Day 95

I sometimes think, albeit wrongly, the road traveled is ours alone. No one knows the trouble I / we've seen, and perhaps that is true, but we all have known trouble, for God said it would be so. From the days when Adam and Eve lived in the Garden and chose their own way over obedience to the Lord, trouble has been a constant.

This morning I reviewed previous posts ...

• Today Jim commented his right elbow hurt. It has hurt before, not constantly, but now and then. The last time he mentioned it that I noted it was a month ago on July 15. Before any of the surgeries he complained of it too and his primary physician called it tennis elbow.  Who knows why it hurts. When sleeping, he keeps his arm on a pillow and that helps.

• The dizziness continues. That has been a bother since May 22 -- 10 days after his cancer surgery. Getting up from bed, from the chair, from the floor or just turning around can bring on dizziness. He has mentioned it to countless medical personnel, and although it is listed as a side effect of taking Warfarin (Coumadin),  no one seems to think it is any big deal. NOTE: Jim acquired AFib as a result of the May 12 surgery; his heart did not return to normal sinus rhythm until June 11, the day of his bowel obstruction surgery.  

•  In conjunction with the dizziness is the abnormally low blood pressure. Jim has always had a low BP, and when we first married, both of us had the same systolic reading at 110 (I don't remember what the lower number was). For the last 15 years or more, his readings have been in the 90s/50s. However, since starting on the Coumadin, his BP has been much lower, with the lowest reading taken at 68/30.  Of course Coumadim can't be the culprit. It doesn't cause low blood pressure -- that's what we hear!
  
  Just because these side effects are not common does not mean they should be buried and not considered at all.
   
• The tiredness remains. He needs to be mindful that recovery will take months, not just days or weeks. Often he will discover what his mind wants to do, his body is just not able. He needs to sit and rest. He thinks because he can drive again, he can go anywhere and do anything, but that isn't quite true. It was a blessing when we learned Ormal, Pat and Mike Williams were driving to Anamosa Wednesday morning to attend Art Baker's funeral service and that there was room for Jim. If Jim had gone by himself, the exhaustion he felt would have been much worse. As it was he slept much of the afternoon.
  
  Along those lines, I do wish he would be more specific of how he is feeling ... instead of  "just tired." 

Tomorrow, Aug. 16, will be week 3 at First Federated Church in Lisbon. It is a conservative Bible-preaching church with a small congregation, mostly age 50 and older.  Jim's sermon the Lord has given him is "The Blood of Jesus" from I Peter 1:17-25. Please pray for strength of body and voice.