Birthday party and more :)

Yesterday the lad went to his first ever birthday Party. I took lots of pictures but I don't post pics on-line of other children because it's makes some mom's nervous. But I did take a couple of the lad. :)

After the party we went to Costco to see if we could find something for Jim's knee which is bunged up right now. (No)

then off to home health if they had crutch covers, (no) so off to Wal-mart to see what they had (ice packs meant for knees) YES! The lad had fun riding around on a bicycle. He knows which one he likes... but the one we like is just a bit bigger and will last longer... so we're thinking about it. :)

Then off to The toy Store which is having a 50% off sale since they've been bought out. We got some stuff. The lad had to do some math and problem-solving so we wouldn't take home too much as I can't afford it. :)

Then home, Gramma came to pick up the lad since we're off to Chatham today. So that's a brief update for you all. :)

My man and his weight loss

This is my Jim the Christmas before he got ill. So that would be 2009,


This is my Jim 2011 (about about 1 1/4 years later)
Isn't it impressive?

He's Mr. skinny now.
he'll deny it and say he's got some more to go.
But to me he's Mr. skinny, and I'm quite proud of him. :)

Stray Cats - Stray Cat Strut

One of Jim's favourite songs can be found here.

Another health update

Jim is frustrated.
He is chomping at the bit to go back to work and the doctor has said "No".
He is to take another month off.
He doesn't want to.

I expect he'll not preach for the month of February, but that he will start doing some work related things, such as the picky stuff of orders of worship. He might try to get starts on sermons done and what not. He will also, I'm thinking, do some phone visits, write emails/letters to people, and such like. He still needs to be alert to catching illness from people until he's all better so I imagine he'll be limiting his visits in person for a bit yet.

I'm not surprised that she said no work yet, when I see how easily tired he gets at this point, I think he needs more time to get back into things. I wasn't expecting a month, I was expecting two weeks, but hey...I'm not the doc. I don't get paid the big bucks. It's just a difficult thing for him right now.

Justin is at Oma and Papa's today. Jim has a funeral today, I have work, and I couldn't find a way around either for providing child care for him. He wasn't happy about it, but I know that he is safe and he is loved where he is. I HATE leaving a crying boy behind.

Me... I have an appointment at the hospital for a barium swallow. The doc wants to see if we can figure out why my wonky valve is being wonkier lately. Who knows... maybe it's turned into acid reflux disease (with it's issues), maybe I've gotten myself an ulcer or ???? I don't know. I know that since getting the acid blocker that I'm feeling that my pain levels are a lessened a bit though my tiredness continues all day until about 9 p.m. when suddenly I feel perky! I am hopeful that eventually I can eat fruit, drink hot lemonade and such like again. Would be nice. Time will tell.

The weekend here

So as you know, Jim is home again.

His blood pressure seems to be fairly stable at this point.

He is still easily tired out.

He is managing a brisk walk around the block.

He went to church on Sunday but was exhausted afterwards.

He is hopeful to preach the morning service next Sunday. Just the morning service, not the evening one. We have communion then so it would be important for him to lead that service.

God is gracious to us. :)

Jim is home!

so jim is home with a whack of meds to take.

Justin is pleased.
gramma is pleased.
i'm thrilled! :)

he's still not himself yet.

We'll have rounds of doctor/specialist appointments to keep.

but he's home.

Today's Health report

Jim had an MRI, an echo gram, and a bubble test all done today.

The bubble test is for making sure the valves of the heart work.
The echo gram showed he has no holes in his heart.
The MRI - they didn't have the results for yet.

The doctors are thinking he might be home tomorrow.

I found him tired today, but he didn't much sleep last night due to post-operative care for his room-mate. AND today they kept him very busy.

He's had ONE normal blood pressure, and a few within normal parameters. He's had a couple odd ball ones. He's on about six different medications. In time it is hoped that they can get that down to one or two, but it will take some time.

He was more coherent in his speech though he still has some facial paralysis.

He was more energetic in our walk about the place and even went down to Tim Horton's with me to get a drink (I was parched).

He still slurs his words a bit, but mostly when he talks to fast or can't quite get certain word combinations out right.

He has a bit of a road to travel yet ahead of him...weight loss, change in diet, change in exercise levels and such like.

