Summer Happenings

On a hot summer weekend Randy & Dawn came up so that Randy could help Dwight fix the hole in the workshop roof that had been struck by lightning. At first Dana managed to stay on the ground,


although it kept him busy trying to tell the guys on the roof how to do it. The fellows had strict orders not to let Dana on the roof!

Before I knew it Dana had climbed up a ladder to "help" the guys.

Meanwhile Annette and William had fun up on the roof as well. Then I had William climb up my pear tree to help shake out some pears for me that I couldn't reach.

After lunch Dana and Dawn took a nap (Dana was totally exhausted from the morning's work and Dawn was still in the early stages of her pregnancy.) While they slept the guys and I burned some brush and then we roasted marshmallows on the fire with the grandkids. What fun!


One weekend recently Dwight brought Case up to the house to visit. We hadn't seen Case for several months. He had grown so much.



Wake up, Papa! Let's play!!!



Case had fun making cookies and helping Grandma wash the dishes. Case is such a busy little boy- continual action. He managed to keep us three adults on our toes the entire weekend. We loved having Case with us again.

Our 35th Anniversary

The celebration of our 35th anniversary this year was bitter sweet- one that put me into an emotional tailspin this past June. We planned to go out to eat early in the week while Dana was down in Cookeville seeing the cardiologist the week of our anniversary. Dana had been having mini strokes, but it wasn't until after Dana was away from the house that it really struck me how bad the latest one had hit him.

When we came out of the doctor's office and was walking to our car, Dana asked me where I was going, and then when I opened up our car door he asked, "Is this our car?" To my horror I realized that Dana didn't recognize our car that we had for several years. Then on the way to the restaurant where we planned to eat, Dana started giving me mixed up directions- making me more confused as before this Dana knew the streets of Cookeville like the back of his hand having driven them so much taking people to the doctor and hospital- so I would automatically do what he said only to realize that we missed a major turn really stressing me out as I still am not used to driving in a lot of traffic.

Then when we got to the restaurant, Dana acted disoriented and confused- something that really put me into a tailspin as the restaurant we had chosen was one we often went to whenever we went out to eat over the years traveling. I tried not to hover over Dana as he already had lost so much control of his life so I let him go up to the food bar by himself keeping one eye on him to make sure that he would be able to find our table while I tried to eat and act like nothing out of the ordinary was happening. After grabbing a plate for Dana whenever he went up to the food bar as he would forget, our waitress asked me how she could help. I briefly told her the situation and she told me to sit and eat while she would watch over Dana. Dana was so pleased to do something by himself that I didn't want to ruin it for him. Seeing how truly helpless and confused Dana had become was heartbreaking. It was a relief to me when we finally headed back home.

Dana loved to buy me roses for our anniversary, but after our 25th anniversary I told Dana to wait and not buy me any more roses until our 50th. Over our anniversary meal when I mentioned how many years we had left until our 50th one, Dana looked at me very seriously and said that he would never live to our 50th wedding anniversary like we both had promised each other to do when we were married.

A couple of days later, when Dana was feeling more like himself, he called the local florist and ordered thirty-five roses for me for Saturday on our anniversary. When Dana came and told me I was so shocked- battling my dismay by covering it up with a big smile for Dana- knowing that the reason Dana had ordered me roses this year was to make sure I would have roses because he felt he wouldn't be alive later.

Saturday feeling like an emotional wreck and teary eyed, I drove to town to pick up my roses and pay for them as Dana couldn't drive. The roses were so beautiful! It was such a romantic gesture and one that Dana loved to do, yet I feverently hoped that these would not be the last flowers that I would get from Dana. I wore my 25th anniversary dress that Sunday and had Dwight take a picture of me with the roses while Dana beamed so proud of himself.

Today Dana doesn't remember anything about going out to eat for our anniversary- that evening after we got home Dana couldn't remember what we had done that day. But when I ask Dana if he remembers anything about our anniversary he remembers the roses. With his increasingly loss of memory as long as Dana can remember the roses and who I am, I remain hopeful.

