Travails in the wilderness of life ...

Friends have asked about our saga over the last three years, so I've come to try to jot some of the details down. Maybe at some point I'll be able to look back at it and gather deeper insights. 

Job 1:30-21 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shave his head, and fell down up on the ground, and worshipped. ... the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. 

Things really started in September 2017, while we were on a trip, in an RV borrowed from our friend Jan. He and Steve were in New England. I flew to meet them, and Jan flew home and Steve and I spent about six days driving around Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. We made a stop in a hotel one night so I could have wifi to work overnight helping cover Hurricane Irma's landfall. It was fascinating and productive. The story we wrote overnight was one of the most popular stories that year. 

However, that hurricane meant things weren't so great at home. A couple of trees and big limbs fell in the front yard, knocked a couple of holes in the roof. Rosie had stayed home alone, but escaped to her brother's for landfall. The house was without electricity for several days. Steve's brother Don and our son David worked to get trees removed and sawed up and patched the hole on the roof. 

That began the series of unfortunate events that have plagued us ever since. We've had happy moments and hysterically funny moments. We've cried ( a lot). We've learned a lot. And I guess that's what life is all about anyway. 

Winter 2017-2018     While the gutters are damaged, the house floods twice during intense rainfall, coming through the foundation, and running across the dining room and out the other side of the house. 

Spring 2018    Pipe in the wall of the guest bathroom/living room springs a leak and over time floods corner of living room and entertainment center.  But we finally got a new roof installed and then gutters, so no more flooding we hope!

May 2018    Steve develops AFib. Spends a few days in the hospital.

June 2018  Steve has his first known stroke, we learn through an MRI that he's had previous strokes we didn't know about. 

August 2018    Steve has a procedure to try to arrest the A-fib, it works but either during the procedure or shortly after, he has another stroke, this one leaves visible impairment and numbness in his left side and hand. This involves two separate hospital stays 

September 2018    While we are on an overnight trip doing some springs research, Steve gets violently ill. I rush him to the ER at North Florida Regional Hospital. Neurosurgeon confirms he has a brain bleed. This required almost a week in the ICU.  

Shortly after coming home, he has a blood pressure incident and we spend another couple of days in the hospital. 

Job 2: 6-10 "And the Lord said unto Stan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life. So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes. 

Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. 

But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips."

At some point here, we had a big work party and made brunch and had some friends and family come help us do some yard work. It was a great help. And some ladies in church brought food for a few days this fall. 

October/November 2018 We had planned for months to take a trip to Tennessee and North Carolina to go to a friend's wedding and then stay in a cabin, so we did. It was beautiful but while we were there he had another stroke. When we came home, he spent a few more days in the hospital, and had another heart procedure to try to prevent more strokes. They put a titanium clip on the left atrial appendage of his heart. In mid-November I begin Family Medical Leave to take care of Steve and work through issues.

January 2019 Plastic surgeon performs a major melanoma surgery on his head and arm in a day trip to Florida Hospital. I was able to go back to work full time again.

Job 3:26 "I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came." 

June 2019      We get a few months of respite and I take an overnight trip to stay at the beach. While I'm in the hotel, they call to tell me the engine blew on Steve's Saturn. A week later, we're leaving a family picnic at the beach and someone rear-ends us and totals my Hyundai 

August 2019  The Afib returns and Steve spends a few more days at Central Florida Regional Hospital. By this point, we've started to lose track of the number of days he's been in the hospital.  

Job 5:7     "Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward."

(In one of the bright spots we're grateful for, Dinah gets promoted to the national investigations team.)

September 2019 Another trip to ER, Mayo. Afib.

October 2019     Dishwasher leaks, ruins cabinet and flooring 

October 2019    Vascular neurologist tells us Steve has had more strokes than we can count, including another quite large one recently. 

November 2019    Steve winds up in congestive heart failure. Has another cardiac ablation. Spends almost a week at Mayo, including his birthday! 

December 2019    Dinah spends a night in the hospital for observation by Steve's cardiology group because of chest pain and high blood pressure. 

Job 10: 1-2 "My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me." 

December 2019    Steve has another melanoma surgery. This one goes awry and turns into a big mess, with staph infection .

February 2020     We pack up the kitchen and begin gutting it to replace cabinets and flooring. A few friends came to help me pack up. It was terrific.

March 2020     On the second week of March, we were able to take the grandkids to the Everglades for two glorious days just as COVID-19 was beginning to spread. We are so blessed we were able to make those memories. 

April 2020    Steve and I make a crazy one-day trip to Tifton, Georgia where a couple was donating truckloads of elastic to help people make masks. We were able to bring home 11 giant bags of elastic that have been used to make thousands of masks. Masks and elastic have gone to the Navajo nation, Oregon, Ohio, Massachusetts, the Panhandle, Ohio, Illinois, Virginia and all over Florida.

June 2020     Steve has emergency gall bladder removal at Mayo. It's gangrenous. Meanwhile we're working on trying to get the kitchen painted and the drywall repaired and replaced so we can get the cabinets. 

Job 13: 15, 14:1 "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine on ways before him. Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble." 

July 2020     Steve drops a board on his foot and busts his toe wide open and winds up having to have the toenail removed and get stitches. 

August 2020     We are driving in Daytona during intense rainfall, when the road floods and the water rips off the air dam underneath our Toyota Highlander.  When we arrive in DeLand, I look up to see debris swirling high over head and realize we've driven into the tail end of a tornado. 

Psalms 23:4 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

We got the cabinets and counter tops in and they're amazing. Steve's brother and his wife built the cabinets. Steve's best friend put the sink plumbing together after I called him to ask for advice. 

September 2020     After battling pesky rats in the attic for months and ant hills inside the house, a massive ant colony is discovered in the walls of our home.

September 10, 2020     The washing machine backs up because we had too much activity with showers and laundry during a weekend with all the grandkids and our carpet is flooded in the bedroom and bathrooms twice. Ripped out about a third of the carpet and started shopping for new carpet.  We're in the primary focus area for Gemini Springs, so we're awaiting city sewer but now we hear it may be three more years. So we have the septic tank pumped and will try to go easy on it. 

September 27, 2020      At this point, our neighbor has replaced the drywall where we gutted the wall to clean out the big ant colony. But it hasn't been painted. The floors haven't been replaced because we haven't found someone to do the work.  We think the count of hospital days is somewhere around 45 but we kind of lost count. Steve is doing pretty good. He gets around and does some things around the house and yard when he can.

He just wore a heart monitor for a month and we are awaiting the results of that. It was tiny and unobtrusive but it sure ruled our lives for a few weeks. The sensor and the monitor had to be charged every couple of days, and it couldn't touch any hair on his chest.

                              

Job 27: 6  "My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live." 

We are still working to try to find someone to put flooring in.

We are very grateful for the friends who have extended regards and prayers. A couple of you especially have been so wonderful at staying in touch. Our neighbor still mows our yard with our riding lawnmower! We are really grateful for him.

And we still have our sense of humor. Sometimes laughing is the only way to get through challenges! A few times, we've collapsed into giggles because what other choice did we have? 

As rough as this has been, we look around us and we always see blessings, and we are grateful.

Job 32:8 "But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding."