Joanne Heim

Well, Hello there! anda little bul riding!

First off, I miss you! dear blog and readers! 

Thank you! Your prayers are a precious gift to me,...Worth more than riches!

Typing is still a frustrating game of one-handed hunt-and-peck:(

But you're worth it so I'll give it a shot this morning!

Today is the day I was supposed to go home and while I know we made the wise choice to stay longer and get stronger, I'm still feeling blue about it...especially as a couple of awesome women I'ne met sre headed home today...

May 16 is the new day to leave here and I'm praying time flies and I get my left arm fully back by then!

I have moved it a very little bit, but am a long way still from full use.. it's slow and totally frustrating! Rehab is the hardest work I have ever done!!!  Not for sissies! or wimps for sure.  If you can avoid it--do! It's no fun!

Except for riding the mechanical bull--something I did yesterday in PT and hope to again today...

M and el toro:

 

Mom and Dad are here now, friends are coming for lunch, Toben will come later and bring my sweet girlies too. Tomorrow I'm going to go home for a few hours in the afternoon and lie on my couch with my cat!  A perfect Sunday afternoon to me..

Please pray..

1.  For my left arm

2.  For strength to rise quickly

3.  Against boredom, frustration & discouragement

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Joanne

(Apologies for any remaining typos, edited by Papa)

 

 

 

Pictures!

You have to check out these pictures of Joanne that Kristen posted on her blog: 

http://khphotography.net/blog/?p=1817

Toben

Release Date

Just finished our family meeting with the therapists and the Kaiser representative to talk about Joanne's progress and her release date. The long and the short of it is that she is making amazing progress and will benefit from a few more weeks in the hospital. She desperately wants to come home, but also wants to get as much accomplished as she can before going home. So she very bravely said that she would stick it out for a few more weeks, work hard, and go home knowing that she put in her best effort. I love that! What a commitment for her to make and what a work ethic! not too many weeks ago she was ready to just give up, but she has battled back. I know there are going to be a few tough days between now and her discharge date, but at least the end is in site. After being in the hospital almost four months a couple more weeks in manageable. 

I was really anxious going into the meeting. I want what's best for Joanne and my intuition was that it would be best if she could stay a little longer, but I really wasn't sure which way the staff would go. But they were all in agreement that a little more time is a good thing.  Thank the Lord that we were all on the same page!

So we have some time to get everything ready for Joanne's return. For a few hours today I think Gran and I had the thought that we needed to get everything ready for her to come home Saturday! Not sure how in the world we would have been able to do that. 

Joanne has asked for a few things: her Bible, her prayer book, her skinny jeans (which will probably not be all that skinny seeing as she has lost so much weight) and her Frye boots. 

Funny thing: Barry is the OT. Barry is a man. But as the OT Barry is responsible for helping Joanne do the daily stuff of life...like putting on makeup. So Barry actually helped Joanne get her makeup done today. It was hilarious. Of course he is really there to help her figure out how to lay things out, get them open, etc. But it was fun to hassle him about doing Joanne's makeup. He is hilarious and a good sport and a great therapist!

Prayer request:

1. Perseverance and lifted spirits for Joanne to make it through the next few weeks.

2. Real improvement over the next few weeks including use of her left arm.

3. Please pray for a smooth transition back to our home. We have a lot to do before the house will be ready for all of us to return to living there and it is going to be weird to be back there after being with Gran and Papa for so long. Plus it is a little hard to imagine what our life will be like when we are all back together. I hope it's amazing but I know it will come with a fair share of challenges.

Toben

Home Visit

Joanne got to come home for a few hours yesterday for our home study. The PT and OT come over and sort of walk through the house and work with Joanne and I on different scenarios that it'll take for her to move back in. It went amazingly well. 

First off, Joanne didn't get car sick. Almost every car/van/ambulance ride that she has taken has made her car sick, but this time she was ok. What a relief! So we got to the house and it turns out that our house is actually set up pretty well for Joanne. We don't have to move a lot of furniture or do anything major in order for her to get around.

Well, let me back up and say that Papa has done a lot of work to get the house ready for Joanne. He has installed banisters in all the stairways. We had banister on one side only but now we have banisters on both sides. It is only because of this that Joanne is able to get up and down the stairs. This is a huge help and blessing! In fact, Papa and Emma are over at the house right now staining the banisters to match the ones that were already in. They look so good!

