Urgent Monday Prayers

Please pray RIGHT NOW for Stellan.

Please stop whatever you are doing right now and pray for Stellan. Please pray for wisdom for his doctors and nurses, strength for his parents, and health for his little body. Stellan has been fighting for so long, and is having a really hard time right now. God has worked in this little guy's life many times before, and he needs Him again now.

If you would lke to receive updates on Stellan's situation,

please follow MckMama on Twitter as she updates from his bedside.

What I Learned From My Uncle Carroll

Carroll Lee Dickenson, born August 17, 1941, passed away Sunday morning, July 19, 2009. He spent the day before his death surrounded by his family, and was sleeping peacefully when he passed. Thank you to everyone who has lifted our families in your prayers over the past 6+ months. Your calls, emails, texts, cards, and visits have meant so much to all of us.

A few things have been running through my mind for the past few days. Of course, anytime more than two members of our family get together, there is going to be some storytelling. If you’ve never heard a Dickenson tell a story…well, you probably have accomplished something with all that free time. We, meanwhile, will have started on another story mid-stream, so please jump in and catch up! It’s been no different over the past months and days: lots of stories and histories were rehashed and told, some of which many of us had never heard. And many of the “Dickenson-isms” that have become part of our family language were thrown around and explained to visitors. I started realizing many of these nuggets were straight from Uncle Carroll. So, here are some things I learned from my Uncle Carroll…..

• Tomatoes are good for you. They may taste disgusting, but you should eat at least one slice for dinner before you say you don’t like it. Especially if they came straight from the garden earlier that afternoon.
• Clean your plate…..see above regarding tomatoes.
• Do not kill the spiders in the corners. They are catching bugs, and have names. Uncle Carroll would never kill the spiders that terrorized me as a child, but told me they were his pets.
• List all the cars you have ever owned. If it’s less than 50 cars in 52 years, you have some catching up to do.
• If you can buy a beat-up, rusted-out version of the car you owned at 16, you should definitely buy it and restore it.
• No family gathering is complete without one or more of the following: country ham, deer bologna, or shrimp.
• Do NOT fill up on the cheap food. There’s something better coming down the line.
• Go out to eat after church. Spend time with your family catching up and sharing a club sandwich.
• Listen when a waitress says her name. Use it to address her so she takes your service a little more personally.
• Travel a lot. You’ll have interesting stories to tell the grandkids.
• Take lots of videos of your travels and organize movie nights to show them to your family. They’ll have more fun than they let on, I promise.
• Sing it like you know it. This was wisdom imparted during choir practice, but applies in so many places.
• Whatever song you sing, do really well at the beginning and the end. That’s all anyone really listens to anyway.
• Sing through the rests. They are only suggestions.
• Stick to the time schedule. Unless it needs to change to accommodate you!
• Every vacation should be as education as possible. Visit lost colonies, take in outdoor dramas, and go to museums dedicated to the World’s Largest Whatever.
• Trips to the beach are not for sunbathing. Wake up at 6, walk on the beach, and have breakfast followed by lunch followed by a seafood buffet. Repeat daily for 4-7 days.
• If you keep walking through the pine trees, you’ll eventually see the lighthouse, and it will be amazing.
• Bug spray on a hat keeps the gnats out of your eyes when everyone else is being eaten alive by noseeums.
• That funny spot might just be a tick, so check it out in good light.
• Make your exits gracefully, with great dignity, and surrounded by those you love. Especially that last exit.

We will all miss Uncle Carroll horribly, but know that he is safe with the Lord. He told our minister that he can’t wait to see the tree stand Jesus has picked out for him, and that’s how I’ll always think of him in my heart.

Saturday Update

Mama called me this morning to let me know that Uncle Carroll was doing very badly and the doctor had suggested calling the family, saying that he only had a few hours left. He had started receiving morphine periodically and was bleeding internally.

Mama, Daddy, and I were at AMC by 11:00, and we stayed all day. I got home around 11:30 PM, and plan on returning in the morning. Uncle Carroll was extubated yesterday and so was able to talk with folks today, say goodbye, and give everyone lots of instructions (something he loves to do, which made us all laugh). By early this evening, he had been increased to a morphine drip and is mostly asleep. He is currently sleeping, but struggling to breathe. We will return to AMC tomorrow to keep watch and be with my aunt and cousin.

Please continue to pray for our family. We have so appreciated everything so far, the calls and emails, comments, Tweets, and prayers. While this is horribly hard for Mama and our family, it is exponentially harder for Aunt Ellen and Sara. I can't imagine what they are going through, and only pray for peace for them.

Thank you again, and I'll try to post tomorrow evening. If I have a chance, I'll Tweet tomorrow to let folks know what's going on. If you don't Twitter, well, you should! Follow me, and I'll follow you. Maybe I'll get all crazy and put up a "follow me on Twitter" link at some point. Love to you all.

UPDATE: Hey, look, it's My Twitter Feed! Right over there ------------------>

Friday Eve...

And not like Friday night, either...more like the night before. This week, there will be no Thank God....It's Friday. Don't get me wrong: I'm as thankful as anyone this week. But I have more pressing matters on my heart than sharing a praise or request list with you.

If you've been reading my blog for anytime at all, you probably remember me asking for prayer for my Uncle Carroll. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January, and given 6-12 months. Chemo and radiation did no good and the cancer spread to his liver. As of a few weeks ago, he was told that his time was very short.

