Nan is free of nausea but gripped by pain

Dear Family and Friends,

Its 9:40, I just watched the sun set over the lake while chatting with my brother who is at his Sacramento home for a few hours. The lake is quiet, calm and reflects the various lights of homes nearby. Geese and ducks quietly paddle back and forth looking for a treat and a couple fishermen are trolling by looking for the last catch of the day. Their boats are silent due to electric motors.

Nan has had a tough day of pain in and around the tube in her stomach. At this moment she just cried out in pain, that usually means Starr is moving about none to carefully and has bumped something. Earlier this afternoon I was in Brentwood doing appraisal work and she called saying she needed me, the pain was too much so I dropped everything, did not go to Longs for meds or the grocery store for food, just came home as quickly as I could. We got her up from the bed and into her chair, cleaned her up a bit, changed the nightgown, gave her some of those yummy frozen gatoraide cubes. I remade her bed since one of the nephrostomy tubes sometimes leaks and it had. Checked her temperature, 100.4, gave her Lovenox shot, changed wound bandage, dry after 12 hours, gave her Adavan which is supposed to make her sleep and got her settled in for the night. This could be a long night, not sure why there is so much pain surrounding the tube and not sure how long to run the vacuum pump each time either. We just run it until nothing more is coming out and then quit.

Its time for her pain meds, her TPN and then sleep.

The bug repair person called today to tell me, yes the compressor is shot and a new one was $667 plus labor. He will only install a VW one, not Napa auto parts since he has had a run of bad pumps from other marketers. So that little bill with be $1,180 on next Tuesday. At least something to look forward to. This money things is a real challenge, so many places to pay and so little money coming in and by the way nan and I want to thank who ever gave money to the Recovery Fun. Loree deposited over $700 this week into the fund. We tend to save it until a crisis comes along and then use it as best we can. For example it might have to go to pay the Blue Cross premium this month which runs about $1,100 a month and worth every penny of it.

We had a wonderful surprise this morning, Steve and Keanna came about 11:15 to visit, Meleboo went for the lake and was in the water more than out for the next hour. Keanna fed ducks and geese and mom got to see her precious family for a few minutes. How we love to see them come, so fun and full of life.

Well its time to wrap it up again. I printed out the comments emailed to the blog for the last 2 days and read them to Nan today. I think it was one of the high points of the day, she smiled, made comments and genuinely appreciated all the helpful and positive things said. You made a direct difference for Nan today with those comments. Thanks

Tonight I will pray for pain relief and healing, for blockage removal, for tumor control and for God to do things we have no clue about that she needs.

Last friday night we went to bed at MBA in the motorhome in the cool weather and surrounded by family. We sure do remember that weekend fondly.

Sending our love from this house to yours, enjoy the weekend and your quiet time to worship.

love

tim and nan