Sum, sum, summer time!



Closed out June and now into July. School & Sandlot (my two jobs) came to an end, which has given Mike and me a little time to spend with some of the grand kids. Our oldest daughter and her 3 kids came up for a visit and her husband joined at the end of 2 weeks and they headed back to Florida. I’ve done some babysitting for Lilly & Elijah and we had a cookout this last weekend where we were able to spend time with 3 of our 4 kids and 5 of our 7 grandkids. Mike stayed home due to the heat, but I enjoyed watching the fireworks from my sister’s house with her, her friend, my niece and her girls, my daughter, son in law and their 3 children. It was nice, I hadn’t gone in a few years. I even got a few hours at the beach with my daughter and her kids and I loved every minute of it. 
 We have finally been able to give our faithful drivers a little time off from bringing Mike to and from dialysis. They have been such a blessing and certainly deserve a break. 
Today is the first day of ESY (Extended school year), it was tough rolling out of bed so early, but it’s so nice to see some of my students and coworkers. I start taking care of my step father again on Wednesday & Thursday for the summer as well. Mike will still have drivers for the Tuesday and Thursday morning shifts, our daughter in law has stepped up to do Tuesday mornings (Thank You Stacy) for July, and possibly part of August and 1 of his regular guys is doing 2 Thursday mornings in July (Thanks Chuck). I will be doing all the afternoon runs as well as the Saturday to & from. 
The latest update on Mike is that he had an overnight hospital stay last week. While at the cook out, he had some kind of an episode where he was having difficulty breathing, his arms and legs were twitching, his eyes rolled back at one point, he was somewhat confused and very slow to respond. He went by ambulance to Portsmouth hospital. They did labs and X-rays. Not much showed up other than his oxygen was low without help. We think it was partially an anxiety attack brought on by his inability to breathe fully. He also recently had an appointment with another cardiologist who was referred by his regular cardiologist. Some of the results of tests she had run were questionable, so she wanted a second opinion. The new (to us) cardiologist has ordered another cardiac catheter in the hopes of clearing Mike for back surgery. From what they can tell, his fractured T11 & T12 thoracic spine have gotten worse and are healing incorrectly. Between the fractures and the damage caused by Ankylosing Spondylitis, the bottom of his lungs have been compressed and are causing his breathing to become more difficult, especially in the many days of humidity we have been having. Other than that, the foot ulcer is finally healed. The visiting nurse dropped down to once a week over a month ago, supposedly due to staff shortage and now that the ulcer is better, I believe this will be her last week to visit. Which is fine, I do all his nursing care anyway, so other than them billing his insurance, they haven’t done anything different than what I have done.
This is about all that is new with us. I know it’s been awhile since my last blog entry so I figured some would be looking for an update.
As always, thank you for the many prayers, love and support it means more to us than you know and we are so grateful. Please continue lifting us up in prayer, the cardiac catheter, possible back surgery, roof repair to our home are all things on the horizon and prayer is what gets us through.



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