What a beautiful day!!

Hello from sunny Saskatoon! This has become the "Friday Report" as most of the appointments happen at the end of the week. Again, the bandage is working amazingly well. We see the plastic surgeon on Tues. am to decide how much longer Stan will need it and to discuss if further surgery will be necessary to free up tightened muscles under Stan's arm. We also see a second specialist on Tues. afternoon to do a nerve assessment along his arm to see what shape the nerves are in. The kidneys are still improving and are at about 47% now. Remember from previous conversation that less than 10% required dialysis. We are still waiting news of when they will remove the permcath from Stan's
chest. We are still captive to appointments whenever we get calls and are grateful to be in the system already which seems to open doors to getting to see the specialists as needed and allow continuing physical therapy. The weather has really been beautiful the last few days and the walks in the fall colors has really lifted our spirits. Stan is back in the drivers seat! and has been doing a lot of the driving around the city this week. Monica has had time to spend with us as she waits for baby's arrival. We are all doing well, and share impatience for different reasons!
God bless. Love, Stan and Maxine :-)

and it's Friday!

Another week has gone by! Stan has had a good week and this afternoon Monica joined us for a 2 km walk, about mile! There has been some pain in his shoulder as it is not completely healed and Stan still pushes himself a little further.... trying to get that extra stretch and strength back. He is encouraged to not work as hard at it until the healing is complete. Physical therapy is still a good thing and they are trying to fit him into a longer time slot for the "pulleys" which means the gym. We have been out and about a little more, more than just appointments!

I have been busy this week finishing off Monica's baby quilt. Today we both worked on quilting a project that my Mom, Grace, had started and planned to give to Monica. That was fun for us both to make the project "tri-generational" Next I will pick fabric to start on a special quilt for Melissa's baby. This is a nice place to be with the babies on their way!
We miss home, but progress is still being made here and we still need the medical connections is Saskatoon. 'Til next time, Stan and Maxine :-)

The Sun Shines!

Good morning
The sun shines again in Saskatoon and it feels much better. There is also "frost on the pumpkin" as the radio just said -2 degrees. We look forward to outdoors again. That vacuum bandage is definitely doing what it is meant to do as the wound under Stan's arm is now about 2 centimeters deep (half of what it had been on Friday!) Another gain and another day closer to home. Have a great day, Stan and Maxine

Family

Making progress!!

This was a good result day, too. Stan's kidneys are now operating at 43% which is still good progress in the direction we want to go. He has had medication cut down and another pill discontinued. The "permcath" (tubing to connect dialysis) will be removed as soon as the surgeon is available to do it. Translation: not more dialysis. Hurray!! The bandage was just changed again on the underarm wound. We have had problems with the vacuum seal releasing and hope that is remedied. The results are so encouraging as the wound has already closed up about half the depth of what they started with. Stan is not enjoying hauling the vacuum pack around and constantly disconnecting and reconnecting it from the power source. It weighs at least 4 pounds (which may not be extreme to those of us who have carried diaper bags or purses! Physical therapy is going well, They have wonderful equipment at City Hospital and helpful people. We have done some indoor walking as it has rained up here for the last few days. I actually bought an umbrella.

Today was Monica's last day of work before her baby is born. We are so excited for Monica and Roy. Please add her to your prayer list for the safe arrival of their baby. Thanks to all who have sent comments. We enjoy hearing from you. Love, Stan and Maxine

Elford Bell and kids

Stan, Karen, Elford, Gerry, and Warren
Picture taken last Sunday.

Bandage in place

This was the day the day that Stan got his new bandage. The doctor said to make an appointment with him for three weeks from now and Stan negotiated for 2 1/2. Homecare will let him know if it is healing sooner than that. Every couple of days it will still be changed and measured for depth of the wound, but I am so excited that we have this valuable resource available to us. Stan is hospital overnight and if all is well, he will be discharged after breakfast and off to his physio appointment at 11 am. Greetings to you all. Your love and support is a valuable addition to the healing that continues. God continues to bless us.
Love, Stan and Maxine

I was telling Melissa that this blog is like a modern day "message in a bottle" and we have no idea where it has "washed up" Any of you want to confess where you are that would surprise us?????

Combining Pictures

Home for the Weekend!!

