Frazzled, but Thankful
Hello Friends,
It’s been a little bit of a wild week.
If you caught any of my notes, you saw I made a trip to the ER to get checked out because of some symptoms I experienced after the coil embolization on February 12. They ran some tests and kept me overnight for observation, but they could not find any cause of my chest tightness and cough, and the worsening overnight oxygen sats do not seem to be related to the procedure. Of course, if they had let me sleep longer than 15 minutes at a time, they might have caught my O2 dropping in deep sleep. My pulmonologist is following up by ordering a home sleep study. I realized that the chest issues could be another presentation of my contrast dye allergy, a theory my internist agreed with. Now I am ok, except for the nighttime oxygen deprivation and finishing a round of steroids, both which cause me to feel the opposite of rested and refreshed. But onward.
In other news, my daughter who has our only grandbaby is visiting. She and her younger sister (our youngest) wanted me to play cards with them last night. Offering to hold baby, I squeezed the wiggling, reaching, drooling, grabbing, 6-month-old sweetie with my forearms while simultaneously gripping my cards just out of reach of those pudgy, wet fingers, all the while feeling like the squishy human bouncy ball with busy limbs and fuzzy hair would lurch right off my lap at any moment. I mean, it has been approximately 19.75 years since I wrestled a 6-month-old for any length of time. I’m a little rusty.
Meanwhile, younger daughter’s boyfriend FaceTimed, rattling off technical questions from his A&P license practice test and discussing with youngest how my husband, an aircraft mechanic for 40 years and counting, would know all the answers. Daughters also named off options for where they were going to go eat, but youngest said she had to start her laundry first. But first she had to show sister her thrift store haul mid-card game round. Attempting to mentally follow all the chatter and activity, I assumed they were leaving, so I went to grab my iPad and change clothes to jump on my elliptical.
Them: “We want to play cards!”
Me: “Y’all are about to give me ADD.”
Whew! Game paused, exercise done, food obtained. Just another calm, peaceful evening for the Powells, now numbering 13 souls counting sons-in-law and baby. I am thankful. A little frazzled, but thankful, for not so long ago, there were some relationship issues between some of the siblings. But now, mercifully, the Lord is repairing those, much to my heart’s delight. So very thankful.
A few more items of interest are that I had messed up the previous discount codes on my website because sometimes I don’t know what I’m doing, but if you are a paid subscriber, check the bottom of this post for a code for 20% off on book orders on my website. Whether you are a free or paid subscriber, you may use the code LAUNCHTEAM for free shipping.
Lest you think I am too tired to fill orders, be assured that boxing up the book of my heart and sending it where it needs to go is healing and brings me great joy. Order away.
The other item of interest is that next Friday, Lord willing, I am heading to the beach with some mom friends for our every-other-year trip. Please pray for those who are caring for their elderly parents, as their situations make the logistics more complicated and worrisome. We always trust God to arrange the trip as He wills, right down to the weather details and departure times for all vehicles. But that doesn’t necessarily make it easier for some to leave, especially this year.
I will be shipping books through Thursday, but after that, my order processing department (me) and shipping department (also me) will be first driving to, then lounging on, the beach. Be forewarned that the scenery and peaceful communion with the Lord there tends to make me wordy (wordier?), so you will probably see many photos and words throughout the week if He chooses to help me share some that will bless you. May it be so.
Now for the potentially boring part. Below are before and after images of my bronchial artery aneurysm and bronchial artery aneurysm to pulmonary artery fistula. As I probably mentioned on here before, each is rare, but to have them both together is “exceedingly rare.” Here’s the not boring, praise-the-Lord part: Prior to the procedure, the interventional radiologist planned to embolize the fistula as deeply as possible then see how I did and do the larger aneurysm later. But he was very happy he was able to fill nearly the whole squiggly, aneurysmal artery plus the bigger bulging artery. I now have 23 platinum coils in there. When I texted my oldest that information, he texted back, “Platinum is $2,000/oz now. Looks like me and Cam (sister) will be taking you to the pawn shop pretty soon.” So funny.
That brings me to the end of another installment of Why I Cling to My Jesus. I hope you all are doing well and haven’t seen as many doctors or had as many needle pokes as I have the last few weeks. While the hospital visit this week seemed pointless, I have to believe that God wanted me there for some reason. May He water and sprout whatever seeds He planted. And would someone please tell the hospital to remove margarine from their menu.
In Christ,
Janice
Trust in the LORD with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
— Proverbs 3:5-6 NAS95
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