Category Archives: Achalasia

Anniversary

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Today my facebook notifications let me know that this is the three year anniversary of when Belinda was first admitted to the hospital at Children’s in OKC for what would eventually be diagnosed as achalasia. This was a rough reminder today, because she has been having more trouble swallowing lately.

Her car isn’t working, and the repair will cost maybe around 2800, which we don’t have, obviously, so I drove this morning to Alva to bring her back home. She was excited because her friend was going to spend the night to celebrate the friend’s birthday tomorrow. I asked her to drive partway back, and we decided to stop at Chick-fil-a in Enid, have lunch there, and then have her drive (because my behind was killing me!) We ordered on the app, very smart, because it was super crowded when we got there. She got nuggets and macaroni, her fave, and I got a salad with the cut up nuggets in it – delicious! But she’d only started to eat when she sat up straight and seemed to retreat into herself. This is the sign that food is getting caught, and she needs to focus on it. After a minute, she excused herself to the bathroom.

Long story short, she didn’t get it all out. One spot still had food stuck in it. She could sort of drink water around it, but she couldn’t eat anything else. So we packed up our food and went back to the van. Before we got in she asked if I had any of her vomit bags and I did, so I got it out of the pocket behind my seat in the van and she got in and used it. And she kept using it. Everything was coming back up, food and water both. We stopped in Kingfisher because I’d promised Sarah I’d pick something up and I also decided to get things for a roast beef dinner so Belinda could take some back to Alva with her. She got the hiccups, which happens when she gets food stuck, and she stayed in the car with the a/c on while I hurried in and out. The hiccups hurt, and she’d drink water to try to get rid of them and then have to use the vomit bag again.

She almost had the bag completely full when we got home, and I said they were little, but they’re really not that small. It was a lot. I took it from her and dumped it out by the fence. She said she hoped that some little creature would find and be happy with the water and food in it. At least that was something positive.

We should have gone to DC during the summer break. She didn’t want to, because of her internships. But now she won’t want to go until Christmas break. I sure don’t want to do this. I don’t want to email the GI department and get the ball rolling. I don’t want to contact NORD and see if we have anything left in her grant for hotel and ground transportation. I don’t want to call Mercy Medical Angels and see if we qualify for plane tickets again. I don’t want to fly. I don’t want to have to be the grown-up and take the lead at the hospital. I don’t want to have to figure out how to pay for meals when we’re there or how to get from place to place. I’m tired. I’m so tired.

And yet I know I will. I am not going to forget the lovely blessings that have happened lately! Ben’s new job is going great, and I did win that Kindle Fire from the library adult summer reading program, an awesome bonus. Ben mowed the lawn today!

I also wanted to mention that even though my window is broken, Ben keeps taping it up when I ask and that is greatly appreciated. But last Sunday, super early, I left the girls at home and went to Newcastle to get stuff to make the lasagna Belinda requested, and I realized the window was part way down and someone could get into my car. (Although like who would, right? Ha ha.) I tried to think of a good place to park it and then I wondered if the oil and lube department was open that early, since I have not had an oil change in forever. Maybe once since the job loss. But I had enough money on a credit card and with his new job I thought it might be a good idea to just go ahead and get it done, and then pay for it when he gets paid. The people at the auto department had to call me back after I’d checked in, to make me sign something that wouldn’t hold them liable since THERE WAS NO OIL ON THE DIPSTICK. Whoops. There was still a little in there when they drained it, though. And I took Belinda to Alva the next day. I could have completely ruined my car, and at such a terrible time with Belinda’s car also out of commission. I use my car to drive her, and drive Sarah, and also get Bennett to work when he needs rides. And I smiled and thanked God because if my window hadn’t broken, I wouldn’t have worried about someone getting in my car, and then I would have just waited on the oil change until we had money in hand. But God makes all these things happen in the background that do work together in a wonderful way. Engine wasn’t knocking or anything. I wouldn’t have known there was an issue if they hadn’t told me. I mean, the service engine soon light is on but that’s been on forever.

Anyway. That’s the update. Belinda wants to go back to Alva tomorrow and I don’t think I can bear to drive six hours again. She came home and slept in my bed this afternoon and I’m glad because I know that food in there is hurting her and there’s really nothing we can do. I can get the ball rolling on scheduling her next procedure though. So that’s on the schedule for next week.

