More Appointments Today

Kim's rehab is really what we're here for now. Despite that it's quite a busy day again today. I mentioned to the supervising nurse this morning that we'd like to have some other appointments if we could, Kim an audiology appointment to see about her hearing and an additional hearing aid, eye appointments for us both and an overall health exam for me. (Kim's pretty much had that). By 10:30 or so we got Kim into a wheelchair and down to the 3rd floor where most of that kind of stuff goes on here. She had a normal audiology exam and we discussed the results and getting a hearing aid. We found out the devices they use are from Minneapolis and it would take longer than we had left and opted to wait until we get back home.
Promptly after lunch they called for us both to come to the Eye hospital. I don't know if I've told you or not this place is abuzz with people almost morning to night. I've never seen the volume of folks which come and go and the things that seem to be going on. Of course I'm not privy to all that is happening but there's a lot, and I mean a lot of people. They took Kim right in and began to examine her eyes. They treat you quite special when you are an International patient or family. I guess that's ok but wonder what the locals think about it. If you didn't notice the person examining you was Indian it would seem little different than being at home, a standard eye exam. They called me back to the desk and I had to register, since I'm really nobody except with my now famous bilateral hip resurfacing wife. I filled out a very brief registration card, name, address, phone, email and that's it. Pretty soon he called me back to the desk to inform me since I'm not registered I'd have to pay cash for my eye exam. The bill, 390 rupees, not quite $10 for full exam, same tests for glaucoma, cataracts, retinal exam, dialation, the whole bit. Then the best part for me, the Dr told me my current glasses were working just fine. Why not just keep wearing them? What? Can you do that? You mean I'm not gonna need another $450 pair of glasses today. Cool! All for under $10. I like it.
When we got back to the room Kim did a phone interview with a lady from the BBC. Not sure what that's about except that Medical Tourism is big busines and growing. We found out today that the 10 story addition they have been working on day and night right out side our window is for International patients. Their goal is to fill with folks like us. They do good work here. It still lacks some of the comforts of home, Mexican food, my dog, my pillow, any American TV or sports, carpet, well I could go on, but for the price...people will come.

Oh yeah, Kim's just doing great. She's working really hard and making outstanding progress. It's gonna be slow but she's seeing some real results now. Just keep praying and thanks for reading.

de

Here's a couple more pictures.

This is Mryna from Oregon. She'd been here by herself for almost 3 weeks after having had her shoulder replaced. This was her day to go home. She was quite a character.

Here's the drive thru to the hospital entrance. The bamboo looking covering was there when we arrived. A few days later I noticed them disassembling it and now its gone! Kim and the flowers I got her. She was actually more excited about them than the picture indicates! Hopefully I can get out and take some more pics today. I hope my camera charged overnight. It was having trouble yesterday. More rehab today. Kim is making excellent progress day by day. Thanks for your constant prayers and contacts.
de & ke

Recent video!

Here's a couple of videos I took yesterday. Very cool if I do say so. Say you saw it here first! de

Kim walking on day 4

Postop xray explained by Dr Malhan

Video crew captured it all!

Steady As She Goes!

