Back from a long absence

I started this blog at the suggestion of lots of friends. And, I had great intentions on posting to it regularly. But, as with many of my plans, it looked good on paper. In reality, I'm slow to learn new things. I know, I know, I'm all about researching new green chemicals, cleaning processes, renewable energy and crop sustainability. But, when it comes to the computer, I'm a PHD computer user... Push Here Dummy. At first, I was accustomed to using Myspace for my writing. Then Facebook. I always intended to copy a lot of those blogs over here. But, that plan still sounds good on paper.

So, let me catch up on life these past three years or so. I had moved back to El Dorado in June of '09. Mother was sick and needed help. She got better for a while but routine X-rays in the spring of last year (2012), they found lung cancer. And with her other conditions (COPD, congestive heart failure and aortic stenosis), she wasn't even a candidate for a biopsy. Cat scans three months later revealed the tumors had been growing... alot. Mother's doctor said it was time to sign her up for hospice. He's a pretty conservative physician and I'm confident he felt she was within her last six months. And, it looked like he was right.

In August, her health really went downhill. Even her hospice nurse said it wouldn't be long now. A friend who is a hospice nurse told me that the numbers I was reporting concerning Mother's oxygen saturation levels and such indicated Mother would likely be gone in ten days, two weeks at the most. She went to the hospice center for five days as we were looking forward to my brother's first visit home in two years. I asked friends to pray she'd live long enough to see him. After those five days were up, it was clear she couldn't come home. Time to go to the nursing home.

I called Hudson and sure enough, they had an opening. Mother moved in September 8, I believe. For the first few weeks, it was touch and go. She couldn't even feed herself. Mother doesn't remember much about those first few weeks and that's probably a good thing.

But, as the weeks turned into a couple of months, Mother pulled out of having one foot in the grave. She got off of her oxygen and ditched the wheelchair for her walker. Then back to using her cane. She even got in trouble a few times for going down the hall without even her cane. Everyone was amazed. Mother and I had already grown closer than I ever thought possible. God had done a lot of healing, a lot of restoring. But those months where she was just barely hanging on while at the house and the months since then at the nursing home, Mother have grown closer than I ever imagined.

This summer, I noticed Mother starting to slip a bit. At that time, Gene was scheduled to be released from prison in December. I really didn't see her making it that long. No one did. But, just before the fourth of July, he was released! He took advantage of every opportunity to come home for a visit. Living just a hundred miles away in Texarkana, it was a reasonable distance. Not too far but far enough for him to build a new life over there. It seems that Mother's health started slipping even more.

I'll write more about these past few months but let me just say that Mother is still here... barely. Her attitude is great and the three of us (Mother, my brother and me) are closer than ever. Mother has lived long enough to see two brothers that were polite to each other but not really close become closer than ever before. While it's tough to see her slip, I'm really thankful for what has been our 15 months (so far) of bonus round. No regrets. Lots of thanks.