I am feeling more hopeful. :)

Justin is having a hard time with dad being away so long. He cries easily yet but insists he is NOT worried about dad. He really didn't want me leaving today to go visit Dad and that about broke my heart....but I knew he was safe with Gramma. He was simply delighted to have me home again and we had a good time playing, having supper and then going to bed. :)

Me: I woke up feeling completely horrible, had a bad time at the vets office, and kinda fell apart today for a while. Other than that, I'm doing okay. I'm hoping tonight I sleep well and that I"ll be feeling less icky tomorrow. Cheers!

Wednesday afternoon update

Okay, went to visit Jim today.

I was there for about 3.5 hours. Would have stayed longer but had promised Justin I'd be home before supper.

John and Art stopped in. Good of them to visit. Jim TIRED when they left and they were only there for five minutes.

Met his Doctor. Seems like a good competent fellow.

He talked a bit about diet and exercise. To avoid processed foods, to follow a diet of some sort , to eat homemade, and to exercise for 45 minutes every single day. Whether that is done all at once or throughout the day matters not, it's just a matter of doing it every day.

Jim had his CAT scan. Seems he's had two TIA's in the past that have gone unnoticed.
His most recent has been upgraded to a minor stroke.

He is going to have a MRI done at some point.

He had a blood pressure done before I left that had the second number at 89! woot woot! :)

He'll be sent home IF they can keep the numbers down consistently. It's remained a battle to keep the numbers down. they go down, they pop right up again. So they need to figure it out a bit more yet.

Update on my Jim

He's had a TIA (not sure what that stands for, can anyone fill me in?)
anyways, jim says that means he had a micro stroke.
it's a warning to manage his blood pressure.

Doctors continue to fight his very high blood pressure. the second number in blood pressure hovers at the 135 mark (NOT good).

they are doing tests to see what is causing the blood pressure.
They aren't having a lot of success in the battle thus far. They can bring it down for a couple hours and then it goes up again. So it's a worry.

Me: I'm alive. :) Health still has it's battles. But my focus is Jim and Justin right now.

Justin: seems to be over his health battles, now to manage his stress levels. he's a worried little boy and needs to just play and have fun and not worry about daddy.

Gramma: worried for her "little boy" (that being Jim) and being a support with Justin and myself. She's staying 'in house' for a bit.

I covet prayers for my son, my hubby and the doctors.

Update on Hubby again :)

So Jim saw the doc first thing this morning.

His blood pressure is high, that might be a sickness thing though.
So he's on new meds for his pneumonia, doc thinks it's infectious pneumonia and on meds for his blood pressure.

altogether he's on five different meds right now.

A whole whack of blood tests was done on him.

We await a call from the hospital regarding his CAT scan.

Our son has a cold right now.

I no longer feel as though I have a vice on my chest but my energy levels aren't quite were I would like them and I still cough ALOT. And if I do too much my chest hurts again.

Aren't we all just a fun bunch to have around?

Regarding my very significant other

So my hubby dear is sick.
We all know this.

What we didn't know is that he is back to square one.
He really is not well.

Dr. called today after he had his x-ray done.
There is no improvement.

I could have told her that! I've been watching this man all week, he is just like he was the week before Christmas. Shivering, night chills/sweats, hot enough that I don't want him hugging me, not eating worth a diddle, and just quiet. Doing better with Justin's noise which is a boon.

So tomorrow we go in for a blood-test.
Then we await a time for a CAT scan. (yes, we need a professional Milo to give him a good going over). :) But seriously, we need to figure out what we can do for this man of mine and how to get him actually BETTER.

I WANT HIM BETTER! I really really do!

Update on Hubby

So Jim has had a set back.
more coughing
more ickiness
more lack of sleep.
more chills and sweats.

He's not a happy camper.

He'll be underfoot all day.
Good thing I love him none-the-less. :)

Our boyo has a cold.
I'm slowly getting better but still have a sore chest.
with interrupted sleep I managed to stay in bed until almost 8 a.m. Unheard of for me.

But life continues.
God continues to bless us and teach us much.

Impavid

Did you know that the word impavid means fearless?
I didn't know either...until I looked up a scrabble word that I played. Funny how sometimes you through letters together and go hmm... looks like a word, wonder if it is. And.. IT WAS!!!
rather cool that. :)

anyways... I'm not normally impavid, but sometimes I am. When it concerns my boy...by all means. :) When it comes to preserving the integrity of our household...indeed. But scary things on tv, spiders ON ME, intimidating people, sharing my faith with scoffers and other such things...nope, not impavid. With the last...should be cause it's not by my own strength, but none the less I am.