On top of that, he is installing the shower bars in the bathroom. Joanne is really excited to take a nice, long, hot shower in her own bathroom. 

But back to the visit: so we did all the transfers and got Joanne moved around the house into all the different scenarios that we might encounter. We wrapped up about 11:15 and Joanne was up for it so we went and picked up the girls at school. They weren't expecting to see her there so it was quite a hit. On top of that the staff that saw her all ran out to the car to give her hugs. It was pretty cool. Can't wait to she can go with me to get the girls every day.

After that, Joanne was still ready for more activity so we went to Gran's house and had lunch. It was so good to see Joanne at the table. Felt very good and right for her to be there. Again, can't wait for the day that this is a regular occurrence! 

By this point Joanne was wiped out so we headed back to the hospital and got her tucked in and she took a long nap. The girls and I took off about 4 when Gran and Papa got there. We headed out and picked up a few little things at the mall for the girls (thanks to a kind gift from my folks) and met up with Christine and Shanna. Christine came with us and we hit a local pizza place for dinner. Then it was home to Gran and Papa's for a quiet evening.

Other news of note:

Joanne got cortisone and botox injections in her shoulder and arm this week to relieve some pain and loosen things up. Waiting to see if it works.

We will attending Easter services at the hospital. They have a chaplain there who will do the service tomorrow. Wish we could go to our church but I just don't think Joanne could handle the drive and the stimulation.

Feels like we are in a couple of countdowns--to the end of school and to Joanne coming home. Those two events will likely happen with a just a couple of weeks in between. Joanne will be home sometime around the middle of May and the girls will be out of school a couple of weeks after that. I am really looking forward to this summer. Last summer we moved home from Phoenix so it didn't really feel like we had a great summer because of packing and unpacking. This summer will be way more relaxing. Plus the girls will be around the house to help with anything Joanne needs.

Prayer requests:

1. Pray that Joanne finishes strong at rehab. She is working so hard and we would love to see her power through to the end. She will have out-patient therapy after she is discharged but we would love to get the most out of every remaining day of in-patient.

2. As always, please pray for her spirits. She is so tired of being in the hospital and of not being able to do so many of the things that she used to enjoy. Please pray that she will find new sources of joy!

3. Please pray for the pain in Joanne's shoulder and arm to go away and for her car sickness to resolve. Both of these things make life very difficult for her especially as she is looking toward discharge. 

Toben

 

The Field Trip

Well, yesterday Joanne got her first past to venture outside the hospital. We left at about 11. Getting her in and out of the car was a breeze. We had practiced for an hour earlier int he week so everything went just as practiced. We headed for P.F. Chang's. No car sickness on the way there but it was clear that all the stimulation of being in the car was a lot for Joanne to handle.  

We got the P.F.C. and they had a great table for us and flowers for Joanne. How cool is that! We had a great lunch but again, there was so much noise and activity that it was clearly difficult for Joanne to take it all in. When it was time to take care of the bill our server told us that it had all been taken care of! How cool is that! I am now a P.F.C. fan for life. 

Fromt here we headed to to house so that Joanne could hang out with Joey the cat. We got her there and inside and Joey preformed perfectly. He jumped up on her lap and they snuggled for much of the next hour. After that, Joanne told me that she was ready to go back. So got her loaded back in the Expedition and headed out. Unfortunately we hit traffic and the stop and go motion got the best of her and she got car sick. Felt terrible that her outing had to end that way. 

Got her back to the hospital and into her room. Got her changed out of her clothes and into PJs. Her outfit was covered in cat hair thanks to snuggle time with Joey. She spent the rest of the afternoon resting. 

So that was our outing. I think we all learned a lot of lessons. Joanne has been in very low-stimulation environments for the last three months. Being out in the world is a lot to take in. It clearly had an effect on her. Also, it takes a lot of effort for her to get around. We tried to use the wheel chair as much as possible , but when she had to do some walking (around the house) it really takes it out of her. The takeaway is that I think Team Joanne has a better idea of what progress we are looking forward to in therapy. And even after that, it'll be a while before she is ready to take in the constant noise and movement of the big wide world. We'll have to ease her into that. And fortunately she has time to get stronger before coming home. 

