Sunday, September 13, 2015

Our Un-normal Normal

 A friend told me about a sermon that was titled, "The New Norm". The family had an Autistic child and their life was changed. The idea got me to thinking about our life and how it had changed in the last few months.
Our old normal life was like this:  Get up at six A.M., Read our devotions and pray. We would get ready for golf and have breakfast then hit the golf course at eight or eight-thirty. We would come home for lunch or stop in the club house to socialize with friends. The next step was to get in the pool to swim for twenty to thirty minutes and lay on the raft and float for an hour. Then we would take a leisurely nap before dinner.
Now our new un-normal life goes like this: Get up at five-thirty, get dressed for the day, read our devotions and pray, eat breakfast, and leave for the "Wound Care" at seven, get there at seven-thirty and Keith dives at eight. Before he dives he has to change to scrubs, get blood pressure taken, temperature taken, blood sugar taken and the doctor checks ears and heart. He stays in the Hyperbaric Oxygen tank for almost two hours. When he comes out the same routine is repeated with the exception of the doctor. Once a week he sees the doctor for a cast removable and a new one.
So far he has dived seventeen times and has three more to go. This breathing of one hundred per cent oxygen is to help the diabetic ulcer on his foot heal.
We go home or stop and do chores afterward. We have lunch and then we are so exhausted from getting up so early that we nap in the recliner. I am blessed because Keith is insisting that I play golf two days while he goes to the Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy. He can drive since the ulcer is on the left foot. I am going with him three days each week.
Another thing to help healing is the Angioplasty Surgery of the leg, which he had yesterday. We went to Orlando for the surgery. Keith had previously had catherization of his leg and one stent in abdomen. This surgery was to open several clogged arteries to get blood flow to the foot to help with healing. The surgery went well as the doctor used stents, balloons, and catheter to open vessels. It was a three hour surgery.
After surgery Keith's blood pressure started to elevate. No amount of medication seemed to bring it down. Although he was out of surgery at four, I couldn't be with him until five due to the rise in blood pressure. Our doctors went home thinking, he was going to be fine as his pressure fell some. At seven P. M. The nurse in charge called the doctor as the pressure rose again.  One of the doctors, Brandon, returned and worked and sat with us until the blood pressure was acceptable at eleven P.M. He asked us to stay overnight in a motel close to the hospital and see the surgeon the next morning, to which we agreed.
When we got to the motel and checked in, Keith said, "I feel a little dizzy". We were going up in the elevator and he said, "I feel sick and am about to pass out". I quickly pushed the elevator button to the first floor, because Keith was passed out leaning against the wall over his knee walker. As the elevator door opened, I yelled, "Help, Rick." (The name of the night clerk). He came running as I held the elevator door and told him what happened. He said, "I'm calling 911".  I said, "I'm calling the doctor." Amongst all this Keith revived enough to say he would be okay if he could only get to a bed and lie down. I took him to our room and got him in bed as I spoke with the doctor on the phone .  The doctor said, "I'll be right there. What is the room number?" There was a knock at the door and three EMS workers were there with medical tools. The doctor asked to talk to one of them as they took blood pressure, did EKG, and so on. The EMS guys assured the doctor he was in no  immediate distress. What a blessing they were.
In a few minutes Dr. Brandon arrived along with the surgeon. They checked Keith over and made sure everything was fine, as they said goodnight about midnight, we were ready for some rest. 
Keith said, "I think this was a bad omen ." "What?" I asked. "To bring the doctor brownies". Keith had told the doctor about my baking brownies and he was probably going to gain weight and the doctor said he liked brownies and Keith could share, therefore I took them lots of brownies.
In the morning we saw the doctor and Keith got the okay to come home, so here we are safe and sound. Praise the Lord for all the prayers going up yesterday, as it was touch and go for awhile.
We hope to get our normal life back when Keith heals, whereas the other family will continue in their new normal. We wish them God's blessings.