Dana's Stroke & Recovery

For those coming to this link from FB- sorry, for some reason FB wouldn't let me post this as a note as usual. So after trying a couple of times I decided to do it this way to update you on Dana while I had a minute.

It has been confirmed by medical records that Dana suffered a neurological stroke after his heart surgery. The next morning after being taken off of the respirator (after being on it for over 12 hrs) the nurse asked us and we noticed that the left side of Dana’s face was drooping and I wondered to myself if Dana had suffered a stroke, but he soon started moving his hands and feet and we were more concerned with his breathing and his left lung. A month ago when we went back to the surgeon I asked him about things that were bothering me such as Dana would ask me the same question over and over, couldn’t remember simple things like what he ate for breakfast a couple of hours later, etc. asking if this was normal after this type of heart surgery. The surgeon said “no”. It made me wonder if that was why Dana has had so much trouble with his left lung. Dana has problems with reasoning and thinking things through. If I don’t watch him carefully, Dana will give himself a shot of insulin even though his sugar is in the low 40’s or like a couple of weeks ago Dana said that when he walked down our dead end road by himself (something I thought perfectly safe) that he stopped in at the one neighbor’s place that had a weight bench set and lifted 160 pounds of weight just to see if he could do it- when he was only to lift no more than 5 pounds. Talk about freaking me out and causing a major panic attack! So I have to constantly be on guard with Dana every minute that he is awake (like when my kids were toddlers) and keep patiently explaining the same things over and over to him.

With Dana’s sugar constantly swinging- even though I am keeping him on a strict diet- and driving back and forth for over an hour to his cardio rehab twice a week, I have become stressed out and physically exhausted until I have begun having physical problems again myself . I struggle try to keep up with paying all the bills, taking care of the chickens (Dana’s hobby) and our dogs, do basic housework, and wash. Each day after taking Dana to his rehab I am down the next day not able to do anything, which limits the number of days that I can do all my work. It has also taken an emotional toll realizing that the husband I knew before surgery, who was always the take charge guy is not the same one now- instead our roles have switched and I have become the mother to Dana. At this point all the doctors say is that we must just wait and see. I’m not complaining as I am so grateful to have Dana- happy that he is able to get up and walk around and use his hands. I just ask for continued prayers in this long recovery process.

This has also been very frustrating for Dana as he hardly ever was sick and always such a strong person physically to now be so weak- most days he still takes a couple of naps a day saying that he feels like a ninety-year-old man- instead of bouncing back quickly- and some days he cannot concentrate enough to read. Instead of always being on the go, Dana now is housebound much of the time- heat and humidity still cause him to have trouble breathing- and on good days gets depressed because he can’t do more. Meanwhile I try to focus on the positive, every chance I get I putter around outside in my flower beds during one of Dana’s naps to help reduce stress, and take each day as it comes. I’m sorry I’m not able to keep you all updated more with so much going on right now. Thanks so much though for all your prayers and support!

dorcas

Dana's Open Heart 4 By-Pass Surgery

It all started on a Friday night around 12:30 when Dana had a heart attack at home. I was ready to grab the phone to call 911 when Dana shook his head and said that the pain was starting to go down. I said I was going to call the ER, but Dana staggered to his feet and said, “I’ll call them. I want to talk to the doctor myself.” Dana called the hospital and talked to someone, who told him that he was probably just having a gall bladder attack. Sunday Dana preached both times even though he didn’t feel good and was unable to rest Sunday afternoon due to discomfort in his chest.

Monday morning Dana went to work to drive folk to the doctor and hospital. I called him soon after he left to ask if he had made a doctor’s appointment for that morning and when he said “no” I insisted that he do it right away. About an hour later Dana called me from the doctor’s office saying that he was just wasting his time, his blood pressure was almost normal, and that he felt like walking out. I told Dana to stay right there until he saw the doctor. Dr. Allred immediately sent Dana over to the hospital. I got dressed and drove to our local hospital. A couple of hours later, Dr. Allred came into the room with a solemn face to let Dana know that he had suffered a heart attack. Dana grinned and said that he felt just fine and was ready to go home. Instead Dana was transported by ambulance to the Cookeville hospital.

