Today is the 77th anniversary of another red-letter date: The birth of Johnny Walter Campbell!
If you have a moment, drop Dad a card or email, or give him a call, and share a laugh or a special memory.
We love you Pop!
The missus and I mingled with the social folk yesterday for the first time in many a day. It was meet & greet and hug & bug day - better known as the get-together of the YAHOO (Young At Heart Or Otherwise) group. Even better described as the older generation of the christians of Madison County and counties surrounding. We meet once a month for fellowship and fun and food, usually on the first Friday. But the first Friday of this month was so cold and blustery that it was decided to delay it a week - good idea! We had a ball! I am not running yet, I’m just a little unsteady on my legs, but I am past, far past the hurting stage, and I didn’t get tired during the 9 to 2 o’clock session. So it was a beautiful day! As I may have said before, for the first time in over five years now the outlook for better health is a reality rather than just a dream. Finding that I was on the verge of having heart failure and getting that fixed was a blessing that I will ever be thankful for! The medical facilities in Jackson are top-notch and, as Yvonne often says, “the doctors and nurses that we have all treat us as if we are their Mother & Dad!” It’s been a grand week for Yvonne, too. Tuesday night she received the 2006 BEEKEEPER OF THE YEAR award in Recognition Of (her) Hard Work, Dedication, and Contributions In Asisting Our Club. She received a very nice plaque and Lifetime Membership in the club. She and I are the first couple to have been so honored by the club; I received the award several years ago for publishing the monthly newsletter, This Buzziness of Keeping Bees. Life is good, the Lord has heard the prayers of all of you; I will be 77 the 16th of next month, Yvonne is two years behind me and we are in the 55th year of a wonderful marriage. Again, thank all of you for your prayers. Johnny
The appetite is back! While Yvonne and I were in town we stopped at Arby’s to get a sandwich for lunch. We ordered two Giant Roast Beefs, four potato cakes and two 20 ounce Diet Pepsis. I knew I’d be taking most of my sandwich home, but guess what! I ate that entire sandwich, my two potato cakes and slurped down my whole Pepsi and then… I licked my fingers!! I was afraid to say my appetite was back but that has been four days ago and I am still eating pretty good. Admittedly not everything that I find to eat is as good as that Arby’s roast beef but it’s fairly evident that I’m not going to starve now! I’m a week and a half into my second month now and my chest pain is is all gone now. I’m still on the coumadin (blood thinner) and blood pressure medicine - other than that I’m back on the same medicine I was before the heart surgery. As I have said before the doc says it’ll be six months before I’m completely recovered from this so I’m in the second week of my second month now, so… just 3 months and three plus weeks to go! Stay tuned…
Had three appointments this week - three different days. But managed to get them all rescheduled for today. One to get my cumadin (blood thinner) level checked, two to get my EKG and chest x-ray, and three to get my pacemaker checked. Everything was a-ok. I was disappointed in my pulse rate - left alone it still has a rythm in the neighborhood of 20 beats a minute but the pacemaker is doing its job of keeping it no lower than 60. I get just a tad edgy when I think of that little battery having all that responsibility. The gal says not to fret - it’s good for another six years. But it ain’t her battery! I took two 15 minutes of walking yesterday but let my walking all over the clinic today count for my exercise. Plan to get back to the walking again tomorrow. I should be walking once a day for 30 minutes so I’m just a tad behind in that. I told the medic today that I still am not hungry and have just a slight tendency toward wanting to regurgitate most anything I eat - although I haven’t actually done it yet. She said that was perfectly normal with the type of anesthesia that was used - that after five or six weeks that should correct itself. She suggested drinking V8 and eating sorbet might hurry it along. Tomorrow will start my fifth week so I may get me a couple of cans of V8 and give it a go. Overall I can see a definite improvement in my health. One day may be a downer from the day before but when I compare each day to a couple of weeks before I can see progress. The Lord has been gracious to me. Thanks for your prayers and concerns.