P.S. I don’t know why Belinda keeps having trouble. There are parents in the online achalasia group whose kids got the POEM procedure and have gone back for follow-up endoscopies but haven’t needed any more dilations or had any other issues. I sure wish it would be a little easier on her like that. She was really sad about it today, and I know she was thinking about how she has to deal with this her entire life. I don’t like to think about that either. It’s so discouraging. I wonder if the Ehlers-Danlos tissue connectivity disorder is why she keeps having trouble.

Stuck food

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Last week Belinda got food stuck in her esophagus. It happens sometimes, but this was a particularly bad one. She’d gotten a hot dog from Sonic (as an 18 year old does sometimes), even though bread can be difficult. So it got stuck. She got some of it out but not the stuck part. And it hurt. It hurt her chest and gave her the feeling like her “ribs are being opened up.” She couldn’t drink water or anything – it all came back up. She called me and we talked through some stuff but nothing worked. She couldn’t study; she couldn’t sleep. She didn’t want to go to the emergency room. I wasn’t sure if she should, anyway, because I don’t think just anyone should be poking around in her esophagus, you know?

She finally got a little rest and the next day it was still stuck. She felt even worse. She ended up missing some classes and I think she did the ones virtually that allowed it. She hates to miss class! I reached out to Children’s National and they wanted her to not go to the emergency room if she could stand it. Later that day she started feeling dizzy and she said she blacked out except for a tiny spot in the center of her vision. Of course, she did not tell me that until the next day, after she had finally gotten it down and gotten to eat again, and things were better.

This morning in church we prayed for her. The pastor prayed for absolute healing, and that she wouldn’t ever have to deal with this again, for the rest of her life. That would be very wonderful.

We are going to schedule a virtual follow up with Children’s National. We are going to do it during Spring Break so she and I can be together for the zoom call.

We also had appointments tomorrow with the Ehlers-Danlos doctor in Tulsa, but we rescheduled those for June, again so it will be during a break. We need to get those on a June-December schedule (they’re six month visits).

I don’t know how to help from here, which is hard. I told her to please try to always eat something that will go down before eating something dicey, like a hot dog. I told her to keep some yogurt or something on hand just in case. The dizzy and blacking out part is so very not okay!

I really want to think of some things I can send with her after spring break that will help. I’m not sure what yet. Hopefully it will come to me.

A poem I wrote at the children’s hospital

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I wrote this while we were in the waiting room at Children’s National Hospital earlier this month. I don’t know if the quality is that great, since I wrote it and didn’t really edit it at all, but I felt like I had to try to capture the space, and the mood, and the feel. It was one of the most poetic places I have been in a while. The poem doesn’t seem to follow many writing rules, but it was what was happening around me. I wrote this in the notes app since I didn’t have any paper.

Children’s hospital

Forgotten crayon on the floor
Yellow, alone on polished cold tile
Mickey and Minnie frolic on tv
Above a woman with her head in her hands
Children’s cries. Cranky. Tired.
Kids’ waiting room at the surgical center.

Bright painted walls. Blue, green, purple
Elmo, Moana, colored carefully or scribbled
Equally displayed, Scotch taped to doors
Edges flap as blue paper cap wearers
Rush through. Hurry, hurry
Kids’ waiting room at the surgical center.

Quarts of hand sanitizer
Join tinsel and gnomes by the silvery tree
No eating
No drinking
Kids hunger and thirst, parents must too
“Take it out,” warns reception. Offenders comply.
Kids’ waiting room at the surgical center.

Filling out forms, swiping through phones
Texting ‘no news yet’ to loved ones at home
An empty car seat at the feet of Grandma
Waiting for good news
And a small one back in her arms
Mom with tan backpack called out with her teen
Kids’ waiting room at the surgical center.

Dad grips white bag of somebody’s clothes
Twists the band strapped to his wrist,
Bar code printed by somebody’s name
Mama brings in a very small wheelchair
Warm jacket and marble game tucked
In the seat
Speaks on her phone in an unknown language
Smiles and laughs, then her voice goes soft
Kids’ waiting room at the surgical center.

My child hungers. She closes her book
And now scrolls cat memes, sharing a curated handful with me
“I think that’s A.I.” I say, and
She doesn’t mind. Her leg bounces lightly
Betraying her calm cool classy demeanor
Our pager lies silent, useless, as we shift in hard seats
Kids’ waiting room at the surgical center.

Last Day in DC

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It’s eleven days after we left DC, but I still wanted to post that last day on here.

