We've had so much happen to turn life upside down this week that Vacation Bible School and our trip to Gatlinburg seem so long ago. The nice, temperate weather is gone, only to be replaced with heat and humidity. There is no rain in sight.
PAULINE'S FOOT. For those of you who don't know, Pauline was diagnosed with diabetes in 1987. Her left foot had been bothering her for the last several weeks so she scheduled an appointment with her doctor for Monday. Vicki went with her mom and it was good she did because she was admitted to the hospital right from the doctor's office. As it turns out she has multiple fractures in her foot and parts of the bone have been pulverized. This problem developed due to her diabetes.
Pauline was released from the hospital on Thursday. She is not to put any weight on her foot for the next five weeks at a minimum. Vicki will have to stay with her almost constantly until she can function some on her own. Until then we will be living between two houses.
Please keep Pauline in your prayers. We are hoping for her to recover quickly but are having to keep in mind that things may get worse instead.
AN UPDATE ON MOM. Since I am giving health reports I'll not break my train of thought here and mention Mom's knee. It is no worse but it really isn't any better either. The swelling went down for a few days but has since returned. She has arthoscopic surgery scheduled for July 6. She is back at work and we're all just hoping that she'll be as pain free as possible until then.
THE COTTERS VISIT. Jim, Dianna, Alex and Chris had scheduled this week for their annual visit to Tennessee back in October to hit Cross Plains' annual yard sale: Trash and Treasures. They arrived Monday evening (a few hours after Pauline was admitted to the hospital). Their time here was not as it should have been but I must say I don't think we could have managed without them (which I'll explain in the next article). They did get to do a few fun things though--we all went to the Adventure Science Center one day, they went with Mom and Aunt Mar to the Catfish House one evening (and met the Dees there), we all enjoyed a morning of shopping at Trash and Treasures on Friday and Alex and Chris got to ride in a combine while Mom's wheat was being cut. They left yesterday morning and it was sad to see their van disappear over the hill.
THE RAMP. Where Vicki's time has been filled with taking care of her mom mine has been occupied with building a ramp so Pauline could get into her house. We decided to build the ramp in the garage so she would be out of any weather when getting in and out of the van. The ramp had to have a landing and double back on itself so that it could climb the 34 inches to the house door at a comfortable slope. It takes up half of the garage. I'm glad we cleaned a lot of stuff out of that garage a few weeks ago.
I'm going to brag a bit here because I am proud of the ramp. It is rough construction and far from perfect. But it is the first thing I have built from scratch since high school and definitely the largest thing I have ever built (the swing set I built for the kids in the back yard was from a kit and had good instructions).
What I am so grateful for is how so many people helped me. Jim and Dianna put themselves at my disposal. Jim helped me with the construction and Dianna kept all the kids (and I must say the kids got along very well). Jimmie Pitt, my next door neighbor, gave his time for two whole days. Scott Budd, a friend from church, came over one afternoon and enlarged the upper landing and covered up the existing steps (being optimistic we left those in so that the ramp can be pulled out and the original steps still be there). Jeff Garst and his son, Grant, also helped out one afternoon (they are also friends from church). We got the deck on the ramp done about two minutes after Pauline got home from the hospital. She had a scary ride up without handrails. Pauline would not have gotten in her house that night if all those guys hadn't helped me out. If I ever feel depressed all I have to do is walk across the field and look at that ramp to remember just how much people love me and my family.
I apologize to those of you who have been friends of Vicki and Pauline for years for learning this news by mass e-mail. It has just been a full week.
Joe