It's not the end of this day but not sure what else there will be to write about today. Kim is entirely "unplugged" or maybe its all systems are go...sorry. I'll leave it at that but she's been up and out of the bed 9 times today and its about 3 pm. Undergoing 2 major surgeries in 6 days means you do a number of the normal things of life by remote, like eat, get your meds, and other normal activities, then you have to restart all those normal functions. She's doing just great but its steady as she goes.
There's a number of things we're learning about the people here and their ways. Virtually all the staff on our floor and there's nurses, food guys, security, guys who clean the rooms etc, all of them speak at least some English, some better than others. What English they know is proper English but here's some of what they don't get. They don't understand our humor, puns, idioms, or sarcasm, which means pretty much everything we say. One of the nurses was getting ready to hook up a new batch of the IV painkiller which went in constant for a couple of days. She was having a bit of trouble and Kim said, "go ahead and give me the juice." The attending nurse dropped what she was holding, ran to the fridge and grabbed a box of juice. Another nurse was in to take her temperature following surgery #2 and I the comment, "I think you should take it rectally." Well, a few minutes later, guess what she showed up with...you got it...a proper rectal thermometer. Too funny. Kim had to convince her I was only joking.
They didn't understand the term "picky" either. For the first few days Kim would remark with, "I'm sorry I'm being so picky" about this or that. They never did get it. We had to come up with other descriptive words like "difficult." What else...nobody takes the stairs in the hospital. I've found its one of the best ways to go when its busy. Everybody crams into the elevator and sometimes the wait is fairly long. Nobody takes the stairs but me.
As hot as it is here...and its now the winter season at 94 degrees today...almost nobody wears a hat or shorts. I wear my shorts on our floor, #7, but when I'm going downstairs or for a walk down the street I wear my jeans. There's certainly more peculiarities to talk about but I'll save it for another time. Things are good here. Kim's up and down, walking back and forth and resting in between. Dr Malhan came back to check in. Some people came by from the States to interview us for a piece they're doing on "medical tourism." I was at the gym with my trainer, who I call the Indian version of Jethro Bodine. Made it there for only 30 rupees today and walked back. All in all, a good day. Somebody send me some El-Toro take out, would you or a Pops burger or a turkey sandwich! I saw a Fedex truck today.

de & ke

Kim up and walking today!

I was going to say it was an uneventful day but Kim getting up and walking two different times was certainly exciting. I took some brief video of the event but promised I'd wait till she looked a little better and was walking a bit stronger before I posted her on the net. It was a sweet sight to see but still quite a struggle for her to get up and around. It will come as the days go by and she is feeling stronger and looking better all the time since #2 was done.

I made it to the grocery store on my own today...hailed an autorickshaw...said "supermarket" and off we went. I did some pretty serious shopping for some snack stuff...pringles, lay's potato chips, box of cereal, oatmeal, couple of diet pepsis, Kettle salt & vinegar chips, yeah!!! and brought Kim back a hot filet-o-fish sandwich from McDonalds and some fries...any I didn't eat in the rickshaw on the way back...probably some other stuff. Went to the gym to workout. Got my own rickshaw driver who decided to take me for a ride. Instead of the 14 rupees it normally costs he took me on a longer ride. He acted like he didn't know where he was going, he slowed down a time or two enough to holler out something and they'd point and off we'd go. Cost me 50 rupees by the time we got there...and they were closed...so I walked back to the hospital. I knew the general way and spent probably 45 minutes just walking through that section of town...shop after shop selling everything under the sun...people everywhere...weren't you scared?...not for a moment...nervous, sure a little bit. I was halfway around the world in the 3rd world country...walking to where I thought I knew I'd come from. Although I never saw another caucasian person...the only others I've seen since we've been here were in the hospital. I never once had anybody approach me. Most of them look at me like I landed from somewhere on the other side of the planet. Hey, I am.

And they look at my shoes...everybody looks down at my shoes...I'm guess I'm not wearing sandals like everybody else...either my nikes or my crocs...they still haven't figured out my crocs. I walked thru the neighborhood...saw some kids playing cricket...others playing badmittton...many just sitting watching the throngs of people doing their daily thing...going home...buying groceries...working on their cars...dodging rickshaws as they walk in out out of the traffic...and the vehicles honking at each other...they love to honk their horns and do so all the time. It's quite exciting as traffic goes.

On the way back I passed a little stand with a guy making some beautiful flower arrangements...so guess what, I carried one back to the hospital with me...100 rupees...I probably should've tried to get the price down but I was so excited to be where I was experiencing what I was...I just paid the price and splurged...a little over $2. Big spender but they are beautiful and she was thrilled. So all in all it was good day, her walking, McDonalds, flowers, walking thru the local neighborhood...oh yeah, a visit from a young man from the local church came by for a visit and to pray with us. Guess that's the end of this day and this blog. I'll do my best to keep you coming back and reading up on our journeys. Thanks for reading. By the sitemeter somebody's keeping up with us. We love you all! de & ke

A Few More Pics

Here's a few more pictures from the local area. de

Local hotel...not where I'm staying... sidewalk boys

The Ice man cometh.....................local covenience store

Gas station.........................local car dealer


working boys.

