January Was a Long Year
Y’all. January 2025 did not start out promising health and prosperity for our family. We’re praying February will be a bit more kind.
Covid, Pneumonia, Broken Hip, and the Life-Saving Features of an Apple Watch
Mom had a rough January. The week of Christmas, she got Covid, plus Covid pneumonia. That earned her a week stay in the hospital, plus two weeks in rehab. After spending the majority of December in the hospital, her strength and mobility really took a hard hit, so she needed rehab to regain her strength.
After two weeks of hard work in rehab, she was discharged on Wednesday, January 15th. Then on Sunday, January 19th, early in the morning, she fell and broke her hip. Here’s where the Apple Watch comes in. Mom was wearing her Apple Watch and it detected a fall and dialed 911 for her. Then, the 911 dispatcher called her emergency contacts listed in her phone contacts (me and my brother) to notify us. I can’t express enough how grateful I am for this feature! By the time I got to Mom’s house, the EMS team had already found her spare key, let themselves in, gotten her up out of the floor, and assessed her. Mom really didn’t want to go back to the hospital, but between my stern nurse voice and the EMS encouragement, we convinced her to go to the ER and be scanned. And thank God she did, because she had a hip fracture!
She broke her femur at the hip, so she, thankfully, didn’t need a full hip replacement, but she earned herself some more metal parts to go with her knees. She’s currently back in rehab and working hard again.
This Week’s Agenda for Mike
Tomorrow (Monday), Mike has another full day of appointments. Six in total. It’s clearance day. He has to have another ekg, chest x-ray, labs, a visit with the nurse coordinator to sign final consent forms, checkup with the nurse practitioner, and a medicine training and check-off with the pharmacist. Shew! Please pray that everything is clear.
Tuesday is a rest day. On Wednesday, he gets admitted to the Adult Bone Marrow Transplant (ABMT) unit of the hospital to receive the high-dose chemotherapy. He will receive the chemo for three full days. The plan is to give him one or two days of rest in the hospital, then discharge him to receive back his collected stem cells the following Monday. Of course, the hospital admission time is all dependent upon how his body handles the high dose chemotherapy.
How to Pray This Week
I thought I'd try to give you guys weekly prayer requests because so many are praying. I know it helps me to know how to pray specifically for others.
Mom’s rehab. Pray she regains her full mobility and independence.
Mom to be encouraged daily. She’s been, understandably, discouraged by all these setbacks. Her cancer is likely in remission (she’s waiting to be able to have a PET scan to confirm the remission), which is fantastic! But, all these setbacks right at the end are quite discouraging.
Mike to be cleared for treatment this week and to stay on track with his schedule.
Mike to have minimal side effects from the high-dose chemo. The most common and intense ones are gastrointestinal distress, mouth sores, bone pain, nausea/vomiting, and loss of appetite. There are others that can also happen like neuropathy, tinnitus, and kidney damage. He already has pretty significant neuropathy from his previous treatments that affect his balance when standing/walking. We are praying for no further neuropathy! He also reduced kidney function from previous treatments, so we’re praying for his kidneys to remain stable.
Me—I don’t even know how to ask you to pray for me. Rest, maybe? Peace. No fear. I fight fear of the unknown quite a bit. Pray I remember to drink water. I know that seems simple, but I’ve been living on coffee for so many months, I’m pretty sure my blood type is now Medium Roast.
That’s pretty much everything! Thanks for all your prayers! Also, we have a temporary address here in Raleigh for those who would like to send cards of encouragement. (We LOVE getting them!) I’ve left it below. Oh, and one more thing; if you have anyone in your family with any health or mobility conditions, go get them an Apple Watch!
