Home Sweet Home

  Praise the Lord with us, Anita and Steph are finally home after being gone for 12 weeks and 5 days!! Being gone from home, was definitely not our plans but through it all, God was with us.
  My dad came down yesterday so I could have a ride up to Weyers Cave VA to drive home with Anita. In the afternoon I had a call from a friend who said he found someone who is willing to fly up and bring Steph home, so Ashley went along to ride back home with Steph. This morning Steph had an appointment at the hospital to remove the PIC line and to restock some of the medications. We were able to meet a lot of the doctors and nurses who took care of Steph while she spent most of her time in PICU at UVA Medical. Here is only one of the nurses who took care of her multible times and they share the same name!

   We were also pleased to have the opportunity see Dr Gangemi and Dr Roeser before we left the hospital. They were ready to go into surgery but were able to meet us one more time before we leave Charlottesville.

   Steph and Ashley were privileged to fly home with Mr Boyer. Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport is approximately a half mile from my parents place in Weyers Cave, so that was nice to meet him there and when they got to Chuckey, they were a half mile from home!! When they arrived at the airpark, we still had 200 miles to go and we were all blessed with a safe trip.

   Some of the welcoming party who were waiting for them at the Hensley Airpark!
  It's wonderful to be at home and have the whole family together here again. The girls had supper ready when we got home and one of the girls said,"it's nice to have 7 at the table again instead of 2 or 3 or 5". The Lord has been gracious to us and allowed Steph have good health again. It will be some time involved yet before she is totally recuperated from her sickness and regains weight and strength. We want to thank each one of you for your prayers and the interest you had in this journey that we were on this summer!
  Till later
  Marv

  PS Don't hold your breath in waiting for another letter, because I'm not sure there will be much more written!!

Away From Charlottesville

  Hello from beautiful VA! It feels like fall is in the air! So different and nice from the hot weather we've been having.
  Well, we've moved again and are settled nicely in our new 'home'.We moved into the guest bedrooms here at Grandpas and don't even have to share a room! Not that we couldn't, we've done that for quite a while before this!
  On Thursday we met with the cardiologist and he was happy with how things looked. He did blood work and some of those numbers weren't real good yet, but were better than they had been so he didn't put her on more meds, thankfully. He wants everything rechecked in a few weeks so I'm trying to build up her system so she's ok by then. She's pretty anemic, so I've been putting the chloryphil to her.
  Thursday afternoon we took the wheelchair we had been using back to the PICU. At first some of the nurses thought Steph was 1 of her sisters, they almost didn't recognize her! They had a regular celebration when they saw who it was! They love when former patients come back to see them, it must make all their hard work more worthwhile to see someone well again.
  We left Charlottesville on Friday afternoon, after Steph's last OT and PT appointments. It took a while to leave since we had to tell people 'good bye''. So many said, "Stop in and see us before you leave!" There was 1 lady at RMcD that I learned to know just recently that couldn't get done talking! I would hear her talking to her children in another language but didn't know what language. I found out she's originally from Kenya, and when she heard I know of places there and missionaries that were/ are there,and that my sister and family had spent 4 years there, she got even more excited. She knew of Nakuru and Kisumu, but didn't know of the missions. She told me, "give my phone number to your sister, she can call me and we'll talk in swahili!!" In a way it was kinda sad leaving all the people we got to know and knowing we'll probably never see them again, but at the same time we are very glad to be so much closer to going home.
  Marv and the rest came Thur night so we had a very good weekend together. It was very, very special to have the whole family together around the kitchen table away from the hospital... a blessing I hope we never take for granted again!
  This week has been relaxing, Steph has exercises she's supposed to do every day and also is taking more walks since its not as hot outside. Her 'therapy'now includes doing dishes and usually getting her own breakfast. Little things, but progress.
  I had the girls bring some sewing along for me to do so I've been working on that. Its so fun doing something I actually know how and don't have to learn about first! I would've loved to keep sewing instead of writing this, but wanted to get this off my conscience again!
  I don't think I ever said anything about the flowers at the RMcD. There's a volunteer that plants flowers in pots on the deck there every year. They were amazing, my poor phone camera doesn't do justice to them, but I enjoyed those flowers so much! That deck was my/ our sanctuary almost every morning through out those long hard weeks thru June and July. It was a beautiful place to sit  and meditate on God's Word... I'm sure the lady that takes care of them doesn't know what a gift that was to us this summer!
  Its time to get Steph's IV hooked up again, so I'll sign off. Continue praying for her and us. It would be nice to go home and have everything as it was before, but that won't be the case. We'll need to get used to a new normal, but God is faithful and will help us, I know.
 

