Updates

Wow . . . its been about a month since I last posted. Its been "the best of times and the worst of times."

Getting home after spending a month of training in Grapevine to learn how to do dialysis at home was joyful for me. I was soooooo glad to be home.

However, once here, it was trying. I must have made nearly every mistake on the book. The staff at Davita in Grapevine was most helpful and patient with me. I found a new group of friends on the NxStage Users forum. I found I wasn't the only one who had to learn the hard way and that even after being comfortable with the process, you still can make mistakes. They have been very supportive.

At one point I was ready to throw my hands in the air and one of the ladies on the forum wrote back "take a breath and know it will get better" . . .

Financially we are still struggling. Steve went to work for WalMart and we are most greatful for his job, but last year he was making $18 an hour and now, less than half of that. Fortunately for us, I still draw disability from my church job and social security. It would be devastating without that. Its interesting how its supposed to be illegal to discriminate based on age, but they do . . . and we have found many others facing the same issue. Its wrong to be at this point in life and find this happening, but greatfully we have been blessed with help from our church.

We are having a "clutter to cash" garage sale in two weeks, hoping to bring in enough to pay off the IRS and maybe a credit card. Instead of purchasing needs versus wants at this point, we will be selling the wants we already possess. One of the men from church is coming over on Friday to help post things on Craigslist for me.

Anyway, we were blessed this month to have a pair of sister missionaries move into our home. They are working with the spanish in our community. They are delightful and great company when they are here.

The other HUGE blessing was that my dialysis at home is now going without error. No blood spills or error messages at this point.

All in all, I fell blessed. I think the negatives won't be so bad when I get my Zoloft refilled :)

Mark Mabry has come up with another picture slide slow on the Savior and I am adding it below.