Ringing in the New Year

So we are now in 2008. Last night will go down as one of my most fav. New Years Party. My fav. one is still in Boston in 2001/2002 where it was so cold my face almost froze off, but this night was pretty close to that memory.
A group of us (about 25) went to Deep Blue, a sea food restaurant in Wilmington, for their New Years' Party. They had a decent band, The Larry Tucker Band, an open bar, and some food I never did get to try. The band was what made the night as they played stuff from the 70's as well as good dance music. The sax and the guitar most definitely rocked the night.
It was also good to hang with so many friends. I met some new people, had a blast with some close friends, as well as said good bye to Sarah Gale who will be leaving us for sunny Florida for CCC and to be ummm married or something:)...Anyway the night rocked and I have not been up till 3am in a long time and yet the night went by so quickly.

So happy NEW YEAR ALL and may you be more blessed this year than in '07.

So I can breathe

For those of you who did not know, my asthma has been really bad since about the mid-point of India. I have not been able to exercise, or sing sitting down, or talk for long periods of time without a lot of coughing or running out of breath. At first I figured I had caught something in India or that my roaming seasonal asthma had decided to kick me in the chest. However after a few weeks I became concerned and went to the doctor. Well he gave me some steroids but after being on them for two weeks and no improvement (in fact I worsened) I finally went to a pulmonary Doc. He was concerned with the fact that the steroids were not helping, and the fact that there was nothing in my lungs. So he came up with the weird idea (that despite my mucus was clear) that I had something in my nose and gave me antibiotics. I thought great.. I had been praying for a couple of weeks now for my asthma to lessen and it had not. Knowing that God gave us docs for a reason I went to a specialist and despite no visible symptoms from the nose he gave me antibiotics! However I took payed for them and went home. Well after being on them for a little over a week I am almost back to my normal cough. I can exercise without fear of fainting, I can sing without hyperventilating, and I can talk for long periods of time without either coughing or loosing my breath. So despite my questioning the Doc, apparently God gave him the wisdom to figure out what was wrong and heal me through meds.
God thank you for answering my prayers!

Working on Christmas

So yeah I am working today, something I swore I would never do. BUT before I was always in retail and I thought that any retailer that required you to work on Christmas was not worth working for and should be boycotted. Oddly enough had I stayed with Walgreens I would be working today anyway, but I was rescued from retail after four years of wondering why I went through seminary and thus I DO NOT EVER HAVE TO WORK IN RETAIL AGAIN!!! So even if I did not receive any gifts for Christmas this year, the gift of finally doing ministry would be enough. I fall on my knees and praise you LORD for what you have given me and for what you are doing through me! And all of this is possible because you sent your son to be born in the flesh just to show mankind that not only do you love us but that you can relate to us as well.

Merry Christmas all and may this new year bring you closer to God than you ever been before!

Hmm I think that I may have a double somewhere

So I know there have been people that look like me. Caedmon's call had a drummer that looked like me, I had a fellow student at UofD who looked like me, and recently there was a gentleman who attended Brandywine who friends of mine frequently mistook for me and would go up to say hi and figure out it was not me. However I have never had someone who had the same name as me. Yet that someone exists and he likes to hike. Apparently I have lost 7-8 years, and thus I am 21-22 again, I went to Corban college and I have hiked in Utah and Washington State...anyway check it out my name appears in the trips for Utah and to Washington.
http://www.corban.edu/studentlife/clubs/westrek/pastrips.html

Christmas and nutrition

So I know when I think of Christmas and food I do not normally think of eating healthy. It is not that I do not want to but with all the Christmas diners and goodies it is very hard to eat in such a way that I will not gain pounds. However one department in the hospital that I would think would give out goodies that are healthy is the nutrition department....well because they should be concerned with the nutrition of their staff and maybe try to fight all bad calories out there. So as i am buying my breakfast there is a bowl of candy canes and a sign that read, "Please take one, compliments of the nutrition staff". I laughed and thought of the irony and of course took one. Ah well better eating comes in one week.....

