Feeding the Brown

Last December Les was newly "retired" from UPS.  He wanted to feed the UPS boys on Christmas Eve morning.  He knows what this month is like for these guys!  He wanted to feed them again this year.  He conferred with his dear friend Rose and she whipped up breakfast for 50.  I went along to help serve this morning.  Thanks to Rick, Gunnar and Janna for their help setting up and getting the coffee, juice and plates there.

Thank you Paula and Kristi for helping!!

We hope you appreciate your UPS driver.  These guys are working 12-14 hours a day.  They will be back at it again on Friday. 

Les came home tired, and sad that he wasn't working alongside these guys anymore.  He misses the craziness of it all.  He says to be thankful for your ability to work.

Merry Christmas!  We have a quiet Christmas Eve.  We have our Christmas with our kids on Christmas morning, and will have dinner at my parents later in the afternoon.  We have some family coming in for the holidays, and we are very happy about that!  Remember the reason for the season - JESUS!!

New Wheels

Les got his new wheels.  His chair was delivered recently.

We are very fortunate to be able to borrow Geri's van.  Her husband Marty, who was my dad's very good friend,  used this van.  Les' chair needed a bracket on the chair to fit into the bracket that was in the van.  It was gonna cost a near fortune to put that thing in.  But between our friend Barry, our son Kris and our son-in-law Brett, they figured it out themselves and got the bracket installed!  Les had SO MUCH fun that evening hanging out with the boys!  Thanks also to David for his help, and to Dustin and Rick for checking in.

We sold the Explorer to our friend Joey.  That all worked out so well!! 

We have been enjoying just being home.  No appointments at all this month besides Les going to Physical Therapy twice a week.  They are trying to loosen up his shoulder a bit.  His right hand is pretty much useless and his left leg is really dragging.  But, he is eating and swallowing and enjoying that! We would ask for prayers that his left hand stays agile - that hand is key to his texting/emailing communication.

We are thankful for continued visits from neighbor nurse Kay.  Besides checking on Les' health, she brings yummy baked goods along!   Dr. friend Steve also visits often.  Les looks forward to those visits - he can talk to Dr. Steve about anything.  We have had lots of visitors lately and we are enjoying the business of the season.  We pray that you, too, are enjoying this Christmas season, and more importantly, the REASON FOR THE SEASON!

Les' Birthday

Les had a pretty good birthday!  When we got to church that morning, we saw this:

That's cake for the all the people!!  We didn't see that coming.  At the end of the service, the congregation sang happy birthday to Les.  Thanks to Darla and Fran and their small group for this surprise.  Another reason we are so glad to be a part of this church family.

We had lunch with our kids and my parents.  A beautiful SUNNY, crisp day.  Kris and Hannah left right before our small group came that evening.   Good thing Les (and Kris) got a quick nap in that afternoon!  Our small group has been meeting for several years now.  We started out as random people who signed up for a Bible study; now we call them our family. Through thick and thin.

 Thanks for all the texts, messages, cards and shakes :)  Les is very thankful for all the love.

Ebenezer Stones

Happy Thanksgiving!  Our church has a tradition on Thanksgiving.  If you go up front and share something you are thankful for, you may take an Ebenezer Stone (I Samuel 7:12) as a reminder.  Our church service was on Wednesday evening, always a special service.  I truly wanted to get up and share, but I didn't for two reasons.  1) I was a really long ways from the front (because of the way the chairs were placed) - it would have taken me a long time to walk up there  2) I was a bit concerned that once I had a microphone in my hand, I would have "lost it".  So often I am on the edge of losing it, even when I am feeling strong.  Does that make sense? 

Anyway, I want to share for my Ebeneezer Stone.  Last Sunday we had the opportunity to write a thankful note on a leaf, and put it up on a tree in the front of church.  Les wanted me to write that he was thankful for the "joy of his salvation".  I did, and I hung that leaf.  At the Wednesday evening service, Roger mentioned how thankful he was for the joy of his salvation, AND how we as Christians so often kinda forget about that, and that thankfulness/joy gets put on the back burner.  I thought back to Les' thankful leaf, and I thought, how true!  When you are faced with dying, what would you be thankful for???  More than likely you would be most thankful for the joy of your salvation.  As is Les.  We right now are thankful for many things, but nothing else matters as much as that hope.

Les has been saying for months, since he could not swallow ANYTHING, that he was going to eat mashed potatoes and sit with his family at Thanksgiving.  For a long time that did not seem possible.  And just last week he was told to eat thin liquids only.   Well, if you know Les, this will not surprise you:

HE CLEANED HIS PLATE!!!!!

Les smoked the turkey on his Traeger grill.  That turkey was so good.  The carving has been handed down to Kris - thanks Kris, you did a great job!!

Special Visitors

Last weekend we had some very special visitors.  My cousin Jesse and his wife Cheryl were in town for a wedding.  My cousin and I grew up in southern California together.  He is my age, so of course one of my favorites.  I have a scar on my upper lip from when he threw something at me, back when we were about 5.  I still love him though.  And his wife Cheryl - what a dear.  I wish we lived closer together than 14 hours - I think we would be VERY good friends.

 We had a good week last week with no trips to UW.  Unfortunately, we have one this week.  I truly am getting tired of those trips - mainly because of the awful traffic in the city!!