Tuesday morning they did a heart catherization where they discovered that Dana had three main blockages and notified the main heart specialist. Things had happened so quickly that it was hard to take it all in. Since Dana had been put on blood thinners for the catherization Dr. Wilson decided to try and wait until Friday afternoon to do open heart surgery to give Dana's heart a rest from the attack and build back up Dana's platelets while staying on call for emergency surgery in case Dana went into cardiac arrest. All week Dana's blood pressure and sugar was up and down despite medication to stabilize him.

(Annette & William with Grandpa before his open heart surgery)

Thursday afternoon Dana started feeling pressure on his chest and when the nurse checked Dana’s blood pressure she called Dr. Wilson, who came down on the floor immediately with his team. They gave Dana nitro, but it didn't last long so they put him on a nitro drip to see if Dana could make it until first thing in the morning. I called Dawn, who had gone home for a day after spending the first three days with me in the hospital, and Dwight, who was working. Between staff members coming and going doing all kinds of tests on Dana, I called Dwight to see if he had started to the hospital yet when I didn’t hear anything back from him. It was a rainy day and Dwight had taken my car in case he needed to rush down to the hospital. Dwight said that he had stopped by a friend's auto body shop and would be coming later, which struck me as a strange thing for him to do, but just then the respiratory therapist came in the room so I hung up. About an hour and a half later Dawn arrived with Annette and William so I let her go back to the room to be with her dad while I went out to the waiting room to be with my grandkids. After talking with my grandkids for a bit I looked at my watch and realized that Dwight should have arrived, but then I remembered our strange phone conservation earlier. So teasingly I asked Annette, "Did Uncle Dwight do something to Grandma's car?" Annette got a real guilty look on her face and quickly replied, "Oh, don’t worry Grandma, Uncle Dwight is okay." I then realized that something had happened as I frantically pressed the number for Dwight's cell phone. Dwight admitted that he had wrecked, but assured me that he was okay- he had just slid off the road around one of the slick curves going too fast to get down to the hospital quickly, and had taken my car to the body shop. He was planning on bringing his old clunker of a truck, but I told Dwight to drive his dad's truck as it was more road worthy making him promise me to call me as soon as he started and to be real careful. Dwight and Dawn had decided not to tell me about the wreck until after Dana had surgery so that I wouldn't worry- as though I wouldn't realize that something had happened to one of my kids, uh, not to mention my car!

(Dana shaving himself one last time the night before surgery- even though he could barely stand up)

Early Friday morning Dana went into surgery. Everything went normal except that Dana ended up with four by-passes instead of three. After surgery we went up to the cardiac waiting room where they let us see Dana after an hour telling us that in two hours they would take Dana off the respirator and we could see him again. Two hours later one of the nurses came out to say that they had taken Dana off the respirator, but he was in a lot of pain and they were trying to get under control. Then a couple of hours later another nurse came out to say that when they tested Dana's oxygen level he had high levels of carbon dioxide in his body and they had put him back on the respirator again. Six hours later I was finally able to see Dana again, who stayed on the respirator until midnight!

(Dana in cardiac ICU so weak he can barely keep his eyes open while trying to talk on the phone.)

Dana stayed in the cardiac intensive care unit until late Monday evening. My kids convinced me to go home to sleep for those three nights. Late Friday night when I went home for the first night, we discovered that our new heating unit wasn’t working and inside the house it was only 50 degrees. When Dwight flipped a switch in the breaker box sparks flew so he shut the unit off, we built a fire in our wood stove, and went to bed. Early Saturday morning, I called the heating company and they promised to send a guy out to check our unit. Thankfully when we got back home late Saturday evening we had heat in the house.

(Getting transferred from CICU to the cardiac unit late Monday night at 10:30 p.m.)

(The best friend of every open heart patient.)

(At last getting out of bed, sitting up in a chair, and wearing pants!)