So that's about it for our day out. Today it'll be back to normal. Gran and Papa are at the hospital this morning. Emma is watching Mythbusters, and Audrey is still asleep. I am having a casual cup of coffee, which is a rare pleasure. I am usually guzzling it down before heading out the door in the morning. We will all meet for lunch at the hospital--it's prime rib day! Then some combination of us will spend the afternoon with Joanne.  

Then tomorrow we'll be right back at it.

Prayer requests:

1. Joanne's shoulder is still in significant pain. And the clock is now ticking toward her release and we really need to figure out how to get her out of pain before she comes home. It definitely effects her ability to function.

2. Endurance is going to be a big deal. In order for her to get around the house she needs to get stronger. 

3. Please pray for real progress in therapy. Having been out in the world I think we have a better sense of how Joanne needs to improve to function well at home. It would be great if her therapy over the next couple of weeks can get her to that point.

Toben

Heading Out

Today is a big day! Joanne is getting to go on her first outing since being in the hospital. We are leaving just after speech therapy and heading to P.F. Chang's.  We actually blogged about this a few days ago and got an email from someone from P.F.C. corporate asking us what location, what time and how many people will be in our party and that they would make sure everything was taken care of.  How cool is that! We will be having won ton soup, lettuce wraps, crab won tons and orange chicken (all Joanne's favorites). 

After that we are headed to our house to meet Joanne's next request. We are going to the house so that Joanne can sit on her couch, in the living room and snuggle with her cat Joey. Joey is technically Audrey's cat, but Joanne has sort of adopted him as her own.

Of course in order to make the house habitable several members of Team Joanne are over there cleaning the place up. On top of that, Papa is installing hand rails on all the stairways. I am so glad that he is handy because I could never in a million years do what he is doing.

The main cleaning  task is to remove two cat's worth of cat hair that has accumulated over the last three months. Disgusting! On top of normal shedding, Pumpkin (Emma's cat) sheds more when no one is there. It's like a separation anxiety thing with her. So we have more than the normal amount of cat hair to deal with. Bless Gran and Emma for tackling this project. 

I will post later about how it all goes!

Prayer request:

Joanne has been very car sick in every ambulance ride she's had so far. We are praying that she doesn't get car sick as we drive around today.

Toben

P.F. Changs Rocks!

Not sure what it will lead to but someone form P.F. Changs saw our blog  post about Joanne wanting to go there in her first outing since her stroke. They got in contact with Joanne and asked for my number and email so that they could get everything "all set up." I have no idea what that means but how cool of them! Pretty cool for them too because obviously now we will be telling how awesome PFC is and that everyone should go there--and even if they weren't being so cool to us it's still hard to beat Joanne's requests: won ton soup, lettuce wraps, and orange chicken. I will be having the "spicy fish." So excited for Joanne's big adventure this weekend! 

This just in: Got an email while I was writing this from Jason at PFC. They are going to get everything set up for us in order to make our first weekend outing a special one. PFC has a new fan for life.

You know her other big request is to sit in her living room and snuggle Joey the cat. I was at the house feeding them today and explained to Joey what I expect from him on Sunday. I think he knew what I was saying and is up to the challenge.

I don't have to do to go to the office tomorrow so I will get to be here with Joanne all day and see her therapy. Usually by the time I get here all the cool stuff has already happened. Tomorrow I get see it all! Pretty excited about that. 

BTW, Joanne's haircut is amazing. I was totally blown away when I saw her last night. I went to the Walmarts and got her the right product for her hair and she is going to by stylin' on Saturday. The cut completely hides her incision scar--something I thought would be very difficult to so but Kathy the hairdresser pulled it off. Way to go Kathy!

The girls and I are at the hospital now and we are all going to get to eat dinner together. Love it when that happens. The whole clan (the Heims, the Friedensteins, and the Haufschilds) hasn't been together all at once maybe one or two times in three months so any chance to get around a table as a family is a big deal. Rosie, the chef here at the hospital, has promised us something tasty for tonight. Rosie totally rocks. She is a great cook and loves her job. Tough to beat that.

Wow, what a random post!

Prayer Requests:

1. Patty, across the hall from Joanne is recovering from a bike accident where she broke 9 bones including her hip, pelvis, collar bone, a bunch of ribs and a few other things. She gets to go home on Friday and she and her husband are a great Christian couple. Please send up a prayer for her continued healing.