Incidentally has anyone tried to find Christmas candy at Happy Harry's A Walgreen's Pharmacy?!? Good luck....so glad I am out...so many ways Walgreen's keeps making eaiser to go elsewhere

Running the race

So usually when you see these words or hear someone talk about them you think of Paul and his writing to the people of Corinth, Phillipi, or Galatia. However in an article on ESPN, ( http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=streakrun ) that is about people called streak runners or those who run for years on end every day regardless of weather, injury etc., running the race take on a different meaning. In some way that is admirable. Pual writes in Galatians that we are to beat our body and make it our slave so as to not be disqualified in the race that is this life. And I know that I am not the best at keeping my body in shape and that is something I need to work on. However it seems that these people have instead become a slave to their running and not the other way around. I just think of how they actually have to schedule their lives around running instead of running around their lives and shudder. And yet realizing that is exactly what I should be doing with my time with God. That I should be scheduling my life around the times I spend with him and not the other way around.

Updates

Sorry for the lack of updates, I have been very very busy with preparation for the many talks on India that I have done and will be doing. So I have not had much time for anything else. God has definitely been working through me since India and I cannot wait to see what He will do next. I will try an update a little more often, but for now here is some of what has been going on.

At work: The Christmas season is upon us AND I DO NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT RETAIL! Praise God. It is still a difficult season however as many people have tragedies that happen around the Holiday's and so that adds a extra challenge to the ministry. I know my own grandfather went to heaven 4 years ago in Dec. and it still makes this season a little dreary at times. In the hospital even the smallest things and things thought done and over with can really affect a PT so I would appreciate prayer during this month. Also this is a month where there are a lot of baby deaths in the NICU as well as patient deaths in general (I had 4 PT deaths in the last week) so prayer would be greatly appreciated.

At Home: The dogs got out three times yesterday from our backyard and they are looking to get deported or something. My mom's surgery went well and she is recovering nicely. Dad is in ALOT of pain and we are at a lost as to what to do. My Asthma is still affecting me from India and I cannot work out right now b/c of that. I am taking meds for it and they help but I am not sure what I will do when I go off them as I can only be on them for a short time. The good thing is my chest x-ray turned up negative so I did not gain any hitchhikers in India.

India: God has really done some great things through this, as they are so many please feel free to call or email or blog me to ask. I am planning to go back but it will most likely not be until 2009 as the 2008 trip still takes place during my residency and I cannot take off time during that time. I am thinking of going somewhere else in Sept. however but that is still be prayed about.

Ordination: I begin studying for ordination this Jan. I plan to have everything ready by April or May where I will sit in front of 7-10 pastors and over a 2-4 hour period defend my faith and doctrinal beliefs. This should be fun and challenging. My motivation is strong now but memorizing scripture has never been a strong point of mine and so I ask for prayer that this motivation will still strong come Feb. and March. I could probably defend myself today but you need to be able to point to exact references in the Bible to show your support is valid. Ah well

Bible Study: God is really working in the men in our group. It constantly amazes me how far He has brought each of us in this group and I definitely think that growing with this group will be a spiritually defining moment in my life.

Next year: Hospice chaplaincy looks like the field for me. Most likely it will be per diem so that I can take off when I want for mission trips, but I really enjoy being there for patients who are dying and who need hope. I hope to visit Matt and Bri in Co in the spring. I turn 31 in March. I will be involved stateside in helping Raj or Leanna in their ministry in India.

Squirll the other, other white meat

So apparently squirrel is not only edible but seen as a delicacy in some parts of the world, say like in NJ!! Man I would have thought that squirrel eating was being practiced in"certain parts" of the US, but NJ? Well that there is reason number 25 I will not live in NJ. SO how do you like your squirrel in a stew, broiled, or over a salad? Which do you like better flying, Red tail, or grey?
NEW YORK (AFP) - Squirrel eaters in the US state of New Jersey have been told that the bushy-tailed rodents are likely safe to eat, after earlier being advised the unlikely delicacies could contain toxic metals.
The Environmental Protection Agency said earlier this year it had discovered high levels of lead in a squirrel taken from near a waste dump in the Ringwood area and advised people to eat the rodents no more than twice a week.
Officials have now said the test results were an error.
"A blender that was used to process the tissues into usable samples was defective and was identified as the source of the lead contamination," the Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement dated Monday.
The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife describes squirrel as "good table fare," offering recipes for squirrel chowder, stew and barbecue

