Excellent Day!

It's been a really excellent day today for Kim. (me too) Every day is pretty busy but she's making great progress and working really hard. The physiotherapist (I know you're thinking I keep getting that wrong and its physical therapist, but that's what they call them here) is here for her second go around of the day. Pacing herself is the hardest part because she wants to get better so fast. Patience dear!

One of Dr Malhan's right hand man came by and we had a chance to visit with him for the first time in a couple of days. We're sort of off the surgerical rotation now because we're now a week past the second surgery and Kim's doing so well. It's impossible to praise God outwardly like I feel inwardly, but He knows. Praise His blessed name. It looks as though we'll be ready to bug out of the hospital sometime this next week. Our plan right now is to go to Goa, India for 6 days. It's a beach location about an hours flight south of here. We found a Marriott that we could stay for Kim's points. Poor thing won't have an airline mile or hotel point left to her name after this trip but at least she'll be able to get out there and start earning some more and continue her work that she loves so much. In Goa we can continue to do the therapy each day, rest, sit by the beach, Dr said she could swim in the pool by then, and try some non-hospital food. The hospital folks have worked very hard to try to accomodate our needs and work with us but after two full weeks, we've eaten it all, and its still hospital food. I've done better at adapting to the Indian menu than Kim and found several items that I like very well. I know it comes as a complete surprise to those who know me.

I've gone several times to McDs and brought her back a filet-o-fish combo meal. Between that, cereal and cold milk, and my Jif peanut butter, she's holding up well. We're counting the days now until we can check out. It's not home yet but it will mean a change anyway and a step closer to home. I'm still amazed that after just one week now since #2 how well she's doing. Deni, the Scottsman is progressing nicely as well for those who wondered. Their plan is to visit Goa as well. They were married 20 years ago, got divorced, and then got back together about a year ago. They say they want to get married on the beach. I may know a preacher who could do it.

Here's some more pics from my walk to the gym. Gotta go and so some laundry in a bucket but that's another blog.

A local brother & sister.......a local hospital

My trainer Jethro from the gym......a man on the street


Just a view from one of the side streets. You can see the air!

Mountain peaks and valleys below

Today's headline! Proof david is actually in India!
Reading the morning edition of "The Indian Express."

Greetings! David survived the all day physical and was certainly happy he shaved his own chest when a burly man took him to 'the room' before he realized Dave was all ready to go. I'll let Dave fill you in on the particulars later. My day was confined mostly to the room. Physical therapy came early, long, and difficult. I told them I needed to be ready to go on our scheduled departure date and he put me through the ropes. By mid-afternoon, I was struggling to get both legs back in the bed. Dave was out with tests so I had a few 2 minute pitty parties. I only allow 2 minutes at a time. (It actually works, most of the time) Spent alot of time in the word, talking to Father, and reflecting on all the positives that have come from this journey.

Here are are few of those reflections:



Draw strength and comfort from God's word. He is always available. Pray without ceasing has taken on new meaning. Try it sometime, it will change you perspective on life.

• Never go more than 24 hours without talking to loved ones. I know we can't talk to all everyday but how many days go by that we are too busy to stop and call a loved one.


• Count your blessings. I had a friend who had a t-shirt that she wore alot after she found out that she had cancer. It read, I'm too blessed to be depressed! It only takes looking out my hospital window to know just how blessed we are in the US


• In the midst of trial, seek others to lift up. One of the blessing has been a young nurse by the name of Anisha. She was a delight on the first day and has been a source of strength throughout. She is a Christian and let me know when she saw my cross that she,too, wore one daily. She brought in her Bible because mine was different--only real difference is that mine has scripture references. She had never seen one like it. She comes in daily to question about the word. Her father left her mother when she was born and they found out they could have no more chldren. Her mother left her when she shunned

• Hinduism for Christianity. I wish I could bring her home with us!
  
• Appreciate the little things of life. Right now it's peanut butter and crackers!
  

Love you all, tomorrow will be a brighter day! ke & de

Here's a couple more pics

One mode of transport....this is exhausting stuff!

A local temple of some sort Hospital addition all done by hand

My turn at the blog!!

Greetings blog readers from Mumbai!! Dave has had the keyboard for two weeks on this blog, now it is my turn. First of all, thank you all more than words can describe, for the constant readings and posts. It is the highlight of my day to see how many have read and responded to the blog. I have truly been covered with prayer and the Spirit which I feel on a daily basis. There would be no other way to make. Dave has been wonderful! Keeps me smiling and showing up with a variety of goodies. Today, as we say goodbye to Thursday, has been another great day. Not without muscle soreness and discomfort but not even near the chart to what I have endured over the last year. If this is hard, bring it on!

Tomorrow, however, may be my turn to post again. Dave is having a complete and I do mean complete physical, they call it "health check." He is in the bathroom as I write attempting to shave his chest, ouch! lol He hasn't yelled yet, so I am staying right here at the computer. I will keep you posted on his day.

Please keep praying. Moving forward but am needing more internal strength each day.

Love to all,

ke and de

Remember if you don't have a blogger or gmail account you can still post by clicking on anonymous where it says leave comments. We read every one! Thanks to Bill Riley who is in the lead for the "last comic commenting."

Here's a link http://www.wockhardthospitals.net/general/annual_health_chk.asp to what David is doing most of the day Saturday.

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!