The Circuit Ridin’ Preacher

Since our Lord “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus”, according to Ephesians 2:6, then we must continually remind ourselves to look at our earthly condition from that perspective. 

Harriet and I had to remind ourselves of that truth yesterday when she had to endure the pain as Dr. Morris’ nurse removed the staples from her arm.  Then the surgeon himself checked it and declared “I’m sorry, it just didn’t work”.  He confirmed what we had already suspected that the new fistula had clotted and was unusable and not repairable.  “How would you like me to put a graft in your left forearm?” 

That replaced some of the disappointment with an encouraging possibility.  This will give Harriet back the use of her right arm.  And “Thank you, Lord, I can wear long sleeved blouses and sweaters again!”  she smiled.  What a way to testify again to Dr. Morris, nurse Debbie and to me, just Who she is trusting as her Great Physician.

Another encouragement is that she will NOT have a undergo another surgery so soon.  We’ll have about 2 weeks to get over this ordeal before enduring the next. 

So Praise God Specifically with us and Pray Still that the permacath in her chest will continue to function adequately.  They have increased her time on the dialysis machine to 3 hours, 45 minutes.  A long time to sit, but a blessing that it is available.       

Harriet goes to get the staples removed tuesday.  They still don’t hear any life in the site but I am praying that the surgeon will have some solution rather than another surgery for inserting a tube.   I do not believe that she could face another surgery right now.  She has been in constant pain, non-stop for 2 weeks, since the last surgery.  The only time she has any relief is when she takes pain medication and that just takes the edge off of it.  It has really been wearing on her and I just pray that our Lord will give her some relief from that when they remove the staples tomorrow.

We had another one of the nephrologists in the group (Dr. Dean) check her today.  It is like having a “2^nd opinion” to me and I’m glad he came.  He said the reports about her liver came back a bit more encouraging and so we’ll wait and see if there is any change in next months tests.  They won’t do anything else about that for now.

Dr. Dean also said that they will not be able to do surgery on her arm until they are able to figure out some way to get and keep her blood pressure up.  They are going to put her on for an additional 15 minutes of treatment (total of 3:45). 

I suspect that we’ll have to go to the cardiologist about that (BP), but he has already said that they are doing all they can and he has no more ideas to try… her heart is just not pumping as strong enough.  Not the most encouraging prospect.  I sure appreciated Isaiah 40:28-29 this morning.

But I want you to know that we are having a great Christmas!  We have enjoyed shopping and going to see the lights.  We’ve had fun fixing Christmas gifts for our neighbors together… going to give them some of Harriet’s ‘nuts n bolts’, some tomato relish and pear preserves that we made… having fun with our “orange parties” and watching Christmas specials on TV.  We have a little ‘magic box’ that Santa put under our little tree and every night he has added some new little treat to it.  We enjoy our beloved church family more every day! God is just so GOOD to us and we can’t thank Him enough! 

After the surgery in Harriet’s arm last Tuesday, Dr. Morris said that it will take about 2 weeks to determine if it will be useable.  Needless to say, we are praying specifically that this new fistula will work as it is supposed to.  The nurses at dialysis are still not able to hear a pulse thru this area and seem to be a bit concerned that it may not be working.  We are confident that the Great Physician who stopped the woman’s bleeding in Matthew 9:20 can keep the blood flowing thru Harriet’s arm.  Would you join us in praying that way?

Harriet continues to have a lot of pain all the way down her right arm.  There are 22 staples closing the incision that goes all the way across the inside of her elbow.  I will spare you the pain of having to look at a picture of it.  She said that it hurt even more when they took the bandage off and she got a look at it.

I was so thankful that she was able to speak at the women’s Christmas luncheon and many of the ladies told me that she was a blessing to them. 

Trying to impress my grandchildren how dangerous it is to use an axe, I gave a sufficient demonstration.  I think I overdid it by splitting my thumb with the axe.  The blood and gore convinced them of the lesson I was giving.  I won’t be doing much typing until my thumb heals a little more.

Cut up thumb!