Funkyjimmer's Blog

Friday, December 30, 2005

ADVERTISEMENTS – UGH!

I think that two different times someone has left an irritating advertisement in the comment section of this journal. I wonder if there is anyway to remove those unwanted comments. If anyone can instruct me I’d appreciate it. That’s not the purpose of the comment section.

But to those who may read my Journal, I apologize for the irritating advertisement that appeared in the comment section after a recent post. I appreciate, and look forward to, legitimate comments. But not those nauseating advertisements. Hopefully one of you readers can tell me how to get rid of it.

Jim

posted by jim 3:22 PM 1 comments

Thursday, December 29, 2005

FINAL (?) SURGERY DATE FOR KARON

The question mark in the title of this post indicates some uncertainty about the surgery date. It has changed three times. Karon talked the Oncologist out of her Chemo treatment, which was to have been December 19th. Shortly thereafter they called from the orthopedic doctor’s office and said surgery was scheduled for some date down in February. That was totally unacceptable. So they re-scheduled it for January 11th. In the mean time, Karon’s affected leg, foot and ankle swelled to twice the normal size. That made us decide to call the doctor.

We never got to talk to the doctor directly. The closest we got was when someone from his office called and relayed the message that Dr. _____ said he couldn’t do anything for her. He suggested she keep her foot and leg elevated and apply ice. So that is pretty much the way she spent the time from Thursday before Christmas until last Tuesday. The doctor himself did call later that day but didn’t offer any further solutions.

Her only means of transportation has been her wheelchair. We did take her to Christmas Eve service and to church Sunday morning with the use of the wheelchair. Slowly the swelling began to recede and she was able, with the use of the wheelchair and assistance from yours truly, to go to work this week.

The doctor’s office called Tuesday and said they could move her surgery date up to Monday, January 9th, at 7:30 a. m. They told her to be at the hospital at 5:30 that morning. UGH! But that’s better than the other scheduled time—it was 3 p.m. So as of now that’s the plan.

The good news is that the tumor count (sometimes called the cancer count) has continued to go down. This last three weeks it went from 30.7 to 25.2. We are grateful for that. That means she can delay further chemo treatments until she has the surgery.

Our Christmas was terrific! Church service Sunday morning was marvelous. Everyone participating did so with excellence. You could tell much preparation and practice went into the service. We had a record-breaking crowd for our little church—144! Of course there were a lot of family members of those participating who attended. But there were also some visitors who came just because they wanted to worship with us that Sunday. We did several special things that morning that were family-oriented and intended to glorify God. Our youth did a musical, “The First Leon.” They did a great job.

I hope your Christmas season was blessed. For some it was a difficult time as the “first Christmas without a loved one”. Those special days are always different after the separation, whether by death or divorce. But there is something uniquely different about the “first” one. However, God promises to be with us in the bad/hard times as well as the good. He has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us.

It will be interesting to see what 2006 brings each of us. My wish for you is for another year live according to God’s Will and by His strength and guidance.

Jim

posted by jim 8:42 PM 1 comments

Monday, December 19, 2005

ON DOCTOR COORDINATION

Frustrating, frustrating, frustrating is the kindliest way I can describe my feelings right now concerning Karon’s medical situation. As I indicated in a previous blog, Karon has to have surgery on her hip. The orthopedic doctor said he couldn’t do surgery until she has been off chemotherapy for 3 or 4 weeks. He said he would talk to the oncologist and call Karon. After a few days, the ortho doctor’s office called and said that her oncologist said Karon could stop taking cumadin. That’s nice since she wasn’t taking it in the first place! We have no idea what that ortho doctor’s office said to the oncology office!

The other night the oncologist called to discuss the situation. He said he hadn’t heard from the orthopedic doctor. He wouldn’t say he would interrupt the chemotherapy treatments until he heard from the orthopedic doctor as to a definite date surgery. The orthopedic doctor says he won’t schedule surgery until he hears from the oncologist that Karon has been off the chemo for 3 or 4 weeks. Grrr! Getting these to coordinated so they are communicating is worse than getting two feuding marriage partners to communicate with each other!

