A Fine Line

We are getting ready to bring Joel home from the hospital, and it brings up all kinds of questions.  He's taking ten different medications.  Because of low appetite, most of his food intake flows through his "G-tube," and consists of cans of Two-Cal, a product containing "corn syrup solids, sodium and calcium caseinates," and dozens of other ingredients, mostly vitamins and minerals.

We have cooked and eaten a healthier diet, stressing whole grains and minimal processing, since our marriage, primarily because of Pete's research following his colon cancer before I met him.   We know this Two-Cal can't compete with real food, and in fact, the doctors and nurses continually stress the importance of Joel forcing himself to eat even if he lacks hunger.  So I asked the nurse what we could put through the tube in terms of real food puréed or blended.  Nope, she replied, too much chance of clogging the tube and causing infection.

We will face a dilemma daily - how much do we try to "treat" Joel with alternative foods or home remedies, and how much do we try to duplicate the hospital environment?  We have great respect and gratitude for the medical personnel who have kept Joel alive and brought him this far, but we know also that they operate under constraints of licensing and insurance coverage and liability that prevent them from giving him some benefits, and cause them to give him extra treatments that aren't necessary or maybe even helpful.

In the emergency room after David's ambulance delivery, the nurse scrubbed my stomach in preparation for a shot of Pitocin, ignoring my protests ("It's just routine") until the doctor came in and concurred, "No, she doesn't need Pitocin, she's going to breast feed."   The one-size-fits-all routines don't fit all.  Prayer, discernment and medical advice will help us do the best we can for Joel.

Goals, One Day at a Time

I'm home for the weekend, and I needed to be.  God used this time for Pete to see a breakthrough for Joel in terms of understanding what's going on.  Yesterday we asked for prayers for wisdom and discernment for Joel on when to "tough it out" and when to listen to his body saying, "That's enough."  Today his chest X-ray showed more clogged areas so the doctor put a PIC IV tube into his chest and started antibiotics.  This is a setback - another tube into his body instead of tubes being removed, as we had this week.

The doctor, nurse and respiratory therapist all agreed:  "If you don't do these breathing exercises, sit in the chair and generally move around more, you will keep getting pneumonia."  His lungs are more susceptible because he's had pneumonia recently.  I am praying that the antibiotics help him feel better immediately so he has more energy with which to tough it out.

I think I was getting comfortable in the hospital, with an idea of "I can do this" instead of the desperate crying out to the Lord which we need to continue until full recovery and wholeness returns to Joel and our family.  Now we will try "One Day at a Time" goal-setting; Pete did this with Joel today and he was motivated to reach the goals by accomplishing the tasks.

Thanks be to God for continued "Yes!" answers to prayers, and granting patience to wait through the "Not yet!" answers.

Giving Thanks part 2

Good thing I've been reading the book "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp!   On Thursday I drove down to Mankato to watch Sarah's fastpitch softball team lose their playoff game to Chanhassen, 6-0.  That wasn't so bad, as that team had been winning many games by scores of 17-0 or more.  On my way home, I called Philip (on Pete's phone) to see if the church slowpitch game had ended, or if I should come in to Willmar to see the rest of it.  I decided to attend, and halfway to Willmar Philip called to ask me to bring ice - "Dad hurt his leg.  He heard his knee pop - he hyper-extended it."  Rats.  Pete called before I got the ice to say that a member of the opposing team had brought some from his neighboring house.  We enjoyed cheering the team on to victory, 20-13, while Pete sat on the bench and Jason K. substituted on the pitcher's mound.

After the game, Lois Nelson declared, "Peter whatever-your-middle-name-is Stadem, you are going in!"  We hemmed and hawed as we drove to DQ, where Andrew and Philip purchased their usual post-game Blizzards, but finally decided we'd better get it checked out.  Daniel came to get the boys and I drove Pete to the emergency room at Rice Hospital.  After an hour or two, the X-ray revealed a compound fracture of the tibia and an insignificant fracture of the fibula.  The doctor insisted on speaking with an orthopedic surgeon and phoned Alexandria, where a Dr. Nelson recommended sending Pete home with a splinted legs and orders to call Willmar the next day to schedule surgery.   We crawled into bed at 1:30am - well, I crawled; Pete and I gingerly raised his leg to the bed and he slept on his back.  Ibuprofen controlled the pain fairly well, though.