We woke up and packed up all our stuff. Then we went downtstairs and the front desk checked it so we didn’t have to haul it around all day. From there we ubered to the Rayburn building at the Capitol. We had an appointment to meet Tom Cole at 12:30. We got there early and that gave us more time to figure out where things were. We had a nice sit down meeting with him. We mostly talked about Belinda and about things in Oklahoma – just a social visit, really. It was nice meeting him. He seemed impressed with Belinda, and said if she was interested in being an intern in the future, she could apply with his staff.

He gave us each one of his coins, which is like coins people in the armed services carry. For some sort of bar thing. This was Belinda’s second coin like this; she has another from when she was very little and Jim Inhofe gave her one. She did not realize this because when she got old enough to try to play with it I hid it from her.

After that we walked around a bit. Belinda got a headache so we walked to a CVS. Then we got an uber again and went back to the hotel to get our stuff, then went to the airport. We volunteered to check our bags because the flight was so full, which we hadn’t done before. It was kind of a drag getting them afterward, but it was also nice not hauling them around right after the flight.

Belinda was on her laptop the whole time, writing. I don’t remember what I did. Mostly concentrated on keeping my elbow away from my neighbor’s elbow.

Lenora and Ben R. came and picked us up and the airport and that was very nice. They were hungry and so were we so we went to KFC, then home!

Belinda said the dilation didn’t help very much this time. Bummer.

Washington DC

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Yesterday Belinda and I flew into Washington DC and today we went to Children’s National for her procedure. It was an endoscopy with possible dilation (they did that). We are here because she still goes to the pediatric surgeons that performed the POEM procedure for her achalasia.

So yesterday we got to the room and didn’t want to do anything. After a while we bundled up and walked to Domino’s and got pizza. Belinda did not wear gloves and her hands were so cold! I considered giving her mine and then I did not.

Beautiful view from our hotel room

This morning we called an uber and got to the hospital early. We went to see the chapel and the Healing Garden, which were underwhelming. But I’m glad I saw them because I had wanted to see them for a long time. There is allegedly something on the roof as well, but I wasn’t brave enough to try to find that.

We were in the waiting room for a really long time. I wrote a poem that didn’t rhyme, after an abandoned yellow crayon under a chair piqued my interest.

Waiting

Anyway, I made a bunch of notes of the day, mostly so I can keep the facts straight and remember which doctors and nurses worked on her (which came in very handy today with the phlebotomist).

Belinda told Dr. Kane that she had no symptoms and every thing was good and I told her to really tell him, and then she talked about how things were getting stuck sometimes and how she was having spasms. He told her that stress can make achalasia worse. So when she was unable to swallow in the cafeteria at school, that made her have to regurgitate, which made her even more anxious the next time. I am very thankful the school released her from the meal plan. I cook and freeze meals for her, and she makes herself an egg for breakfast every day.

Anyway. The nurse came and talked and talked. She was very nice but it was a long chat! We were both getting tired. Then the anesthesiologist came in, and he checked out Belinda’s veins and then she said not my hands, please, and he said what about your foot and she said sure and I DIED but he got it onthe first try and Belinda wasn’t even bothered. I felt nauseated but made it.

Shot in the foot time

Dr. Petrosyan came by to say hi. He and Dr. Kane are both her surgeons, and they performed the POEM together. Her last scope and dilation was also with them. Today Dr. Petrosyan was the surgeon who was doing all the emergency surgeries. We talked about languages a little with him. He knows Armenian, Russian, and English. He’s very smart!

So it took a bit longer because the consent form didn’t include the dilation, and so the nurse couldn’t let her go to the OR until that was fixed. So Dr. Kane fixed it, Belinda signed it. She was glad to get to sign it twice because she got her digital signature to look better the second time.

Dr. Kane said everything looked great and the dilation they did was very small, but they of course did it while they were in there. It looks like it went from 9.4 mm at the narrowest point to 12.0 mm. So that will be nice for her.

We got an uber back to the room and I had thought we might go to the Botanical Gardens this evening but she just wanted to order food and rest. So we got fettuccine and had it delivered. I’ve never done that before and the cost was horrible. Too cold to walk tonight though, and getting an uber would have been more expensive.

Tomorrow we are supposed to meet a senator in the morning. Then the art museum or library of congress or natural history. I’m letting her lead.

