Latest in Weaverville...

This past week has been hectic to say the least! Thank you all for the cards, emails and phone calls. I'm terribly sorry that I haven't had time to respond individually....but I promise I will try once we find a new 'norm' around here.

On Monday, the oncologist came to see Mom at the hospital. He said that he wanted to bump her up to a stronger chemotherapy medication - meaning it should work faster, but she will most likely have worse side effects. He also said that he should know within 2 months whether this chemo will be working. Basically, if it doesn't work, we've got no other options. Tuesday, after hours of fighting (well, maybe fighting isn't the right word...we'll say disagreeing -- something a little loudly, haha) with the nurses at the hospital as well as home health, she finally was able to come home after a 27 day stay at the hospital! She came home on IV medications with pumps and such. So, the way they had explained it to me was that the home health nurses would come to the house to take care of stuff. In reality, though, the home health nurses have taught me how to mix drugs and use the pumps myself, since they keep saying 'you'll have to be here 24/7'. So, 'Nurse Meredith' (who never had an earthly desire to be a nurse and STILL doesn't) has had to rely upon the strength of the Lord to get through this time. I am mixing drugs - just the vitamins in the TPN, but still it involves vials and needles with big syringes. I am flushing out her line and hooking up new tubing to her IV/Cath line. And, I'm in charge of the ileostomy bag - the bag that just doesn't want to stay on for more than 72 hours at a time.....and these bags always choose to leak before I get out of bed. :( Nervous, tired and just plain worn out at 6:30 in the morning doesn't make for a nice nurse...but again, God's giving the strength. On Wednesday, we went to Effingham for Mom to start this new chemo drug. She did very well through the treatment and has had none of the allergic reaction/side effects to be present as of yet -- definite blessing!

On Thursday, she was actually up & walking around (with the help of someone carrying her med pumps). She had a pretty decent appetite as well. Friday came, though, and the normal 2 - 7 days of 'blagh' after chemo seem to have set in. She slept most of the day Friday and Saturday. She hasn't seemed to have been in as much pain as she was, but she's getting lots of pain meds, so maybe that has something to do with it.

OK, there's the update on how the week went. Here comes the praise reports and prayer requests.

Praises: We're so very thankful that Aunt Peggy was here a LOT this past week, helping me get the house reorganized, cleaned up and doing cooking while I was setting into a routine with Mom's medicine! I'm also thankful that I worked as a Pharmacy Tech in the past & the pharmacist taught me how to do some TPN stuff then -- shhh don't tell. I'm also thankful that when Grandma was living & taking insulin, I was able to give her a lot of her shots - allowing me to not be uneasy about it now while giving them to Mom.

Requests: We're continuing to pray for healing...God is still in that business! Please pray for continued peace. We know that the peace of God has been residing here, but sometimes we have trouble claiming it. :) And, please just continue to pray for Mom.

One last thing....we did have an awesome experience. On Monday night, Mom got really upset after the oncologist told us about knowing within 2 months about the chemo. Anyway, when she got really upset, her pain rate went up and we had trouble getting it under control. She asked me, Michelle and Aunt Peg to stay the night with her. So, while Chelle & Aunt Peg were sleeping, I was sitting up with Mom praying. I remember distinctively praying that God would send His angels to give Mom peace and relief from pain. Around 4:00, I woke up to Mom yelling 'Meredith, Meredith! Wake up! The angel is here, my pain is gone, and the angel said to wake you up and let you know he's here.....just look at him!' I prayed God would give me eyes to see, but that didn't happen. However, I didn't need to see that angel with my physical , because I knew that God had answered prayers and given Mom rest. The nurses and staff laughed at me and Mom...saying she had enough drugs to make her hallucinate - which she did. But, they must not know the God that I know and they apparently don't know about His love for my mom! Thanks again for all your prayers -- and time in reading this!

Fog...

Don't you love when God uses nature to teach you a lesson? Then you forget it, and He teaches it to you all over again.

A few years ago, I was driving home in the fog. At that time, I suffered from panic attacks. If there's ever stimulus that will bring on a panic attack, fog is one of them. As I was driving and starting to panic, God said "This is a good example of how you're to be living your relationship with Me. Just look immediately in front of you and I will show you the way. I don't show you all of the steps of the big picture, I show you step by step....one at a time."

Well, life's been crazy, yet mundane lately. I am at home taking care of my parents right now. It's not by my flesh's choice, but by the choice of following God's Will and being here where He's put me. Mom's been so sick off and on since her last chemo treatment...everyone hates to see a loved one sick and feeling awful. Daddy's Alzheimer's seems to get worse everyday, which is sad and frustrating to watch and live with.

Anyway, tonight while I was driving home from some prayer time at church, I got to thinking about the future. I was thinking how scary it will be when Mom and Dad are gone. I mean, it'll be sad enough for my parents to be gone, but scary because I won't know the next step I'm supposed to take. I mean, right now, my job is taking care of them, and my home is their home. When they're gone, I'll not only be an orphan, but an unemployed and homeless orphan. It's a whole lot overwhelming when my brain really thinks about it.