Les is doing well.  He eats some real food almost every day (along with his liquid diet, of course).  Scrambled eggs, a pancake, some bacon, a piece of pizza!!, soup - and usually a shake a day.   Cousins Ron & Judy stopped in the other day.  She made a yummy squash-from-her-garden soup.  It was so good - Les really liked it!  (And Happy Birthday Ron! we forgot to tell you that day).   Les has gained a couple of pounds - yay!!  His breathing is great.  His breathing is so quiet after that noisy, messy trach tube.  His right hand/arm/shoulder continues to weaken, which is frustrating.  He really can't do much with that hand anymore.  Also his left leg is starting to drag, which makes me nervous when he is walking.  Apparently the dominant limbs are the first to weaken.  Strange, huh?  Please pray that his left hand stays strong.

Mocha Shakes

Les' swallow test last week went as we figured.  Deanna, the speech therapist, told Les that he was swallowing (no leaking!!), but with difficulty.  His tongue doesn't work AT ALL anymore.  He can't keep his lips pressed together.  The swallowing muscles in his throat are slowing up.  BUT he was swallowing.  Deanna suggested thin liquids only.  She explained it would be easier for Les if his head was tilted back a bit when swallowing.  This has been easiest for Les when reclining in his chair, since he can't really keep his head tilted back on his own.

SO, Les is trying different things and figuring out what works and what doesn't.  One thing that Les has missed eating/drinking is a mocha shake.  He LOVES them.  Teacher niece Emily texted one afternoon and asked if he needed anything.  Yes, he did - a mocha shake.  The next day, pastor friend Ben asked if Les needed anything.  Yes, he did - a mocha shake.  These shakes were from two different coffee stands in town.  As most of you know, there is not a shortage of coffee stands in our town!  Our friend Tana found out about these mocha shakes and insisted that were she works had the best mocha shakes.  Okay, Les said, prove it.  Sunday after church Tana brought one of those over.  (This was 3 mocha shakes in 4 days!!).  Les decided that Tana was right - that mocha shake was the best.  He has also tried eating soup, which works pretty well.  Neighbor Grace once again showed up at our door step - this time with several almond sticks and homemade pea soup.  I have been enjoying the almond sticks and Les also enjoyed the pea soup.  So yummy!!!

Seriously - who does this??? 

Back to the Seattle trip last week.  Les knew I needed a break from Seattle, so he asked his friend Rolf to take him.  Rolf is a farmer; he made the time to take Les.  This was the first appointment I have not been to in a year and a half of appointments.  It was a weird feeling when Les left - guilt mixed with relief.  I have seen a swallow test before so we both felt it was an appointment I could miss.  Thank you very much Rolf - I very much enjoyed the day off. 

Swallowing!

Whew, LONG day yesterday.  We figured it would be about an hour appointment with Dr. Hillel, including getting Les' stitches out and the swallow test.  We should know better by now!!

Leslie and Little Man came along with us this trip, since it was just the one appointment and we didn't have to be at UW until 3:15.  Leslie needed to pick up her wedding ring after getting it cleaned in the city-- so we had some fun passengers.

While waiting at UW, Leslie, Little Man and I had popped up to the 8th floor to visit Nurse Jen.  We had a fun visit with her!  Little Man, like his grandpa, thought that Nurse Jen is pretty awesome.  Les and I finally saw Dr. Hillel about 4:30  Dr. Hillel chatted with us about Les' concerns with the saliva.  Dr. thinks we need to give it more time.  He reminded Les that this was a pretty invasive surgery and it might take awhile for things to settle down in there.  In the meantime, Les will go back on the meds to help control saliva.  Dr. Hillel also told us that he was NOT able to get the swallow test for this day.  He was quite upset about this, and we appreciated that.  While sitting there, Les received the email that the x-ray swallow test will be this Wednesday (grrrrrrrrrr).  Dr. Hillel went ahead and had Les swallow a bit of water, AND HE SWALLOWED IT!  Praise the Lord.  Dr. said to go ahead and start with swallowing some clear liquids now until Wednesday.  We questioned why we even had to do the test, but Dr. said he really needs to make sure there is no leakage after this huge surgery.  OKAY.............

Dr. Hillel had something going on next door to us - he was in and out of there the entire 3 hours we were hanging around.  People coming and going, tears, phone calls.  We felt bad for him and for whoever was in that exam room.  One of the reasons everything got pushed back so much, I guess.

We then had a conversation with the Speech Pathologist.  She was pretty helpful explaining the stoma and how the new swallowing will work.  She talked with Les about HME's (Humidifier plug) which Les will need to use after his stoma is completely healed.  Finally, we had to wait for Nurse Carol to come in and take out the stitches.  The side stitches went pretty well, but the stoma stitches were very painful.  Les took a break and decided to have some painkiller put in.  Duh!!  The stoma stitches took awhile.  But now that all stitches are out, Les is turning his head side to side again, and the area looks great!

On the way home, Leslie and I grabbed a burger and sweet potato fries to eat on our ride home.  A bit down the road, Les asked for a fry.  And then another...........he was eating them....it took a long time to get them down but he did it!!  HUGE SMILE on his face. (Don't tell Dr. Hillel!!)  This morning he is again drinking a bit of water and some apple juice.

We are thankful for these small things.