Nothing new today

It's a new day here in Mumbai but nothing new to report for today. Nurses came in at 5:30 am to give her a bath and start the day. I was already awake. Got on the net to check on the Texans who are not doing nearly as well as Kim and I are. How bout those Rockets huh? We both had good night of sleep which is a real blessing and much needed. It's now 8 am and we're awaiting breakfast. It's a real adjustment to wait for 3 hours after I get up to eat. I guess it will really mean break the fast. Probably soon now we expect the physiotherapist to come in and road test her for the first time. She's already noticing the absence of pain when she's moves her legs. Her muscles are not particularly happy about the new movements but that's going to take some time, and lots of therapy. That's what's ahead of us for the next 14 days or so. One of today's tasks is to make a food list and go to the grocery store. We've done ok with the hospital food up to now but not sure how much longer we can go without stocking up on some snacks stuff from the store. I've been through the menu pretty much once and found some things I like but its limited. My several spoonfuls from the jar of Jif peanut butter that I brought was a real pleasure last night. Cold milk and peanut butter right off the spoon...mmmm...I hope to take a brief video of Kim walking today and post it. I did post a couple videos on my myspace page for those who have that. My myspace name is davidel57. Blogger didn't seem to like the larger files. Hopefully our most difficult days are done. The Lord has been so good to us!

more later, de & ke

A Day of Rest

Today was a good day. We both got some sleep in the night after Kim finally got settled. Today is Sunday here and a very quiet day as Wockhardt hospital goes. Lots of folks are off and the usual busyness gives way to a much more quiet day. We spent today mostly resting and Kim recouping from yesterday. We worshipped again and thought just how blessed we normally are on the Lord's Day to be with His people but we certainly didn't feel alone by any stretch of the imagination. We started the day with a visit from physiotherapy for her exercises. They'll be back in a little while to do more and likely to get her up on her feet! She probably won't go far but the Dr says she's ready to test out her 2 new hips. Glad we rested most of the day. It's amazing how fast your body can get weak when you don't use it or if you experience some trauma like surgery. I guess use or lose applies in so many ways. Surely the same prinicple applies to us spiritually. We've begun to understand a bit more about what it means to rely totally on the Lord, our prayers, your prayers, and His will. Weakness, or maybe our unwillingness to admit our weakness and need is perhaps one of our greatest weaknesses. I think Paul said, "when I am weak, then I am strong." Several have quoted in blog comments and emails Phil 4:13 that we "can do all through Christ who strengthens us." If only we could learn how that works, we could do so much more with Him working in us. We could sympathize more ably with others weaknesses and be able to minister to so many more people in His name. Our day has been a blessed one because of the One who is with us. We pray your day will be as blessed.

de & ke

Another Hard Day's Night

Yesterday was hard, hard on me and harder on Kim. I'm sure glad its over now, 6:40 am here on the Lord's day. It's hard for me to imagine having had two major surgeries inside of a week but that's what Kim's been through. It took a long time last night before she was comfortable enough to finally get some sleep. It made yesterday about 20 hours long before we both dozed off to sleep around midnight Mumbai time. Fortunately she was comfortable pretty much all night and got some rest.

The downer for me is that when I come east for whatever reason I transform into "a morning person." Most every day here I wake up around 5 am or so. It's downright scary because I am not a morning person! Anyone who knows me knows I'm a night owl. The very first time Daryl and I went to Romania it happened. Daryl became a night owl and I morphed into a morning person. It was like an alternate universe I'm not sure I liked. The good news was when we got back home everything went back to normal. There's always home. Home sounds good.

We'll again be mindful of our family at Lakewood as you gather to worship and praise God. He has certainly heard and answered our prayers so far. Don't stop now though. There's a difficult road ahead but I believe the worst is over. He inhabits our praises whether we're east or west, whether its morning or night, together with 200 or just us two.

