TRISH -- that isn't normal procedure here either; and my doctor will hear what I think about it when I go see him next week. He is a nice man and there will be no problem as he starts taking over DH care in the near future. The attending nurse was surprised he was being released, as was I. In the future I'll ask that the nurse tell me when I can talk to him myself; usually they do that anyways, but there was some interference here.
PRAYER REQUEST -- for my DAD : poor thing had bad news from the tests but he is braving things well at this point. He has a tumor outside the colon: that was why it was missed, but I am so glad that they kept looking until they found out what was wrong. He has already started radiation and chemo at the same time. They are trying to blitz it in order to shrink it over the next month, so they can take it out more easily.
I encouraged him tonight that he's a tuff guy and I know he can do it; they said as much themselves. So far he has had only a few side effects and sounds in good spirits despite what he is going through. I told him that if I can tuff it out, that so can he (and it is for only one month not four like I did). He may have to take more later on, but one stepatatime!
I THANK GOD for all the strength HE is giving our family at this time; we have been going through a lot, but HE just keeps us going. I took out my book of hymns one night and sang them for two hours, and that helped lift my mood for days. Then one night I found some beautiful songs on the net and I have been singing and listening to them too. They really help to lift your spirit when you need it.
THANKS, EVERYONE -- I know that he would appreciate that so much. He's been through so much lately and on a roller coaster ride himself. At least a half dozen times them thinking there was cancer again and finding nothing to finally finding this tumor. You get that terrible disappointed feeling, but then quickly get into "so now I gotta do what I gotta do" mode. That's how I felt too ...
No wonder he feels hit hard with two brothers with cancer and both passing recently; his wife with cancer over and over (finally gone after taking her bladder out); a daughter (me) with a huge tumor & chemo and his SonInLaw with Alzheimers; and of course, himself. They were half owners of the B & B that burned two years ago too and his part was only habitable early this summer.
STILL -- WE PRAIZE GOD for giving us all the strength not only to face all these trials as a family and individually, but we THANK HIM for giving us so many answers to prayer; so many great doctors and medical staff; such great medical procedures by so many great people; his healing touch in so many ways; so much faith; so many supportive friends & loved ones; and so much PEACE throughout all of this. The key thing is to keep going; no matter what.
And yes, it may feel like we are walking through H**L, but GOD can grant us the Serenity we need to make it through to the other side. HE has certainly shown me and other family members that for sure. I know GRACE is a very strong Christian lady and she has been so amazing through all of this. I cannot tell you the half of how many, many times in so many ways that HE has answered my prayers specifically before, during, and after. While I am still recovering from the residue fall-out from the chemo esp in my muscles and nerve endings, each day I feel that I am healing a bit more.
Then you add the DH thing on top of that; sometimes, I can't believe it myself that I am dealing with so much at one time. I know that JESUS must be carrying me through all of this for I know how weak I am; and how very strong HE is. I think I must call out to him at least 6-12 times a day "help me Jesus" esp when DH is having one of panicky hallucinatory episodes (like this am).
PRAISE GOD, a friend from down south has been working behind the scenes making calls for me (GOD BLESS HIS GREAT BIG HEART) to arrange for help for DH and me here at home. I have had so much to do with DH & doctors & hospital & appts & the PGT affair, and cleaning the house, etc. All with an aching body and a bum knee that is reacting badly to all this and dampness we have been having lately.
THANK GOD, that DH slept the whole night through last night; I got up every 3 hours to check. Hopefully, I`ll get a bit more sleep tonight myself. THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS -- they mean so much to us all ...
EDIT2ADD: this post made me think of this song by Josh Wilson ... CARRY ME -- enjoy!
PRAYER REQUEST -- could you pray that I am granted to be DH's Financial Trustee asap, as they (the PGT office of Ontario) have redirected our funds to Toronto; and they haven't put any money back into our checking account to cover our gas bill, our mortgage, and taxes which are all due on August 1st and 2nd.
I don't understand why they would do this, and risk ruining our perfect credit rating, esp after his Rep promised they would make sure the money was in there on time. I checked today and there is only what is left from last month. I purposely left some money in there to cover the lawyer's bill for the WILL & POA, which they insisted I do now too. Normally the money for the bills is in our account by now. I cannot see why they just didn't leave it as it was until a decision was made in this case.
We have only a modest income and to me, they are being irresponsible if they mismanage our money when it is in their hands. I have never missed paying our bills on time in our entire marriage (or beforehand for that matter). Plus, I praise GOD that I learned the gift of thrift even when our income was dismally small. I always paid our bills first and then made due with the rest over the month. THANKS friends ...
