Home again, home again…jiggety jig!

What a crazy couple of days. We got to Columbus by 5:00PM on Monday. I wrote my post and we ordered carry out. I just had a salad and soup but it didn’t sit well. Butterflies and GERD…great combo. Also, I forget when we stay in a hotel room, Mr. FixIt watches his TV. I ended up putting in my earplugs and reading my Bible devotional. When I’m anxious, I have made it a habit to call on Jesus first before I chase down a rabbit hole. Sometimes I read the Bible. Sometimes I listen to praise music. Last night, I had a conversation with Him. I asked Him to go for a walk with me. It was so relaxing and peaceful. In my mind’s eye, we walked through the woods with the beautiful colors. I focused on the sounds and sights and smells and before I knew it, I was settled right down and snoozing.

We both awoke before dawn yesterday and read the news and weather. My sweetheart brought me tea and yoghurt and a banana from the breakfast bar. Then we packed and left for my doctor’s appointment. As with most big medical centers, it’s kind of a hurry up and wait thing. I wasn’t really anxious yesterday. It’s always the night before in anticipation. We really loved the doctor. He was very reassuring. He went over everything with us. There’s good news and bad news. Anytime there has been surgery in an area, scar tissue builds up. In my case, the scar tissue has cut off the jugular vein on the left side. It’s ok…it doesn’t hurt me at all. As a matter of fact, the body is so miraculous, if the vein gets cut off or even removed, the body builds NEW veins to take it’s place. That’s where we are…new veins being built on the left. Which is good, but they are very small and it does diminish the chances of being able to thread a tiny wire through it. Because of this, he conservatively estimates he has a 50/50 chance of finding the missing parathyroid glands. Fifty-fifty is more than 0/100, so we will move forward with the venous sampling. He has had good results with this procedure, and he may be the only doctor in Ohio that does it. We came away feeling good about the whole thing. Especially when he told us my surgeon is THE cream of the crop!

We took our time coming home and stopped in Lancaster to go through the Olde Shoe Factory Antique Mall. Wowza! We didn’t see half of it…it was amazing! Didn’t buy a thing but I sure saw lots of things that I loved. We got home around dark and had supper. I thought I might try sleeping out in the new camper last night. The temp was predicted to get down to around 28 and I wanted to see if the little heater would keep it warm. It was 39 out and I lasted maybe fifteen minutes. I didn’t want to turn the furnace on so I just packed back up and came inside.

As I was gathering my things, a notification came across my phone to expect a freeze overnight. Suddenly I remembered…I had turned off the furnace at the farm in the spring and hadn’t turned it back on. I came in the house and told my sweetheart and before I could finish, he had the TV off and was up, ready to go with me. We changed the filter in the furnace, put fresh batteries in the thermostat and set it at 72. Then we turned on the gas stove in the bathroom to keep the pipes from freezing and turned off both dehumidifiers. So the farm is ready for winter…now we need to get things straightened up around here. I’ll work on the camping gear today…promise!

Whew…that was a very fast and furious 36 hours. I’m really ready to have a couple of days at home!

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“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Romans 12:2 ESV