Thankful for God's Word

Today I set out to get my mom an appointment at Emory to be evaluated and find out what the heck this lesion on her forehead is.

Nowadays, unlike the good ol' days, you have to go through a process.  You can't just call a doctor's office, make an appointment and go on about your day.  Oh, no.  Now, you must call the doctor that your PCP referred you to, who wants you to see a specialist.  They have to fax their records to Emory, as well as the PCP.

So then you have to call the PCP and make sure that they got the records from the doctor they referred you to.  And if they did, which always takes at least two phone calls, they have to fax their referral with insurance authorization to the specialist at Emory.

You can then call Emory and make an appointment.  But wait a minute.  The referral isn't in the system.  Say what?  You're looking right at it.  You're holding it in your hand.  Nope, the system won't let them go any further with the appointment making until it's in the system.  Call back Monday midday.

It's unfathomable to me the way the medical system works these days.  I don't understand it at all.  Anyway, today has been a challenging day for me.  I know everything is in the Lord's hands, the timing of each and every appointment and procedure is already made in the Lord's calendar.  He already knows the outcome of everything.  But wow, is it hard to be human.  I'm praying every minute.  Wish I knew a way to lift my mood.  I feel in my gut and my heart of hearts that my mom is going to be fine.  I just don't have the feeling that it's any sort of cancer.  I feel like if it was, I'd feel some certain way.  She had a knot removed from her scalp last year and it was benign.  That knot hadn't deteriorated her skull, though.  But the Lord knows what's going on.  Why even bother to guess.  Why even bother to worry.  Hasn't changed one single thing.  So here's a few pictures of my feelings for the day.  And, of course, one of my little sunshine, Grant Cameron.

I ordered him the cutest little play set, which obviously he can't play with yet.  Each little farm friend makes its animal sound.  I will enjoy watching him play with them.  If he's like his daddy, he'll love to play and make believe.

This scripture has been me today.  I've been praying that the Lord will make my arms strong to handle the tasks at hand.

This one is a favorite of mine.  I've shared it with friends going through tough times.  

And obviously, this one needs no explanation.  Who hasn't meditated on it before?  It's a comforting one for sure.  

And then this one has been with me through some tough times, too.  Gotta work on that merry heart part.  

Do you have a favorite verse that gets you through the tough times?

Till next time...

In the Blink of an Eye

Tuesday started out as a wonderful day.  I have been out of town on vacation with Suz, Reid, Alayna and Eli for Spring Break.  We were in Destin, Florida and had such a great time.  I will blog about it later, because there were so many fun memories and laughs and I don't want to forget a single one.

Since I had been gone and was missing my sweet Grant, I offered to sit with him awhile for Alicia to have some time to get work done, or housework or just whatever she wanted to do.  

He is the biggest ray of sunlight for us.  For my whole family.  I took him to see my parents, who were delighted to see him.  He slept most of the time, but that was okay.  They love to watch him sleep, too.

My mom had started having headaches on Monday and she had a lot of swelling around he eyes.  In fact, when she woke up Tuesday morning, she said one of her eyes was swollen shut.  She had a doctor's appointment with her primary care doctor at 4:20 that afternoon.

While I was babysitting Grant, at about 3:30, Jeff called me.  He was broken down at Wesley Chapel Road.  Which if you live around this area, you know that's pretty much one of the worst places to break down.  Put it this way, in my opinion, it's one of the armpits of metro Atlanta.  Without a doubt.

Cam picked him up and Jeff had the car towed to our mechanic.  Turns out the alternator is gone out and must be replaced, along with a new battery.  And  Jeff must have  cracked a rib or something trying to get some things out of the car.  He was being hasty and not really thinking about what he was doing.  I think he was just trying to figure out how to stay safe in a non-safe area.

So he gets home and Grant goes home and I'm just working in my office a little and my mom calls.  Her PCP wants her to go straight to the hospital and have an in-depth CAT scan of her head.  So I stop what I'm doing, meet her at her house and to Piedmont Henry Hospital we go.  Every time I go there, I swear I'll never go again.  This time I really swear I'll never go there again.  We waited in that ER waiting room for well over six hours.  When we were finally taken back to an ER patient room, we spent the rest of the night there.  We were at that hospital for 13 hours.

Crystal texted the manager of the office she works at 6:00 a.m. to let her know she wouldn't be at work.  Within 30 minutes, the manager's husband, who works for Henry County Sherriff's Department, brought us steaming hot coffee, biscuits and hashbrowns.  You don't realize that people care about you until you're in a time of trial.  Then you realize you have lots more friends than you ever thought you had.

I went to the Kroger pharmacy to pick up her antibiotic.  I was there when they opened the window at 8:00 a.m.  Got it filled, dropped mom off at her house.  Explained what was going on as best I could to my dad, who was totally busy with getting a new roof on their house.

After I got home, I got my job that I had for later in the day covered, took a shower with some of the best smelling soap I've ever used (thanks to Kimberly Liscio, Alicia's mom), washed my hair and conditioned it, but didn't brush the tangles out.  Took a four hour nap and this is what my hair looked like after my nap.  Whoa, the frizz.

So my mom has some sort of cyst or tumor or cellulitis on her forehead that has eaten away the bone of her skull.  We don't know why.  We don't know what it is.  We don't know if it's cancer or not.  (Although, I'm not claiming any part of cancer.  Nope, no part of it!)  So we go today to an ENT to find out what his thoughts are and what we are to do from there.  I'm trying to be positive.  I'm trying to keep calm and trust God.  Most of the time I'm doing good.  Then others, the devil creeps up on me and puts fear in my mind.  It's a struggle.

My mom is the rock and the strength of our family.  I've never ever known anybody stronger than she is.  I'm so thankful to God for her.  She took us three girls to church, where we were all saved.  She made our clothes.  She cooked every single meal.  Lord knows, she's nursed and taken care of my daddy.  And everyone, especially and including him, knows that without her he'd have been dead long ago.

She left her family and home in South Georgia to move to Atlanta to find an exciting new life.  Away from the small town that she had grown up in.  She was the only girl of the family and was her daddy's June Bug.  She did all this at the age of 18.

I could write a book on my mom and the love she has for her family.  Right now, all I want is for the Lord to heal her.  Whatever is causing her problems in her body, I pray He will heal her.  I trust He will heal her and I'm already thanking him for his healing.

Till next time...