Bad News, Good News!

My Dad is convinced that the whole world is going crazy. He would not have to do a lot to convince me, too. One hour of watching the cable news channels, if I had them, is enough to convince one that "the sky is falling, the sky is falling!" I have to remind myself daily that "there is nothing new under the sun." It is just that CNN and Fox News are now there to cover it all.

This has been a mixed bag of a day. The bad news is---Hannah has been puking for over 24 hours. (Hence, no blog last night....sorry, Jen!) She came in from being out with Sam and me yesterday and threw up three different places in the den. While I was getting the carpet cleaner out, Daniel was taking the poor little thing upstairs to bathe her off. She promptly threw up on him two or three more times. He's a great brother. He just took it right in stride and handed her off to me while he went and showered! Poor Sam ran for the hills and decided that last night was the perfect time to clean his room! LOL! The good news is that it seems to be letting up some tonight, but she still cannot keep anything, and I mean anything, down. The doctor said to give her just small sips of diluted Sprite or Pedialyte and when she can keep it down 4 hours, then increase the amounts.

I got up this morning and went to the bathroom, and shortly, Hannah toddled in after me. She had gotten down off my bed and followed me in there, toting a glass of pretty cold water that had melted down from ice chips. She wanted me to put it to her lips. She shook as I gave her the precious drops of cold water. I felt so sorry for her as her little dehydrated body quivered all over in anticipation of the precious drops of refreshment. I offered her fluids all night, but she would throw up anything she took in. She has only been without fluids a few short hours. Terry Shiavo has gone nearly 5 days now. I can only imagine what she is thinking, laying there in torment, wondering why her mommy won't get her a drink?

The bad news is that while I was steamcleaning baby puke last night, Tim was guiding a tow truck up to the multi-story parking garage at his work to get our other SUV! Just a couple of weeks ago, we spent mega-bucks to fix the white one, and now the blue one was shaking like it was going to break up on the interstate. So Tim had to rent a car, because I was having a CAT scan at the time, and then he had to get the blue one home. The good news is that the mechanic looked at it today, and it was relatively minor---points, plugs and a coil pack. The damage was not nearly what it could have been.

The bad news is that my friend, Tina, had to have both breasts removed today. Some of the lymph nodes under her arm were enlarged, too. I am unclear as to whether they removed those or not. We are all eagerly waiting for a prognosis. The good news is that she and her husband are Christians and will face this battle surrounded, as they were today, by faithful brethren who will be cheerleaders for Tina every step of the way. Tina has no insurance, so she is fighting an uphill battle in many ways. The first battle is that she will have to go home tomorrow, just 24 hours after this extensive surgery. I don't know how she is going to make it. They live an hour west of church and we live an hour east, making it two hours to get to her. Her husband has to work, so I am not sure who is going to watch over her in the next couple of days. I know her daughter will probably be there to help, but still, I worry for her.

The bad news is that my brother Doug "delivered" a 5 pound baby polyp last week. O.K., I don't know that it was THAT big, but it reportedly was big. My dummy little brother has let rectal bleeding go on for several years now without taking it seriously. He went to a friend's website---someone he was at West Point with---and this guy was telling about having colo-rectal cancer, and the symptoms scared my brother enough to schedule a quick colonoscopy. The good news is that the pathology report came back today, and there is no cancer! Praise God!

This has surely been one of those days where I could say, "There but for the grace of God go I!" My brother is cancer-free, but my "sister" is fighting for her life. Tim was just saying last night...and it is true... that we all have to work on accepting whatever life gives us in the most graceful way we can. I feel so badly for Tina and her family right now, and for brother Alvin, one of the three dear elders at the church where I am a member. Brother Alvin will have to have surgery in a week or two, as soon as they can squeeze him in, to remove cancer of the jawbone.

So, today, the bad news is that there are many that I care about who are sick and hurting tonight. There are also many I do not know or am not aware of who are sick and hurting. The good news is that God knows who they are, and He will be watching over them even as I sleep. He is much, much more equipped to handle all this chaos in the world than I, so I gladly turn it all over to Him and say a peaceful "Good Night!"