Lauren's Mom, Gert, has gone Home to Jesus

Lauren's mom, Gert, went to her heavenly home with Jesus yesterday, Sept. 22. Lauren was actually almost home when he found out, but he had quite a few good moments with her before she pretty much became unaware of her surroundings on Sunday. She was transferred closer to home on Monday and was heavily sedated to keep her comfortable. Lauren and I will drive to IA on Thursday and Friday, and the funeral is on Saturday. Sara will fly to MN to ride to IA with Erin so that she can get back to MT sooner than Lauren and I will be coming home. We would all appreciate your prayers for Lauren's family, for our travels and for my health to stand up to the travel. I got the ok from the surgeon to travel on Monday, and I am doing better each day, it seems. Most noticeably, I continue to have double vision from my eyes wanting to cross slightly, I found out from the eye doctor yesterday, so I will have to get new glasses when we get home (bye-bye contacts).

Lauren's Mom, Gert Van Roekel

Lauren's parents, Gert and Lawrence, live in northwest IA, and Lauren left on Thursday to drive to Sioux Falls, SD where his mom is in the hospital. She was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma on Sept. 15, and was going to have chemotherapy on Wednesday, but she is too weak to have treatment. After visiting with the doctors, the family has decided the best thing they can do for her is to make her as comfortable as possible before she goes Home to be with the Lord, which could be in a few days or weeks. They hope to transfer her to the Orange City hospital on Monday, which is only 3 miles from their home in Alton for hospice care. Lauren's dad had surgery on Aug. 10 and has recently been cleared to drive, and it will be such a blessing for him to have Gert close. The Sioux Falls hospital is about 70 miles from their home, so Lauren will take his dad back and forth and he will stay in IA until Gert gets transferred and then drive home to MT on Tuesday. Of course, all of this is in God's hands and we hold all plans lightly, knowing in His infinite wisdom His plans are best. Lauren's mom knows of her condition and she is ready to go to be with Jesus. She has been ill for quite a long time and she is tired; how wonderful it will be when she tires no more and will "soar on wings like eagles; she will run and not grow weary, she will walk and not grow faint." Isaiah 41:31



Her family has put her story and information on her condition at http://www.caringbridge.org/; just type gertrudevanroekel where it says Visit a Website. Please pray for Gert and her family as they spend time together, for Gert to have God's peace and comfort, for her to be able to be transferred to Orange City on Monday, and for Lauren's 12 hour drive home on Tuesday.

Nurses from Heaven Part 1

So, I had promised I would write about the nurses I had in ICU, so I am finally getting around to that. I went into ICU following surgery, and my nurse that night was sent straight from Heaven. Her name is Julie, and after we spent a little time together, we discovered we are both Christians. Julie calls everyone endearing names such as Sweetie, Hon, and Beautiful, and I particularly got a giggle out of Beautiful, because my hair couldn't be washed for 48 hours and I had dried-blood ringlets on the back of my head! She has a very gentle nature and I was her only patient for awhile, as each nurse usually has only 2 patients at a time, since it is ICU. I was having trouble sleeping, and sometime after midnight when she came in to give me meds, she took my hand and prayed for me to be able to sleep. And God brought me some much-needed sleep. Julie is most certainly a nurse who practices the gifts God has given her in everyway possible, and I so appreciated her. She is the kind of person you like as soon as you meet her, and I will always remember her kindness and gentle care.

A couple of hours later, I heard a lot of commotion, and it was clear that a very serious case had come in, and this person became Julie's second patient. I never knew who the patient was or what the situation was, but I did hear about the helicopter flying in from Bozeman, 2 hours away, and I suspect it was a young girl or young woman, as I heard a girl cry out. I knew then that it was my turn to pray, for the patient, her family, the doctor treating her and for Julie, who became very busy with this patient. God had given me sleep and I was doing better, so now that a more serious case came in, I could go to Him in prayer. Julie's shift ended at 7:30 AM (no doubt she still had hours of paperwork to do), and then God sent me Virginia and Celeste, and I will tell you about these adorable women next time!

Health-wise, I think I am slowly getting better now that the headaches and fever are gone. My energy level is still very low, but I did manage to get in an old-dog walk this morning. What is that, you may ask?! Well, when our dog Molly and later Kiska got old, I would only be able to walk them a couple of blocks up and around our neighborhood, pass the Garnetts I wrote about earlier. That is what I did today, stopping and smelling Barb's roses again and then back home. My legs tend to hurt a lot and walking helps stretch them out. The back of my head still feels like a piece of plastic, but I somehow think that is preferred to a lot of pain. I do have some pain, but it varies and usually isn't too bad, and for that I am very grateful. We are having some much cooler weather this week compared to the heat of last week, and it feels wonderful to get outside and also to have the house opened up. The nights are in the upper 40s and low 50s, perfect sleeping weather!

On the upmend...is that a word?