Monday Dwight drove me back down to the hospital with my suitcases packed for another week’s stay at the hospital with Dana. That afternoon a tornado came through the area and we were evacuated from the intensive care unit and had to go down into the dining room where there were no windows until the storm passed by. Talk about a crazy time! At 10:30 pm they moved Dana down into a room on the cardiac unit- a big blessing as I was getting ready to camp out in the small waiting room on the hard chairs for the night. When Dana got settled into his room and I opened up my suitcases all my clothes were soaking wet! Dwight had covered my luggage with plastic, but the truck bed had held water. What a mess! Tuesday morning, Dawn drove back from Nashville to take all my clothes to the local Laundromat to wash and dry them for me as I didn't have any vehicle. I don't know what I would have done without my kids. They were such a support.

(Dana walking around the unit with oxygen.)

(Having an incredible experience to have a nurse with the same name- the two Dana's)

(Another breathing treatment.)

(Going through all kinds of instructions before getting discharged.)

Dana was released from the hospital the next Friday morning. At first it looked like Dana would have to go home with oxygen as his oxygen level would sometimes go down from having his left lung lobe collapsed with pneumonia. Dana's transportation company came and picked us up to take Dana home with all our luggage. Before going home they drove Dana to the office where everyone was excited to see him again, gave us a signed get well card from everyone, and big fruit basket. Then we stopped at the drug store as Dana had thirteen different prescriptions that needed filling. He is taking insulin shots four times a day to help control his sugar. When we finally arrived home we discovered that we were locked out of the house!!! I had left my front door key outside for the heating unit fellow so he could get inside. The fellow had locked our back door as well and I didn't have a key for it. Thankfully the driver was able to jimmy the door lock and open the door. I thought it was a fitting finale for the wild and crazy past two weeks with Dana’s hospital episode.

(Dana's first breath of fresh air in two weeks.)

(Sitting down at the drug store.)

(One of Dana's daily walks down the road and stopping to chat with a neighbor.)

(Home at last!!!)

Our Farm Nursery

The other week we brought home some baby chicks. For a couple of weeks Dana was haunting our Tractor Supply store every day as they weren't sure just when the chicks would arrive. These baby fuzz balls go fast and we needed to replenish our hen stock.

So now the brooder, with its heat lamp turned on for warmth, is buzzing with adorable peeping, chirping, tiny bodies that sleep, eat, and run around on tiny feet. You'd be amazed at how much noise those tiny critters can make and how fast those little feet go.



Within a couple a of days tiny feathers started appearing on the wings of these fur balls and they have grown almost twice their size since we brought them home- not surprising with all the special formula feed that they are consuming. We keep food and water available around the clock for the sweet baby chicks.

Active and so alert those tiny eyes don't miss a thing. They are so fascinating to watch. Dana is already feeding them by hand. As soon as he sticks his big hand down in the brooder with some feed all the fur balls come running. You'd think the dear things were starved.

Not only did we get some chicks, but this year we bought three ducks as well. Right now they blend right in with the chicks even though they are slightly bigger in size. I can't wait to hear the duckies begin to quack. What fun!

Christmas on the Mountain

Dana enjoyed going out every day to check on his chickens, feed them, and gather the eggs. Lo and behold, if one rainy cold night he didn't get the hen door completely shut. The next morning I saw the door wide open and ran outside, but it was too late. My dogs had killed all the hens except for our big rooster! I couldn't believe that none of the hens had gone into the pen where they would have been safe instead of walking out the open door. Talk about a bunch of bird brains! We miss our dear hens and the fat brown eggs they gave us. We already had a double yoked egg. They were such good layers. So this spring we shall have to start all over again. Meanwhile we are going to make our henhouse door a bit more secure.

This year for something different I made a candle light Christmas dinner (or rather supper) as Dawn and her family made a quick trip home the day before Christmas Eve so that we could have our Christmas together.

I used my Christmas village for the centerpiece adding greenery and white lights with a couple of white candles. The food I lined up on my counter in the kitchen doing a self-serve buffet.

It turned out simply beautiful! Annette and William enjoyed the wonder of eating in candle light that gave off a festive air around the table setting the mood perfectly for giving gifts afterwards.

To us a perfect Christmas is sharing family holiday times together!