Thanksgiving

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy Thanksgiving, we hope your day was filled with meaning, joy and appreciation along with some very tasty food.

Dana started yesterday to get ready for noon today. She started again this morning at 6 am and at 12:30 today the meal was on the table. Keanna helped set the table, fold the napkins, place the cups. Steve and Nikki were here briefly and after Steve saw the turkey he decided they could eat a quick bite. So we had Nikki, Keanna, Steve, Jason, Jo, Timothy, Dana, Marilyn, Clayton and me at the table. We had to create a side table there was so much food. Dana had me take a pie next door and we enjoyed the cheesecake they brought to us. Dana had prepared a 14.5 lb turkey along with a complete vegetarian meal. Everything was great and I don't think anyone went away hungry. Great job Dana and thanks very much. Also a special thanks to Ron, Dana's husband who was willing to share her with us. He was able to have thankgiving with his parents in Houston.

Our morning started pretty stressful as we were getting nan up and into the wheelchair only to discover that after many months her colostomy bag was filled and had broken. Poor Nan, weak from fever was covered with the results of a broken colostomy bag. The team went into action and Dana cleaned, Marilyn cleaned and then marilyn had to do a new thing, install a perk u stay as the one on nan's left side was totally destroyed with bad stuff. In about 45 minutes Nan was clean, in a new gown and on her way to the recliner where she has spent the day. What was so exciting was that the GI system had opened enough to send through a lot of stuff. We don't know if it will stay open and work properly or not but we were thankful to see it work this morning. Nan has spent a day of up and down temperature wise. She has been up to 101 and as low as normal during the day. The house was so cold this morning, 64, that I built a small fire which raised the temp to 71, too warm for her. So then we opened a slider allowing cooler air to come in.

Timothy had a hard time falling asleep last night as he was in strange surroundings. He eventually did sleep and the kids had a pretty good night after all. Clayton took over the motorhome and had wireless internet, TV, a furnace to keep him warm and a nice bed so he was happy.

This morning after the brief detour with nan the Macy parade came on and everyone enjoyed seeing the show.

It is an experience I know you enjoy, that of having family members come home and just sit around and talk, catching up with each others lives, talking kids, comparing child rearing, sharing dreams and frustrations. Nan and I both enjoy having everyone here and though we had thought our nurse Terry was coming by and also Pam we still enjoyed ourselves a lot.

It was with great sadness that I watched the kids drive away, back into their busy lives. Yet they gave so much by coming, they gave joy, hope, encouragement, reassurance, warmth and love. We are thankful that Nan is here today for yet another Thanksgiving.

Today I seek your prayers for the infection and resulting fevers. There is a general concensus that the infection is probably nested at the end of the picc line, yet I doubt anyone is ready at this point to suggest that Nan get a new picc line, she is just too weak right now. So the effort is to treat the infection by having antibiotic flow over the infected place. What is so different is this, in the hospital about a month ago when nan was troubled by infection in her blood she was receiving up to 5 different kinds of antibiotic every day, now we are having 1 antibiotic every 2 days. I think you can see why I am concerned and so far we are not winning with this infection. The effects on Nan are very obvious, extreme fatigue, some confusion, shaky limbs and flushed facial tone. She can hardly hold a glass of water or hold a phone at this point.

This would be a great time for God to do something really special, to lift her up and restore her to a better level of health. We promise to give Him the glory and recognition. However we know we are in His hands whatever occurs.

Special thanks to those who wrote messages to the blog today. We appreciate it very much. I print them out and let Marilyn and Dana read them and if Nan is awake she reads them too.

So we send our deepest thanksgiving wishes for you and yours.

love

tim and nan and marilyn and dana

ps. the photo was from a couple days ago.