Quick Update

It has been a rough week. I woke from my traditional Sunday afternoon nap last week to find my husband had experienced (another) mini-stroke and needed to go to the hospital. We stayed at the hospital, until Wednesday, while they watched him and he had several tests run. Ultimately they said it was a TIA (mini-stroke, which we already knew), that his left carotid artery (which he has had 2 surgeries on – endarterectomy and stent) is 100% blocked again and the other is 40% blocked but provides sufficient oxygen to his brain at this time. He is not a candidate for further surgery on the left carotid and they won’t risk surgery on the right unless it becomes unavoidable. So they prescribed a handful of drugs and sent us home. The doctor had mentioned the possibility of speech therapy but didn’t follow up on it. Bert’s speech is not 100% restored but he is able to communicate well.

I think the day is coming soon when we need to discuss scaling our lives back to a point where we could survive if Bert wasn’t able to work. Scary thought as we are NOT well prepared for that day! (Younger than me? Fair warning – It comes faster than you would expect! Save what you can, while you can!) I tried to discuss it with Bert but he is not ready. Back burner, for now, and another area to practice trust in God’s provision and timing!

While we were at the hospital a number of stress inducing circumstances occurred that have left me reluctant to continue sharing my life online. I have always known that blogs, twitter, Facebook, etc. are public and that whatever I choose to write is open to scrutiny and interpretation by an audience that I can’t control. There have been times when I have had that reality driven home rather forcefully. This time was painful enough that I seriously considered just walking away. Ultimately I have decided that this is yet another area where I need to choose to trust the Lord to protect me. Perhaps I will be more cautious about what details I share but I cannot write without sharing my heart. And I must write …

Because we are barely making ends meet right now I have decided to undergo training for another customer service client. AAA. I am currently working 15 hours a week for Barnes and Noble and could pick up more hours if I was willing to do more nights and weekends. Eventually I’m going to have to work some ugly hours. I just hate it because that is our only family time and I don’t want to spend it isolated! Anyway … I will have class, Monday – Friday, from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM, from October 29 – November 22. Wish me luck! I really wanted to do a switchboard operator for Disney but they haven’t upgraded their systems past Windows 2000 yet and my computer is the more recent version of Windows (7?). In the meantime … our house phone lines went out sometime between Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. (Makes it impossible for me to work.) AT & T should be out to fix it tomorrow.

From Facebook: I spent three hours on the (cell) phone with Tech Support yesterday because I was unable to connect with the ARISE phone system (to work). Never did figure it out but I was so frustrated that I decided to just walk away for a while. This afternoon I tried again. Still couldn’t connect but this time it occurred to my feeble brain that the problem MIGHT be on this end. Sure enough … phone wasn’t working. Went crawling around under, and around, furniture checking all the connections. No success but then I realized that NEITHER phone worked. (We have 2 land lines.) Spent about 2 hours fighting my way through AT&T phone support. (No wonder people are grouchy when they finally reach customer service. I came really close to throwing my cell phone through my computer screen!) Sent Bert out to see if we had a signal at the box on either line. Nope. Finally talked to a human being who promised it will be repaired on Monday between 9:00 – 5:00.

On a more exciting note … I asked Erica, who appears to be doing a lot better, to spend some time regularly helping me get this house back in order and she is supposed to be here to start tomorrow. I can’t afford to pay much but it will be good to be able to help her and achieve a cleaner, more organized, home at the same time!

I hope to resume my regular blogging tomorrow but wanted to update you on Bert’s health, and my mental state, first. Thanks for praying!