Would you believe it?

Last night as I was driving back to the hotel from the hospital, I realized I was going over the speed limit. I thought to myself - if a policeman stops me and asks if I'm in a hurry, I wonder if he will believe me when  I tell him all the things that are going on right now in my family.

Let me back up. Wednesday night I received a call from The Harbor saying that Mike had fallen. They had checked all of his vitals and he seemed fine. On Thursday, about noon, I received a call from the nurse, Beth. She said Mike seemed to be in pain when he tried to put weight on his right leg and they were calling a mobile imaging service to come and x-ray his right hip. She was just getting there that day and had not seen him yet. Shortly after that call, she called me back and said she was sending him to the ER because she thought his color did not look good either.

The short version is he was sent to the ER and had surgery the next morning because he had broken the top part of his femur. It was not at the ball and socket so they were able to put two plates on the femur and one screw. Thursday night in the ER he was talking some to me. Since the surgery he has not talked except his perseverative "ommm". We can tell he is in pain when he grabs his head or is restless. It's hard to tell if the pain medicine is making his head feel weird or it's just his reaction to pain in his leg. He does not like moving his right leg.

PT and OT came yesterday afternoon and this morning. They sat Mike up in the bed and he did ok, but then they decided to get a Stryker chair. It's like a stretcher that can then be gently transitioned to a chair position. So they transferred him from bed to the stretcher, then slowly sat him up. He "ommmed" but then settled down. Sat up for about 1.5 hours total yesterday before we got him back in bed. The RN and I rolled him out to the window, I fed him his supper and he started getting agitated. It took about 15 minutes for the nurse to come and I kept lowering the back a little and he was sort of ok. Back in the room, he just couldn't settle down. There were visitors with his roommate, then the blood infusion machine started beeping, he had to be changed and then finally all became quiet and he was out. Had been awake all afternoon and it was about 7 by then.  He was restless today, but sat up twice in the Stryker for about an hour each time.

Here's what else is going on in our world:
My father has been in a rather steady decline since a fall the end of March. Hospice came and started working with us in mid-april. In the last two weeks he has had a more drastic decline and we expect his passing any day or hour now. Mike is in a hospital about 2 hours away from my parents. I am so thankful that we have a fairly large family and one of my sisters was there when I got the call about Mike, so I was free to leave.

My brother was also out of town, because his mother-in-law passed away on Tuesday morning in Tennessee. Her funeral was yesterday and now my brother and niece are driving home and expect to get there about 2 A. M.

There are some other health issues and concerns on the Rice side of the family, but I won't get into that now.  As you can see, there's been lots of reasons to lean on Jesus and allow him to carry us all through. Although it was hard to leave my parents right now, the Lord has given me a real peace that I am right where I need to be - beside my husband. Mom, Gayle and Carol are at Daddy's side tonight.

Mike may be discharged from the hospital tomorrow, if they can get him up and trying to take a few steps. This is where there is some possibly exciting news. Because Mike will have to go to a rehabilitation or skilled nursing home for Rehab, Beth suggested that now might be a good time to try to transition him to a facility closer to home. So while Mike was in surgery, Thursday morning, I was praying and sending out texts asking for people to pray and if they knew of good facilities near us. I knew I wanted to check in to the one in Amelia, because I already know someone there with brain injury and the family seems to be happy with his care. Excitement started to build when three of the people I text all said something about Amelia. Even the marketing director at The Harbor had already spoken to somebody at the Amelia facility. It seemed to me God was directing us there.

The case manager was able to forward some information to the administrator on Friday afternoon, so we will talk more tomorrow. I do not know if they have room, if they will accept him, or if they take the funding that we have available. Please pray about all these points. Right now Mike is over 2 hours away from me. The facility in Amelia is only 25 minutes away from me. I do hope and have been praying since Thursday that this is where God will lead us and that he will fling the doors wide open for us to move Mike there directly from the hospital and that Mike will transition and settle in well. I would definitely be able to see him a lot more often, which should help the transition also.

Please excuse any typos or lack of punctuation. I am speaking a lot of this into my phone and trying to correct it, but I'm getting tired and it's time to quit.

I so appreciate your prayers for Mike, me, and both sides of our family. This has been my verse the last few days:

Throw wide the gates so good and true people can enter. People with their minds set on you, you keep completely whole, Steady on their feet, because they keep at it and don’t quit. Depend on God and keep at it because in the Lord God you have a sure thing.
Isaiah 26:2‭-‬4 MSG