Happy 75th Birthday Mum! Sorry we couldn't be there for your party. We were thinking of you.

Megan, thanks for the email and especially the phone call. It was great to hear your voice and to know you are praying for Miss Kim. We love you all. There's the door, hopefully time for breakfast and to make some real coffee.

de & ke

Keep those comments coming. We read and appreciate each and every one!

Is it over or just starting?

Praise the Lord, both hips have now been resurfaced! Hopefully, all will be better from this point. Kim is finally back in the room and I think all that needs to be is done, surgery, postop, moving back to the room and into the bed, in the bed postop xray. All very uncomfortable for her. Not easy for me to watch either. She's finally resting now. I think the reality is though, this is really just the beginning of the hard part, recovering from two surgeries in under a week, one Monday, another Saturday. The Dr said everything went perfectly from his standpoint and they would be getting her up tomorrow. They don't wait. That was not really what she wanted to hear, "give me a day" she said, but I think the therapists and drs will win out. The hard part is yet to come, intense physical therapy to help her learn to use the new hips she's got. But, we'll recoup from this and move forward to the next part and deal with it as the Lord give us strength. Boy did He give us that today. Kim was amazing calm this morning before the surgery, unlike the first one when she was pretty scared. Amazing actually doesn't describe it, maybe God given peace. We were singing "learning to lean" from the STB cd while waiting for her to go in the operating. I've had several people ask me in the past couple of days, " so you're a singer, with your own band, and cd," to which I reply, yes. I think I'm becoming somewhat famous maybe, lol, only in India for me. Thanks again for all your prayers. I think we're just starting.

Our journey goes on, de

The physical therapist just arrived to start her on exercises in the bed. They don't waste a moment to get started with the rehab.

Keeping Busy

Here are some pictures I took today. These folks were living on the sidewalk.
I decided one way to keep myself busy while Kim was in surgery was to go out, snap some pics and put them on the blog.

Hope you enjoy. Kim's surgery is over. That's all I know so far. de


This is the mall here by the hospital
The sidewalk folks live right across the street from the mall.

A local tea spot and----------------- some working boys.


Sunrise today------------------------- right

Propane delivery guys ----------- Anyone need shoes?

Not sure what this means.---------- Hospital landscaping crew

Gas station and---------- the local Ice guy

jockeying for a spot on the bus!

working boys

Hospital front & foyer entrance, empty at 8:30 packed an hour later!


Bath anyone!

Hip #2 today!

We both slept pretty hard last night. We're now up and Kim's getting prepped for her second hip to be resurfaced. It's exciting. As much as I know that we depend on others for the success of these operations and that we're 10000 miles from family and friends, we both know that we're ultimately in the hands of God. So many of you are praying for us and we feel, need, and appreciate each word to him on our behalf. I'll let you know something as soon as there's something else to post. Thanks for everything! This is why we came.

As we were getting ready for bed last night, all the nurses on the floor came to the room and wanted her to know how much they were thinking about her and hoping for success in her surgery today. It was very touching. These folks are some of the most caring people! Praise God for each of them.

de

Our day is done

For most everyone checking in on us its the middle of your day but our day is done. It's been a really good day for Kim, busy but good. She felt good today, had lots of physiotherapy and did quite a bit of walking. We're just ready to get second surgery over with. It's scheduled to begin at 8:30 am Mumbai time. I think that's about 10 pm Texas and Oklahoma time but as I said they don't reckon time as precisely as we do. Several of our church members will swear I'm part Indian then because I don't reckon time as precisely as they'd like either. lol Pray for us. I'll post something as soon as I have something to let you know. Thanks again for all the emails, prayers, comments on the blog, text messages, and phone calls. We know without a doubt that the Lord is with us and hearing all our prayers. We continually thank Him for his watchful and guiding hand on us every step of this journey. They just came in and gave a "sleep good" pill. Why won't they give me one too!

Till next time from the other side of the globe! de & ke

Today's a better day

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Yesterday was not a particularly good day for Kim or for me either. She struggled some physically but it was more emotional than anything, a real struggle all day long and there wasn't much I could do to comfort her. Bound to have some of those days. We're in a totally different culture with a people of different ways, food, language, time zone, physical surroundings, need I go on. Later I'll write about some of that stuff when we're rehabing.