In the meantime the patient (in this case, Karon,) sits in the middle and wonders what’s going on and how it’s going to turn out. Karon doesn’t want to have the surgery in the first place. And now, to not be able to schedule it and work out the time with her work is very frustrating. So we wait and wonder and get more frustrated and angrier all the time (at least I do.) God is teaching us something. I pray that we (I) can learn.

Today she and I have a “serious” discussion with the oncologist. There are a lot of questions to which we need answers. We are going to have what a lady with whom I used to work called a “come to Jesus” talk! We’ve got to get something settled as to whether she will have a chemotherapy treatment today, and other questions.

Jim

posted by jim 7:40 AM 2 comments

Friday, December 16, 2005

LOOKING FORWARD TO A GOOD WEEKEND

This should be a better weekend. There is nothing spectacular that has to be done. The past several weekends have been brutal with so many activities in which to be involved. Beside morning church service, several weekends there were things that stretched into the afternoons on Sunday. It was mentally and physically exhausting. I looked forward to Mondays to be able to go back to work and I dreaded each weekend because of the energy-draining required activities

But this one should be different. Karon and I took Wednesday off and got some things accomplished. We don't have any definite commitments except Church Sunday morning. We're sort of "on top of" our gift giving plans. We just have to get out our Christmas letter. That is the goal for this weekend. We've "downsized" as far as home decorating goes. I just couldn't get the boxes down from the attic and Karon is physically unable to help me with the Christmas Tree lights and decorations, etc. At first I thought we'd just skip decorating all together because of our physical constraints. But then I decided Karon needed some semblance of "normalcy" as far as our Christmas is concerned. So we went to K-Mart and bought a small Martha Stewart pre-decorated tree--lights and all! Then we bought a couple of cute little decorations to set around the house to sort of make it look like Christmas. I was able to find our nativity scenes and get them down. With those up in the house and a few other decorations and a few small balls on the tree, the atmosphere isn't too bad. It works for us this year.

I hope the weather isn't too nasty. Just so we can get out to church and attend to any errands need to be accomplished.

Jim

posted by jim 3:51 PM 0 comments

Sunday, December 11, 2005

SNOW-SNOW-SNOW (AND OTHER STUFF)

We had 8 inches of the white stuff last Thursday. At 1:30 that afternoon when I went into a funeral home—nothing. When I came out at 2:30 my car was covered. It took 50 minutes to get from Brownsburg to the office to pick up Karon. She was ready and at 3:30 we started for home—4 miles away. We arrived at home at 4:30—ONE HOUR LATER! It was a mess. Some people with whom we work didn’t get home until 10:30 that night!

I had arranged for someone to come with a vehicle and blade and scoop out my driveway but that didn’t happen until Saturday morning! But we made it out Friday morning about 10 o’clock and got back in the garage that night.

Last Tuesday Karon and I went to the orthopedic surgeon. The X-rays showed the rod that had been put in the hip and leg is now broken at the top. That means the rod has to come out and so do the other parts of the hip. Due to the cancer and the radiation treatment there has been no healing of the broken hip, and there won’t be either. So the doctor said it all needs to come out and some kind of hardware put in. It will just get worse and she won’t be able to get around at all. He said that in 6 months or so she should be getting around as well as she is now. But she will always need a walker, or some other means, to get around.

They can’t do surgery as long as Karon is on chemotherapy. She has to be off chemo treatment for 3 or 4 weeks at least. The greatest risk with this surgery is infection. Karon is scheduled for her next chemo treatment next Monday, the 19th. We’ll see the doctor that day and see what he says about the chemo and the necessary hip surgery. Karon has made it clear that she’s not having any surgery until after the first of the year! (Which she wouldn’t anyway because she has to be off chemo longer than that.)

Karon says the thing she dreads the most about having the surgery is being dependent on people again—not being able to do for herself. A year and a half ago everyone was so helpful with meals, house cleaning, yard work, etc. We had several “angels” who would come in the mornings and help Karon get up, get dressed and get breakfast. Then they would help her with her therapy. This allowed me to continue working. And there are people who helped me with many things also during that time.