Last edited by Justwant2Bhealthy; 07-29-2013 at 02:39 PM.
EDIT2ADD -- I just got off the phone with DH's client Rep and she says that she is going to redirect our funds back into our account very shortly, so I'll keep an eye on that. I THANK GOD that I thought to get an overdraft protection on our account many years ago, as she says it may be a couple of days late. THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS & PRAIZE GOD for helping me in this situation. I hope everything will be settled soon; and will continue to pray until I see our funds back in place again ...
Last edited by Justwant2Bhealthy; 07-29-2013 at 11:09 AM.
THANKS TRISH -- I appreciate all your prayers and kind support here.
PRAYER REQUESTS -- for my BIL (Steve) who fell down the stairs in their home and damaged his knee (the right, I think) very badly. It is swollen with water, and he only has Tylenol 3 to deal with the pain. My sis reminds him to "suck it up buttercup" -- just a private joke they have going between them when it comes to pain ... Poor guy; his back was just getting better then he falls down the stairs and wrecks his knee.
AND FOR ME -- I have been under so much stress lately (with DH) that my blood pressure is now sky-high at 167/? over something. I was so shocked by the top number that I didn't pay attention to the bottom one. That is the highest it has been in my life. I have to get a monitor to see if the blood pressure issue is becuz of stress or weight gain from the steroids. Either way, I am already eating much, much better since I've been home.
I ran into an old friend yesterday and today; and she told me that she also had an ovarian tumor removed four years ago; and gained weight from the steroids. She said it is harder to get it back off too. The stuff really does it's job though; it stops the nausea and vomiting; but the weight-gain side effect has to be weighed in as a factor. My friend, RACHEL, says that she is doing fine with a substitute but she has lost weight (and I was already much smaller than her at the start).
Plus, he is checking my cholesterol too. So I am trying to eat better with almost no cholesterol for the next while. I want to try and get it to a good level by myself before taking any meds for it as the side effects are muscle aches, which I am already getting from the chemo, and the damp & rainy weather lately.
DH is so confused these days; he just came upstairs with one of my suitcases and said it belonged to some girl who has been living in our basement for years. I showed him the tag which has my name on it and asked him to bring what was inside up to me (but he can't find it). We had another very bad incident earlier this week; if that happens again, he will have to go back to the hospital. Today, I just told him to take care of things himself.
I just can't risk my health anymore; and my sleep has been so erratic lately. THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS ...
Last edited by Justwant2Bhealthy; 07-31-2013 at 09:39 PM.
Rosebud-I pray without ceasing for your situation. I know God will give you the means you need to deal with the gov't and help your DH. Those steroids can make bp go high and, even if you're not on them at this time, it can take months for those side effects to go away as it takes a long time for the body to break down the steroids and get them out of the system. If you can tolerate it, magnesium citrate powder (you can mix it in juice) helps reduce bp. But, must be careful as it also causes diarrhea. I've noticed also that, on days when I have to take my milk of magnesia (another form of magnesium), my bp goes very low.
RONNI -- Thanks for your prayers; and for that info & the magnesium tip. I have some magnesium and calcium supplements that I had bought just before I left for surgery; and they were just sitting here in a drawer -- I wonder if they would help? I think I'll take them for the next two weeks (when I see my doctor again) to see if they help; it's worth a try anyways ...
EDIT2ADD: my supplement has 167 mg of Magnesium + 333 mg of Calcium + 200 IU of D3 as well. The pills are enormous in size, so I had to cut it in half to swallow and still had a bit of trouble (I may break it up in four if that keeps up). My DH just chews some of his pills ... blech, but I may have no choice. Do you think that is enuff magnesium? They did an xray and said that I had osteo-arthritis in my right hip and lower spine (may be elsewhere, who knows?), so this is why I got them. My only concern is that I don't want to get calcium stones; that happened to two of my siblings and a few other people I know in person.
Last edited by Justwant2Bhealthy; 08-02-2013 at 07:56 AM.
