Great deal...

First of all, today is Aaron's 30th birthday! I will blog about his birthday later as his party is going to spread over Friday night and Sat. So more to come on that later.

Tonight I went to Meijer on Wilmington Pike and came across a mob of shoppers at the deli counter. I thought this was strange considering it was just after 9 pm, so I joined the mob and asked what was going on. Well, at 9 pm Mon - Fri and 9:30 pm on the weekend, they discount their deli meat and cheese like crazy. I got about 6 lbs of various meats for only around $13! It was all good stuff too! Jennie-O, healthy choice... you name it.
I just thought I would share the savings!

Enough about me...

I dedicate this entry to my crazy fun boys!!



Noah...







Collin...

Blessing...

I have discovered that the many blessings that God has graciously bestowed upon me are everywhere! I thought I would take a minute to reflect upon such things. God is so good!
Here are some of my obvious blessings...

Out of the woods... I thinks!

Thank you to everyone who lifted our sweet Monkey before the Lord. His rash is mostly gone and he seems happy and healthy.
What a time of testing! I am so glad God is in control!

Poor Monkey

I had to take Collin to the Doc this morning. He had this strange rash on his face that seemingly popped up overnight, well the doc said it looks like the strep rash that kids are coming in with. This means that he may have strep throat. AHH! His only symptom's are slightly swollen glands and the rash. She ran an instant read strep test and it came back negative, but if he comes down with any other "strep" symptoms or if the rash spreads (w/i the next couple days) we have to go back to get him retested. We are not out of the woods on this one yet, but I pray it is just a rash. Please pray for him as well as protection from illness for myself as surgery is fast approaching. Thank you.

The Lord ALWAYS provides.

Okay so I am diligently working on committing this entire situation to God. I am filling in the schedule and I already have 2 entire weeks covered. Praise the Lord. I have been tested in this area (control) my entire life, maybe not this extreme, but it has definately been an area I have struggled with. Why do I constantly doubt that He will carry me through whatever comes my way? I could write for days about how He is providing childcare coverage, but I will just testify by saying THE LORD ALWAYS PROVIDES!!
I am still in need of filling in holes, but I sincerely trust that God will continue to fill our need.
If you are willing to help, just let me know.
4 weeks and counting.
Thank you for your continued prayer.

a date has been set.

My surgery is set for September 16 at Good Sam. I am supposed to be there at 5:30 am.
If you are availiable to help with meals or childcare please let me know. I am working on putting together a calender for the surgery plus 3 weeks after. I will be in the hospital for 5 - 7 days and will need assistance Monday - Friday from 7:30 am - 6 pm for 3 weeks (possibly 4). I know this is a TALL order, but I am working on trusting God to meet our needs.
I am really struggling to trust the Lord in this. I know He already has all of this laid out, but I am grasping at straws to keep some kind of control. Please pray for this with me.
If you are able to help at all we would greatly appreciate any and all help.
THANK YOU!!!

Conquering the beast...

By beast I mean our home office, aka Aaron's room. For as long as I can remember this room has been a thorn in my side. As I gear up for what could be nearly 2 months of "rest" I feel as though I am "nesting" in preparation for a new baby. I also found out that mixing caffine with the antibiotic I am on makes the effects of the caffine more intense. That being said, the 2 1/2 cups of coffee I had today have made me crazy and due to the discomfort I feel as I am healing, I have to sit down a lot, so I decided to face the "beast". I spent the better part of 3 hours sitting at the computer decluttering the desk, bookcase and roll-around drawer thingy that we have in the room. I filed, swept, trashed and compiled a mile-high stack of "need to shred" items. I feel like a weight has been lifted. Aaron even took a bunch of stuff to the attic for me. AHH! WOO-HOO! I have also been busy making lists to help the people who will be helping us.
My plan over the next few weeks is to prepare and freeze enough meals for most of my recovery time. I actually threw together a double batch of my zucchini bread so I feel as though I am getting things in gear. If you have a receipe that you know freezes well, please share it.
Well, now I am going to flip through my cookbooks for some new receipe's.
(Don't worry Stephany, I am resting. I promise!!)

All to Jesus I surrender, all to thee I freely give...