Update on Charity

God is totally awesome! Yes I saw some amazing stuff in India, but I guess it hits home when you see God answer requests that you have agonized and cried over for many days and nights. Charity is beginning to do so much better, THANK YOU GOD.
(Information from a phone call from Jeremy to Phil, Hope I get all the facts straight here. There are a lot of positive things going on I don’t think I succeed in reviewing all of them.) Anytime Charity can put more than one good day together with another is cause for great rejoicing. Jeremy is in Lincoln with Charity, while Sylvia and I with Sofia are in Kansas City. Sofia seems to be enjoying the visit in KC with grandpa and grandma. Jeremy says Charity was doing the following: Charity didn’t have any pain today. That’s getting close to a week now where I don’t think she has had any extra narcotics except for the Fentanyl patch. She was able to pick up a deodorant stick with her right hand a lift it to her face. She was then able to pick it up also with the left hand. She picked up a tissue with both hands Charity stood by the side of her bed three times with help from the therapist. She sat at the edge of her bed She had speech therapy and was working on making sounds. They are very weak yet. She needs a lot of work on strengthening her diaphragm. Jeremy was wondering if the Fentanyl patch might be holding her diaphragm back. We are in the process of asking them to taper her down, or off of the patch. Charity really wants to work hard, and more at therapy. She kept mouthing to Jeremy today, “I am awake”! Jeremy was able to give her some swabs with water. She took it well. During the day Jeremy was also working the bureaucratic routes to get Charity into more intense therapy. To qualify for Quality Living, Charity needs to be able to do at somewhere around 4-6 hours of therapy and activity. We don’t know how she’s going to be ready for that unless they start working her toward those goals. Give praise to God together with us for His wonderful grace in giving Jeremy, Charity and their family a day to treasure. Lord, prepare us and Charity as well for the days that may not be so bright.

The OLD OLD

I have to admit when I heard this term I was confused. I mean I thought that anyone older than 50 was considered old. Well here in the Hospital Old is considered 65+ and the OLD OLD 80+. I guess it should say something as a society, that a majority of our population can live to be 80+ where in the most of the world the age that most people "pass on" are around 60-65. Anyway I met one of the OLD OLD today and it was a real treat, for she was a solid Christian. I love meeting Christians that are 65+ because they usually have so many stories about how God has brought them through so much and how He has blessed them. This woman could have gone on for hours telling me how God should always be first in my life and how we should depend on Him for everything. And that's saying something coming from this lady as she has Congestive Heart failure, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, and Shortness of Breath. All of these cannot be pleasant and yet she continues to tell others about the faithfulness of God. Lord I pray that I have that kind of faith when I get to be that age.

A little bit jealous

Could you imagine if all this rain was snow? I love snow. I love winter. I love playing in the snow be it skiing, tubing, snowball fights, whatever, snow is just so cool (pardon the pun). And yet we here in DE suffer mostly brown winters. We get plenty of rain and a little ice but not much snow. And you know what I just talked to Matt Grace the other night and they had 4 inches of snow in Denver!! Not only that but Matt and Bri had spent their one yr. anniversary (Woot) in Vale, CO and they had 8 inches there!!!!! So I am a bit green around the gills as they say. I so want to move out there and Lord willing I will.

How young is too young?

So how old should pastors be when they start preaching? Reagan started at 16, Graham at 19, but how about before they hit the double digits? How about at age 8 or 9? Can they really know the gospel well enough to preach it? Are they truly mature enough in their faith to be able to preach the word? What if they are being manipulated by parents? If they are a proven preacher should seminaries relax some standards and allow them to learn?
Well we have two kids that are doing just that? They are preaching the word to their congregations and in one case the kid is preaching to many churches. Is this some of the foolishness that Jesus warned us about would happened in the end times? Anyway here is the article, tell me what you think....
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3717627&page=1

Praise!!

So if you had been ill, had to be fed via stomach tube, had not physically eaten for 150 days, how good do you think food would taste to you? What would you want to eat? It is something we take for granted but many of my patients who have been on a feeding tube say it is torture to not be able to chew food or taste what they are eating. Well Charity has been in that situation for a long time now, but no longer..read an excerpt from her web blog...