Of Good News and Not so Good

  This is another hot sunny day in Charlottesville. We had a good thunder storm last night and cooled things down a little, but it's warm again today.
  So yesterday morning we left here bright and early to get to her MRI appointment. Marv had stayed to go with us for that and meeting with the Dr. It didn't take terribly long and we met with the neurosurgeon soon after that. He was all excited to see Steph in a vertical position instead of horizontal and mentioned the word 'miracle' again... We seem to hear that word a lot from the medical team these days.
  He was very pleased with how the MRI looked, great news to hear! But on the heels of that he said he wants the antibiotics continued another 2 wks for a total of 6 weeks since her last surgery. Groan. To me it seems overkill, but since I don't work on brains, and don't know how all of this works, I should just do it, right?? I certainly don't want to do a repeat of the last 3 months so guess we'll grin and bear it and pray everything the antibiotics are supposed to get rid of will be gone for sure in 2 weeks. It was disappointing, but we were ok with it.
  The Nurse Practitioner that we work with on the care of the picc line got more meds ordered for us and when I was talking to her about that, I asked if its going to be ok to go home this weekend like we had planned?? The first thing she said was: "O honey, you don't want to be 5 hours away from us with that line in. What if you'd have problems with it? I know you're wanting to go home, but have a bit more patience and we'll get you there." GROAN for sure. That was NOT what we wanted to hear at all. It took a while to process that and be ok with it... It was so disappointing! We were so nearly at home we could almost 'taste' it. I was so glad to be home before school started, but guess that's not meant to be after all. I was wondering how Steph would stand a 5 hr road trip this weekend, maybe the Lord knew she wasn't ready for that yet and didn't let it happen! This seems so trifling compared to some of the other set backs we had in the past that it shouldn't be a big deal at all, but somehow it still wasn't easy to hear.
  The reason they want us here is so they/we don't have to get a home health nurse lined up in TN for only 10 days... I'm glad to not have to get used to different equipment and people. She (NP) wants to take the line out herself and make sure everything is ok before they let her leave. She's very nice and I know she's doing what she thinks is best..
  As far as I know, Friday is still the last day of therapy and then we plan to move to Grandpa's house for the rest of the time. I'm so thankful they're close by and willing to let us stay there!
  Since we can't go home I think we'll compromise and the rest of the family will come up for the weekend. I'm really looking forward to that!
   PT and OT both went well today. She's working more on endurance. I can tell she has more strength and stamina than a week ago. Even with doing 2 hrs of it instead of only 1 she's not as exhausted as she was last week. She still faithfully takes her nap tho!
  Lavina and Janette Stoltzfus plan to stop by for a visit this afternoon. Steph hasn't seen Janette yet since they're back from Kenya. She was here in July sometime, but Steph didn't find out about it then. I'm glad it works out for them to come see us!
  "God wants us to learn the secret of being content in any and every situation. Contentment-training is a challenging process; it is learned through enduring a wide range of difficulties." this was just what I needed yesterday...
  Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge. Ps 68:2
  Have a blest day!
  Anita

