Life Update #2

Hello friends! I’ve finally had a moment to sit down and write an update. But before we get to that, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for your prayers, your words of encouragement. For reaching out to me, to check on how things are going. For your friendship. And for not leaving me. I appreciate you all more than you’ll ever know.

It’s been two weeks since hub’s surgery. I’m not going to lie, it has been HARD. I’m still struggling with my heart issues, so to be the one who literally had to do everything around the house, still work full time, and take care of him the best I could was difficult. It was hard for him too. He doesn’t like the see me struggle, and honestly he didn’t feel too bad (Praise the Lord!), so he thought he should be able to do stuff. But I know better, and kept reminding him that he could cause himself to go backwards and we certainly don’t need that.

I’m so thankful for family. They helped out in so many ways. With laundry, mowing the lawn, and just reminding us that they are there to help. That is what family is for. I’m kind of a stubborn person, and find it very difficult to ask for help. Plus, I can be super awkward when I’m emotional. I almost cried telling my father in law thank you for mowing my lawn lol. Yeah…..that was weird. But I was just so thankful.

We met with Patrick’s doctor yesterday. He’s such a nice guy, and I’m so sorry that he’s leaving. But the Lord will give us another good doctor, of this I am confident. He walked in the room and got straight to the point. Of all the cancers, this was the best cancer to get. Not that getting cancer is good. But you know what I mean I think. He was able to remove all of it from inside Patrick’s bladder. He zapped him with some chemo directly in the bladder during surgery. And there is no further treatment needed.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Patrick will have to be tested every 4-6 months, as this cancer can come back. And it’s an uncomfortable test, so I feel for the guy. But wow are we praising the Lord for His goodness. Our little family has so much going on right now, so much sorrow, pain, uncertainty. This was a HUGE glimmer of hope and a reminder that God’s got this, and we’re going to be alright. One hurdle is behind us. And now it’s on to the next.

My daughter has decided she’s going to try some stuff on her own before seeking more medical advice on her tiredness issues. I support her 100%. She’s a smart cookie, and I know she’ll do her research, pray about direction, and try several things. Honestly I can’t blame her, because the medical field hasn’t exactly been supportive of her in this area. Instead they want to brush it off. We’re going to give it a few months and see how she does.

As for me? I’m a hot mess. I am struggling immensely. If I’m being honest, I am even a little depressed. Okay, a lot depressed. The thing is, food used to be what I turned to. It provided me comfort. And I know that’s not a good thing – but when your source of comfort is taken away from you, boy does it make life hard. I know God is on my side. I know He’s going to get me through. And yet I still struggle. I’m miserable. I miss eating foods I love. I miss caffeine. I miss convenience. And by golly, I wish my local grocery stores had more low sodium options. Perks of living in rural America.

My meds are still not totally helping the way I’d like them too, but I have to give it more time before we move on to the next step. Time for the new diet to kick in. Time to get my cpap machine to use at night (still don’t even have the insurance approval on that yet, sigh). And time for me to start slowly walking again and ever so slightly exercising. I can’t walk for more than 10 minutes right now, but I haven’t even made it that far yet. I did save up money to buy an Apple Watch. The new one has some great heart things on it, and so I’m using it to track my heart rate. It’s still high, and I’m praying it decreases, but thankful to have a tool to monitor it easily.

So what does this mean for A Baker’s Perspective?

Well like I mentioned before, I miss blogging. I have a TON of reviews to catch up on. I want to start working on those in the coming weeks. I also have some author interviews that are just sitting there because I haven’t had the time to put them together. My prayer is that in the next couple of weeks, I can put stuff out there. I’m even thinking of tracking my heart issues and low-sodium eating progress. I think it’s therapeutic. And while I know I’ve just had a book blog forever (5 years this month!), maybe I could help someone. I understand it won’t be for everyone. You can just ignore those posts if it’s not for you 😉 And I haven’t totally decided yet, so there’s that lol. It’s just a thought going through my mind at the moment.

That’s it in a nutshell. Our family is excited, happy, and so thankful for hub’s good news. Yeah, I cried. I can’t help it, I’m just emotional! And now we are praying that we can find a nice low-sodium routine. Recipes that everyone likes. Foods at local grocery stores so we don’t have to order online, where I’ve found them to be more expensive. And maybe, just maybe, we can create a new normal for ourselves.

How about you? What’s going on in your life? I’d love to pray about it if you feel comfortable sharing.

Thanks for listening. Thanks for subscribing. Thank you for praying. And thank you for being such wonderful friends. Love you all!