I write to you all with a humble heart. I sit and type, fighting back the tear's and praising the Lord for allowing me to continue living the life He has SO richly blessed me with. I will give you my take of the happenings of yesterday and let you know how I am doing today.
Yesterday was both a whirlwind and a fog for me. I didn't get much sleep Tuesday because of the constant flow of interruptions due to the insufferable pain that the medication barely touched and the nurses coming in to check on me. I was in bad shape to say the least. I had to be given potassium. OUCH that stuff burns. Coupled by the fact that my vein that housed the IV had infiltrated. For those of you who don't know the needle actually goes through the vein and the fluid fills in the arm. It was so painful that I was crying out in pain and the poor nurse couldn't start another IV because I was so dehydrated my veins were not cooperating. Finally another nurse put the IV in after digging around in my arm for a while. They were then able to give me pain medicine. My arm is actually still swollen as all of the fluid is not yet absorbed, but all feeling has returned. I was blessed by the nurse that took care of me yesterday. She was a Christian and let me know that she was praying for me throughout the day and during my surgery. I think I began to realize the severity of the situation during my second catscan. The women opperating the CT were whispering on the phone with my doc during the test and there was a cloud of quiet concern in the room. I was told that I would come back in 2 more hours for a third CT and was taken back to my room where Stephany Weldon greeted me with scripture passages and encouraging words from a book we had once studied together. It was a taste of Heaven and a true blessing. Aaron and his parents returned from lunch and soon after that the nurse rushed in and told me I was going to have surgery, right away. I quickly signed some consent forms and we all headed for the OR. Aaron and I prayed together and he and his folks went to the waiting area and I was taken to a prep room. In the silence of the moment I was struck by the fact that I was in real danger. Things did not look good and I needed EMERGENCY surgery NOW!!! I prayed that God would calm my heart and that he would carry our family through this trial. He did. The surgery was a success and I woke up feeling no pain and I was starving. STARVING!!! My parents brought the boys to me and I had a wonderful visit with my son's, parents and hubby. I slept fairly well last night and today my only discomfort is some aching in my neck and shoulders as well as my lungs, I guess from being intibated.
I still can't wrap my head around all that has happened in the past few days. I know the facts... I could have died. I finally have some answers. I had a birth defect ~ What?? Nice to know, 29 years later.:) I didn't have a kidney stone, just a crappy ureter.
The Lord was there during the entire situation. He made himself visible through my caregiver's, phone calls, visit's and His word.
The future...
Okay here is the crazy part. I am going to have a big surgery in September. I will be in surgery for about 2 hours and my hospital stay will be 5 to 7 days followed by 4 - 6 weeks of recovery at home.
Today, I have no back pain! Praise the Lord!! I am gearing up for the next phase of my journey and soaking in as much of my boys as I can.
Thank you to all who have prayed and helped our family through this trial. You are such a blessing.
God is good. He is faithful and true. His grace carries us. Praise the Lord for blessing me through this trial and never letting me out of his grasp. Tonight, I rest in that.

Out of surgery

This is Becky's sister, Jenny. I thought I would give Aaron a little break. Becky's procedure went well. She is still sedated but the doctor's are pleased. We still covet your prayers. They placed a stent in the ureter which comes out of Becky's right kidney. If you don't know, a stent is kind of like a straw that they insert inside the ureter (in this case) which forces it to stay open. This should immediately relieve the pain and discomfort. PRAISE GOD!!! Becky does indeed have a congenital defect. The ureter does not attach to the kidney as it should and so pressure can build up causing it to work ineffectively and become blocked. This is exactly what happened. There was no kidney stone. This is a quick fix for a more pervasive problem. Becky and Aaron have a lot of things to sort through and the doctors want to schedule a reconstruction to fix the defect and prevent this from happening again. This second procedure is a significant operation. Please continue to lift up Becky and Aaron as they try to make sense of all of this. Praise God... we finally have an answer. This answer may also explain a significant amount of Becky's back pain, which may have actually been caused more by this complication and the pressure build up than by the actual issue with her discs. Thank you all for loving my sister so much and for joining with our family in our time of need!!! May God restore her to full and perfect health as only He can! To Him be all the glory...

Under the knife

Becky is now going into surgery to have a stent placed in the ureter coming from her right kidney. They are skipping right to this. The cat-scan with dye would not take the two seperate times they tried to get a shot at it. I beleive it's because it is so full, it would be like trying to add water to a full water balloon. She should be out soon and I'll update again. Keep praying.

