Long past due update

Hadn’t realized how long it has been since I have bee on the blog. Time seems to be just flying past. Not sure how I keep busy doing nothing. Napping most of the afternoon does speed the day by. I know I am napping to much as it is causing me to be up later in the evening.
It was a good summer, got to spend some time with both daughters and families. Love my little princesses.
By my standards it was too hot with high humidity far too many days. Breathing is much more difficult when it is like that.
Medically, not a lot has really changed. I am scheduled for another heart ablation on Oct. 23. That though is dependant on getting my blood work in line. I take warfarin to thin my blood, reduces risk of a stroke. For the ablation if blood is too thick greater risk of major stroke, too thin greater risk I’d bleeding out.
I am hoping they can go for it. Had an ablation in I think April, at the same time one of the heart meds was increased. Not sure which to credit or a combination of both as made things better. In one way nothing has changed in that I still have my episodes almost nightly. Light headed dizzy, wonkie head, falling, heart acting up. Improvement is everything while being the same the severity has lessened. I am more careful in getting up so yes I have fallen but I guess I am more prepared. If I fall now it is back on to the bed or back into the chair. Haven’t actually hit the floor in at least a couple of months.
The light foggy head thing is more frequent but also not as severe as times in the past.
Realizing more and more, this body of mine just doesn’t have the energy it once did. The constantly being tired, no energy, lethargic is getting to me. I am in God’s hands what better place could I be

Urgent Prayer request PLEASE – Parents nightmare

Our dear blogging friend Mel and family are going through what has to be every parent/grandparents worst nightmare. It is beyond anything I can even begin to imagine.
My last post was a prayer request was the new born grandchild. Born with 3 heart defects and given very little chance of survival. The little guy has been transferred to a different hospital and will today undergo the first of 3 very delicate and complicated, very high risk surgeries.
I have taken the liberty of again coping and reposting Mel’s post from her own blog (on blog roll).
The pain, the worry is so obvious in her words. Prayers please.
Mel’s post:

There’s something weird about a children’s hospital going by “CHOP”.
The wee fella had his first airplane ride–at 2 weeks of age. Quite the birthday prezzie if you ask me.

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia provided the mom and dad with the second opinion–and gave the wee one a 50/50 chance of surviving the first surgery. He’ll need three (at least) heart operations and, if he survives, a transplant when he turns 12 or 13.
How could you NOT take the chance? The other option was to do nothing and opt for ‘compassionate care’. They took the chance. And the photo is himself arriving at the Philadelphia airport. They were kind and let the mom go with him in the plane. The dad had already left for Philadelphia. In fact, the dad was IN Philadelphia before the baby was.
Mostly because they had the wee fella loaded up and in the plane on Sunday……and decided there was a malfunction with the plane and the equipment necessary for moving the baby from point A to point B. So back they went to the hospital in Iowa City…..and they promised they’d send a different plane and different equipment Monday–which they did. And that’s how dad ended up there before the baby! It’s also the story of how Nana got to spend the night with the wee fella and mom before they departed Monday. It’s also how I managed to make Monday’s departure without falling apart. I did all that on Sunday, dontchaknow……
There was something about seeing the elevator doors closing with the mom and the baby ( along with 5 CHOP personnel), knowing that might very well be the last time you see your grandson….knowing your child was going through all this ‘stuff’ without your physical presence.. *sigh* Still hurts my heart to be here while she’s there contending with everything (not alone, mind you….just without me….).
No tears on Monday.
She asked me to be HERE to help take care of the Bug.
So that’s what I’m doing….that’s what both ‘grandmothers’ are doing.

No tears today. I grabbed soccer shorts, long sleeve shirts and new shin guards for the Bug since she started soccer practice this evening.
So no tears today–just a lot of lovin’ from the 6 year old.

