Like Father, Like Daughter

Update on Dad: Wednesday night – Dad’s heart actually stopped – only for 5 seconds – but that was 5 seconds too long on the medication they had him on. They came in Thursday morning and announced that the medication wasn’t working so they were going to go ahead and do a pacemaker on Friday. While he was eating lunch on Thursday, the doctor came in and said they couldn’t get an operating room for Friday – so Dad shouldn’t eat or drink even another bite because they were going to put the pacemaker in that afternoon at 3:00. The surgery went fine. Thursday night there was a little scare when they hung a bag of antibiotics and he had an instantaneous reaction – within seconds he could not breathe, he was sweating profusely, and his blood pressure dropped to 50/30. Fortunately, he had been in shock before, and knew exactly what was happening – a tech in the room admitting Dad’s roommate was able to get him oxygen right away, and the nursing staff and rapid response team were on top of things and able to get everything under control, eventually. They kept him an extra day in the hospital to monitor him, and he went home, finally, on Saturday. He says he is sore, but doesn’t have any pain – and his two biggest complaints are learning to sleep on his back and having to shave with the electric razor. Thank you, everyone, for your prayers.

This whole week I have been preaching to my father about learning to listen to his body – that part of his new life with a pacemaker involves fatigue – and that when he gets tired, he needs to back off and rest. I speak from experience. But while I was preaching to Dad, I SHOULD have been listening myself. I pushed myself pretty hard last week – and today, I’m really, really tired. I’m not going to fall over, but I need to take care of myself.

It amazes me how hard it is to learn some lessons. I know as well as anyone, and better than most, that I have to take care of myself. When I’m tired, I can make a choice not to do one thing on one day, or I can try to push through the tired. Only when I push through, I wind up not doing a whole bunch of things on a whole bunch of days. Yet I still try to push through, thinking that maybe THIS time, I will be super woman! OK Dad, here’s a promise. If you will try to pay attention to what your body is telling you, I will pay attention to what my body is telling me. Let’s be alike in a POSITIVE way, not a negative one!

On a good note, I FINALLY got past the 240 barrier – weighing in at 237 pounds! That is a total loss for me of 198.4 pounds – just 1.6 pounds away from that 200-pound mark! It’s getting closer!

“Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:30-31, NIV)

“I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber…” (Psalm 121:1-3, NIV)