2. We can always use prayer for Joanne's spirits. She gets pretty low from time to time, which is totally understandable. Please pray that God would shower her with his grace, peace and courage. She told me last night that this is the hardest thing she has every done. This from a woman who bore two children, wrote six books, runs five miles a day, homeschools the girls, studies Greek at Denver Seminary, etc, etc. So when she says something is hard it's hard!

3. One little detail: Joanne has struggle with motion sickness on every ambulance transport to date. Please pray for no motion sickness as we drive her around on Saturday.

Toben

P.S. Last night Joanne said, "The therapist told me to look at my arm and put all my concentration into moving it. I felt like Luke Skywalker trying to get his X-Wing Fighter out of the swamp." This may be my favorite post stroke comment from Joanne. Great word picture.

Sliding into Home

Today we practiced getting in and out of the Expedition and going up and down curbs, both by walking and in the wheelchair. We are doing this because Joanne is getting a pass this weekend! That's right. We are breaking her out of this place for a few hours on Saturday. Her two requests: P.F. Changs for lettuce wraps and sitting on the couch in her living room petting her cat Joey. Fortunately both of these are easily done. It's not like she's asking to go roller skating. So we practiced sliding her in and out of the car--who knew leather seats would have a therapeutic value. 

However, this does present one problem: our house hasn't been cleaned in three months...and we have two cats...who shed...a lot! Fortunately Gran and I have a strategy about how and when to get this done, but I think we are going to need some extra vacuum bags. The good thing is that Joanne can't really go up or down stairs so we will only really have to clean on floor. All in all it will be pretty manageable and we will have the place ship shape for when Joanne walks through the front door of her own home for the first time in three months!

Two ways I am going to leverage Joanne's stroke:

1. We can get a handicap tag for Joanne's car that will allow us to park in handicapped spots. Now I would never do this if Joanne didn't really need it (which she does) but it will be pretty sweet to be able to park her so close to wherever it is she wants to go. 

2. I will be telling our server at P.F. Changes that Joanne suffered a massive stroke and that on her first trip away from the hospital all she wanted were lettuce wraps and some won ton soup. If that doesn't get us a free dessert, well then I just won't know what to do! 

Another cool thing is that Joanne is getting her hair cut tomorrow. Gran's stylist is coming to the hospital with all her gear in tow to give Joanne a cut that'll be easy do and that will cover her scar. She is thinking of going pretty short and sassy. We'll have to get Kristen to take and post some pictures of Joanne's new look. Joanne still has three staples in her noggin so we are going to try and get them popped out before her haircut.

The girls didn't have much homework tonight so they were able to come to the hospital with me after I picked them up from school. We are all just hanging out in her room and will be headed to dinner in about 15 minutes. Rosie is the chef and she is amazing. She feeds us very, very well which is a blessing because I eat here a lot. The cool thing is that Rosie loves her job! She has such a great attitude and always wants everyone to enjoy what she has prepared. And she makes a lot of what she serves from scratch. She talked to Emma about becoming a chef. Her advice: be the best chef so that you can tell everyone else in the kitchen what to do. Makes sense to me!

Looks like they are going to take some more aggressive measures to relieve the pain in Joanne's shoulder. The stuff that they have tried (and it has been a lot of stuff) doesn't seem to be working. So they are thinking about trying Botox injections. I don't know a lot about Botox but apparently is good for relaxing muscle tissue. We should know about that sometime on Thursday. 

Prayer requests:

1. This may seem like a minor thing, but it would do Joanne's spirits a world of good to get a great haircut, especially since she will be out in public this weekend for the first time in three months.

2. Pray for a great weekend pass for Joanne. She is so excited to get to do this. Also, she has been extremely motion sick every time she has been transported so it would be great if she doesn't get sick while driving home. 

3. Joanne is requesting prayer for wisdom for the doctors and therapists as they decide what to do about her shoulder. They are meeting on Thursday as a group to come up with a new strategy.

A note from Joanne:

"I miss you and I can't wait to get back to blogging!"

Toben

Is This Normal?

Part of the reason I haven't blogged as regularly lately is that we have sort of moved into a "normal" phase where each day pretty much resembles the last. Yes, there are little things that change and improve every day, but for the most part things are pretty normal. The big news from this week is that Joanne is walking more and even made it up a flight of 12 stairs at the hospital. This is a very big deal as we have a lot of stairs at our house!