But Thursday….when the wee fella goes into surgery? …..One way or the other, there’s going to be tears.
I can hope and pray for ‘good’ outcomes, but I don’t know what’s ‘good’ in this case. I just don’t…. So I’ll just pray and thank the Big Guy for giving me the time I’ve had with the wee one and for taking such good care of the mom and dad right now.

And I’ll say ‘Amen’
…..but I’ll be meaning “but you KNOW what I want”…..
I’m sassy like that.

And that wee thing–he’s so stinkin’ cute…..

*sigh*

Posted by Mel at 8:38 PM 6 comments:

Prayers Please

I have been away from the blog for too long. I have been wrapped up in my own little world, forgetting live is carrying on around me. There are those going through so much and so in need of support.
A big thank you to blogging friend Lydia for giving me a little poke to look around and see what friends are going through.
Dear blogging friend Mel has written a heart breaking post. Every parents, every grandparents worst night mare.
I tried to actually copy Mel’s post to repost here but wasn’t able to.
I ask for prayers of support for the entire family at this heart breaking time.
Please visit Mel’s site listed on my blog roll, and leave prayers and loving supportive comments.
I have taken the liberty of copying Mel’s last post. Sadly, I was not able to get the picture of the most beautiful little baby that accompanied the following wording:

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
The labour of love

He was bourne on Labor Day.
Cute little booger….
I took this just minutes before he stopped breathing in his mother’s arms.

He celebrated 2 1/2 hours of normal living before it all went upside down.

Three heart defects, complicated by Downs Syndrome….
20% success rate for each of the three needed surgeries, and subsequent heart transplant, with the healthiest of Downs Syndrome babies–and he’s far from one of the healthiest. Yesterday they told us surgery wasn’t an option.

There’s a second opinion due today from a high caliber children’s hospital–but we don’t expect the answer to be different. It’s a matter of what the parents needed to do to be at peace. Even if the numbers are a bit higher, the doctors aren’t convinced he would survive the transfer. Things are just too fragile. Multiple times a minute they’re in the room adjusting something or other to sustain life in a very controlled environment.

Attempts to remove him from the machines controlling his breathing weren’t successful and didn’t lend to the hope of something different for this small fella that’s my grandchild.

Today, the parents are allowing friends and family to visit for the first time. It’s just been the two grandmothers and two close friends to the parents, to date. It’s all they could handle.

Baptised yesterday…tomorrow he’ll be removed from the machines and will be held by his mother and father until he finds eternal rest.

No, it’s not ‘right’ or ‘fair’.

But G-d chose the two VERY best parents He could find to love this wee fella from the moment of inception to the moment he goes to Heaven

Random thoughts on life – feed back please

Was poking around in the blog here and found I had 141 different saved draft posts. Often I will get an idea for a post. Times I know I don’t have the time or energy to write a full post but I have what to me seems like a great idea at the time. Being memory guy I know if I don’t write it down I will forget. So I come in and start a post writing just a few lines. Hopefully enough that when I come back there will be enough that it will jog the memory enough to bring back what ever “brainwave” I had when I typed those few lines.
I only made it through the first 20 or so drafts. Now I know I could go into one of my almost endless rambles but decided to try something different. I am posting a number of those ideas I had for various posts. I am asking for your feed back you input on these various thoughts. Then I will try get up my own. Feedback please.

Quite a while back I was asked a question, what have I learned from this whole blogging experience?
Where to even begin. I have learned so much, gained so much from this whole experience, I have no words to describe it.
I have made friends, granted I have never met them and most likely never will. But, through our communication I have come to consider many friends part of my cyber family.
I have received in the area of 9,300 comments from people literally all over the world, 167 different countries at last count. Now I don’t know this to be a fact but based on numbers I am assuming I have reached at least most of the faiths and cultures in the world.
I have always known this but it has really been re-enforced in my mind that people are people. Irregardless of anything we are all the same, kind, loving and caring. Just doing their best to get through their days.
Now obviously there are exceptions but those exceptions come from every walk of life, from every faith and from every culture.