Update on Jim. He has up and down days. up days he tries to do stuff, down days he simply can't. Did the dishes for me last Saturday as J and I were away all day, it totally tuckered him out and there was only one sink full (not a big sink full either).

He coughed up some blood again the other day, that concerned me.
He went to church on Sunday and half way through the service he just wilted. You could just see it on him.

Sent our boy away to my parents for a couple of days (Saturday afternoon to Wednesday morning) to give everyone some quiet....we are a houseful of people who NEED quiet and alone time and this forced to be together all the time is not good for us. Jim normally runs a pretty busy life with lots of time away and he hasn't been able to get away (justifiably sick!) and I haven't been able to just be home by myself so stress factors were abundant. He's going over to the church this afternoon for a couple hours to work on a disfunctional computer, and I'm going to just putter (or possibly take a long bath which I very rarely do). Ah...I am SO looking forward to it. :)

Our boy didn't really want to go, but I know there that he is safe, that he will have fun, and he get some quiet time too. Here...he was just getting loud and angry, which wasn't working well for two parents who were feeling loud and angry inside of themselves too. My mom says he's doing better there which is good for a momma's heart to hear. Means I made a good decision. :)

Anyways, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, but I'm feeling somewhat functional. Best get on with the day then eh? :)

Cheers!

He made it to Church

Hubby dear I think was pleased.

He was able to make it to church yesterday.

We got there a wee bit late.

We sat on the balcony.

He was not able to sing, but he could mouth the words.

He was exhausted the rest of the day, but able to read new books with a four year old.

YEAH!!!!! :)

Update on Jim

He's off work until the New Year.
His right lung was completely infected and needs to do some healing.
His left lung was partially infected.
Pneumonia is not fun to deal with.

Then he'll be on limited work until doctor's visit on the 19th.

He's getting an x-ray on the 13th.

He's on a variety of meds.

He's up and down. One day he'll be so-so, the next day very tired.
He's NOT well.

He drives me crazy...I know he's not well, I tell that to people. They ask HIM how is he, and he says "oh, I'm fine." I'm fine from a man who gets exhausted drying six glasses or helping a child put away a bit of lego? That's NOT I'm fine. :)

Your continued prayers are appreciated.

Hubby sick

So Doctor called this morning regarding Jim's x-rays.

He's sicker than they thought.

Lots of damage to his right lung. It will take some time to heal.
Instead of the original 10 days or so she's now saying a month.

He'll need more x-rays to monitor things.

This day went different than expected

So today went a bit differently than I would have anticipated.

I anticipated calling one of the elders in church to say that Jim wouldn't be preaching. Did that.

Expected to take care of bunnies. I did.

Did not expect to see Jim looking worse than he did when he had H1N1, but I did.

Did not expect to call gramma to say please come and care for your grandson, your son isn't well and needs to be cared for.

DID NOT expect to be taking hubby to the doctor and then to get a chest x-ray. But I did.

Did expect a diagnosis of pneumonia. Didn't expect the concern that something more might be going on with him. We'll wait and see.

Tomorrow he has another appointment with the family doctor. We'll see what she has to say.

Expected to play games with the boy child this afternoon. Did that. :) Jim dozed off and on. Narcotics can be very good things. :)

Did not expect to make snowflakes out of paper. Did that. Found instructions here. :)

The boy child and I had a lot of fun today. He didn't want to go to bed. :) BUT he did (complete with Milo).

it was a day of some worry, some okay...things will be fine, and some smiles and laughter with a lad. :)

My Hubby....the repairman

Despite some frustration at not being able to find what he wanted when he wanted it.
Despite the inexpensive welder proving, well......not quite it's worth.
Despite tiredness and soreness.

MY HUBBY PERSEVERED!!!!!

He fixed the church's lawnmower that we use to cut the grass!

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it need welding and what not done.

I'm proud of my fella!

Proud of my hubbie

So today was the closing service of my parents church. 59 years of ministry this church had. It was a good service, very sad in some ways, and yet in other ways...good.

Jim, as president of Classis, did the liturgy of the service.

I was very proud of how he handled everything.

He let his emotion show without losing it.

Kept the whole service moving smoothly.

Excellent job hun!

Banner of Truth Minister's Conference

The Banner of Truth Minister's Conference.

This is a conference for male minister's of the conservative nature.

Jim goes every single year. He attends the one in Pennsylvania.

He comes back happy, refreshed and with loads of books.

What more could a minister ask for from a conference?

GO, check it out. Send your minister if you can.
You will be blessed for doing so. :)