Joanne also walked about half way to the dinning room last night before needing the wheel chair. So lots of improvement. The thing is that all this movement is exceeding hard on her. She is literally exhausted after what we might consider to be a small activity. By the time she gets in bed each night around 7 she is ready to go to sleep! We try to keep her up for awhile but by 8 at the latest, she is gone! I think they wake her up to give her some meds around 9 but other then that, she is sleeping.

And that's an answer to prayer for sure! For much of this ordeal Joanne hasn't slept well at all, but now, between the exhaustion from her therapy and the medication that she gets, she is sleeping great!

We continue to try everything possible to relieve the pain in her left shoulder. She gets all kinds of meds and therapies for her to try to relive the pain, but it still bothers her constantly. She wears a sling whenever she gets out of bed and we keep it propped with pillows when she is in bed, but it still hurts. I think the pain really takes it out of her. 

Today Gran is gong to the hospital in the morning, then Papa will head there from the airport when he lands. Then the rest of us will show up around lunch time for Sunday dinner. I hope they have roast beef again! Whatever it is, it's fun for us all to be together around the table.

I guess that's about it. Next weekend Joanne may get a pass that would allow her to get out of the hospital for a couple of hours. That would be pretty cool! She says she wants to go home which means we need to clean the home! The cats have had the run of the place for the last three months and I haven't even touched the vacuum cleaner! It seriously looks like our cat Pumpkin has exploded.

Prayer requests:

1. Joannes shoulder pain.

2. Increased ability and endurance to walk and do stairs.

3. Joanne's spirits are still pretty low. She wants to go home in the worst way. She knows that she needs to be at rehab in order to improve so that she can come home, but it's still hard for her. Please pray for her that she would be encouraged.

Toben

Bad Blogger

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days. It has been nice to take a couple of days off! Not much has changed around rehab besides the fact that Joanne continues to improve every day. And she got her staples out a couple days ago! And she took the wheelchair van to the appointment instead of the ambulance. Definitely steps in the right direction.

Joanne is working a lot on stairs in PT. That's a good thing because we have lots of stairs at our house. I would think that in a few weeks she'll really be able to get up anddown on her own. This is a huge deal because it means that Joanne will be able to get around our house on her own. 

Papa is out of town this week so we are making do with one less person in the mix.  So far so good. Kristen is going to be with Joanne today, as will I. Then tomorrow is Saturday so coverage is easier. Then Papa returns on Sunday and we are all going to have a big Sunday dinner at the hospital. My folks are even coming up! Going to be a whole bunch of us around the table which is super fun!

We heard through the grape vine that at some point Joanne will be cleared to take a field trip or two while still being an in-patient. I asked her where she would like to go if she could go anywhere and her immediate response was "home!" She misses her house, her bed, her cats and all the rest of it. 

Of course we will have a ton of cleaning to do before she can walk in the place. The house hasn't been cleaned in almost three months! There is cat hair everywhere! I mean everywhere. We are going to have to vacuum every flat surface in that place, wash rugs and curtains, scrub the kitchen and bathrooms, etc.. It is weird to see how dirty the house can get even with no people in there to mess it up!

I guess that's about it. Nothing major has changed with Joanne besides her daily improvement. I'll keep you posted on any big news.

Prayer requests:

Please pray for endurance for Joanne. She is doing a lot of work to get better and it would be great if her energy level and spirits would stay up so that she can tackle the tasks that are put in front of her in all the therapies.

Toben

 

The Press of Days

Joanne's folks headed to the hospital early this morning. Emma is in her room and Audrey is still sleeping so I have a little time to sit and think. Not sure if that's a good thing or not! We have been moving at such a pace, rushing from here to there, that I don't take a lot of time to sit and think. I think in some ways that's been a good thing because I don't always like what I think about when I do have time to do it. 

We are coming up on three months of this journey. Today that feels like a very, very long time. So days it feels like it has flown by, but as I let my mind walk backwards over those days it seems long. I remember those first days in ICU when Joanne was in her coma. Each day was like that last: we sat by her side and waited to see signs of life. We prayed and waited. Then she woke up and after another week or so she was ready for LTAC. Those days especially seems long to me--we were there for 41 days. But so many good things happened there. Joanne progressed and to me the biggest event of our days there is that she started to talk and it became clear that she still had her mental faculties. She started therapy and her long road back there. 