Catch-up

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Well I got very behind on my December journaling. But now Belinda has had her procedure, we are up on the ninth floor of the Washington Plaza Hotel, and I thought I could at least attempt to do this thing again. My last day to do the journaling calendar was Dec. 10 and now it’s Dec. 16, which honestly isn’t as bad as I thought it was. So.

Day 11: List as many places you went as you can think of, no matter how close or far.

I actually went quite a few places this year. Thinking, however is generally more difficult. I remember going to Branson with Krislyn, Karlene, and Belinda because Krislyn was invited to come dance there. That was very cool. Most of the family went to Milburn to have a remembrance service for Sarah’s stepmom. And Karlene and I went to several away football games to support Sarah in the band. Then to Alva several times, and now Belinda and I are in Washington DC. I’m going to go back and look at my facebook and see what I forgot.

A fire truck is going through traffic circle that our room overlooks and it was so loud that I got up and looked!

Anyway, back to the travels. In January, it wasn’t really a trip but I did go to Yukon several times as Bennett got married to Mia. It wasn’t a trip but it was so very important!

In March we went to Roman Nose State Park in Watonga and hiked and geocached. It was just one day during spring break but was horrible and also fun.

Alva in April. Krislyn and I also walked 10.4 miles in one day on the OKC trails. That definitely counts as somewhere I went.

We went to Lindsay quite a bit, which felt like traveling because it was a long way. Belinda’s co-op met there and I might have opted out if it hadn’t been senior year. I’m glad we did it! I love all those people. Also, I got to visit that non-grocery-store-Walmart and that was nice and nostalgic.

June was when we went to Branson! We also went to see David at Sight and Sound Theatre and played dinosaur mini golf. It was an extremely good time.

Ben and Belinda and I went to Gatlinburg, Tenn. in June for Belinda’s last dance nationals. It was difficult and we used credit cards to make it happen, but I couldn’t bear to not let Belinda do her last year of competition. We did make a lot of good memories. We walked a lot, went to Ripley’s Believe it or Not and the Ripley Aquarium, played mini golf, visited the Great Smoky Mountains State Park, went to the Gatlinburg library, and did other fun stuff along with dancing. That was a really good time. I never posted on facebook about it because I was waiting for the professional pics and when they came I still didn’t get around to doing it. Maybe I’ll make a post soon about it. I really should.

We were back in Alva a few times in August, to get Belinda’s adjustable bed moved in properly and also to drop her off at the dorms.

Karlene and I started going to away games for football in September. We went to Noble and ate at Kendall’s for the first time. We also went to Deer Creek and Yukon to watch band competitions and we went to Alva again, for Family Day.

October was Milburn, and we also went to band competitions in Edmond and Elgin. Karlene and I went to football games in Tecumseh and also Madill (we stayed the night there at a weird motel). Homecoming at Alva was also in October. We came in second in the medallion hunt!

And now it’s December and Belinda and I are in DC. We are here for two more nights and we are happy to be here but also really want to be at home.

So that was very very long to be part one of FIVE in a catch-up post. And I also wanted to write about how the procedure went today. Maybe I’ll just do one more.

Day Twelve: Milestones, traditions, and events you celebrated.

Bennett and Mia got married.
Belinda graduated from high school.
Belinda started college.
Lenora and Ben had their one-year anniversary.
Sarah came to live with us!
We celebrated Easter and Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I’m sure a few others, as we always tend to do.
And the Tuttle Tigers won state and Karlene and I were there screaming in the stands and freezing our hind ends off! That was cool.

Day Thirteen: People you had dinner with.

Well, that’s odd. Ben. Lenora. Ben R. Bennett. Mia. Belinda. Sarah. Mom. Karlene. Krislyn. Kevin. Gary. Will. I know I ate lunch with Rachel once. We hosted the wedding rehearsal dinner with pizza and big salads, so we did eat with everyone who was in the wedding party. We had Adam over for lunch once. I think the church lunch thing fizzled out sometime in the spring, but before that we had many of the kids’ friends. Those were fun times.

Day Fourteen: Recount the first three memories that come into your head from the year.

Hmm. Branson. Bennett and Mia’s wedding. Belinda going to college.

Day Fifteen: Describe an ordinary day from the year and what about it you enjoyed.

I’m not sure what days I remember that were ordinary. I tend to remember the things that are memorable. And what makes a day extraordinary? One day the kids came over and worked in the yard and I wasn’t there and when I came back the sidewalk was really edged and when the sidewalk is edged it makes me feel super happy. I think about that every time I walk up the sidewalk and I feel very loved.

