Monday, July 31, 2017

Waiting Has Never Been My Strong Point. . .

  I have often said, "I have the patience of a dead rat!" Nothing in my life has changed to make this statement any less true. Unfortunately, I am forced to dig deep in the 'no patience pile of poop' and try to conduct myself with dignity and some semblance of sanity as we have waited for three months to find out what is wrong with Tommy. 
  It has been three months of one unexpected health ailment after the other. Followed by one procedure after the other. Several procedures have been repeated and if the doctors have an answer; they are not positive enough to tell us. 
  Tommy has had sepsis and was in the hospital over Memorial Day Weekend. Never did find out where or why he had this. Then within a few days after being discharged he had 3 mini strokes and one real stroke. He was admitted to another hospital in the middle of the night by ambulance. I don't remember how long we stayed there. He had to go through another round of CAT scans, MRI's and blood work up the wazoo. His arms looked like he had been beaten with a baseball bat at times.There have been other admissions, tests, scans, and heart appointments. He is tired, and is still suffering from the pain of shingles he had in 2016. We meet with a neurologists to see if there is anything that can be done about the pain in his neck and left arm. This pain gives him a fit every day, all day long. We see the neurologists on Wednesday. 
  Today we wait for a call that is supposed to tell us what condition his liver is in. They did find a spot of cancer on his liver. If the spot is confined to that one area, they can do surgery---maybe, or radiation and chemo. So today we wait. And we wait some more for a phone call that may or may not happen.
  I want to thank everyone for your love,and your prayers. I want to thank you for all the crazy, funny things that have allowed us to laugh in the midst of tears. My favorite story about laughing in the midst of heartache came from Tami. We were staying with Tommy at the hospital when he had the strokes. They had taken him down for another CAT scan and we were walking the halls, drinking coffee and crying at times. When we got to the end of the hall we sat down and Tami looked at me and said,"You know Mama, I wouldn't be surprised if Daddy didn't eat his twin while in the uterus and the little left over brat is trying to get out of his stomach!!" I have no clue where this came from but I nearly spit coffee halfway across the hallway. I started laughing right in the middle of a bad crying spell! So we did both--we laughed, we cried and then we laughed some more. Neither of us knew what day it was and were pitiful to look at however,  we laughed until we quit crying.
 I thank God every day for our girls, for our crazy family and all the blessings God has given us. Tommy and I are a team and we don't give up on each other---no matter what life throws at us.  Love to each of you my friends. Thank you so much for your thoughts, prayers, funny messages,cards and messages straight from your heart. I have friends and family all over the world that I will never meet but they have stood with us through this messy road in our lives. Thank you to all the family we know and love personally. We are indeed blessed with love.