Walking that fine line

We had just pulled out of the parking lot of the hospital when Dutch announced that he had pain in his chest. I asked if he wanted me to turn around and of course he said no. I kept asking him how he was feeling and after a while he said the pain had gone away. We decided that it must have been from pulling himself up on the seat of our SUV. So having the nurses discharge instructions still in my ear, that he should not do anything strenuous, I now worried about him walking up the stairs to our bedroom that night. I had been planning to put one of the beds from upstairs into our little downstairs office, so when he can't walk the stairs, he would have a place to sleep. Dutch has been strongly opposed to that because he wants to be in his own bed.

In our 41 years of marriage we have followed God's admonition that the husband leads and the wife follows. Some people think this to be degrading, but it's not. We are partners. The buck stops with the husband, that's all. When we got home from the hospital, I put out an urgent call for help getting the bed downstairs. That did not go over well with Dutch! Help came it seems within minutes and the bed was downstairs! (Thanks, Mike for doing it, thanks Henry and the others for offering). Dutch was NOT happy and our evening did not end well. But the bed is downstairs and ready for his use whenever he might need it.

After my own little pity party I again realized how difficult it is for Dutch to be loosing more and more control over his body and his environment. He shared with me again today how he can't understand why all of this is happening to him when he is so young. (Only 73 years old!!!) He is just so tired of always having me hover over him and at the same time he's so thankful that I do. There are so many conflicting emotions.

Today I worried that he was getting congested. Pneumonia could kill him. A cold could turn into that. YIKES!! At the hospital they were wondering if he had had his flu shot of course, (yes) and if he had had a pneumocokia (sp???) shot against pneumonia. I had no idea. He thinks that he did have one three years ago at a grocery store. After several calls to different places, I still could not verify that this was true. The nurses told me that he should have the shot, but not if he had it within the last 5 years. So we were in between: he should really have it to protect him and he should not have it because it could be dangerous for him given his situation. God please give us wisdom!!! Bottom line is he didn't get it. Probably good, given his sniffles today.

Called the doctor's office and told them about his congestion. They wanted a chest x-ray. Just got the word that it was negative..... as I hear him coughing upstairs.

Never a dull moment, but through it all we know that God is watching over us. Isn't that just the greatest???