I can finally say publicly what I have already expressed privately to Tony, my younger son, that I appreciate him keeping family and friends up to date on my health these past several months. Starting about 5 years ago - when I was just turning 71 - with a humongously infected bladder and progressing (or digressing) through the ol’ roto-rooter (TURP) routine on the prostate, followed by a very severe batch of blood clots in both hind legs. From there a “fried egg” sized clot was removed from between my left eye and left ear that had compressed my brain severely - up to an inch and a quarter in two places - (had to saw a good sized hole in my skull to get that one). Along in there somewhere my neurologist discovered I had Myasthenia Gravis, a blood condition that affects the communication between the brain and voluntary muscles of the body - specimens were sent to and verified by the Mayo Clinic. He told me there was both bad news and good news about that: The bad news was that it is “incurable” but the good news was that it is “treatable” and that I should be able to live a good many years if I took my medicine. He said my Myasthenia medicine and my Diabetes (yeah, I’ve got that too) medicine don’t work well together so I would have to keep a tight reign on my diabetes control. Then a couple of years ago my pulse rate plummeted from its usual 68 bpm to a low of 24. By the time Yvonne had got me to the ER it was 20 bpm! The medics hung a temporary pacemaker on me and scheduled me for surgery the next afternoon and fitted me with a permanent pacemaker. The first of December my family doctor, Dr. James Diffee, gave me a physical. He said he was very concerned about my heart murmur - that it was much louder that it had been. Off to see a cardiologist who found that I had 5 problems in my heart area. 1) my aortic valve was shot it was just beginning to fail, 2) a flap in my upper chamber that should have closed at birth did not seal, 3) and I had 3 vessels that had blockage - 1 50%, 1 60% and 1 80%. So on December 19 Dr. Spalding did the open heart surgery and repaired everything but the 50% blockage. He told me beforehand that time would prevent his doing that one as well. I was home in a week and seem to be doing just fine. I’m a bit behind in exercise but doc says I’m doing A-OK. I appreciate all the prayers and cards and letters and email from so many of you and, once again, my gratitude to Tony for keeping my family and friends up on my condition again. You have all been a treasure to me. God Bless You All. Johnny (Jay)
I got Dad’s email connection working this morning, but we found out something awful in the process: All his waiting email had been deleted! Charter informed us that it had been accidentally deleted when the Charter technician replaced his cable modem on Tuesday.
Now that it’s working, please take a moment and send Dad a note of encouragement. I know he’ll appreciate it so much, as will we all.
We also fixed Dad’s journal, so all the posts from this week are visible now (oops!). Hopefully Dad will feel good enough to post something soon, so watch for updates directly from the horse’s mouth.
Thanks for your continuing love, support and prayers for Dad and our family!
Dad seems to feel some better today, though he’s still pretty weak. He’s still having a lot of difficulty eating enough on his newly-restricted diet, and has lost some weight as a result. Please pray that he adjusts quickly to his new diet, and his recovery continues unabated.
In other news, we finally got Dad’s computer back on the Internet ton! Now he’ll be able to get email again and post to his own weblog. Please help me welcome him back to the Web!
Dad has had a really tough day today and hasn’t felt well at all. We have faith that he will continue to improve, but he understands that some days will be better than others.
Please pray that Dad feels better quickly, and that he continues to have a positive attitude about his recovery.
Dad was tired today from his trip to town yesterday, and rested a lot. Please pray that he rests well and gets his strength back over time.
Dad felt good enough to stay at home alone, so Mom was able to go to church tonight for the first time since this started. The whole congregation welcomed her back with joy and hugs like the close-knit family they are.
Thanks to everyone for your continuing love, support and prayers!
Dad went back to the doctor today for blood tests. It was tiring getting out, and he’s resting now. Mom got the call a little while ago that his Coumadin level was just right, so he’ll probably be able to keep it at a good level with just one test per week rather than two. Thanks for your continuing prayers!