"C" is for "Caregiver"
"Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6,7
Mom and Molly Bear last Friday |
Don't worry about anything.... instead pray about everything. That is way easier said than done. I think we as humans are hardwired to worry ~ be anxious ~ possibly even "catastrophize" aka go to the worst case scenario. I love that there are 365 verses in the bible that say something to the effect of: "Do not be afraid." (One verse for each day of the year. 😊)
Last Thursday my dad gave us all a scare. Nora, the LVN/caregiver who was with mom at the time, called 9-1-1 and dad was taken by the paramedics to Mission Hospital. Thankfully he was discharged the following day but it is still unclear what happened. So... dad will be seen by his cardiologist today (Tuesday) and hopefully Dr. Rasouli will get to the bottom of whether my dad's heart acted up or not.
Molly Bear, my trusty four-legged sidekick, and I made the trek from Menifee back to Orange County Thursday night and met my brother, Michael and his beautiful wife, Roge who were with mom. Molly was good "medicine" for mom especially with the recent loss of Abby (mom and dad's German Shepherd). Molly actually jumped up on mom's hospital bed wanting to sleep with her. ~ Probably not the best idea but mom was tickled that Molly tried to be her bed buddy.
In the midst of all the 'hard' that our family has been through these past two months, I am grateful for all the evidences that God is protecting and providing for mom and dad. A humongous example of this happened Thursday afternoon. Nora, the caregiver who is also a LVN, was supposed to leave mom and dad's house about an hour before dad developed chest pains and became unresponsive for a bit. I shudder to think what might have occurred had this happened after Nora had gone home. Thank You, Abba!!!
Updates:
- Mom got a three day weekend from radiation because of Labor Day. Woo hoo! She is on the home stretch with about 5 more treatments to go.
- We are super blessed that mom and dad have 24/7 caregivers as of Sunday evening. Rose and Scarlett have already been a wonderful blessing to our parents.
- On Saturday we will be having a belated "Welcome Home Ann/Mom/Nanny" gathering with lots of family and friends who can't wait to see mom and love on her. I will post pictures with the next blogpost.
Praise/Prayer Requests:
- As already mentioned, a great big "Thank You!" to God for protecting dad last week.
- Praise for providing wonderful caregivers and for mom being back home. We are blessed!
- Please pray for mom as she completes radiation next week.
- Please pray that she will continue to gain strength in her upper body and to become more ambulatory. She has already made progress in the week that she has been home. (Being home has been good, good medicine.)
Lord, may I be quicker to trade my worries for Your peace. Amen!
Terrie
Good to hear things are coming together and that your dad's episode was mild and short lived. Home and dogs are life's good medicines.
ReplyDelete