Dad is a very young 71 years old and will be celebrating his 72nd birthday at the end of November.

Mom's condition remains extremely poor... She remains heavily medicated, in fact, if they needed to further medicate her I believe the next step would be a drug induced coma.

When praying for dad please pray that God will continue to provide him with strength. Not only for his heart but also the strength (mentally and physically) to assist in caring for my mother each day. Pray that his mind will be still at night and that he will be able to have a solid time of sleep; one spent without continually waking up in worry over my mother.

Before moving on to my mom... remember that both of my parents were out here (in California) with me in April. My mother spent four weeks taking care of me during my recovery from cervical spinal surgery and my father spent four very busy weeks being Mr. Fix-it... he did everything from plumbing repair to garage clean up to remodeling a room in my house so the boys (my grandsons) would have a special room in the house when they come over to play and / or spend the night (this only happens when Ricky is home).

Now onto mom...

Have you ever cared for an end of life alzheimer's patient? They ask the same questions over and over again. There is no rhyme or reason for most of their questions; most of their time is spent highly confused and frustrated over not understanding. They are no longer able to care for themselves and need a caregiver for their simplest daily needs.

The above description is that of my mothers daily life... without going into details this lifestyle is exhausting for all concerned, including my mother.

Believe it or not there is good news in all of this; with the amount of medication that she is now on it has allowed the last few days to be relatively pain free. That alone is great reason for us to be thankful to God; that through medication she is no longer crying out in pain. Please join our family in praising God for this answer to prayer.

It's easier for me to deal with this then I can imagine it is for my father... I'm only able to speak with mom over the phone. I've not yet seen any pictures of her; but I'm sure once I do the reality of this will set in much more then it already has for me.

As for dad, he is living this day in and day out... I'm sure that at times it seems that this may all be much more then he can or wants to handle.

The one thing I will say; my sister and I are so very proud of the fact that he has been right by her side every step of the way.

Thank you again for the very many prayers and all the thoughts and well wishes!

Diana