Winting

It's the time of year in Iowa that you're not sure if it's still winter or if spring is actually here. According to my thermometers, it got up to 75 degrees today. I went out to a doctor's appointment in my summer attire of t-shirt and shorts. It was a great change to what we've been experiencing.

Early this evening, the sun was almost completely out, but it was also raining heavily with hail. Tonight, it's forecast to get down to 28 degrees with possible ice and snow. You kind of have to just prepare for almost any weather possibility in Iowa. A few weeks ago, we had snow covered yards, but warm air temps that felt like a nice spring day.

Today's appointment was an unplanned one. I started a new treatment on the newest wound a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, it's growing larger at a rapid pace no matter what I do. Friday night and Saturday morning, my right hip and thigh had a large, hot, red splotchy area. This is one of the medication's side effects, but I also had a high temp, sore throat, and a lot of congestion.

We figured part of the congestion was due to flowers in my room that came from grandpa's funeral. Unfortunately, evicting them from my room only helped briefly. So today, after my wound doctor agreed, I visited my GP. With one look, he diagnosed me with severe strep throat. Now I'm on 24-hour house quarantine until I'm no longer contagious. That means I'll be missing my monthly church council meeting, but colder temps as well.

I'm thankful that I don't get ill very often, but it's unfortunate when the rare times cause me to miss something I'm active in. Fortunately, I didn't have a school talk tomorrow, the next one isn't until Friday. Hopefully by next week I'll be able to report an update on the insurance situation. Until then, have a great start to April.

Trains, Planes, and Tractors

Every so often, a random thought enters my head, finds a lot of open real estate, and moves on out the other ear. Looking back at my grandfather's life last week makes me wonder what I would have done differently in my current situation, and what I may have done if I didn't have a spinal cord injury (SCI).

If I went back about 15 years, I would have studied engineering more than information technology. I tend to quickly pickup on new technology, but I also do so with mechanical items. I love knowing how things work, seeing what ways they can be improved, and thinking how an item can simplify life. One add on I had on my flight simulator was called AfCad, it allowed you to manipulate airports in several ways. I wouldn't dare to guess how many hours I spent placing parking spots, arranging taxiways, and lining everything up to the closest centimeter possible.

However, as a web developer, I can work anywhere I have my computer and a good internet connection. I don't know enough about the industry, and different engineering degrees, to speculate on work conditions. In the case of planning an area for development, like the airport editor, I imagine some could be done from home after getting exact measurements of the land and needs. Completely changing history and imaging what I would have done without an SCI, thoughts really start spinning.

After high school, I think I would have joined the Air Force for a few years. My interest in planes isn't far behind trains, so it would be a good fit. I can imagine myself flying freighters across oceans to supply the troops or soaring across the sky at Mach 2 in an F-16.

The railroads tend to look favorably at veterans, so my next career move after the Air Force would be working for the BNSF, or smaller, railroad. As a locomotive engineer, I could fill my preference for not working in an office, but still enjoy the luxury of heat and air conditioning. What area of the country I would work in though, I couldn't guess. Different areas have varying appeal, but that changes with time. After working a day on the rails, I would come home to my acreage with a hobby farm.

Working solely as a farmer would be a little too much for my liking. However, about 15 acres would be great. I could have a small barn and pasture with about a dozen ship, a pond for fishing and swimming, and a large garden behind the house. This has been my dream house for many years, and would combine several of my interests.

With all these career plans, I would hope to be supporting my wife and a couple kids. Unfortunately, the railroad life doesn't leave a lot of time for family, so I would need to carefully prioritize time and evaluate life choices as the years accumulated.

Speculating about the what ifs can be fun, but I try not to do it often. We live the life given us by God and work toward His plan. The one I've been given is unique and I pray that I can continue to live it to the best of the abilities I have been given.

Life Changes

At times in our lives, there will be occasions that something comes up that will alter our life from the moment it happens. I'm in the midst of two of these moments.

Yesterday, my grandfather went to be with the Lord. As I wrote last week, he was suffering from complications of a fall and had emergency brain surgery. We thought he was showing signs of improvement Saturday, but Sunday he was completely healed. In Grandpa's 86 years, he taught his children and grandchildren how to serve and love the Lord.

For the first time since he returned from the Korean War, grandma spent the day without her husband of nearly 64 years. Grandpa was always there to help his family, and they covered numerous times when a nurse cancelled on us. Grandpa will be missed by all those who knew him, but we are glad to see him free of earthly burdens that troubled him greatly. The coming days, weeks, and years will be used to remember and live with the void we now feel.