Then rehab. To me this was an exciting move because rehab is all about getting better. And we literally see progress every day as Joanne does the hard work of preparing to come home. All of us are so ready for that day, but we still have a lot of ground to cover before we're ready for that. Still, it is amazing to see the new stuff she can do every day.

I have been thinking about endurance this morning. I have been thinking that the last miles of a marathon must be some of the hardest but also some of the best. The end is in sight but the body is exhausted. It is the excitement about what comes at the end that drives one forward even when your body is telling you that it's had enough. But if you've ever watched a marathon, the runners usually collapse when they finally cross the line. But there will be none of that for our family. "Crossing the line" in getting Joanne home isn't the end of the line, it is just the beginning of the next part of the journey. 

I am thinking about all of this because Papa has been taking a critical eye to our house to figure out when we need to install in order to make the house ready for Joanne's return. There is a lot to be done! But it will all lead to Joanne's ability to have some semblance of independence. In some ways it is still too early to know what she will really need, but it is safe to say that she is going to need hand rails on the stairs, in the bathrooms, etc. It's not clear yet what level of Independence she will have. 

But I am holding out that she will have a lot of independence. She is making so much progress and if she keeps up at this pace she is going to be able to do a lot for herself.

Right now my main concern for Joanne is that pesky left arm. It still causes her a lot of pain and we aren't seeing much movement there. The therapists said that it could be the last limb to come on line and start working again, so I am hopeful/prayerful that she'll regain use of that limb. She will be so bummed if she can't knit!

Anyhow, I have rambled on enough. Today we will put one foot in front of the other and move forward in whatever way God calls us too. I have said it many times: I don't know how a family would survive this without faith. It is what our family clings to to make it through these days. 

Prayer Request: Stamina!

Toben

 

Saturday

I wish all days were like Saturday for our family. It is just so nice to have everyonefreed up to come and go at the as they please at the hospital. It is easy to make sure someone is always there when all of us are entirely available. Plus it gives the family a little time to catch our breath. 

Today we are trying something new. Each of the girls are going to get time with Joanne with just one other adult. In other words, Audrey will be with Joanne this morning with Gran. Then Emma and I will be there together alone with Joanne this afternoon. We are trying to get them a little more one-on-one time to see if that helps them feel like they are getting more time with Joanne. Both of them are definitely missing her a bunch. We are hoping that getting them some time with fewer people around will allow them to connect more with Joanne. 

I think we are all feeling more ready for Joanne to be home. I think that's because we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and that she'll be home sooner than later. If I had to guess I would think that she'll be home in a month or so. After being in the hospital for the last two and a half months only having a month left it feels like we are in the home stretch (literally). 

Papa is headed over to our house today to take a look at how we might set it up for Joanne's return, with railings and grab bars. Still not sure how much of that kind of stuff Joanne will need. It is possible that she won't need much of anything. On the other hand, she may need a little help. So Papa is going to go do a survey of what we might need and how we might be able to install it. We certainly don't want to be caught unprepared when it comes time for Joanne to be released.

One thing that I really like about rehab is how they are keeping Joanne busy. She is basically in therapy from the time she gets up until about 4:30. She has therapy in half-hour blocks. So she has PT for half and hour than she gets a 30 minute break. Then she is off to some to her therapy. Work breakfast, lunch and dinner in there andit makes for a full day and keeps her out of bed. There was  a time when all she wanted to do was stay in bed, but I think she is getting used to being up all the time. THis is a huge step forward! It means she's not giving up on herself. It means that she is not willing to just leave things the way they are but is ready to get better. It is so cool to see her working so hard.

As for her pain, they keep trying to find new ways to dela with the pain in her shoulder. That;s really where most of her pain is coming from. She still has the occasional headache but those are becoming increasingly rare. But her shoulder is in constant pain. There have been a number of therapists in to work on it and medically they are trying some different pain meds, muscle relaxants, and other massage/manipulation exercises. Can't wait to get her pain issue resolved. I think she'll make a ton of additional progress when her arm stops hurting.

By the way, Joanne is starting to sleep better. That is a real answer to prayer.

Prayer request:

As I mentioned, Joanne's shoulder is really hurting her. Please pray with us for relief. Being in pain constantly is a significant drain on her energy and it also takes it's toll emotionally. 

Toben