People make themselves so busy in life they have no time to enjoy life.

Hate your life, your job……. What are you doing about it? Are you taking even baby steps to improve it or are you just wasting your time complaining about it?

We fear and don’t trust things and especially people we don’t know and precieve as being different from ourselves.

Many people maybe even most people have a very negative view of the world. Is news media to blame. Virtually all of the news we hear, watch or read is negative. Understandable that is how we view the world, that is all the information we are provided with upon which to base our opinion. What we forget is that for everyone negative thing that happens there are hundreds of thousands maybe even millions of good things, it is just we never hear about them.

One of our greatest strengths is our ability to adapt one of our greatest weaknesses is our ability to adapt. Too quickly at times we are able to adapt to circumstances in our lives that are unacceptable. We have adapted to accept this as the norm. We are in a unacceptable rut but lack the courage, determination or are possibly fearful of making changes. We settle in and stay in that rut.

If there was one person you would spend every moment of your life with wouldn’t it be nice if you at least liked that person. There is that one person with whom you will spend every single moment with. That person is you, yourself. Do you like yourself, do you enjoy your own company. If yes, good for you, if not what are you doing about it?

Every morning at some point be it washing, shaving or brushing your teeth you will find yourself looking at yourself in the mirror. As you look in that mirror are you proud, happy or content with the person you see looking back at you. If not what are you doing about it?

You can go to bed content with yourself if you know somewhere through that day you did something to improve or brighten the day of another.

We have become a society that expects instant gratification. Sort of like take one pill to instantly cure all the problems in our lives. If we don’t see a quick easy fix we give up without trying. I don’t have the time, don’t have the energy….. So nothing changes we stay in that unsatisfactory rut.

We put so much time into worrying about or complaining about what we don’t have in our lives. If we put that same amount of energy into appreciating all that we do have, we would realize our lives are pretty good.

Negativity is a total waste of time. It accomplishes nothing but sucks the energy right out of us. Cut negative people out of your life, they will suck the energy/life force right out of you. Sadly, it is much more likely a negative person will drag a positive person down than visa versa.

Life is to be lived not endured. Life is beautiful but it is one of those things that the more you put into it, the more you get back. It is worth the effort

The happiest people are those that have come to a level of acceptance of their current situation, and have an appreciation of all that they do have. That is not to say they are content with that situation and may well be working to change it. They do have an appreciation of what they do have at the present.

Having lots of opportunities to grow as a person

I just realized the date. The summer has just flown past. Not sure how I can seem to keep myself so busy doing really nothing.
Other than a couple of trips to the ER and various doctors appointments summer has been pretty uneventful. EXCEPT for the amazing time spent with family. Am I a proud Dad and grandpa, oh you bet I am. Picture me strutting around the room with my chest puffed out so much the buttons might pop. I really was in grandpa Heaven.
Medically, things have improved somewhat. The metoprolol has been increase twice. That has not removed the problem but certainly eased the symptoms I experience.
I do also though realize, I have learned to adjust and adapt to my new reality. Once you can do that, come to that level of acceptance. It becomes easier to deal with, it seems for me anyway. In the past month or so I have only fallen, hitting the floor once. A couple of others but I landed back on the bed or into the chair I had been sitting in. What can I say, memory guy. I forget, jump up to do something, do it to quickly and down I will go.
It is not that complicated to avoid this. If I am laying down, slowly push myself to a sitting position. Just sit for about a minute. I then stand but turn as I do so I am standing bent over using the bed to hold me up. I then stand upright again turning to hang on to the dresser. It is a nuisance but really not all that bad when you get used to it. I am getting better at remembering.
Medication has helped reduce resting heart rate to around 95. Heart still seems to have a mind of its own. There are times when it will just take off beating over 200 beats a minute and become very irregular. The heart monitor they surgically implanted a couple of monthes ago shows the heart often kicks into high gear early in the morning, waking me up. Possibly I am dreaming, unfortunately it is very rare for me to remember dreams. Hey, I am a guy so I am going on the theory it is very hot, sexy dreams. Lol. Just wish I could remember them.
I am on the October rooster for another ablation. That is all I know at this point.
Life has its little bumps in the road. I know I will get over each bump, it just seems to sometimes take me longer to adjust. Once I do life is back to being great.
Recently read something. Not sure where or due credit would be given. It was something like: ” I have never met a strong person that that has not had troubles in their past”.
It is through the bumps in the road that we grow as spiritual being, grow to be stronger better people.
At every bump we are given a choice: grow and become stronger or let it side track and destroy us.