Becky's In The Hospital

This is Aaron, trying to explain what is going on with my wife and best friend, Becky. Forgive me if I break some Blog rules. Tuesday night she had severe pain in he right side of her back which wrapped around to her waist. She was doubled over in pain. We decided to go to the E.R. again (we had just been there last Wednesday and they couldn't find any reason for her pain). At about 1:00 a.m. the Dr. showed me picture (cat-scan) of her kidneys. The kidney on her right side was at least twice the size of the one on her left and the little tube which deposits the blood/waist matter was blocked and ballooned up. They couldn't see what was blocking it. So as a precaution they kept her at Kettering Hospital until a urologist could see her in the morning asap. I went home at 3:30 and took over watching the kids from Becky's mom for a couple of hours until Becky's dad came to relieve me this morning. I then came back and found out from Becky that the urologist did see her and said they need to run a dye through her blood and take another Cat-scan to see more clearly what is blocking this ureter tube and then they will go into surgery to unblock the tube assuming they have an operating room available. She will also need a stint to hold open the ureter at some point. It is unclear at this time if it will be during this surgery or if she will need an additional surgery. We will be here until at least tomorrow. I will try to update as further developments become available. Please pray for my wife, your friend and our kids who miss their mom already. Thank you, Aaron Dell

today...

Today, I am thankful. Aaron was kind enough to give me a huge break this morning and afternoon. He took the liberty of iniating a "boys day" and he even let me return to bed and get more sleep. He took the boys to Possum Creek Farm and then to Mcdonald's for lunch. Oh, he also took the boys to the recycling center (a favorite activity for all of them!) to turn in some cans. Anyway, this gave me time to just rest.
I am still quite ill and I feel far from normal. The pain in my back/side is pretty intense and the nausea is still here. I "got sick" last night, but today, I have yet to do so. THANK THE LORD! I am going to continue to lie low the rest of the weekend. On Tuesday I will go to have a pelvic ultrasound and on Wednesday I will meet with a kidney doc. Please pray that I will be able to rest and not get sick any more.
If you see Aaron, please give him a pat on his back for being so sensitive to my needs! He did all of the grocery shopping (3 stores), bought me flowers, took time off work, cooks and is doing all of the "heavy lifting" with the kiddo's. I am greatly blessed to have him as a partner in life.

We are doing fine... really.

I want to thank everyone who has offered to help us during this time, but we are actually doing ok. Sure, we are tired and I am still dealing with slight nausea, but I am functioning fairly well. I actually did some house cleaning today and I am fully able to cook. Thank you to everyone who has helped us carry this load. We love you!

okay, the latest...

Yesterday, my doc wanted me to go to the ER to get fluids because I still couldn't keep anything down. So, after many hours of waiting, we were seen and I received IV fluids, nausea meds and pain meds. They did another ultrasound as well as more blood work and a catscan. The verdict is... A GIANT ?????? The catscan indicated that there I may have had and passed a kidney stone, but because none were currently visible they aren't sure. So, we left the ER around 1am very tired. I was able to sleep until almost 11 this morning! Thanks Dad for taking the kids.:) And so far today I have been able to eat and drink. Now that the nausea is going away we waiting to see if the back pain is gone too, if not, we are off to another MRI.
Thank you for your many prayers!

Sick day(s)...

Okay,
What is going on??? I am sick YET AGAIN! I am not complaining, but I am at a loss as to what is going on. I was wondering if anyone knows of anyone who is dealing with what I am. It all began yesterday mid-morning. My back started to really hurt and the pain eventually became unbearable. I actually got sick from the pain. This is where I am confused. I don't know if the pain caused the sickness or the sickness caused the pain. I ended up getting sick 7 or 8 times yesterday and couldn't keep anything down today either. I went to the doc today and she drew blood and we are waiting for the results. She also gave me an RX for nausea that dissolves on your tongue. It is the stuff they give cancer patients who are dealing with nausea and vomitting while going through treatment. I have only gotten sick 1 time since taking the medicine earlier today. PTL!!! I still feel really sick. Does anyone know of anyone dealing with this "bug". I have no other symptoms that typically go along with GI stuff nor do have I been running a temp. (And NO I am not pregnant.:) )
In other health news. Once I am over this bug I will be going for another MRI. It seems that my back problems are moving. I am now presenting with back pain accompanied by leg pain just below my ribs. I will keep you posted. I appreciate all of your prayers and support.
Thanks!

Camping!

We went camping this past weekend! I loved it, but Aaron has officially declared he DOES NOT like camping. BOO! I actually didn't like camping either until I took the boys to stay the night while my parents and sister went camping last year. Anyway, it is a lot of work, but I am ready to go again!



September 2007



August 2008



Hanging out.



Feeding the deer.



Climbing a tree.



Daddy Rock's!



Totum Pole.



Daddy and Collin.



Snake show.







Cold Stone. Yummy!



GRRRRRRR!



Superman!