The doctor said she’ll have a six to 8-week recovery period, which includes rehabilitation therapy. She would probably be in the hospital 3 or 4 days and we don’t know how long she’ll be in the Rehab hospital before she can come home.

Undoubtedly there are those who would help us again. But I understand Karon’s feeling. It is hard to accept help with things you feel are your responsibility, things you should be doing for yourself and your spouse. But I try to tell Karon there are times we need to accept the help of others. And others need the opportunity to minister to us as well. But that doesn’t make accepting the help any easier.

It gets tough to juggle working full time, working with the church and then giving proper assistance to you spouse. But we did it before and we can do it again with God’s help. He has promised never to leave us or forsake us. We just have to be sure not to forsake Him. That will be a critical time for our church. If all goes as planned, we’ll be entering into a Capital Stewardship Campaign for our building addition and then beginning the construction of the building addition. Oh well, God knows all things and He is in control.

Thanks for your “listening ear” (or “reading eyes”!).

Jim

posted by jim 11:36 PM 1 comments

Sunday, December 04, 2005

“THE POLAR EXPRESS”

Have any of you seen this movie? It came out last year at Christmas and was released in DVD this year. I wanted to see it last year. I rarely go to movies because of the time factor plus the cost. I think the evening box-office prices are ridiculous. Plus, several years ago I made a commitment not to see “R” rated movies. I have made an exception for two movies in the 8 years since making the commitment—“Saving Private Ryan” and “The Passion of the Christ”.

A lady in our church who works in the children’s department of a public library had borrowed the DVD, which she loaned us. The theme of this movie centers around…well, I’ll let you find out, if you haven’t already seen the film. I think it is a great action film. But the thing I liked most was the animation. I personally think animated movies are awesome. The move, “Prince of Egypt”, about Moses, was an excellent animated movie. There have been others I have enjoyed.

But the animation in the movie, “The Polar Express”, was marvelous. Often throughout the movie I forgot it was animation. The eyes of the characters were so realistic.

It was a good movie and really terrific animation. I recommend it for holiday viewing but it would be good viewing anytime if you want to see excellent animation.

Jim

posted by jim 9:10 PM 0 comments

Friday, December 02, 2005

THOSE @#%*$@#%$&* REBATES AND A TRIP TO THE HOSPITAL

I have never liked rebates. It has always been my contention that companies offer them with the expectation that less than fifty percent of the people will submit them. And they think of ways to deny the rebates that are submitted. I have had considerable experience submitting rebates only to have them denied for one reason or another.

I must admit that in recent years I have had some rebates honored. I have actually received some small amounts in rebate money.

When we bought our new desktop computer and our daughter’s new laptop we were supposedly able to submit the required information and proofs and get over $500 back in rebate money. Some we could submit on line, others had to be mailed.

The ones that had to be mailed required all kinds of proofs, including the UPC bar codes off the boxes. Thanksgiving morning our daughter from Atlanta was helping me gather the necessary proofs for the mail-in rebates. She had already submitted the Internet rebates. As she was cutting UPC bar codes off boxes with a box knife she sliced a hunk of flesh from the inside of her arm. It looked gross and we thought she had done some major damage.

So---a trip the hospital emergency room on Thanksgiving morning! The cut was about 2 or 3 inches long and one-half inch deep. It took 7 stitches to sew it up. But the good news is that she didn’t cut any arteries, veins, muscles or nerves. And we got in and out of the emergency room in what may be record time. We made it to the restaurant in time to have Thanksgiving dinner with our extended family!

The rebates? Well, we’re still waiting to hear about the ones we mailed. But we have already been rejected for some of the ones we submitted via the Internet. As they were store rebates, I took the rejection notice back to the store. They said we had done everything correct and there was no reason for the rejection. They are checking on it for me. Maybe I’ll still get the rebate money. I hope so. Besides the misery of the cut arm and the expense of the trip to the hospital, my daughter and I spent a good day and a half getting everything collected and submitted for the rebates.

Rebates--@#%*$@#%$&*! I’ll let you know if or when I get any rebate money for our trouble.

Jim

posted by jim 7:30 AM 1 comments