Rosebud-The milk of magnesia I take has 1200 mg Magnesium hydroxide and the magnesium citrate powder dose is 3900 mg. When I take the Mg citrate powder I have to take only about 1/4 the dose or I'm in the bathroom allllll day-lol! So, I know a dose of about 1000 mg decreases my bp a lot (going from 120/80 range to about 90/60). That would be way too much Calcium in your system to take the combo tablets to get to the magnesium dosage you might need. The cheapest option, of course, is the Milk of Magnesia liquid. I get the magnesium citrate powder from Swanson Vitamins on-line. They're very trustworthy and reputable. http://www.swansonvitamins.com/swans...227-grams-pwdr
THANKS FOR PRAYERS AND WORDS OF SUPPORT EVERYONE -- they mean a lot to me; more than you'll ever know. Sadly, the PGT (Provincial Guardian & Trustee) did not put our money back into our account on time to pay the most important monthly bills as they had promised (mortgage etc). I have a wonderful financial advisor at our bank and they have offered to help us during this time. I had left extra in our account which will pay for all the utilities plus the overdraft can pay for an entire month of bills on top of that.
I don't want to touch our savings if I don't have to, so we'll see what happens. If they are extremely late and this goes on more than one month, I will be filing a complaint with the head office in Toronto/London; and may even contact our MP as well.
bbl ... gotta deal with some stuff with DH ...
To me, this shouldn't be allowed in a case such as ours -- where a married couple are both dependant on their shared incomes. We are married and have always been together; we are not single individuals and our finances are well looked after. When I talked to the rep and shared with her that I read the legalities of this issue on their government site that said when the person has a spouse or immediate family helping them already, there was no need to involve them (the PGT). Now the Rep is claiming they were misinformed about "the law"; and that the doctor felt he had an "obligation" to do it. What does that mean? Obligation to take OUR money away from us? I call that theft; and in any other case, that is what it is. I think that is a bunch of "hooey" ...
In the meanwhile, I am going to trust GOD that all will work out in our favor; and that the Rep will keep her word to not only return our money to us, but redirect our income back to us as well, so that we can get on with our lives in peace. I am also hoping some good will come out of all of this too. Today, I found a book on finances that I had read many years ago; and I am reading it again and have found a few more tips that I will implement when we get our money back. My lawyer also gave me some really good tips while I was there too.
I did something that I am so grateful and proud of yesterday -- I cut part of our lawn all by myself. Our neighbour is 81 years young and she cut her lawn with an electric lawnmower in two parts; half one day and the other half, two days later. I decided to try the same thing. I watched her and noticed that she walks very slowly, so I did the same thing and did wonderfully. First I did about 2/3 of the backyard from the house to the shed, then did the small front yard so it looks good too. On Monday, if it is sunny, I will do the tiny side yard and the third part of backyard. That saved me $30.00 alone; over the whole summer, that savings will be even higher. I felt impressed by GOD lately that he wants us Christians to become more financially savvy.
My financial tip this month is -- a dollar saved is a dollar earned.
This gives me encouragement to try the snowblower this winter. DH's brother encouraged me to try as did my sister and her DH as well. It is self-propelled so all I have to do is walk slowly behind it. BIL says that I just have to be sure to dress warm on the cold days, and cover my face well. Well, I figure if I can't work and make more money, I can at least look for even more ways to save some. I already cut our own hair and that saves us $15.00 a month or more.
We've had and on and off all day here. I hope it will stay clear enuff for me to go to my walk to the lake tonight. There is a bit of a wind out there, so I will need a jacket tonight. I think I`ll go a bit earlier too so that I get home earlier.
Last edited by Justwant2Bhealthy; 08-03-2013 at 07:05 PM.
So, my husbands cousin is in the hospital dying of cancer. We went to see him today and to see him in that state really shook me up. A friend of his from church came to visit him while we were there and read him some scriptures and my husband gave him a priesthood blessing (but it just didn't feel right, I can't explain it) Anyway, I hate hospitals and the only reason I went was because that scripture came to mind 'visit the sick and the afflicted' so I sucked it up and put my scared feelings aside and went. I just felt like us visiting him now and giving him the blessing and my mother in law saying that we'll pray for him and put his name on the prayer roll at church is all just too little to late--like we waited to long to care and now that he's dying we're going to pray for him. I know that we don't know him very well, I've only seen him once before today but I feel like what we did today was just hollow, empty. I know God hears all of our prayers I just wish that we had cared enough a long time ago and that maybe that would've made a difference.
and dampness we have been having lately. 
Poor guy; his back was just getting better then he falls down the stairs and wrecks his knee. 
on and off all day here. I hope it will stay clear enuff for me to go to my walk to the lake tonight. There is a bit of a wind out there, so I will need a jacket tonight. I think I`ll go a bit earlier too so that I get home earlier. 