On Friday, after numerous phone calls to Willmar, Alexandria and Olivia, we journeyed to Heartland Orthopedics in Alexandria because no orthopedic surgeon in Willmar could help us.  As it turned out, no orthopedic surgeon in Alex could help us either.  Surgery has to wait until this week because the swelling must go down or they wouldn't be able to close the incision.  We waited almost two hours for Pete's CT scan, because a sudden influx of emergency patients kept the scanner busy.  When we finally arrived home at supper time, I took a bath while Pete napped on the couch, and then I did go to the Gatewood's barn dance for about an hour.  Biggest crowd yet and so fun!

So - no trip to Plain View Farm this weekend; no softball for Pete the rest of the season; no graduation parties for him on Saturday; no going much of anywhere (just a funeral and church) until the surgery.  On the positive side - no ligaments or tendons torn (they think); no terrible pain; no work for several days, so time to think and pray about some long-term issues we've been procrastinating.  The kids have been very helpful, including taking care of the turkeys.  Lots of folks are praying for us.  And bone heals well.  God is good - all the time!

Health Care

We are having an unhealthy year!  Daniel broke his arm (a compound open fracture) in November, so had surgery on Thanksgiving Day and follow-up visits in January, February and March.  Pete discovered a blind spot in his eye and an examination revealed retinal bleeding.  In January he received the first shot in his eye; a drug has almost stopped the bleeding and the doctor thinks it will heal completely.  It may or may not stay healed.  You can imagine the cost of a visit to a retina specialist; Pete has been there 3 or 4 times now.  Sarah had an appendectomy on Palm Sunday.  I have been to the chiropractor 5-10 times recently for a "frozen shoulder" or possibly just inflammation - the treatment is the same.  Now I've started physical therapy.

This will cost us our $5500 deductible for last year and this year; it will cost our insurance company a lot more.  But think of the results - a healed arm, a healed eye, a removed appendix with very little "down time," and (Lord willing) a healed shoulder.  A hundred years ago Daniel would probably have a crooked arm; Pete would have a blind spot and maybe lose his sight completely in that eye; Sarah could have died when her appendix ruptured; and I would have a painful shoulder for who-knows-how-long.

We complain a lot about the high and rising cost of health care.  But consider what we get!  If we choose to do all this stuff to make our lives longer, healthier or pain-free, shouldn't we expect to pay for it?  Remember the tragic story of the woman who had spent her life savings on doctors trying to heal her hemorrhaging?  Turned out not to be a tragic story, because Jesus healed her for free.  But the pathos of the initial introduction is not because she spent her life savings but because it didn't work.  If she had spent her life savings and gotten well, it would have been worth it to her.

I don't know when we'll (as a nation) run out of money to spend on health care.  I don't know if it's right for us to have treatments for retinal bleeding and frozen shoulders when children across the globe die for lack of a simple antibiotic.  But I do know that I'm not going to complain about the money aspect of health care, because it's worth every penny.

An Unexpected Appendectomy

Last Saturday Sarah had stomach pain all day; when we finally called the insurance nurse help line at 5pm, the nurse advised us to bring her in within three hours. At the emergency room in Olivia, I sat with Sarah (a much more comfortable Sarah with an IV for hydration and pain medication) until 11pm, when they performed a CT scan on her abdomen and discovered that her appendix was, indeed, infected and needed to be removed. In the meantime, I posted on Facebook and emailed the families asking for prayer. Pete had attended the Svea Wild Game Feed where Dad Stadem gave the message, but by midnight (after erroneously going to the Willmar emergency room) he arrived and I went home to get some sleep before the Palm Sunday service.

Dad Norling called just after I woke up, and wondered how everything was. When I called Pete, he said Sarah was walking around and would be home that day. Dr. Maland performed the surgery laparoscopically, so she has only three fingernail-size incisions.

After Sunday School Opening Exercises, I prepared the praise team stage and recruited Julie Gatewood to substitute for Sarah as a singer. While playing the prelude, I looked up and saw Pete enter our pew! He'd brought Sarah home and she felt good, so he came on to worship.

Praise God for great medical care. We shouldn't be surprised if we have to pay a good portion of our incomes, considering the almost endless list of procedures that improve our lives and health.