Hospital Stay #3 and lost email

First off, we cancelled Cox services and I just realized tonight that included my email. Sorry about that. I will post our new email by the weekend. Jeff has promised to help me set up the computer this weekend.

Well, we are back in the hospital. Yesterday, we got up and the home health nurse came by to do Mike's blood work and change the PICC line dressing. He was fine. No temp, but a little pain. We went to church. Again, Mike was in pain, but it lessened at church. My sister-in-law Kathy was hosting a lunch at her house in honor of Sunday and Jeff and Wendy's arrival. Weebs for all those B-1 people. Jeff and Wendy met us at our house with our car and turtles in tow. Mike had enough excitement for the day, so I set his IV's going and we left. I was gone about 4 hours. Mike's IV's take 6 hours to run. When I got back, Mike was sleeping and I checked his IV's. I helped loaded up stuff in Jeff and Wendy's car to take over to the house we are moving into on Wednesday. Jeff and Wendy left with a list and I took the time to do laundry and honestly turn on the TV to veg. I checked on Mike and he was a little warm but not too bad.

The door bell rang and it was Melissa to bring some things over and to check on Mike. About 5 minutes later the door bell rings again and it is Whitney, the chef with all the food for the week. It looks delicious and I am starving. As Whitney is going through everything, Melissa told me to run and get a thermometer because Mike's fever is high. We don't have one with us. It is in the household goods that will be here this week. I run to CVS and get back in maybe 10 minutes. We take Mike's temp and it is 103.1 - I panic on the inside. Melissa said we need to go to the ER and Mike of course said if I go, I will be up all night. Let's just wait til in the morning. This is typical Mike. He is very internal and tends to tough it out when he is sick. He likes to be left alone. But we told him too bad and off we went. This was around 7 pm last night. We got right in and stayed in the ER until about 1 am. They ran tests, gave him fluids for dehydration, and started antibiotics. He also had a CT Scan and a Chest Xray. We were lucky to have Melissa, Pierre, my Dad and my brother float in and out last night. It always helps to have visitors to pass the time and then to make sure things happen when they should.

So after a long night, we did get a stretch of sleep - maybe 4 hours or so. That is not so bad. Just to make a long story short, Mike has an infection in his blood from the PICC line. He is on high dose antibiotics and they pulled it out tonight. We are waiting on the PICC team to come in and replace it on the other side. However, in the meantime he is in pain and we need that to get morphine. It will probably be another long night.

A few things that I want to mention about the last 36 hours... I just felt a sigh of relieve to see Jeff and Wendy. They are a part of our family. We have a long history together and they are Elizabeth's Godparents (Despite being Webbers :)!). They were the first to hold her after she was born in Abilene. Just to have someone from the inside was huge. They brought us news from Dyess and long time friends. I was overwhelmed by the support that is going on at Dyess. We just received a box at the new house from the 9th Bomb Squadron. We haven't opened it because we are currently detained. But I look forward to it!

I am thrilled that Miyagi is coming on Tuesday night to help with the unloading of the truck. In fact, Wendy is coming back too. We have waves of people - new neighbors, Christian brothers and sisters, old friends, family, military that will be at the house unloading and unpacking the house. Wendy is going to stay through the weekend to help me with all the paperwork and getting that organized. One of my fears right now is losing important paper while we have been living in 4 different locations over the past few months. I can't even describe the inner joy and excitement it will bring to walk in the house with our stuff. I so crave a normal life. When we left Shalimar, I thought it would be for 2 weeks. I NEVER dreamed back then, we wouldn't go back. I think God knew it was best to reveal that in stages. I probably would have had a heart attack right there. There are people that I just ache for there. I want their hugs, their prayers, and there support more than ever. But as everyone knows who is still reading this blog, God has absolutely led us here.

Let's talk about Mike. The CT Scan revealed that one of the lesion's on his liver is getting bigger. So that is a battle that we are going to attack. We are just not sure what to do right now. We are weighing options and treatments. Please be in prayer that God will reveal what path we should take. Every road is full of huge mountains. We thought we were sure and now we are left with indecision and are seeking God's council.

We had a visit today from Darla from Shephard AFB today. She drove the 2 hours to explain the Survival Benefit Plan and some other retirement details. We actually took the full SBP spouse/child plan. If something happens to Mike, the SBP allows us to keep 55% of his retirement pay. Otherwise if Mike passes on the retirement pay stops. We also found out about SGLI (life insurance for Military) . First of all, it converts to VGLI and they have to offer it to you no matter what. I was afraid that Mike's condition who exclude him from the VGLI benefit, but that is not true. Also, you have 120 days after retirement to covert to the VGLI. In the meantime, you are covered by SGLI. Also, we found out that if your are 100% disable as determined by the AF, you don't have to pay the premiums. So there is paperwork that you have to fill out, but we will start that as soon as we get our retirement orders.

Honestly, I am still a little lost about the whole Tricare issue and United Concordia or Dental plan. That is my next project. It would be easy to be Tricare Prime if you were going to live by a base and Dr.'s accept that insurance. But the decision is much harder because not many Dr's accept Tricare Prime here. So I need to research Tricare Standard and if we can even get a supplement. Plus I need to interview the doctors that will accept Tricare Prime. The problem is finding the time to fit that in right now.

I have a stress test scheduled for tomorrow for my issues that I had last week. I also went and got some blood work done today. So I am prayerful that my health is still intact amidst all this stress right now.

By the way, our official retirement date is December 19. We found that our today as well.

So I have spent a lot of time tonight filling you in on the facts of our lives. There is so much. I am glad to be here near family and friends. I love McKinney. I just wish we could have been near a base to get all the retirement details. HOWEVER, I really hope that what everyone can see is how the Air Force is bending over backwards for us. They really are. I hope it really encourages other Active Duty out there if you ever have an unexpected rock in your road.

Finally, we need prayer still:
Prayers for decisions that we need to make about care
Prayers for test
Prayers for Manifestation of Healing
Prayers for my health and stress level
Prayers for my Mom. She is getting measured for Radiation tomorrow
Prayers for all the logistics of things going on about moving in. I have had to completely let that go and trust that it will get done by God's hand through amazing people
Pray for strength
Pray for decision about Tricare and that the topic will become less an enigma to me.
Pray for Pastor Herman as he travels to Philippine's to minister

God has lead me to Romans 5 four times now. It talk about trial and perseverance. I am trying to listen and yet I still am not sure the message he has for us in that.