Today's a totally different day and she's done a complete 180 from yesterday. She working with the physical therapist right now. She still has a lot of swelling around the surgery sight and down the leg which they say is normal. They're putting her thru the paces to get her ready to shift all the responsibility to the "new hip" and leg. When 's done tomorrow the new one will be the strong one till the other comes along to meet it. The surgeries are no doubt extremely difficult but I sense the rehab is going to be as difficult or more because come 24 hours the surgeries will be done and all the rehab to go. She's walked with pain, difficulty, and been totally out of whack for so long she's basically going to have to learn to walk all over again. I think it will surely be no pain, no gain. They are very good, patient, and caring with her.

Lastly for this post, for those who asked, the scottsman across the hall is doing well after his first surgery. He got up yesterday and will do more so today. His sweet companion came in last night having made her own way to the supermarket and brought me back a french coffee press and some ground coffee. I guess I had been a little too verbal about drinking only Nescafe freeze dried individual coffee packets for the past week. i couldn't imagine a culture that didn't drink coffee. They're a tea people and not Nestea or Lipton either but that's another blog. The lady went on her own to the supermarket, found it, bought it, went to a nearby restaurant and begged them for some ground coffee and made her way back to give it to me. Had some this morning. Sure was good. It's a better day today.

Surgery is less than 24 hours away now. Keep us in your prayers. We know we are in good hands both His and here. Thanks for checking in. I'll keep you posted.

de

Just Another Day in Mumbai

There's not a lot happening for us in the next couple of days, more rest, rehab, rest, and rehab. Surgery on her second hip is still tentative for Sat which is only aboug 48 hours from now. I meant to tell you about our first night here and the guy across the hall. We arrived and the nurses said we should meet a man from the states who had the same hip surgery and was headed home. He came across the way and we began to talk. He told us he was a Baptist pastor from Conneticut. We had a great visit and he talked about his surgery, the good treatment and care he had gotten and how pleased he was with everything. You just can't imagine hoe encouraging that was on our first day.

Then he asked if he could do anything for us and if he could pray with us? We gladly said yes, and he led us in a beautiful prayer. I was never more grateful to see and to pray with another believer. The Hindu folks here are as sweet and caring as they come but in that moment whatever differences there might be between that Baptist pastor and us disappeared as we approached the throne on the One we both love and serve. It was again a moment neither of us will ever forget.

Again, thanks for reading, for praying, and for comments below. We read and enjoy every one! Maybe I'll get to putting some video of my auto rickshaw ride to the local gym to workout. Pretty cool stuff.

Here's online version of the local paper I'm getting to read each day. Not a lick of US news. Fortunately there's the web. http://www.expressindia.com

later, de

Surgery #2 Now Set

Dr Malhan came by today and said that Kim is doing so well, they've tentatively schedule her second hip resurfacing for Saturday morning. We didn't know exactly what to expect but we are very excited. Now we know more how to pray. As Bill Riley commented on my earlier blog, "Git Er Done." Praise God. He just continues to work through these kind and skilled folks to do amazing things.

de

Kim up and walking on day 2!

Recent Pictures

Here are a couple of pics from today.

Today's sunrise

My breakfast - masala dosa, fermented thin, rice batter pancake with potato filling served with sambhar (tomato stew kinda thing), coconut chutney (white stuff). Very, very good stuff. Doesn't sound all that appetizing but its delicious all together, a fruit plate, and some wheat flakes cereal, (not pictured but eaten).

Kim at the computer this morning going to school. She was able to get up, sit in the chair, do some limited work, walk down the hall, and back to the facilities, yeah!

Yesterday Today

Oh yeah, one pic of the new wing they are building outside the one we are in. They poured concrete all night long and are just finishing up. Didn't see a machine one. The concrete came from a big mixer and thru a pipe which they arranged and moved around all night. Most guys wear flip flops, only a couple in rubber boots.

Slum on the hillside