A picture of a proud Grandpa’s hands

There have been a number of requests for a picture of grandpa’s stylish hands. Realized did’ have a clear picture showing detailed quality of the job done, by my granddaughters.
Went back through photos and found this one from the last visit. This gives an idea of the high quality work. This time was a little more colourful, 10 nails, 10 different colours. Red, blue, pink, silver……

Grandpa Heaven

For the last 4 days I have been in what I would describe as grandpa heaven.
I was both blessed and lucky enough to have both of my beautiful and wonderful daughters visit. With them came not one, not two but all three of the most beautiful little princesses imaginable. OK, I may be a little biased as they are my granddaughters. Only one son-in-law was able to join us but Jake your presence added a lot. I thank you all for giving me such a wonderful weekend. I really am a lucky man. My only regret is I was just to tired to really join in the activities, those water slides looked like a lot of fun.
When my daughters were small, they loved making me “pretty”. That included putting nail polish on my fingers, putting clips and bows in my hair (yes, I had hair back then) and on occasion the make up came out. I was made “pretty”.
In the past year or two that tradition has been revived and grandpa gets his nails done and done in a very special, professional manner. I was looking pretty darn fine, 10 nails, 10 different colours.
I have to commend Uncle Jake for being such a good sport he joined right in and had his nails done in the same professional manner. We were both looking pretty snappy. That polish stays on for the duration of their visit. I get a bit of a chuckle sometimes when I see someone giving me a bit of an odd look. An old goat like me wearing nail polish. I just smile and think, if you had the chance to get your nails polished by a beautiful princess, I bet you would get them done. If you don’t you are missing out.
Well all good things must come to an end as did the visit. Now I am a sad grandpa.

Miracles at both ends of our human journey

Over the years my thinking has not changed a whole lot. I have been thinking of this whole “miracle” of death idea. Now first let’s be totally clear, any of my thoughts here do not extend to such things as suicide. Only the natural death we all face when the Good Lord takes us by the hand and leads us home.

I think we dread the thought of dying for many reasons but I believe the 2 big ones are fear of the unknown of what lies on the other side, even is there anything awaiting after this life. The other is the dread at the mere thought of leaving our loved ones. I think the second is the biggest for those left behind. They face a life forever changed. A life with a big hole in it.

Personally, I do believe in an afterlife. Exactly what that is I don’t know, I like to believe it is straight to Heaven. That belief has helped me deal with so much over the past years.

My last post was on the “miracle” of death. I had never exactly thought of it in exactly that way but close. I went back and found a post from the very first week of this blog. My feelings even way back then were pretty much in line.

This is from that early post:

Came across an interesting thought the other day. I am not sure I must have read this somewhere or something. I don’t remember, maybe having so much time to just think I maybe dreamed this up all by myself.

This requires a little use of your imagination. Now try to imagine this. Imagine if we could talk to an unborn baby, a baby all safely tucked away in its mothers womb. We could tell that baby about all the wonderful things that are waiting for it after its delivery into this world. We could tell the baby about the loving parents that are awaiting its arrival, of how much it will be loved by sibling, by grandparents and lots of others. All, just waiting for the baby to arrive. We could describe the wonderful world the baby will be coming into. The marvels of growing up, maturing and starting a family of its own. Oh, there are just so many wonderful things we could tell the baby about.