Charity had only one therapy session today. She was preparing us all for an unusual surprise!! SHE ATE NEARLY A WHOLE CONTAINER OF APPLESAUCE!! How would applesauce taste after nearly 150 days of not eating anything? Join us in giving thanks to the Lord for this special moment in Charity's life. This afternoon, Matt and Lori (friends of Charity) stopped by just after Jeremy and the girls had left for Holdrege. They offered to sit with Charity while Sylvia and I took a coffee break together. During that time Charity had her scheduled Speech Therapy. The therapist tried the applesauce and crushed ice again. Lori reported that Charity was swallowing good, and frequently the therapist would ask her to say "ahhh". She was clearing everything good. She tries crushed ice with her as well. The bigger chunks were actually easier to swallow (because they don't liquify as quickly). She ate nearly a whole container (the size of a small yogurt). It was quite a moving experience for Lori who has been with us through some of those most torturous days. At one point Charity was not swallowing the applesauce and the therapist noted that Charity was probably just "holding it in her mouth" to savor the flavor. Charity nodded her head, "yes" she was enjoying the taste! Later the therapist then asked Charity to say the names of her kids. She said, “SOFIA”, then “ELLA” for Bella which is a shortened form of Isabella. Then she was asked to say her husband’s name. With such clarity that it surprised the therapist she said, “JEREMY”. Then she asked Charity who the friend was in the room. Charity answered with “hori” for Lori. In the session Charity also said to the therapist, “I want more ice”. As we’ve mentioned before in our Journal, speech therapy is one of Charity’s most important sessions, today it was so good to see her not only producing speech, and eating but demonstrating good memory and cognitive strength. AN IMPORTANT PRAYER REQUEST Nearly every time something good takes place a setback happens. There is a concern we are monitoring this week-end. They x-rayed Charity’s abdomen today and there is an increased amount of free air in her abdomen cavity. She needs to see the GI (Gastro-Intestinal) specialist. We had the option to transfer her today to the hospital BryanLGH to check this out. So far we have chosen to keep her here at Madonna. Reasons: While somewhat uncomfortable she doesn’t seem to be in acute pain from it The GI surgeon who has followed her is not on call this week-end. We would prefer him to examine her since he knows her case history best. We would rather move carefully and do as little invasive work as possible. I will be “hanging out” with Charity overnight. So I want to have wisdom to know if there is anything of concern developing. As you pray, praise the Lord for this very special experience in such a long battle for her. -Phil

Dessert

Now I love desserts! I blame my affection for almost all confections on my grandmother who at 86 still eats desserts on a regular basis. I love my desserts so much that if I get a dessert with my meal it goes down the hatch first. It doesn't matter if I have prime rib with shrooms and onions or grouper stuffed with crab imperial with dollops of lobster on top, that dessert is going bye-bye! Desserts must be a a good line item for most restaurants as I see sinfully, small slices of cake for the same price as a huge plate of buffalo chicken nachos or 8 wings. And while I love dessert, sometimes you can go a little to far...like paying$14.500..insane...
http://www.zimbio.com/The+Fortress+Stilt+Fisherman+Indulgence/articles/2/Most+Expensive+Dessert+World

Edit: I apologize for my misspellings. I confuse the spelling of desert with dessert fairly easily and for years I had it spelled correctly. Then, recently, I was challenged by someone in the teaching profession and thought, "Hey they teach, they know what they are talking about." I guess not.

Ouch!

So a guy who was pronounced dead in a hospital was not as dead as he had appeared!! Man that is scary...I definitely do not want to have to go to our morgue now.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/autopsy_dc

Should Marriage be over in 7 years?