Tonight on my way home, there was really thick fog. I was already feeling anxious about the future, but then there I was in all of that fog. God used it as a re-teaching time. Tonight I realized that when you're driving on a dark, country road, you normally have your headlights on bright. When it's foggy, you have to turn them down to dim to keep from being blinded by the whiteness. It's the same with God...we need to be looking immediately at Him and His leading directly before us, rather than being blinded by all the circumstances of the world around us. With my lights on bright, I can "see" a lot more...I can see lots of thick whiteness all around me. With my lights on dim, I cannot see as much, but what I do see, I see more clearly.

I suppose foggy nights aren't so bad to drive in....as long as my lights are on dim.

Who sprains their foot?

On Monday, I found out something of which I was previously unaware. My foot has been hurting since it popped one day in Florida back in May. Finally, it hurt bad enough that I went to the Emergency Room (since I can NEVER get into the doctor's office). They took an X-ray of my foot only to find no break (which the doctor was thinking it was). He said that I had a sprain in my foot. Apparently the ligaments around the bones in your foot can stretch and tear just like ligaments anywhere else. So, the diagnosis was that I have torn ligaments around the arch of my foot.

Treatment....is to wear this ugly post-op shoe/boot for 7-10 days trying to keep it elevated as much as possible. I am told that it can take 3-6 weeks for a sprain to heal, especially since he thinks it is a severe one. Oh yaay. Here's a couple of pics of my ugly shoe!

John Hancock Observatory

The view from Hancock Observatory...94 stories up in the air! The elevator to get up all those stories takes somewhere close to a minute. Talk about ear-popping!

Washing windows is hard work that high up!

Another view of the city.

Mom & Daddy on the skywalk...all that holds you in are those steel beams and window screens.

Fountain at the ground level of the observatory.

Skyline cruise

After Wrigley Field, we went on a cruise down the river and into the lake. The Skyline cruise was lots of fun!

Photo-op!

The new Trump building that's going up now. It seems very economical. I think they said the penthouse has already been bought for something like $27 million.

Mom got tired waiting for the cruise...so she found a couch. She seems to think that she's royalty, perched on her golden couch!

Apparently Oprah lived in the building at one time...it has an awesome view of the lake.

It was a little overcast on Tuesday, but I still thought the skyline was awesome!

The tour guide had really corny jokes about Chuck Norris all of the time, but it was still fun.

The lighthouse was really cool, but this was as close as we got.

Awesome sailboat tour taking place...I think theirs was more expensive than ours.

This building has connections to Al Capone. Apparently, the top of the building was a speak-easy. The elevator is big enough for a car. So, Al would pay the elevator operator to leave his car in the elevator on the 54th floor with them. That way if the police were coming after him, the elevator was up and they had to walk up 54 flights of stairs....giving him plenty of time to ride down and escape. That's some smart thinking!

Wrigley Field

Daddy has been a Cubs fan for, well, since before I came along. So on Tuesday, we got up and hopped on a bus to surprise Daddy. Here's the shot of his face as he realized we were across the street from Wrigley Field! Talk about priceless!

It wasn't a game day, which was nice - no crowd to deal with!

Daddy was so happy, it was cute!

More cheesy tourist shots! "Take me out to the ballgame..."

Arlington House Youth Hostel

Since this was a "backpacking" trip, we stayed in a youth hostel. Plus, it was a lot cheaper. It was an experience for Mom & Dad. We got a private room with a private bath, so they didn't get the full experience, but it was still an adventure.

Since this was a "spend as little as possible" trip, we stopped at the grocery store on the way back from Chinatown and had sandwiches & such in our room. You'll also notice the map on the desk...I was plotting out Tuesday's events.

My bed was broken...like the springs were literally coming out of the mattress, so I put extra blankets and sheet on the floor. Roughing it!

Here's our air conditioner...along with an open window! Once the sun went down, it wasn't really too bad. Actually, we could hear a bunch of students out playing/writing music down the street, so it was a pretty interesting night.

Chinatown!!

We didn't make it to Chinatown until after 6 PM....so most stores were closing and it was beginning to get dark. But we got a shot of the mural..

These people acted like they didn't want their picture taken...but I know they were ecstatic that I snapped their picture!

The gate...
Mom does not like to try new foods because she is so picky. This proved to be something she didn't like! haha

Daddy, however, enjoyed his very much!

You can see a guy walking toward us in the picture I took of Mom. He wouldn't quit talking to us and he was talking about "super-rats" that were biting people's necks and were bigger than raccoons. Anyway, he was a little strange and we couldn't shake him, however, he was hungry and we gave him a dollar. Since we gave him money, he showed us the escalator so Mom & Daddy didn't have to walk up the steps to the El train. He said he wanted to earn his money. See? When you're going about God's business, He provides protection!

Navy Pier

We found out about the free trolley ride that you can take to Navy Pier, so of course we hit that up since it was free!

The famous Navy Pier....

The Ferris wheel...actually we found out interesting information about this during our cruise. Apparently the Ferris wheel was built for the World's Fair when it came to Chicago. Well, it's a long story, but an interesting one...look it up sometime!

Mom & Daddy...yeah, look close, they're in the green and blue shirts under the sign!

Chicago Cultural Center

OK...so we did go to the Center, but yet we didn't really. lol We needed a city map and to buy a visitor transit pass. So we went to the tourist info at the Cultural Center. This is definitely a place of interest on the next trip we take there!

I can't remember the story...but I know there's some significance to this bull.

The tiled ceiling in the entrance.

The beautiful Tiffany stained-glass dome...another thing that I've found makes me dizzy to look straight up.