Now lets use our imaginations again and try to imagine what might be going through that baby’s mind. Fine, it is being promised it will be greeted by many people that will love it, care for it and nurture it. Fine, it is promised a world filled with wonderful things, but try to imagine what might be going through that little baby’s mind. All it has ever known is the safety and wet warmth of its mothers tummy, where it is nurtured and cared for. Do you think the baby might be reluctant, inspite of all the promises, to leave the comfort and safety of the only home it has ever known. Do you think, maybe that baby would be just a little scared or nervous about entering this world. From the stories I have heard of the difficulties, some ladies have in labour. It almost seems like some babies don’t enter the world to willingly. Almost like they are fighting to the end, to stay as long as they can, in the safety of that womb. But, fortunately for the human race, after about 9 months God and mother nature step in and the baby is forced into this world.

I like this thought and take comfort in it. I think our time on this earth can be compared to the time the baby is in the womb. We are comfortable here and don’t want to leave. We are reluctant, inspite of all the stories we hear of the loved ones, that will be waiting for us and all the glories we will see that are beyond our imagination. Most of us are like that difficult child birth, fighting to stay where we are for as long as we can. We fight to stay, until God steps in, and ultimately forces the situation.

Miracle of Life – Miracle of Death

Two recent comments really have me thinking.i always encourage all to read the comments left and not just my endless rambling. I do know that the are at least some that do not.
Dear blogging friends Irene and Lydia have each left very thought provoking comments. They have indeed helped to re Aline my thinking.
For today’s post I am copying their comment with my reply to each.
Irene:
Dear Bill,
Something (someone…..perhaps God?) told me to check back in. Sure am glad I did! I’m not sure how I would react to life-threatening news but I hope and pray that I can make inner peace with it all. I’d like to think that it’s all in the Good Lord’s plan–that I need to leave to make room for someone else to try to make the world a better place. Most of us agree that birth is a miracle…so isn’t death just as much a miracle??
Thinking of you often and praying for you always, Wiseman.
Irene

Irene, my friend so nice to hear from you, it has been a while and you are missed.
You bring up such an interesting point. Birth is a miracle, so isn’t death just such a miracle. I need to give this some real though. Initial thought is I agree. It could be said anytime God steps in to actively take take part in my life, taking me by the hand and leading me onward, leading me to the next life would be a miracle. Only God knows when out time on this earth is done at which time He calls us home. I know God is involved in my life on a daily basis. It is just with these human eyes of mine I rarely can see it. When it comes time for us to pass from this world, God’ hand is at work in a such a obvious way that even these human eyes can see it.
Excellent point. I need time to go over this in my mind.
Thank you
Bill

Lydia:
Hi Bill. Finally taking some time to reply. First on quality of life — your post had me thinking back to my Great-Aunt “Tante Greta” who passed away in the mid-90’s. She lived into her 90’s and was more than ready to pass away due to her quality of life but when a medical emergency came and the ambulance arrived, there was no DNR or living will, and they revived her and she went on to live a few more years. She and others regretted than in years to come (not that people didn’t love her, I think it was just difficult for people to see her continued suffering).

I know that our society has an almost scientific view of medicine, that if an intervention can be done, it should be done, but I would say that it’s not always the case. I’ve heard they used to call pneumonia an “old person’s friend”. I’d imagine that decisions need to be made with much wisdom. In the senior’s home where we sing, there was one resident who fell ill and we felt sure the end was in sight, but she went on to make a recovery (she’s past 90) and is still a lively, fun and engaging participant in our sing-a-longs. So obviously doctors felt intervention would still be more beneficial than detrimental.

