Could use a little "help from above" with new health troubles

Dear VET and V-8 Buick community,

Thanks for your prayers and support everyone!

Wednesday night into today I slept better than the night of the surgery. I am a little worried about lifting more than I'm supposed to. My caregiver duties aren't completely gone with the hired help we have during the day. However, thus far the pain levels are minimal.

I'm still on some heavy-duty pain medications and I'm not supposed to drive until a week after the surgery. We have one more grocery delivery today and will have dinner delivered from a restaurant tonight. So far so good!

Thanks again!

Edouard

 

It's good news !
Thanks for the update.
I'll continue to pray for you

 

Thanks James for your prayers!

Another day and I'm feeling still stronger!

Edouard

 

Good news!

 

Dear Gary and V-8 Buick caregivers who occasionally need some care of their own!

Thanks for the encouragement! Today, I drove for the first time since the surgery. I got off the heavy-duty pain-killers last week, but apparently the twisting motion of getting into and out of a car was risky and I was told not to use a car for a full week after the surgery. I'm having very little pain and it usually is due to some sort of motion. The whole family is spoiled because we have a professional caregiver from 9-5 last week and until Friday of this week. I am dreading going back to full caregiver duties. The rest of the family isn't doing very well and I'm not sure I can keep up with it. All I can do is try!

Thanks again,

Edouard

 

I'm glad to know you continue to improve.
I'll pray for you in your role as caregiver.

 

Dear James and V-8 Buick caregivers who occasionally need some care of their own!

I have the 2-week follow-up with the hernia surgeon on Tuesday. That should give me some idea of how things are healing on the inside.

I don't know if this exactly constitutes answering your prayers, but after looking the situation over, we decided to extend the caregiver service another week. So I'm off the hook except during the evenings and weekend. Still, the weekend is a bit challenging. We shall see at the end of next week!

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Edouard

 

Ed, when my mother had back surgery a long time ago.
The rehab center showed her to get into the driver's seat with little pain.

What you do is open the door wide open, back into the car butt first.
Sit down on the seat, you will be facing out the door.
Next, slowly turn yourself (90 degrees) until you are facing the steering wheel.
This should cut down on any abdominal strain & pain until you are fully healed.
Hope this helps.

Because my 70 Buick GS is lower to the ground then my mini van, the Buick is harder to get into, I use the same technique to get into and out of my Buick. It works good.

My prayers go out to you and your family.
I'am sure you'll get a good report from your Doctor. VET.

 

Thanks VET for your vehicle advice!

I've been able to get into and out of a car without any pain whatsoever. Alas, I haven't been able to get my wagon out yet. She has a potential overheating problem and I don't want to be caught in very high temperatures. Perhaps next week.

Thanks again,

Edouard

 

Great to hear, no pain.
Seems like you're healing very good.

Speaking of potential heating problems, seems like the BB Buicks have that as their number one issue.

I've been having that issue from the time I bought my 70 GS 455.

With a lot of work, I believe we have found the cure, at least I will know next week.

If I don't use the A/C, i'am good to go, but who wants to do that in 90+* heat? Lol.

Ok, keep us all informed of your recovery. Prayers for you and your family. VET

 

In God is the answer !!

 

Dear James and V-8 Buick caregivers who occasionally need some care of their own,

Thanks for your prayers and well-wishes. The first follow-up on the hernia surgery was fine, but it takes 6 weeks to know if the repair has been successful. I have my next follow-up appointment toward the end of September.

In the meantime, my dermatologist has managed to find some more bad news. There is yet another basal-cell skin cancer tumor - this time on my scalp. So I must endure yet another Mohs surgery which is scheduled for September 1st - very early in the morning.

Any hope that I'm getting myself out of these medical problems sure is fading fast. I have express my struggled with faith on this forum before. After a long life I find myself full circle as where my Father found himself after as a teenage boy he had to dig bodies out buildings destroyed by allied bombing in occupied France during World War II. Is this how a omnipotent, benevolent, and all-knowing God takes care of the things it supposedly loves?

Edouard

 

Ed, you have to keep the faith. Your dermatologist is catching your basal-cell skin cancer at it's early stages.

