I'll be heading back to Spain in just a couple of days' time but, for those of you who've been praying regularly for my Dad, I'll continue to give an update now and then as the weeks go by. He's doing fine, even though progress is quite slow. His main obstacles on the road to recovery, and the things we're focusing our prayers on now are:
a) nutrition: Eating food is the hardest thing for him at the moment, as he has no appetite and still finds everything a bit "tasteless." But he knows that he can't go home from hospital with a feeding tube up his nose, and that he needs to make a lot of progress in terms of eating for himself. He tries his best to eat a little every day, but it's a struggle as many weeks of illness and medication seem to have badly affected his taste buds and things have a horrible metallic taste.
b) mobility: Dad's keen to work hard at his physiotherapy, as he's tired of lying in bed and would love to start getting more mobile again. He sits up a little every day (most days; it depends which nurses are on duty) and physiotherapists help him with exercises and get him standing up with the aid of a hoist (see photo.)
Despite these sizeable challenges, it is truly amazing that Dad is still with us in 2012. There were so many times in November when we were told that he had only days or hours to live, and even in December the ICU doctors were telling us that they didn't believe he could make it. We know, however, that people all over the world have been praying for Dad: in different parts of Europe and Asia, down south in Australia and South Africa, across the ocean in the U.S. and Canada...
Before I go back to Spain, I would like to compile a list to let Dad know about the many people who have been standing with him in prayer. If you are one of the people who have been following this blog and praying with us, then you have also been part of the miracle. Would you mind sending me a short email, or leaving a short comment on this blog, so that I let Dad know about the many around the world who have been praying for him during this difficult time. Thank you, and God bless you.
One of Kasey's cats had kittens back in October and my brother, whose cat had died earlier in the year, was persuaded to adopt two of them. Gizmo and Pepsi (middle picture) are almost three months old now and are very cute. Meanwhile, back in Spain, my own three - Tamba, Tobi and Teddi - have been looked after by friends during my absence. I've never been away this long before; hope they recognise me when I get home on Monday!
I can hardly believe it's only three days until I head back to Spain; I fly on Monday, the date originally planned when I booked my ticket to come home for three weeks at Christmas. In fact, it'll have been ten weeks since I made my emergency flight home when Dad lay "dying" in intensive care.
Monday, the day of my flight back to Malaga, will mark the beginning of the twelfth week in hospital for Dad. We had a meeting yesterday with the "pain doctor" who simply told us that they think the medication is working now and won't need to be reviewed so often. Physiotherapists told us that he's trying hard to stand on his own, but his muscles are very weak and the exertion sometimes makes him feel nauseous. Rehabilitation could take quite a long time.
In order to make up for two computer-less days earlier in the week, I'll be working hard today and tomorrow to finish my presentations for Sunday morning. (This involves going into the attic to work on an old PC and edit the slides in Powerpoint.) And I'm slowly beginning to pack my suitcase with stuff that I'll be taking back to Spain with me on Monday.
Our electricity is back to normal now.... and the Apple Store have replaced my defective power lead... so tomorrow will see me able to get on with all my computer work again. Dad was doing fine again today, and it's encouraging that he's been pain free for several days now.
I got up bright and early this morning, because I had lots of work to do on the computer. I have a couple of powerpoint presentations to prepare for speaking at a church service on Sunday morning and, with hospital visits in the afternoon and evening, and other ministry work to catch up on in the mornings, I'm beginning to be aware that time is getting short if I've to complete the slides before the weekend.
When I switched on my laptop, I got a surprise to see a message telling me the battery was low; I thought I was running on electricity. You can imagine my dismay when I looked down and realised that my power adaptor wasn't working any more and that I would be computerless in only half an hour. I would need to make a trip to Glasgow to get a new power lead. So I switched on my Mum's computer and went on the internet to find the phone number of the computer store. Just as I was writing it down, the computer screen went blank and suddenly the whole house was plunged into darkness. It was a power cut, and that not only meant no computer and no internet, but also no heating, no lights and no telephone. Looking out the window into the early morning gloom, I realised that the gale force winds (around 160 kph) had probably felled a tree and damaged a power line.
The tall trees in the lane behind our house were swaying and groaning precariously: rather scary when you considered that our house and the greenhouse would be right in its path if one of them were to topple over. Some smaller, thinner trees were blowing almost horizontal, and I was amazed that they weren't simply uprooted and blown away. It shows that even the weakest tree can withstand the storm if its root system is strong and deeply anchored.
The electricity still hadn't come back on by the time we left for the hospital, and all my calls from a cellphone to the computer store were met with an answering machine. Whether the store was really closed or whether their phones were down like ours, I'm not sure, but I couldn't have got to Glasgow anyway, as the electricity failure meant that many trains were cancelled. As we drove to the hospital, we counted almost twenty fallen trees - all along the road at Callendar Park Road and then again in front of Dollar Park. In fact, we had to take a detour in Falkirk because one road was closed due to a huge fallen tree lying right across it. I noticed that the fallen trees were either huge ones with old roots that had gone rotten, or they were new plantings where the roots had not been anchored deep enough. No wonder the Bible tells us that we need to let Christ dwell in our hearts through faith, so that we can be deeply rooted and anchored in God's love. If our faith is superficial or our love has grown "old," we may not have the resilience needed to weather life's storms.
Dad was doing well again today, beginning to eat just a little more, and pleased to report that he didn't have any pain today. His nurse told us that his protein level is slowly improving and he's now at the top of the waiting list for a bed in the rehabilitation ward.
When we got back home this afternoon, we discovered that we finally had electricity again. However, I'm still without a computer to prepare my messages for Sunday, and will need to catch a train into Glasgow tomorrow. Fortunately, the wind seems to have subsided again and so there shouldn't be any more power or public transport disruptions.
On the first day of 2012, we're pleased to report that Dad had a comfortable, almost pain-free day. It may have been a public holiday, but it was quite a busy day for Dad: sitting up in his armchair this morning, welcoming some visitors in the afternoon, continuing to work on his physiotherapy exercises in the evening... Small wonder that he told us he was feeling quite tired, and that he also spent part of the day just catching up on his beauty sleep.
As the old year ends and the new year begins, they say that "Auld Lang Syne" is the most sung song in the world. On this video clip (click here) it's performed by Norwegian singer, Sissel, to a backdrop of beautiful scenes from God's creation, with a prayer, a poem and a challenge for the new year. Hope you enjoy it.