I like what Irene wrote about birth being as much a miracle as death. I believe that. A friend of mine lost her husband to cancer a year ago. He was only 54, a doctor still in the prime of his career and a wonderful guy. All were so saddened to lose him. And my friend, though she was torn up with grief, she recounted his process of dying and said it had been a miraculous death. There had been such a sense of God’s presence and even joy. No doubt it will be one of the most profound experiences of her life. What a paradox! My own sister’s death when I was 7 has been a bit like that for me. In a very strange way, I’ve been the closest to her in my family, as all my life I’ve considered her one of my angels guarding me. So who is to say death is not a miracle! A baby being born from the mystery beyond us, and a person passing on to the mystery beyond us, both of these are surely miracles, no doubt with God leading all by the hand, whether coming or going.

Your continued talk about accepting the limitations of life that you can’t change continue to be a witness to me. I still have much to learn in that department. My headaches have been better lately, but I know when I go through another round which “knocks me off my butt”, I really grapple with that acceptance part. I agree it takes a while!

Wow, who’s the rambler today! Thanks for all the thoughts to think about, hope you are enjoying “Terry Fox” day today!

Hi Lydia always nice to hear from you. I thank you for your “ramble”, lol. Please feel free to ramble as much as you like and as often as you like.
I am sorry to hear of your sister’s passing, it must have been difficult being so young. That she may be one of your guardian Angels would not surprise me at all.
I love your statement:
“So who is to say death is not a miracle! A baby being born from the mystery beyond us, and a person passing on to the mystery beyond us, both of these are surely miracles, no doubt with God leading all by the hand, whether coming or going.” I believe that says it all. Our time on this earth is but one cycle of our existence.
You are right our medical system is geared towards keeping our bodies alive. We are in fact not our bodies. We are Spiritual beings merely inhabiting that body during our time on this earth.
Somehow we have to come up with a better understanding of the difference between extending life and extending death.
Thanks again
Bill

Quality of life determined within our own minds

For about the 10th time, I just read all the comments left about quality of life, for which I again thank all. Each message unique in its own way showing how we determine quality of life truely is a personal and individual choice.

In one sense we live our lives in our heads. Our brain/mind controls everything from our bodily functions to our minds containing all of our thoughts and feelings which affect and control how we view life, our own lives and the world in general. So very much is dependant on attitude.
Our thoughts, our feelings and our attitude towards things can evolve and change over the years. The way my own thinking and attitude has evolved over the years is a perfect example of that. I look at my life today. While I am not happy about the many limitations on what I can or can’t do, I have been able to grudgibly come to terms with it. Reach a level of acceptance, coming to appreciate what I have as opposed to fretting about what I do not have in terms of physical limitations. With that acceptance, the way I view the quality of my life improved greatly. How my thinking has changed is. If say 40 years ago when I was young, tough, strong and stupid, if someone described my current quality of life and asked me if that would be acceptable. I know I would have laughed and said, if I ever get like that just take me out and shoot me. Meaning in my mind back then I thought it would be totally unacceptable, today I can accept and be relatively comfortable with. Got one one of my rambles there, hope it made sense.

I heard this somewhere: “one of mankind’s greatest strengths is our ability to so quickly adapt, one of mankind’s greatest weaknesses is our ability to so quickly adapt.” That I suppose is what I have been doing adapting to my ever changing reality of life. I can’t change whatever is my current reality, I have no control over it. All I can control is how I deal with it. I can accept it, allowing myself to reach a level of inner peace and contentment. Or, I can get and remain and angry and upset. Either way the situation doesn’t change. The only difference between the two is my thinking which controls the quality of my life.

Each time I take a “medical hit” it usually knocks me on my butt, with my mind running wild. All the negative “what if’s” jump to the fore front. I have down on my butt for the past while. The larger looming possibility of a stroke, flat out scare the crap out of me. It has taken a bit but I have reached a level of acceptance. I have no control over this, accept I have no control, let it go. If it happens, it happens, reach that level of inner peace.

I love my life, yes, even as it is. I want to live it not endure it. To do that I need that inner peace.