Ramblings

So I'm trying to keep my word and not wait as long to write again!  I have some time to myself right now and thought I'd better take the opportunity when it comes.
  Wednesday was a busy morning with 2 different Drs appointments and 2 therapy sessions. The kidney Dr and the other Dr, who is taking care of getting things lined up at home, both said from their perspective she's doing well and they don't have to see her again. That is good news! I was a bit disappointed that the kidney Dr couldn't reduce some of the meds she's on for her blood pressure, but its still on the high side so they don't want to reduce any doses yet. Hopefully in several months things will level out more and she can get off some of those.
  As of today she's not on pain meds anymore. So glad she's done with those things!
  Wednesday afternoon my brother Ernie and Wil and Kim came to see us at RMDH. We were around there for a while, then decided to walk to a little Mexican restaurant for supper. Ernie got his workout pushing Steph up the hill in the wheelchair! I think his supper probably tasted extra good that night!! It was good seeing them again and hope to see them tonight before they fly home to AR out of Charlottesville tomorrow morning.
  After therapy yesterday the therapist asked what we plan to do the rest of the day and we didn't really know... They told us of an orchard not far from here thats a nice place to go. So we drove out to Carter Mountain. Its beautiful up there! They sit right on the backbone of the mountain with breathtaking views out east and west. Just sitting there taking in God's creation was so restful. It felt so good to breathe in clean country air and be away from the hustle and bustle of city life and the wail of sirens. I think we might go there some more  next week! We did get a few peaches that they raise there, next time their apples should be ready to.
  Last night 3 music camp friends from Harrisonburg came for a while. It was nice getting to know them better in the short while they were there!
  This morning my nephews, the 4 Kanagy boys from MD and my niece Brenda came by for a short visit. They planned to be here for breakfast, but for several reasons, 1 being they went to the wrong hospital, they didn't get here till after Steph was in therapy already. So they came up to where we were and got to see her on 1 of her breaks. They plan to be in TN this weekend with the rest of the cousins there.
  Last night Bradley (another nephew) and Ashley came with Marv. We knew Ashley was coming but having Bradley along was a nice surprise! Those 2 went back to TN with the Kanagys then.
  When we got back to RMDH we saw they were cleaning the room across the hall and it's bigger then our little one so we asked if we could switch. They nicely let us, I hope it'll be worth the bother! We're so used to the other 1 I'm afraid we'll try to get in the wrong room tonight :/
  After we did that we came to Marv's parents and are spending the afternoon here. Right now its quiet and very relaxing! I think Dan and Amy and their family are coming soon so that should bring some action!
  As far as Steph's progress, she is doing very well. In PT she walked faster and further on the treadmill this morning than anytime before and in OT her range of motion and the strength in her arms is way improved from the beginning of the week. We're hopeful that she won't need more therapy than what we can do at home after she leaves here. She still gets tired a lot sooner than I wish, but I have to remind myself to be patient, she's come a long way already! Next week all her sessions are an hour long instead of a half hour like this week.
  On Monday morning she has an MRI scheduled and then sees the brain surgeon after that to see how things look. Instead of stopping her antibiotics today like they had said, they extended it to Monday and then see what the Dr says. Hopefully they won't say that she'll have to have another 2 weeks of it...
  Specific prayer requests are for a good report on the MRI, no more antibiotics and strength and endurance for all the therapy!
  Thank you for praying!
  Anita

... To Grandma's House We Go!

... for He maketh sore, and bindeth up: He woundeth and His hands make whole. Job 5:18
I came across this verse and think it fits our situation so well... we thank and praise the Lord that after the wounding and 'making sore' there is also healing and 'making whole'!
  ok, sorry for taking so long in writing another update, I hear someone was wondering if the internet broke down or something! No, it isn't that bad, but we had enough going that it was easy to push off.
  Backing up to Friday, she had her first therapy session in the morning, they were new therapists (to her case) so they basically just tried to get a good feel of where she's at and did a few exercises with her. Ever wonder how it feels to write after not having written for 8 weeks?! Its kinda hard to make your fingers and hands do what you want them to. Today her writing was already much better.
  Yesterday and today OT worked alot with her arms and hands. Her range of motion isn't the best. Her shoulders seem tight, so the therapist was doing exercises and stretches with her to loosen up and strengthen those muscles. Its amazing what they accomplish in a short time! Since she's left the hospital she has slowly been taking over her own care. Her latest accomplishment was getting her socks and shoes on and tying her shoes. I think that was pretty much the last things that I had been doing for her, except wrapping her PICC line in saran wrap so it doesn't get wet in the shower.
  People have asked if I think I'd like to go into nursing after spending so much time in the hospital... that doesn't appeal to me at all. If anything, it would be the occupational therapy that would interest me. Its so exciting to see what they can do in a short time with such simple techniques! I don't plan to go take any schooling tho, I'm happy to go home and be a wife and mom again!
  Friday evening Sharon Troyer and her girls brought supper for us and we went to a park close by to ''eat out" It  was (and still is) so nice for Steph to spend time outside... while we were eating Raymond and Lana Sue and girls came by. They went back to RMcD with us and were still there when Marv came that evening. They stayed in the area overnight and we had brunch together before they went home. We went to IHOP and one of Steph's nurses was there and got all excited to see her out of the hospital and walking around! Later in the afternoon Jo and Justin stopped in, too. It was nice to have family come by again!
  Saturday evening we drove over to the older part of the college to see if we could find a good place to take a walk. Theres plenty of nice walkways to go on, but parking close by is hard to come by. We took a short walk, but it was about too much for Steph and we didn't have the wheelchair along so we cut it short. I love the gardens there and all the big trees and wide lawns, its so soothing. Its close enough to here we could walk but its too far for Steph and I'm not too sure about pushing a wheelchair that far... it would give me a workout, thats for sure!
  Sunday was a big day! We took Steph over to Marv's parents for lunch and the afternoon! They live about an hour from here. Mark and Gina and family and Justin and Jo were also there. The roast with potatoes and carrots, gravy and salad was tops! The best of all was being away from the hospital, being with family and having Steph with us!
  Later in the afternoon Cheri, Jo Kauffman, Lori Wengerd and Eric and Angie Troyer came to see her. It was very good to see more home folks, especially nice for Steph that 2 of her good friends could come to see her. Time went too fast and we had to head back across the mountain again for the night. It was a tiring day for her, but also therapeutic, I think!
  The group from home came over to Charlottesville yesterday forenoon and we met them for a late lunch then before they and Marv headed home. In the pic from left to right is Cheri, Jo, Lori, Steph, Eric and Ang.
  Marv left the suburban here for me so I'd have a vehicle to get her to and from appointments. I didn't need a vehicle when she was in the hospital, I could walk pretty much wherever I needed to go, but its a bit different now.
  And about the antibiotics that she has to have every four hours... the home health company that services this area has a little pump apparatus that dispenses a bag of antibiotics in 6 doses, so she gets it every 4 hours. I have to put a new bag on every day and reset the pump, but thats all. Very handy 'baby'to take care of! Its not so nice that Steph has to carry it (in a little purse) with her wherever she goes, but having to deal with an IV pole would be a lot worse I think. As far as I know she can quit taking the antibiotics on Friday.
  I think that about sums it up for now... thank you for your continued prayers and support! I'll try to do better and not wait so long to send out another letter :/
  until next time,
  Anita
 

