Rather than post these thoughts daily on Facebook, I just kept a document adding to it every day. Here are my thoughts of thankfulness for November 2012.
November Days of Thanks!
1 Thankful for a beautiful, glorious day in Nebraska!
2 Thankful for great Halloween pictures on FB of grandchildren far away!
3 Thankful for a conversation with daughter and granddaughter!
4 Thankful for a newly painted ramp and clean gutters courtesy of friend extraordinaire Marvin Fast!
5 Thankful for a vehicle that comfortably gets me where I need to go – even if it is 11 years old.
6 Thankful for another birthday and a healthy beginning to my 70th year!
7 Thankful for the end of another election cycle with some good and some not so good results.
8 Thankful for the friendship of my friend Cindy on her 70th birthday – she has been gone almost 13 years.
9 Thankful for the ability to multi-task (sometimes) – even at my advanced age.
10 Thankful for the skill of knitting and the ‘fixed’ hands that can still knit.
11 Thankful for the men and women who serve so that we may remain a free nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.
12 Thankful for my eclectic taste in music – classical, easy listening, folk, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s…whatever.
13 Thankful for the privilege to serve on several church committees and thankful my term is almost up.
14 Thankful for dinner-date with husband – a belated birthday dinner.
15 Thankful for another glorious fall day in Nebraska!
16 Thankful for another CCC ELS ‘tabloid’ (brochure) in the can (finished) – and on time even!
17 Thankful for yet another Y meet (with too many swimmers) in the can and celebration dinner with the Waltemaths. Here’s to another 49 years of wedded bliss for Rick and Phyl.
18 Thankful for the spiritual gifts of Kylie Wenburg as she begins a new phase in her spiritual directions ministry.
19 Thankful for husband who does the grocery shopping – with the assistance of good lists.
20 Thankful for $.01 books from Amazon that keep me reading through the night when I can’t sleep.
21 Thankful for a ‘spirit’ that moved me to clean my work desk – so much nicer to work off of a clean desk!
22 Thankful for family and friends – all who have been part of my life – I have been enriched by each and every one!
23 Thankful for Robin Koozer and his wonderful gifts and talents shared with FPC and Hastings for so many years.
24 Thankful for a half-way clean office.
25 Thankful for my friend Diana who celebrates her birthday today and thankful for my freedom to worship or not to worship if I need the time at home to get work done.
26 Thankful for being able to buy a needed new refrigerator without having to borrow from Peter to pay Paul.
27 Thankful for feeling better today than I felt yesterday.
28 Thankful for hair stylist extraordinaire Jerry Benker – always makes my hair look fabulous!
29 Thankful for a long, fruitful day – work, workshop, swim meet, session meeting.
30 Thankful for old computer that still runs swim meet software with sufficient ease.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Joy
Our precious grandson and his family were able to make a Make-a-Wish trip to Disney World in April. From the pictures taken, I think the trip was worth every penny that was spent. I have never seen such smiles on Caelie’s face. I just want to see these smiles in person – and hopefully I will get that opportunity in early July when his mommy comes to Omaha to swim at the Masters Nationals (his brothers are coming too).
Friday, February 10, 2012
Thoughts on Cael
Grammy spent five days in Dallas while Caelie was in the hospital (as of this writing he is still there). Grammy does not know what to think. Cael is not a normal child. Nothing about him is normal. He has Down Syndrome. He also has Hirschsprung’s Disease. And failure to thrive. And… And… And… the list goes on. He is a precious little boy who is very good most of the time – until he is stressed.
At this point I think the whole medical profession has gone crazy. The docs do not listen to the mom. They order ‘goofy’ tests as the mommy puts it. They diagnose something that is totally inappropriate for his condition. He needs to go home and be with his family and get back to a normal routine to be able to do what he normally does, but until he is able to eat and drink he will not be going home. And they say he has ‘forgotten’ how to crawl and how to eat. Sure. Who are these nut cases, anyway?
Before this hospital stay is over, I am afraid my daughter may kill somebody. The strain and stress on a family of a medically fragile child is unbelievable. And with the medical profession batting in the dark for diagnoses, the stress is doubled.