This means, they can prevent you from getting full blow cancer and is too far gone to cure.
I told you, in my case, I've had numerous basal-cell skin cancer surgeries. I'm 74 and I'm sure I will have many more skin cancers, reason
why I go to my dermatologist every 6 months for the past 10 years or go sooner if I see something that looks abnormal.

Let me tell you a heart-breaking story. My wife's first cousin was a Dentist, a very good one who worked every Saturday to perform FREE dental work on people who could not afford or didn't have dental insurance. He was also a very nice and good person.

In his free time, he loved to play gulf, unfortunately he never wore a hat. He is very fair skinned with blond hair.
One day he noticed he had a spot on his scalp. He let it go because he was very busy and besides doing free dental services, he was also a
Bible teacher at his church on Sundays.

One day he noticed this spot had gotten a lot bigger, so he went to a doctor. Unfortunately, the diagnosis turned out to be Stage 4 Cancer.
Normally this is a death sentence.

However, he went to several very excellent Cancer Centers hoping they could help him reverse his condition. He went through several experimental cancer medical procedures, but it was too late for a cure.

He was only 55 when he pasted, he left four children and his wife.

Count yourself lucky, it can always be a lot worse for you and your family.

Keep the faith, WE are ALL praying for you. God is with you. VET

 

Dear VET and V-8 Buick owners trapped between a world of faith and a world of science,

Unfortunately, that is precisely what makes so incredibly upset. Is hope nothing more than wishing that things don't get any worse? Skin cancer is precisely the sort of thing that faith cannot make much sense of. Science explains that skin cancer is a product of two aspects of our world: solar radiation and the skin we inherited from our mammal ancestors. It turns out the sun is a sustained thermonuclear reaction. The very same process that could destroy every living thing on earth in a nuclear war is precisely the same process that supplies all the energy for life on the surface of the earth. Why do humans face such a stark contradiction? At the same time, our skin will get cancer no matter what our life choices are. It isn't like bad people get skin cancer and good people don't. We are condemned by our biology, not by our free will.

It is contradictions like this which ultimately caused me to give up on organized religion. I just couldn't accept having to leave a large part of my intellect at the church door in order be able to swallow what would be said inside. At the same time, I have a very grim awareness of how limited and myopic science turns out be. At this point I am getting increasingly upset with being forced to surrender my human dignity in order to get medical treatment. The effective demand is that I accept biological survival because medicine does not know how to heal and isn't even particularly apologetic about it. What am I, nothing more than a collection of cells in a test tube?

We live in a world that basically takes hope for granted and attempts not to ask too much about what hope is really made of for fear we won't like the answer we find. Such a strange attitude is shared by believer and atheist alike. Sooner than later we will have find out what hope is really made of and, unless we are really willing to confront what the force of Love turns out to be, we will be disappointed in ourselves.

Edouard

 

ED, the first thing is, the World and all its dangers (sun radiation for one) is really not something we can control.
Best we can do, cover up with clothing and hats. Unfortunately, when we are young and loved to go to the Beach or just play outdoors in the sun as kids, almost no one tells us, we can get cancer in our later lives. This is what happened to me.

Now as for Religion goes, this is a subject I really don't like to get into. But for you I will make an exception.

My wife and I have tried several religions and have never found one that we were comfortable with or agreed with.

Can't speak for my wife, but this is what I try my best to do. I believe in the 10 Commandments and follow them as best I can.
Remember we are all sinners, so I also pray for forgiveness and pray for others that are in need of help, like you.

We live in a World that isn't fair to all. Remember, we humans, as such, are destroying our environment every day.
I don't ever remember our environment as a kid or young person, being anywhere as bad as it is today.

Every time a good person I know, dies prematurely, I say to myself, WHY that person God, WHY did you take this GOOD person,
when we have so many bad people in this World.

I wish I had a good answer for you Ed. I know it's very difficult for you and your family.
All I have to give to you are my prayers and hope you will not suffer anymore with your medical condition.