Day Sixteen: Identify five of your favorite photos from the year on your phone.

That is a lot of photos. I take a lot of photos. I guess I will look at the ones I tagged favorites.

That didn’t take as long as I thought it would.

One week to go

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A week from today will be Monday, Dec. 15, and Belinda and I will be traveling to Washington DC again for another follow up procedure. Her pediatric surgeons will be doing an endoscopy and will probably also do some dilation or other tweaks to the surgery, based on what they see in there. That will be on Dec. 16.

I am looking forward to seeing Dr. Kane and Dr. Petrosyan again. They are both so kind and they care so much about their patients. It is amazing to see how committed they are to helping kids with pediatric achalasia! I am glad that even though she is 18 now, she can continue to be their patient for the time being. This is the very best course of action to prevent end-stage achalasia and esophagectomy.

The spellchecker on wordpress has alerted me that esophagectomy may not be a word, but unfortunately it is. Anyway, that is the surgical removal of the esophagus. If things go as we’re hoping and praying, she will never get to that point. Please keep this in your prayers!

The surgery was originally planned for Dec. 17, but they needed to change it because of some kind of work being done on their surgical suites. So instead of us leaving on the 16th, we’ll leave on the 15th. The worst part about that is that we will be missing Sarah’s first band concert, and I really wanted to be there to support her. I’m going to try to facetime, but of course that isn’t the same. I’ve asked the rest of the family to do their best to go, which I think will make up somewhat for me not being there, but she does really want me to be at her activities first and foremost and I want to do that for her! I know she will understand that this couldn’t be fixed, but I hope that she doesn’t have a part of her mind telling her that I chose Belinda over her. It’s difficult because she has had so much loss and disappointments in her life. I just literally got an idea while typing this – maybe the band director would let me sit in class the day before, so I could listen to it live that way! I think he might. I’ll ask him about that (if Sarah wants me to – she also gets embarrassed at being singled out).

So now we have seven days to pack and plan for our absence. I’m always frightened of flying but I know that it’s in God’s hands and I don’t really have control over anything anyway. If it is His will, we will be back home on the 18th, ready for one for weekend of Tuttle Christmas Carol performances and then Christmas!

The people you’ve spent the most time with this year and what you did

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I’m getting more annoyed with these each day. I mean, I’m not mad at them or anything, and I’m going to keep attempting it, but I don’t feel like “December Journaling If You Feel Like You Haven’t Achieved Much This Year” is really giving me amazing insights. Then again, I’m not going to make up a calendar like this for others people to work through, so I shouldn’t be complaining.

The people you’ve spent the most time with this year and what you did.

My family. The end. Ha ha.

No, but, that’s who it is. It interests me that I’m sure the person who wrote out these questions didn’t expect for all the answers to basically revolve around family. It makes me curious as to who that person is and what their life is like.

I spent most of my time with my family. Mostly Ben, Mom, Sarah (in the house peeps), then Belinda (home most weekends and I wish it was more but I know she can’t realistically do that), then Bennett, Mia, Lenora, Ben R, then Karlene, then Krislyn, then Gary and Kevin. I actually probably see Karlene the same or more than my married children. It probably varies.

Outside of the family I’d say it would be my church family, and then…I don’t know. Used to be the SCBWI group, but I don’t get to those things as much as I used to. I do go up to the school and see them somewhat frequently.

But as far as what we did, we just did what families do when they are together. We watch movies, we eat food, we play games like trivial pursuit and bananagrams. We played Bible trivia the last time we did that and it was fun.

The person I spend the most time with is Mom and she is driving me crazy. I bought her a cozy mock turtleneck dickey and first she said it was great, and then she said she was too hot and that she was frightened and was very upset. So I took it off and left her with only a regular mock turtleneck dickey and now she is way too cold and keeps coming back and asking me for the other one, and I’m not going to do it because it will make her too hot again. I gave her a throw to cover up with while she watches TV. It’s hard for me when she interrupts me when I’m working on something and focusing, but it’s even worse when it the same thing back and forth.

I’m looking forward to being with Belinda in the hospital and having a break from being here, honestly.

Anyway, that’s what we do.

Memories from the year that make you smile, no matter how ordinary

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It’s the first Saturday in December! We are now 10 days out from Belinda’s procedure. Time to think about packing and things like that. I was a little concerned with how to pay for food while we are in DC (I’m working to get insurance to pay a per diem, but that will still be reimbursed after and we don’t really have cash on hand), but I found that my snap card will work there, so that’s a relief. We can at least go to a grocery store or little convenience store to pick up food that we can heat up in the room. YAY!