The big news this time is that we were home to Gravelbourg and the farm on the weekend! We arranged to have the bandages changed at our own St Joseph's hospital and were able to attend church at our home congregation. Stan surprised them all by walking up to the front unassisted and was able to say his thankyous in person to everyone. It was wonderful to be with you all there!
It is bittersweet to go back to the farm and see that things have progressed as they should without us. My garden gave us a few treats to bring back to the city and did well at supplying some veggies for the harvest effort. The crops had done beyond our expectations and Stan was able to ride on his combine for about an hour. Monday was damp and the Canada Food Grain Bank Project harvest was postponed. We would have enjoyed seeing a bit of that as well, maybe next year.
We are off to the hospital appointment tomorrow with the plastic surgeon to have the vacuum bandage put on to speed the healing under Stan's arm.. The difference from two months down to possibly two weeks.
We look at our return to Saskatoon positively as a return to progress as he gets stronger and accepts the help he needs in his recovery.
Love, Stan and Maxine

Another Door Opened!

Well, we had a busy day. We got our phone call this morning to show up at City Hospital to begin physical therapy! This was only about an hour after we had talked to other physio facilities that told us the waiting lists were long and that we could be waiting from 6 to 8 weeks. Once again, we have a wonderful person to work with who took us on today because she had cancellations in the department where she usually works. I refuse to believe in coincedence anymore! God is good.

Waiting Game

Hi there, Well, another day went by and we still haven't connected to physical therapy sessions. We had a communication breakdown last week with a secretary being away on holidays without passing on our referral papers and now, this week, the doctor is on holiday! We are anxious to get this underway. Stan has been doing well at being out and walking. We were down to the river today (instead of being in dialysis!!! Hurray!!) and walked almost half a mile. He was really ready for a rest!! but it is wonderful to be able to be outside and take a rest as you need it. Our next visit to the Renal unit is on Friday morning for them to once again check blood counts and monitor how those kidneys are shaping up.

We saw the new plastic surgeon yesterday who has decided to get Stan back on a VaccuBandage that is a portable outpatient variety of what he had been using while in Intensive Care. It should speed up the healing process to the deep wound still under Stan's arm from a couple of months to possibly a couple of weeks. Great idea. It will probably take almost a week to get that in place so the Home Care nurses will continue to do dressing changes until we hear from the doctor again. Stan and I are so grateful to be able to be in Saskatoon. Every appointment or visit to the drugstore or bloodtest etc. end up taking a very long time and we can't imagine dealing with the busy days we have had and still needing to drive home from somewhere!! This is definitely where we need to be at this time! How wonderful to have family to take us in and have such nice visits, too. We will go home for a visit when it works out. Still no definite plan. It means a lot to us that you are all out there cheering us on and remembering us in your prayers. Love from Stan and Maxine :-)

Continued progress :-)

We just got back from the latest blood test and the numbers are even better! No more dialysis, but weekly blood tests the lines left in for the next 6 weeks. That is "doable!" We are happy!!
Love, Stan and Maxine

The Oak Tree

A mighty wind blew night and day
It stole the oak tree's leaves away,
Then snapped its boughs and pulled it's bark
Until the oak was tired and stark.
But still the oak tree held it's ground
While other trees fell all around
The weary wind gave up and spoke,
"How can you still be standing, Oak?"
The oak tree said "I know that you
Can break each branch of mine in two,
Carry every leaf away
Shake my limbs and make me sway.
But I have roots stretched in the earth
Growing stronger since my birth.
"You'll never touch them, for you see,
They are the deepest part of me.
Until today, I wasn't sure of just how much I could endure
But now I've found, with thanks to you
I'm stronger than I ever knew."

Thanks to special friends Charlie and Bonnie for this encouraging poem and your love over
the MANY years of our friendship!!

Stan Bell

Hello to all our faithful prayer warriors. God must have been listening to our hearts once again. The news today was really encouraging. They finished off today's dialysis treatment and said they would be discontinuing them. We go back on Monday for bloodwork to monitor levels of toxins that may still appear in the blood and they leave the lines in for a couple of weeks or so to be sure they don't need them again. The numbers were even better today than Wednesday so the kidneys are funtioning BETTER than the previous 20%, they just couldn't tell us a number easily. Thankyou, thankyou for your continued concern and prayers. We feel like we have been holding our breath for a long time now and today made such a difference. Our journey is still looking like a long one but we are so optimistic! Love to all, Stan and Maxine :-)

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