The Reason I’m Not Dead…

 

…is because God is full of mercy. I will try to keep this short. If you want further details, ask and I will share.

 

I went into the hospital last Thursday with excruciating kidney pain. I went through kidney stuff 8 years ago, but this was even worse. I was in very bad shape when we went to the ER in Chico. They triaged me fairly quickly, but it was still a 40 minute wait to get into an exam room. When I got to the room they were very quick with the pain meds. A CT scan showed I had severe kidney infection from a huge stone, also a UTI. And VERY LOW BLOOD PRESSURE. I later found out I was in sepsis.

 

They tried to get my blood pressure up, but it wasn’t as fast as they’d like. I was waiting for a room to become open in ICU. In the meantime they did what they could. I knew it was getting close when the doctor came over to me and asked me what my wishes were. I said I had an Advance Directive, but the doctor said he needed to hear me say what my wishes were. He asked what I wanted done if my heart stopped. I told him to do whatever he could, I just didn’t want to be left in a vegetative state.

 

There was more stuff that went on that you probably don’t want to know about. I ended up getting a tube put directly into my left kidney. This was through my back. I now have a little bag that I have to empty. They were filling me with IV antibiotics. Once I was able to get onto oral meds I went home on Sunday. The kidney drain will remain until I have the follow-up with the urologist in 2-3 weeks.

 

This was a truly awful experience. But God’s mercy was evident in everything. It could have been worse. I could have died. But I always was aware of whose hands I was in. Jesus was with me the entire time. As He always is.

 

It may not sound like it, but His blessings abounded through everything. I have so many things to be thankful for.

 

Soli Deo Gloria.

 

 

Sorry, maybe next week

 

Didn’t get a blog out last Friday as I had too many IV lines and monitors attached to me. I’m home now and hope to post something this coming Friday.

 

Dismantling Christmas

 

 

It wasn’t as bad as the picture above. Nothing fell. Nothing broke. It was just time to put it all away. We always leave it all up until Epiphany, and then slowly put things away. This time, it went faster and smoother than ever before. It was also the longest we’ve ever had the tree and decorations up.

 

This year, we (meaning me) decided to once again go through ALL the Christmas stuff BEFORE Christmas and take what we no longer wanted to Salvation Army for folks to get before Christmas. That meant taking all the boxes down from the attic.

 

So I went through ALL the boxes and managed to get rid of quite a lot of stuff that really didn’t speak to my heart. Everything else was of great sentimental value. One thing I definitely wanted to do was display all my kitty Christmas plates. I already had the non-Christmas plates up and on the wall. I decided to have Marv put those up on the wall over the counter and display the Christmas ones where the others used to be. That way, I could have ALL the plates up and just move them as needed for the season. I decided to then leave the Christmas ones up all this year and then after NEXT Christmas move them above the counter.

 

This was all done around early November. And since all the boxes were already down from the attic, why not get the tree down and just go ahead and decorate it and set up all the other decorations? Especially since Sarah was coming up for Thanksgiving and could see it all. So that’s what we did. And I loved it. I just might make it a tradition to put Christmas up earlier than mid-December.

 

Epiphany was January 6. As it always is. In the past, we would SLOWLY start the process of putting everything away, usually taking several days. This time, since everything had been gone through, I had fewer boxes and decorations to deal with. We (meaning me) got it all done in ONE DAY! I knew where everything fit, and it was the easiest job ever. I was rate chuffed…

 

Happy New Year!

 

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Random Thought:

“Any idiot can face a crisis; it's this day-to-day living that wears you out.” – Anton Chekhov