2PM

Happy Sabbath,

I am posting early because I don’t know if I am going to be able to.  My mind is on my client, someone I believe I wrote about in one of the earlier blog posts.  Before I departed for my home with my son, I was checking and checking email and Whatspp and text messages and the news about the Corona pandemic and was upset to read an email stating that my client’s sister declined a life sustaining treatment for her.  I had increased my visits to the hospital even in the middle of this pandemic not knowing if I would be able to see her again. 

She reminds me strongly of my aunt Sarah who passed away a couple years back.  I now believe that dream I had was for this day I am facing even now.  I dreamt I was upset over someone dying who was not related to me and at the time I couldn’t picture who it could be.  When I saw my client in the hospital for a visit, not official meeting she was much more alert and vibrant. She had the breathing tubes down her throat so she couldn’t talk but she wanted to interact with those who came in the room and seemed her usual self.  My last words to her were God bless you and I’m praying for you.  We were watching Kung Foo Panda on her TV and she seemed to have drifted back into sleep but when I said I was going and told her this, she looked troubled and reached out and wanted to hold my hand.  I told her I couldn’t because of Corona.  I had sprayed myself with Lysol in the car, donned gloves and did all these measures but didn’t want to be blamed for that virus getting into her room.  I let her grab onto my wrist and I was sad to leave the room and she was sad as well.  I left her with words of encouragement but had to leave and promised to come back the last week of the month, the week of her 62^nd birthday. 

When I was there the nurse told me twice they tried to remove the breathing tubes only for her airway to swell up.  They said that she could only have the tubes in for 2 weeks and after that they would have to do a trachea. They planned to call her sister that same afternoon to have a meeting and get an agreement to do this. What they didn’t know is that her sister never had her best interest at heart.  When my client’s teeth were hurting and had cavities or had to be extracted, the sister called to cancel appointments and told my client not to allow the doctors to do anything to her teeth.  My client adores her sister and of course she listened to her and refused treatment.  So many other things she needed her sister would catch wind of it and would interfere.  Her sister is not her guardian or power of attorney. She has on legal say so and her team had fought to protect our client from her sister’s influence but this time, it’s not enough. 

If my client had a trachea, she would be able to breathe and the airway could reduce in swelling and heal.  She has her faculties, I know she wants to live and I don’t know if she understands what could or is going to happen to her.  Her sister denied the medical team’s request to do the trachea so at 2pm today; they will remove the breathing tubes and let her body take its natural course.  If her airway swells up she will suffocate.  My prayer and hope is that it doesn’t do that this time. 

If you are reading this before 2pm, please pray for her. 

Also I need prayer for my aunt Della.  She is in the hospital too because her heart stopped when she was getting dialysis.  They tried to do dialysis again and she started getting a headache, which is what happened the first time when her heart stopped.  I spoke to her yesterday and felt like I was saying the same words to her as to my client.  She told me her daughter, my cousin went to Piggly Wiggly and shelves were bare and schools were closed in Carolina. She had left out to get what she could get so Della and them could have something to eat when she returns home.  Up in my neck of the woods, I received direction to do phone meetings with my clients.  Entire counties are shut down, but I am thankful that I am still able to work with both my jobs.  Some other people are not as fortunate. 

I might as well put it out there, my part time job is at Wal-Mart overnight and I had been assigned to the laundry and paper goods aisles since the first day I hit the floor.  Of all the places I could work in the store and places some guy employees argued against me having to work in because I am a woman and women shouldn’t be able to lift anything that weighs more than 10 lbs, I am in these aisles.  I was hulling bleach, Lysol, gain, purex and other heavy containers to shelves and week after week watched as supply dwindled and straight up disappeared by this week.  Wednesday night was the first I had seen no toilet tissue in aisle 27.  I grabbed a pack of 16-20 rolls of Scott despite having purchased rolls when I was out a few days ago made sure to purchase for my family, my immune system compromised parents who are paranoid every time I step foot into their house.  I bought Lysol’s, napkins and actually Friday mid day I headed to both Wal-Mart’s in my area to stock up on food not knowing what else was to unfold.  Right before Sabbath I learned that my son would be ordered to stay home for a full month.  I also was told church was cancelled in person and we will have to get on the conference line to worship together. 

I heard one last message and it was someone giving word that the nation would likely be put on a 2 week quarantine and supermarkets, places of sale would be shut down to contain the spread of the virus.  The person spoke of anonymity and said three people who they knew worked for the government had given her a heads up.  There is going to be a lot of hardship for many people and I am thankful for the jobs I work and what I have access to.  I have a social work job that allows me to work from home. I have plenty of pto I can use, my son and I are comfortable for now and can be for the next few weeks if we are to locked up in here.  There are a lot moving parts but this vehicle is still running and I can only thank the Lord for it. 

I pray that you are prepared and safe and healthy. I pray that God covers you in the midst of this crisis and He will encourage and strengthen your hearts.  Let us look up to the hills; all of our help comes from the Lord.  He made the heavens and the earth, the seas and the fruit bearing plants. Let us make certain we are walking right with Him. We don’t know how much time we have left.  It could be tomorrow…it could be today.