So it would appear that a politician, thankfully not from the USA, in Germany thinks that marriage should be over after 7 years. She believes that, "The basic approach is wrong ... many marriages last just because people believe they are safe," she told reporters. "My suggestion is that marriages expire after seven years." After that time, couples should either agree to extend their marriage or it should be automatically dissolved, she said." Anyway if you want to read the rest of this trash. check out....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070921/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_germany_politics_marriage

My exercise regimen

So after having my Rower take up space in the living room for the last two weeks, I have finally put it together and it is ready for rigorous (I hope) use. Now that my Ultimate season is pretty much over I am going to need to work out to stay in shape on a regular basis. So for the foreseeable future. I will be working out on my elliptical and rower 4-5 times a week for up to 1 1/2 hours. Man I miss Ultimate already :P

P3

So I am midway through my first week of my residency. Orientation is over (Thanks God!) and so it is time to visit patients. My clinical assignment is Pain and Palliative and Pediatrics (or as I like to call it P3). And what that means is that I will be visiting Peds patients (ages from 4-24) that may be trauma patients, young mothers, etc and trying to support them and their families through their time in the hospital. For me that will be easy. The much tougher part will be the Pain and Palliative Units.

The pain unit is for patients that have chronic pain from an infection, surgery, cancer, etc that just will not go away and is so severe they have to come to the hospital to relieve it. Usually they are very hard to interact with as they need to have their pain brought down to a level that is bearable. Once they are at that level they still may be hard to support.... well b/c they are in constant, high level, pain. And if you have ever been in a high level of pain for a long time you would know that the last thing you want to do is talk to someone. Or on the flip side if you are with someone who is in a lot of pain, it is hard to be there as we as humans find it hard to be around someone who is in a lot of agony. However they still need to be supported both Spiritually and emotionally.

Finally, the hardest unit, is the Palliative unit. This is end of life care. Every person who is in the unit will die. They may not die in the hospital, they may be sent to Hospice, but they will die normally within 1-2 months. And they stay with us for that time, if the patient can not be stabilized to be discharged. This is hard. Death is hard. Even for Christians, whom have an amazing hope and future after death, Death is hard. Who here wants to loose a parent, sibling, relative, or friend? We all want them to be here for as long as possible and when we are told they are going or are gone even the strongest Christian will be brought to their knees; and that is OK....Grief is normal. It is hard trying to help a family deal with a patient who has suddenly become terminally ill/stroke/heart attack and whom they may not be communicative with their loves ones even unto their death. Thus their love ones will not have closure. It is hard for families whose love one has been fighting for years, whom they have been with each and every day (maybe hour) of the patent's illness, and yet they still do not want them to die. It is hard to tell families it is time to stop being aggressive in treating their loved ones and that we, the health care team, have done all we can do and it is time to say goodbye.

Believe it or not this is exactly where I want to be. I am thinking of becoming a hospice chaplain when I finish my residency next Sept. And so this year will be very hard but it will be a great training and learning experience for me. I believe God will be stretching me very far beyond my usual limits and I will be way outside my comfort zone (remember I am a introvert).

I ask for prayer. I have already had two deaths, one of which I was in the room for and I expect many more... right now I know of one that will be happening soon. And that is a lot different than my internship as I would normally come and be with the family after the patient had died. Now, a majority of the time, I will be with the family when the patient passes and man will that be hard! And man I CANNOT DO THIS WITHOUT GOD or your prayers, thus I thank you in advance.

Hey all,
Sorry for the lack of postings. I have been busy trying to figure out what exactly I will be doing for India and readjusting to being a chaplain after a three week hiatus. More posts will be coming soon.

And this is faith

This is an excerpt from the journal on Charity Goeorge's web page. This is from her father....

Charity arrived back at Madonna around 5 pm. It hasn't been as peaceful of a day as the previous two days, particularly her eyes and vision seemed to be bothering her. Even so she was quite responsive to questions asked of her. One thing we noticed the resulted from the abdomen abcess and her not being able to take medications through the feeding tube together with the transfer between hospitals is that her medication list got somewhat messed up. Some medications were dropped and some weren't resumed as we thought they had been. This however might give us a bit of an idea how her body responds to some of the medications. Because she was off the Celexa anti-depressant for several days (she is back on it) we are watching to see how that might affect her emotions. I arrived back in Kansas City near 10:30pm so that leaves Sylvia solo at Charity's side until Jeremy gets back to Lincoln later this week. We keep looking for answers, and hang onto hope for as long as the Lord gives Charity life. There still are some promising possibilities for her. We look for the Lord to allow, and guide all the pieces to come together to make those possibilities, realities for Charity. While this spiral of events in these last months continues to leave us all deeply wounded, perplexed, and uncertain of the future we cling to the reality that God is, He is sovereign and He is ultimately good.