Doctor, Doctor, give me the news

In the past week, I ended up having to make two trips to the Western Baptist Emergency Room.

The first was on Thursday. I got a call from Donna saying the school had called her and Josh had cut his finger in Physics lab. I went to the school to get him. He was in the nurse's office lying down. Turned out, he had felt faint when coming to see the nurse, so he had to lie down. She showed me the finger and it was obvious he'd sliced it pretty good and it'd need stitches.

We got to the Western Baptist ER and I was shocked to see that no one was in the waiting room. I began to wonder if it was closed down. It wasn't though. We got in, the doctor looked at his finger, a young lady sewed up his finger (7 stitches), and we were out in an hour and half. That has to be a world record. Josh was even able to go back to school (his choice, not ours). He said the worst part of the experience was all the ribbing he took at school.

The second visit was more serious. I got a call at work Tuesday afternoon from Donna's mom from Donna's cel phone. I knew right then that something was wrong since her mother has probably used a cel phone less than five times in her life. She hold me Donna was having chest pains and an ambulance was coming to get her. I left work and headed to the ER. They took me right back, but she wasn't there yet. Dr. Tim Mabry was there (a friend of ours from church and fellow deacon). He went and found out that she was en route and kept giving me updates as to how close she was. It turned out they (the EMTs) had done some things at the house so that is why it took longer.

She got checked in and in one of the ER rooms for patients with suspected heart issues. They did tests and couldn't find any heart issues but decided to keep her overnight to monitor her. This was the first time she'd been in the hospital since Josh was born 17 years ago. They did multiple tests (including a stress test and ultrasound) and found no heart or blot clot issues. They finally decided to go down the route of acid reflux and are treating her for that.

Some random thoughts

• You should always wear the proper hand protection when cutting things.
  
• WBH was great. Everybody there was really nice. They even gave me a meal the evening Donna was checking out so I didn't have to forage out for food.
  
• Donna had been having pains, but kept putting off going to the doctor because she was "too busy". She (and my brother too) would tell you now that if you have symptoms, don't put off a doctor's visit.
  

Thanks to everybody for the prayers and the concern you've shown for us over the past week.

Home...

First, sorry about the lack of posts. Internet access hasn't been easy to come by..

We finally left the Drury Sunday morning. After church, the boys went to stay with my parents (they had power). Donna went with me to Nashville (I had a training class the first three days of the week).

I was able to stay in a very nice hotel (Doubletree Suites Airport) at a reasonable price. However, this marked more than seven days I'd been in a hotel which meant I was a bit tired of being in one. Jonathan and Josh made daily visits to our house to monitor things and feed the cats. We got a call from Josh Wednesday morning saying we finally had power!

Donna and I were talking while driving back from Nashville Wednesday afternoon. We'd stayed in a couple of of nice hotels and been treated very well at both. However, there is nothing like being able to be in your home. Of course, we thought of this song.

This world is not my home, I'm just a-passing through.
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
The angels beckon me from Heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.

We have many enjoyable experiences here on earth. But as Christians, we look forward to being able to be in our heavenly home. John 14.2 is a comfort when things seem bleak.

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you

There are still a lot of people here without power. The Cherokee subdivision just got power and my in-laws finally got power last night. There is a lot of cleanup to be done. I've heard numerous visiting lineman say they've never seen anything to compare with what has happened here. Continue to keep us in your prayers.

UK Mildcats

I just watched UK lose their third game in a row and second on their home court. They just look like they have no fire and don't play defense. It's a rare occurrence to see them get an offensive rebound.

In the game tonight, they let Mississippi State hit 14 three point shots. A lot of them were long shots. However, you have to realize "Hey, they are hitting long threes, why don't we guard them". Against South Carolina, they let a 5 ft 9 guard eat them alive and hit the game winning shot. If Meeks and Patterson don't score 50 points between them, they simply cannot win.

Now they enter a stretch where they play Florida twice, Arkansas, LSU, and Tennessee. It isn't going to get any better.

I wonder if all those people screaming for Tubby Smith to leave regret that now.

The Super Bowl

Now that I look back at the Super Bowl, I still think the officiating was not good. How many of you knew that if you have two successful challenges you get a third one? I didn't because I have never seen that happen. That tells me things were a bit lopsided.

I also saw this article.

The Cardinals shot themselves in the foot with the half ending interception. It was bad enough to keep them from at least tying the game. But letting Harrison lumber 100 yards for a TD was unreal.

I am still happy about how well they did. I would certainly hope that sportswriters will give the "worst team ever in the playoffs" a rest. But I doubt it..

Heartbreak...

That game just broke my heart. The Cardinals did a great job in coming back from a big deficit.

This of course sounds like the sour grapes. I think the referees missed numerous holds on the Steelers. They did at least catch the one on the safety. I still don't think Holmes got that other foot down. It looked like to me he tapped it on top of his other foot. I still am not sure why they didn't review that final play more closely to decide if it was a fumble or not. It looked like his arm was going forward to me.

I still am not sure what Harrison wasn't thrown out on the one play. He smashed the Cardinal player into the ground multiple times.


Once I calm down a little bit I am sure I'll be happy at how well they did.

The Iceman Cometh part 3

Things are starting to get a little better. About 75% of Paducah has power. Jackson Purchase is close to getting the main power lines set up to try and get a lot of homes online in the next day or so. The long gas lines are gone now.

We went to our house again to get church clothes and other items. My mom and dad's house has power now, so we were able to do laundry there. It got into the 40s yesterday so most of the roads are melted. There are still trees on many back roads plus ice falling off of the trees. We went to visit Donna parents. Most of her side of the family is holed up in her sister's house where they have a generator. They are making it OK but they've been in there for four days now.

Even though the cities are improving things in the rural areas are still really bad. Keep everybody in your prayers.