Friday afternoon, Uncle Carroll and his younger brother, Uncle Larry, were out on the mountain. Uncle Carroll asked Uncle Larry to take him to the ER because he was having trouble breathing. At that point he was admitted to the hospital and given breathing treatments. By 2 AM Saturday morning the doctors had called my aunt to return to the hospital and moved Uncle Carroll to ICU. He was intubated and was very close to death. He spent Saturday in an unresponsive state, fighting for his life. By the time we were able to see him Sunday he was alert and able to communicate via pencil and paper, but was still intubated. The possible diagnoses were pneumonia or pulmonary fibrosis as a result of chemotherapy. One is treatable and the other probably fatal.

From there it's been a bit of a roller coaster. Monday was good, Tuesday was bad. Wednesday was worse, but today was better. By now no one except my aunt, cousin, Uncle Larry, and Mom are allowed in the room. At that point they are gowned, masked, and gloved and are not allowed to touch my uncle. He will never be intubated, and no one can say for certain how long he will live. But it's not long, and we're now talking weeks, days, and hours instead of months or years.

Please, please pray for my uncle. He needs release, relief, and peace. Please pray that he is able to go to the Lord singing. Please pray for my aunt, who is being torn apart bit by bit. Uncle Carroll will leave one daughter who thinks he hung the moon. In addition to her husband, there are also two grandsons, age 5 and 8. While they both love their Pop, the older one is about to be completely devastated as he loses his absolute idol. Please wrap this family in your prayers and lift them to the Lord whenever you think about them. The rest of us need the same thing, but you already know that.

On a positive note, Mama met with her surgeon today. Everything went absolutely perfectly, and she is scheduled for a double knee replacement for September 30. This is exactly what she wanted: both knees simultaneously done after the summer but before Christmas. Her doctor is supposed to be amazing and does about 150 of these surgeries yearly. We are so excited for her to have "new knees", as she's been saying. She's currently bone-on-bone in both knees and has been for some time. She is in constant pain and should not be as mobile as she is. Of course, for someone who was told as a child that she'd be in a wheelchair by 40, that's pretty darn good. Horrible joints run in our family, and she's put up with this pain for years. I am so happy that she's going to be able to walk, sit, lie down and generally live with less pain in the near future. Maybe run and skip, and definitely dance as well!

Happy Friday, if you read this tomorrow. Love to all of you and thanks for all your prayers thus far, and please feel free to leave your prayer requests in the comments of this post.

Thank God....It's Friday!!

Sad...two Thank God It's Fridays back to back. I'll try to be a better blogger, I promise. As soon as I get my schedule back in shape. Trying to adjust to a new baby in the house is not as easy as I hoped, even though she is wonderfully sweet and well-behaved. It's just a different schedule these days and I am beat by the end of the day. So, for now...

Thank God....It's Friday

Praises

Brian is feeling much better every day. He got glasses this week and says they're already making a huge difference in his balance and dizziness. As long as he stays hydrated he's not been terribly dizzy lately. Hopefully he'll continue to adjust his lifestyle and improve more each week!

We had a great time with my family tonight (minus one, though) having an impromtu dinner. It's always fun to see family for dinner and fun!

My cousin gets married this weekened. We're all looking forward to the wedding and spending time with family.

Requests

Please keep my Uncle Carroll in your prayers. He is not doing well and needs to be lifted to the Lord as often as possible. He is now in pain quite often, and something has been found on his lung. The doctor says it's not cancer, but we don't know what it is. His pancreas is almost entirely cancerous now, and the chemo hasn't helped his pancreas or liver in the least, so some decisions have to be made. We are so afraid that he doesn't have much time left, and just pray that he'll have strength and as little pain as possible at this point. We pray the Lord will give him as many more months as possible, and that he has peace when the Lord calls him home.

Please pray for our friend Nate, who may be reading this right now. He has pancreatitis and recently spent time in the hospital. Hopefully he'll kick this nastiness soon and not have to return there!

MadHat76's husband had more surgery this week and is scheduled for reconstructive surgery on his foot in three weeks. Please keep them both in your prayers as they are tired, stressed, and probably worried sick.

Two of our family friends are going through rough times. I won't air their laundry, dirty or otherwise, here so please just pray for wisdom, patience, protection, and peace. Both of these women are struggling day to day, and need some relief very soon.

Thank God....It's Friday!!

This week, I'm just flat-out thanking the Lord for getting us to Friday. Seriously.

Thank God...It's Friday

Praises

Thank God my bug-eaten foot is feeling better. I had a major reaction to some manner of bug bite this week, as did Mama, two of my aunts, and one cousin. It was horrible, painful itchiness and in my case major swelling and heat, like with an infection. Now I'm just down to itching, which is actually a blessing considering how it's felt all week.

I have a new baby in care who is the sweetest little girl in the world. She's easy as pie, which is a great relief from the last few babies I've had.

Brian is rested and feeling better. He went to work this morning, so I'm praying all goes well. He's making some changes in the way he functions on a day-to-day basis, too, which is good.

Thank God I don't live in Iran or Honduras. That's all I need to say about that.

Requests

Please pray for Brian as he returns to work and tries to find a new job.

Please pray for everyone who is travelling this weekend, including Little Bro and Sweet Lizzy.

Please pray for MadHat76's husband who had surgery yesterday and is scheduled for more surgery in the next week.

Please pray for VA and her family for reasons both they and the Lord know.

Ya'll have a great Fourth of July weekend!