Since I was on the mend and then had a downturn, I think upmend is a good word, and I am feeling better today and the fevers seemed to be done. I saw our family doctor yesterday and he had blood tests done that turned out fine as far as any infection. He was cautiously hopeful that I do not have an infection, although the fevers bothered him, but I do think things are looking better. I was concerned about swelling in my neck, and he checked and said there is some swelling and fluid there, but that is not uncommon with surgery in the head area. It didn't show up until early this week, either, so apparently going off the steroids has quite a few unlikeable symptoms. Now I hope to get some of my energy back and take things slow and easy.

(Jack's grandparents - Spoiler Warning - if you haven't talked with Jack yourself and want this first hand, do not read the following!! :) )

It is so hard for me to believe, but Jack started Kindergarten today! I chatted with him yesterday and he was quite excited about it all, and Erin said this morning that he got up at 6:00 all excited to go! He told me he has a camo backpack and that his locker is #10. I asked him what he liked when he went to the orientation and he was most pumped about the table with the power tools on it - I sure hope he gets to play with those today! It really is a big day for parents; I remember Lauren had to take the girls because I was teaching kindergarten myself, which is just as well because I would've cried too much. When we visited the Dailey's last month, I gave Jack a few books about going to Kindergarten, and we read them together each night. He had lots of good questions and even asked me what my room looked like and what we did, so when Erin came after surgery I sent a few photos home with her so he could see Nana's K classroom, quite a long time ago! I'm sure Grandmama MaryBeth, John's mom, has told him a lot about going to school, too, as she is also a teacher! He is surrounded by teachers; Erin has a degree, their friend Tiffany taught K for a few years, Mark and Sara are now going back to school to get teaching credentials, my sister Karilyn taught for several years and Bruce is in education, my niece Andrea is a teacher and my Aunt Sandy was a longtime teacher. Wow, if I forgot anyone I apologize, but we do have a lot of teachers in the family!

Erin just sent pics, so here are 2 of Jack on his big day, and 1 of Eli with his own version of a pacifier, a toy piece, I believe!! His mysteriously has disappeared!

I didn't get a pic of Maya smelling the roses, but here are a couple of her in July tending some of Nana's flowers:

Praise and Prayer

The headaches were better today, praise God, and I hope I am going to be done with them and not have to go back on the steroids. I talked with the surgeon's nurse today - he is out of town - and she was going to discuss it with his associates and try to get back to me tomorrow, but she, too, thought that if I could stand the headaches it would be better than going back on the meds. I have also had a slight fever on and off and achiness, so I have an appointment with our family doctor tomorrow to check and see if I may have an infection. The surgery area looks fine, but I would like him to check and see if there is infection somewhere. Lauren found out today from a coworker that having a fever coming off steroids isn't unusual. I am getting lots of rest and trying to eat well and drinking lots of water, so hopefully, I will turn a corner for the best soon. I do so appreciate all of your prayers. God is so good!

Stop and smell the roses

We had such a nice weekend, spending time with Sara, Mark and Maya, webcaming with my mom, Doris, and sister Karilyn in Wisconsin, webcaming with Erin, Jack and Eli, and even going to an open house. It felt a little more "normal" than recent days. But there were signs that maybe things were not all good; tiredness, dizziness and some body aches, and then came the headaches. I was finished with steroids on Friday, and by Sunday I started to get the headaches I was warned about by my doctor. Yigh, yigh, yigh they are like lightening shooting out of the top of my head, but if I lay really still, not so bad. Moving causes lots of shooting pain, so I spend a lot of time lying down. Last night, I also got a fever, so I called the doctor on call and he said it wasn't high enough to be infection, so take 2 Tylenol and call in the morning! Literally! Well, I had already taken lots of Tylenol all day, as well as Tylenol PM, so I just went to bed. I slept ok and this morning the headache isn't too bad, so I plan on moving as little as possible and, you guessed it, taking Tylenol. I would rather not go back on the steroids and so I hope this ends soon.

It is hard to describe what my head feels like, but I once had a Tiny Tears doll that I adored, and I washed her hair and the top of her head came off. It was a bit of a shock to me; here was this chunk of rubber with hair coming out of it in my hand, and I probably cried, but I do remember that my dad did his best to glue it back on. Well, my head feels like the back is like that chunk of rubber, sort of like a tight cap, because it is numb and tingly, only I am pretty sure it won't come off. But I am more aware of the back of my head than ever before, so hence, I am reminded of Tiny Tears. I do think, however, that some Super Glue was somehow involved with the electrons that were attached to my head during surgery, because I have chunks of dried gunk that will not come out and they catch and snarl and that hurts. A couple of nights ago I thought I could carefully comb it out; well, I did comb some out, along with chunks of hair! So I asked Lauren to cut some of it out and he relunctantly did and I think that most of it is gone now.

So, today I will stop and smell the roses, as Maya did when Lauren and I took her for a walk on Sunday. We stopped and bent down a large rosebush branch at our friends the Garnetts, and Maya loved it. She sniffed and smelled, and a few petals fell on her lap, so she sniffed and smelled those petals all the way home, brought them in the house and sniffed some more! She and Grandpa danced to Momma Mia and life began to seem more normal. It really was such a nice weekend, and I will not let a few headaches take that away.