So back to “December Journaling If You Feel Like You Haven’t Achieved Much This Year.” Today we have Memories from the year that make you smile, no matter how ordinary.

My brain isn’t what it used to be; I’ve had brain fog since I had Covid in December 2020, and although the curcumin is helping, it’s definitely not what it was. So it’s difficult for me to think back on things. But…I do a reasonably good job at keeping up with facebook posts and a fair job of keeping up with my livejournal, so I can look back at those memories and see what that triggers!

Okay, first thing that came up from my livejournal (latest posts first) was from November, and it definitely made me smile.

Copy and pasted right from my lj —> Yesterday afternoon we played trivia after cake and ice cream for Mom. I got a few that I was very proud of! I knew Exxon Valdex, lorem ipsum, and a few others that I sadly can’t remember now. I should have kept notes, lol. But I was mostly proud of this one: The question was who said at the OJ trial, if it does not fit, you must acquit? I knew exactly who it was and I couldn’t think of his name! I could think of OJ Simpson, Kato Kaelin, Marsha Clark. I even came up with Mark Furman, and then I remembered in the movie I watched about it, the John Travolta guy saying “Bob” very disparingly, so I thought it might be Bob something until I finally realized now, that was Robert Kardashian (Ross from friends was him in the movie). I knew I could get it but my poor brain can’t do anything anymore! So I sat and thought. I had to put my fingers in my ears to concentrate. And then someone mentioned South Park. Lenora said she thinks it was her, saying 6-7. And that made me think of a song where the person was mentioned. I could hear the song going “I got OJ fre-e.” And it was South Park. No…no…it was Book of Mormon! It was Spooky Mormon Hell Dream! So I started singing it and then I got to the part Genghis Khan, Jeffrey Dahmer, Hitler, JOHNNY COCHRAN! Hooray! It wasn’t even for a pie but oh how proud I was that I came up with that!!!! And Travolta was Robert Shapiro and I had to look that up after and I had to look it up now but I got it!

Before that, it was how happy Sarah was when the band did such a great job at competition, and she hugged me, and thanked me for making her do band! That was very very happy!

I also smile when I remember being at Northwestern when we were helping Belinda get moved into the dorms, and the kids wanted me to take a picture of them – Lenora, Bennett, and Belinda, sitting on her bed. And then I turned around and took a picture of the always good sports, Mia and Ben R, who were leaning on the wall behind me and waiting for their spouses.

Oh! And Bennett and Mia got married this year, on January 25! That makes me smile and I also smile at how they decided to marry that day and it was my parents’ wedding anniversary. It made me very happy to see Mom’s wedding topper on the groom’s table (it was also on the cake at Lenora’s wedding, which was also happy but was last year.)

Right now I’m smiling while I’m in the dark car in the parking lot, typing on my laptop using my hotspot. I’m waiting for the Christmas musical show that Bennett and Mia are in to begin. Bennett wanted me to drive him here ahead of time, so I did that but then I had a couple of hours before the show started. It’s been very nice to just sit here in the dark listening to Christmas carols on the radio. Ben is giving Will a ride home from the hospital and Sarah is with Mom, another good thing. [Edited to add that I found out later that Karlene actually ended up coming over to sit with Mom, and Sarah got to go to rehearsal after all!] I’m very glad I get to support Mia and Bennett at their performance, especially because they’re both sick but the show much go on. I’m also thankful that Krislyn let Ben miss rehearsal last night and is letting Sarah miss it tonight. She is such a help with the Mom caregiver thing. So is Ben, Karlene, Sarah, Kevin, and Gary. And Lenora and Ben. And Bennett and Mia. And Belinda!

I have such a joyful, blessed life. I do complain quite a bit, but I really shouldn’t. This life is very good.

Slight change in plans

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I just got a call from Children’s National and something is changing in their operating rooms and they’d like to change Belinda’s procedure to the 16th. So I just sent emails to the flight charity and to NORD seeing if we change our flights and hotel reservation. I actually asked if we could just change things from Dec. 16-18 to Dec. 15-18. I figure the flight will not be an issue but I don’t know if NORD will just let us add a day like that. But it would be very nice to give Belinda an additional recuperation day before we fly back. So we’ll see what happens.