Continued later…
The strain and stress got worse as the hospital forced an airlift transfer (with daddy) half-way across the country, necessitating a travel trip for mom and brothers, a trip for grandpa and grandma, several more air trips for the daddy, a hotel stay and a Ronald McDonald House stay for family members, and an air trip for auntie and cousin to try to help this family through a very trying and stressful time.
From a not-too-objective perspective, this could and should have been avoided if a hospital staff had been willing to listen to the parents rather than thinking they knew what was wrong and trying to play god in the process. A child with Hirschsprung’s induced enterocolitis should not have to wait 48 hours for medical staff to determine that this was not just the ‘flu’ but rather a very life-threatening infection. A child should not have to stay in the hospital 20 days with inappropriate treatment for his condition because the medical staff cannot understand that the parents have been trained to take care of the Hirschsprung’s related problems in very specific ways by world-renowned specialists in that area. A child should not have to be airlifted half-way across the country because hospital staff cannot get around to contacting previous medical providers regarding appropriate treatment for the current manifestations of the condition. No parent should have to be questioned so harshly regarding treatment requests when they have been through the same thing more than once and know what treatments have worked in the past.
We are grateful to the hospital staff in Cincinnati for listening to the parents, for understanding the needs of this special child, and for treating appropriately. We are grateful to the Ronald McDonald House for a very pleasant stay, albeit we all would have rather been home for Christmas. (Three full Christmas dinners was a pretty nice perk.) We are grateful for healing for our precious grandson.
And…6 weeks after being home Cael is gaining weight. Yes, weight. He may be a chunky monkey yet;-)
Zane thought his brother needed a welcome-home party, so the family got the bouncy house and had friends over to enjoy an afternoon of fun. Below the three brothers are pictured enjoying the fun.
At this point I think the whole medical profession has gone crazy. The docs do not listen to the mom. They order ‘goofy’ tests as the mommy puts it. They diagnose something that is totally inappropriate for his condition. He needs to go home and be with his family and get back to a normal routine to be able to do what he normally does, but until he is able to eat and drink he will not be going home. And they say he has ‘forgotten’ how to crawl and how to eat. Sure. Who are these nut cases, anyway?
Before this hospital stay is over, I am afraid my daughter may kill somebody. The strain and stress on a family of a medically fragile child is unbelievable. And with the medical profession batting in the dark for diagnoses, the stress is doubled.
Continued later…
The strain and stress got worse as the hospital forced an airlift transfer (with daddy) half-way across the country, necessitating a travel trip for mom and brothers, a trip for grandpa and grandma, several more air trips for the daddy, a hotel stay and a Ronald McDonald House stay for family members, and an air trip for auntie and cousin to try to help this family through a very trying and stressful time.
From a not-too-objective perspective, this could and should have been avoided if a hospital staff had been willing to listen to the parents rather than thinking they knew what was wrong and trying to play god in the process. A child with Hirschsprung’s induced enterocolitis should not have to wait 48 hours for medical staff to determine that this was not just the ‘flu’ but rather a very life-threatening infection. A child should not have to stay in the hospital 20 days with inappropriate treatment for his condition because the medical staff cannot understand that the parents have been trained to take care of the Hirschsprung’s related problems in very specific ways by world-renowned specialists in that area. A child should not have to be airlifted half-way across the country because hospital staff cannot get around to contacting previous medical providers regarding appropriate treatment for the current manifestations of the condition. No parent should have to be questioned so harshly regarding treatment requests when they have been through the same thing more than once and know what treatments have worked in the past.
We are grateful to the hospital staff in Cincinnati for listening to the parents, for understanding the needs of this special child, and for treating appropriately. We are grateful to the Ronald McDonald House for a very pleasant stay, albeit we all would have rather been home for Christmas. (Three full Christmas dinners was a pretty nice perk.) We are grateful for healing for our precious grandson.
And…6 weeks after being home Cael is gaining weight. Yes, weight. He may be a chunky monkey yet;-)
Zane thought his brother needed a welcome-home party, so the family got the bouncy house and had friends over to enjoy an afternoon of fun. Below the three brothers are pictured enjoying the fun.
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