The second change has been briefly mentioned in earlier posts, but not fully explained. Due to the Affordable Care Act, the insurance plan I'm currently on is being ended. I get it through my father's employer, who has been working on getting a new plan for the company.

What they started with, was a plan that would only allow me eight hours a week of assistance, I currently get about nineteen hours a day. My family worked with dad's employer and found a solution that we could keep the same provider. The provider then said we could even get the same coverage we already had, but we didn't have it writing yet. A short time later, the insurance provider changed their mind and said we would no longer be able to hire our own caregivers.

Hiring our own caregivers is what allows my family to keep my costs below what it would be to live in a nursing home. Without that being the, I would lose some of my state funding that also allows me to stay home. As I write this, insurance is keeping us in limbo as to which way they will decide to go.

My current plan expires on March 31, two weeks from now. At that time, I will either have no choice other than a care facility, or I will be on a new plan that allows everything to stay as is. In all things, trusting that God's plan will prevail, but it will remain to be seen what direction that plan takes us.

Role Reversal

We start with a great update from last week's entry. Despite everything looking against it, the Romeike family is now allowed to stay in the country! It was an unexpected, but great turn around that many had prayed would happen. Read the full story at this site.

I have had multiple surgeries for various different reasons. Several have been to relocate muscle and skin tissue to close pressure sores, while others, like my diaphragm pacemaker implant, have resulted in big improvements in my needs. Most of these procedures are followed by hospital stays, often in the Intensive Care Unit. Due to needing mechanical ventilation, I can only be placed in sections that have the skills and equipment I need. My family is quite familiar with the ICU and we know what to bring for entertainment and personal needs.

For me, it's almost like being on vacation. I get to work with different nurses, have new walls to look at, and generally can't do much other than watch TV. I also receive more visitors than normal and get to hear about what is happening in their life. I'm always looking forward to the end of these trips though and welcome the return to normalcy. This past week has had an unfortunate role reversal.

My grandfather on my mother's side has been having headaches since he fell and received a concussion in January. This past Friday, he went to the hospital with extreme pain in his head. It was found that he had blood on his brain and had emergency surgery Saturday afternoon to remove it. With his previous heart trouble, surgery in itself was a major risk, but he did thankfully make it through the four-hour ordeal.

On Sunday, I went with my parents to visit him in the ICU. He was heavily sedated, on a vent, and not responsive to any of us. This is what I expected to see, but it was odd being the visitor instead of the patient. A major difference with me is that, since I can't feel below my head, I'm very rarely ever in pain and therefore don't need medication for it. Seeing grandpa down and unresponsive was definitely a different experience.

In the two days since, he is now breathing on his own and sedatives have been adjusted. Unfortunately, he doesn't respond to anyone and only calms down when hearing scripture. We don't know if God's plans are to soon take him home or to be with us in different forms. Time will tell, but until then, we continue to pray for a great turn around, just like the Romeike family.

Ark Encounter

I follow the ministry Answers in Genesis (AiG) closely, as evidenced by the number of times I've linked to them and talked about them before. They are a Bible confirming ministry that works to show how we can trust God's Word from the very first verse. Living in the United States, it's very easy to see how the country is rapidly getting away from its Christian roots. AiG teaches, through many books, videos, and lectures, how what we see around us confirms God's Word, despite what mainstream science tells us.

To aid in this teaching, AiG opened the Creation Museum near Cincinnati, Ohio a few years ago. It's a place I hope to visit some day, but I may want to wait a couple years. Last week, it was announced that AiG has received enough in donations to start building the Ark Encounter; an attraction showing a full size ark as Noah was commanded to build. Just as Noah and his family had enter through the ark's door to be saved from the flood, we must now enter into into salvation through Jesus.

This new attraction is expected to have nearly two million people visit in its first year. As this nation continues to slide down the path of destruction, I pray these two Bible confirming attractions will help tend the tide. An article I read today shows just how far we have come full circle since the founding of the nation.

The Romeike family came to the US from Germany in order to home school their six kids from a Christian perspective. However, the Obama administration has now cancelled their asylum and will likely begin deportation proceedings soon.

At one time, people came to the United States for religious freedom. Now, Christian's are suppressed more and more while the religion of humanism (atheism) is allowed to spread. The land of Israel was once God's chosen nation, but they repeatedly rebelled against God until He finally gave them over to destruction. I pray that this nation will wake up before we are called to give an account for our actions.