Hello!
Sorry
that I am running so late in getting a newsletter out. I was just getting ready to do the Sept
newsletter when my life completely turned up-side-down.
The
last I said about Dana was that he was in the hospital and I had gotten to
visit him. Little did I realize that
would be the last time I would see Dana alive. I was getting ready to go down
and visit Dana again, when upon calling him, I found out he was being
transferred up here to Jamestown to the local nursing home for physical
therapy. I was happy that he was getting closer to home. The nursing home put
Dana in isolation for two weeks to make sure he didn't have covid so I couldn't
see him, but we talked every day on the phone. Dana was getting physical
therapy, was getting stronger, sitting up in his wheelchair, and going to the
bathroom on his own. The day before getting transferred to a regular room, Dana
suddenly tested positive for covid. I was shocked. How could he get covid while
in isolation? I called the kidney specialist and they wanted Dana taken to the
ER down to Cookeville to be able to keep a close eye on his kidney function.
Instead of being admitted like I thought he would be, lo and behold when I
called, Dana had been transferred back to the nursing home because he tested negative
for covid! When I finally ran my husband down- How do you lose a fellow in a
wheelchair?-, the nursing home had put Dana on the covid ward. I was totally
confused. Why was Dana on the covid ward if he didn't have covid? The nursing
home said because he tested positive they had to put Dana on the covid ward. I
was quite frustrated. Within a couple of days, Dana definitely had covid
whether he had it before or not. Then to my shock I discovered that they had
quit giving Dana any breathing treatments (he was getting three breathing
treatments a day) so they had put his ox level back up high to help him
breathe. Needless to say I was making all kinds of calls as by now Dana was too
weak to even talk to me on the phone and I had to depend on trying to reach the
staff to get any updates. After a week, I finally got it where I would be
updated at least once a day, when I got a call early on Sat morning that they
had rushed Dana to the Crossville ER as they couldn't keep his oxygen level
up. I got dressed and rushed down to the Crossville ER only to be kept waiting
in the overcrowded waiting room to talk to someone. A nurse finally came out, but refused to let
me back to see Dana even though she was wearing the same type of mask as me,
told me that Dana was in serious condition, they were doing blood work, and she
would call me and let me know when the labs came back in couple of hours. I
waited in Crossville for a couple of hours and called to talk to the nurse, but
they would only let me leave a message. I went back home and for the rest of
the day and up into the night every three to four hours I would call, but still
couldn’t get anybody to talk to. Sun morning I called the hospital and was
informed that Dana had been transferred to the ICU. I then called the ICU and
talked to someone, who said all the nurses were busy. They checked Dana’s lab work for me and said
that his kidney function was doing better and he was stable. I was relieved
feeling that Dana was out of the woods and would get better. Sunday afternoon I
got a call from Dana’s doctor, who to my shock, told me that he advised me to
change Dana’s full code to DNR as his kidneys, his heart, and his lungs weren’t
working except for medication. I couldn’t believe my ears and told the doctor
that the last I had heard Dana was stable and his kidney were doing better. He
was very kind, feeling bad that the ER doctor hadn’t updated me to Dana’s true
condition. It was then that the reality that Dana was actually dying hit me.
On
Tuesday afternoon with Randy and Dawn beside him, after getting special
permission, Dana peacefully left this world. Thursday evening, after almost a
month had passed since last seeing Dana alive, I saw his lifeless earthly body.
It didn’t seem possible that Dana was really gone. Friday afternoon, at our
home church, we had Dana’s funeral with five preachers speaking. Our pastor preached from Dana’s favorite text
he had preached so often before: John 3:16.
Our grandchildren sang Dana’s favorite song in three part harmony:
Amazing Grace. It was very hard to say good-bye to Dana’s earthly body even
with knowing that he was so much better off not confined to a wheelchair or
roll aider to get around. Now Dana, with full lung capacity, is singing-
something he couldn’t do after his stroke- with his talented voice and
preaching strong as ever before.
I’m
still trying to adjust to the fact that Dana is gone and doesn’t need me after
taking care of him for ten years and four months. Meanwhile my ducks and
chickens keep me going each day. There is plenty of work to do as I’ve not been
able to paint and do things inside that need a lot of work for the past several
years. So I am staying busy painting
inside and working outside as usual, which helps me sleep better at night. I’m so thankful for all the prayer support
that has kept me going through this major upheaval in my life. I’ve also been blessed with lots of beautiful
cards arriving in my mailbox each day for the last couple of weeks.
Next
month I will hopefully get more back on schedule and update you on everything
going on around the Walker farm.
Until
then~
Dorcas