We're Moving!

  Praise the Lord! It looks like we'll officially leave the hospital tonight after being in this one for 7 weeks and 1 day. Its been a long journey and we're not through it yet, but God has been good to us and helped us this far and we trust will continue to guide and heal.
  Today we met many, many Drs! I think about everyone that worked on her case came by with last minute best wishes, instructions and some kind of detail or other. My head is full of information thats all running together... The team of Drs that's getting the discharging papers done is also getting a calendar together with her appointments, etc on it. That should be very helpful. I'll also get a schedule for all her meds, and when to give them. Feels like we've got a good chunk of the pharmacy's inventory in our possession right now. :(  hopefully she'll be weaned off most of them before we go home.
  The plan now is to do intensive outpatient therapy for the next 2 weeks and the Drs all have follow up appointments scheduled during that time and she'll have to do more scans, tests and what not before she's released to go home. But hopefully after that we can go home and do everything else at Greeneville or Johnson City.
  So if you would, continue to pray for us that things will go well for Steph and that I can keep my head together with all the different stuff I have to remember. I have phone numbers, some of them are personal cell numbers, that were given to me to call anytime if I have questions, so that gives me a measure of comfort and security!
Remember Kate Fram and her family tonight. Her husband Jim passed away earlier this week and the visitation is tonight and funeral tomorrow. Jim and Kate were (she still is) such dear older people in our church. We will miss him!
  I'll try to continue the updates, just depends how our schedule is...
  Waiting patiently (at least trying to) to sign the papers to leave...
   Until later,
  Anita

PS. Since this wouldn't send at the hospital, I'm sending it now when we're officially at the RMDH. We got here at 9.30 or so and are ready to call it a day! Marv's parents came and helped us "move' over here, what a blessing! Vernon Gingerichs were in the area and stopped in just in time to help us carry stuff out of our room. Thanks to all of you for your help!

Patiently Waiting

  We've been having a quiet day, mostly. We went for a walk outside with the therapists, well actually, Steph rode the chair outside, but walked to the door. She loves the fresh air, I wish she could be outside more. Maybe in a few days that can be done.
  We just got back from taking another walk in the hall here. She got to see where the helicopter lands and the doors they go in through on top of the roof.
  The nutritionist came in this afternoon, they're trying to get more calories into her, wish I could share some weight with her since she needs it more than I do.
  I had my first lesson in caring for the PICC line. It shouldn't be too hard to do, if I can remember all the steps... I get another practice run tonight and probably more tomorrow.
  They're actually saying maybe tomorrow or Friday we'll be able to leave this place! I hardly dare hope.... It seemed so far away for so long, its hard to wrap my mind around it. But, if they say we can go I'll not argue! We'll be close by and theres a Dr on call all the time that I can call if I have questions, so that's nice to know. Maybe next time I write I can tell you we've moved out!
Until later,
  Anita