PS, Unfortunately, some of us are pre-deposited to certain medical conditions that are beyond our control.
Is it bad DNA? Who Knows. All I can do is pray for you Ed and hope all goes well for you in the near future. Regards VET

 

Dear VET and V-8 Buick caregivers who occasionally need some care of their own,

Sorry if my last posting was a bit harsh. Honestly I'm really fuming at my predicament and running out of the means to endure what I am facing.

I am very upset at our medical system. After some thought, I've decided to defer the Mohs surgery for the basal-cell tumor on my scalp. The tumor was diagnosed as not particularly aggressive and basal-cell is never really dangerous. I still haven't recovered from hernia surgery and I must have the melanoma surgery on September 25th. I am not getting enough time to heal and the doctors should recognize that. However, the specialist who does the Mohs surgery doesn't talk to the surgeon that does the hernia surgery or the surgeon who will do the second melanoma surgery. These doctors don't even use the same patient tracking software so do they access to all my records? When they do, they don't bother to look them over - they are "too busy." So what is the point of collecting all that data on patient if you don't pay any attention to it? In the end I have to make the choices to take care of my health and how can I do this when I'm not healthy? The medical system is broken and apparently too busy to acknowledge that serious reforms are needed.

At to religion, I too will try to keep my comments short as I have gotten myself into hot water over my views. Like my Dad, I could not ignore the contradictions between religious doctrine and our scientific understanding of the world. Further fanning the flames was my experience in getting a philosophy degree. Class after class would raise objections about the existence of God. I wanted to believe but couldn't ignore the solid logic in the refutations. I did a double-major in physics and philosophy, that further raised doubts as the physical universe seems so chaotic and darn right violent.

I went on to write a PhD that proposed an alternative mechanism of learning based on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. So a philosophical account of what religion has to be has always been near and dear to my heart and no attempt that I'm aware of satisfied my need to come up with a single unified account of reality - so I had little choice but to try to cobble one together for myself. I would love to write up the treatise that it represents, but have neither the or energy and fear that few would actually want to take it seriously.

What I think should be said is two-fold. Humanity has vastly underestimated the struggle between good and evil that underpins the universe. Contrary to what science postulates, all the phenomena we observe is manifesting the battle between good and evil - not a natural state that should be that way. Because of this, hope is genuinely possible. If good can prevail then there could exist a truly fair universe. What that means though is something hard to imagine. I would not be enough for human beings to become all good, but all things in the universe would have to change. A good universe would have as radically different physics as it would have different morality.

The only genuine hope I find is in the possibility of such extreme change. Therefore, my present life is indeed a burden that terribly difficult to endure.

Edouard

 

My Mama taught me to pray for ill people. And , when praying for ill people to also pray for their doctors and other caregivers.
I'l continue to include you and your doctors in my prayers.

 

Dear James, VET, and V-8 Buick caregivers who occasionally need some care of their own,

Thanks for your prayers and support. I moved the Mohs surgery this morning to mid-October. I hope that will give me enough time to recover, but I'm definitely dragging. I cannot ever seem to get enough sleep and that forces me to live in a kind of fog.

Thanks VET for your thoughts. Yes, my primary care doctor should be more supportive, but isn't. I'll need to change and find one that actually is willing to be a central coordinator, but I would need to find the time to find such a doctor.

This is what my intellect ponders constantly. It is where my scientific understanding and my faith come together. I have come to realize something that I don't think even the devote fully realize. The task that Jesus is confronting in the Second Coming isn't simply the salvation of the good people of earth, but literally the salvation of the entire universe - all of creation, all at once. I cannot help but try to imagine a process by which this could happen because my happiness depends on it.

Thank you, I do appreciate your words, but my disappointment is much more than a matter of my medical situation. It isn't simply that our world is broken, but it has become complacent. I am impatient with the mediocrity of our existence and long to be fulfilled as I know I can only be in Jesus's world. In the end I feel it is better to long for the quintessential answer than toil in a world filled with excuses instead of progress. My hope remains in extreme change. I have reason to believe that change is much closer to happening that most people realize.

Thanks again,
Edouard

 

Ed, here is something to ponder on.

I wonder how many people know, that Christianity is the
youngest of all Religions on this earth.
So, that said, is there one God for ALL?

Ponder on that. Vet