Sunday, October 25, 2009

Arm Update

Since the last post, Jonathan had a revisit to the ER for what looked like the beginning of an infection in his arm OR a possible allergy to the metal. After a round of antibiotics, he is back on the mend and got the staples (all 43) removed on Friday. He is diligently doing his rehab - good, since proper use of one's arm is pretty important! Here are the before and after shots of the xrays. The bottom one was taken just before the staples were removed - you can see them on both sides of the arm. Thank you for your prayers and care for us during this time!

Friday, October 9, 2009

Brokenness

This past Monday Jonathan was in a golf tournament at the UBC Golf Course and after finishing his round at around 7pm he went to return his golf cart. Unfortunately, he never made it there, for the sun's glare in the windshield caused him to 'miss' seeing a tree root that has pushed up part of the cart path - he tried to swerve out of the way and also tried to slow down, but stepped on the emergency brake by accident. This caused the cart to swing around and then flip over to the left. Jonathan put his arm out to break his fall, resulting in his arm taking the full weight of both his body and the golf cart. His ulna and radius both broke completely through, resulting in his arm taking on an 'S' shape. He was taken by ambulance (precautionary) to Vancouver General, where I met him after receiving word of the accident from his boss. 2 orthopaedic doctors pulled on his arm from opposite ends in order to straighten it as much as possible for the overnight wait until surgery. Tuesday afternoon J had surgery in which a long plate was attached with screws to each the ulna and the radius, involving 2 incisions. He spent 3 nights in the hospital and then came home on Thursday. The recovery is going well - his hand and elbow are still quite swollen but he is going for longer and longer time between taking his meds, which is great. We are doing all right - this event has caused us to look at our near future with different eyes and has forced everything to slow down (esp. the rate at which I wash dishes!!) We have seen areas in our relationship that were broken a long time ago and never got 'fixed', J has seen broken areas in his life with a new lens, I am more aware than ever of broken areas in my attitude/heart...so this injury has brought out all of this brokenness and we are already seeing God's gracious love as He draws us near to Him and we allow Him to gently mend our hearts and lives. I will write another post tomorrow of God's amazing provision during this time - it would take up too much space here, but I MUST brag on my friends a little!

Of all the times to not have my camera!! Thank goodness for camera phones and obliging ER Trauma nurses :)
The view out of J's hospital window as he awaited surgery
Beautiful trees in front of the hospital!
Maybe this recovery waiting area hosts some incredibly tall people at times
Early morning visit with Daddy the day after surgery (no, that's not a tattoo -it's the Dr's initials to make sure they operated on the correct arm)
The meds had just kicked in - smiles for a little while!
Visit from 'Mr. Matt' - what a great friend he is to JD!
Hmmm...looks a little swollen...
It's so Frankenstein-y! The longer incision has 15 staples and the shorter one has 28...don't know how that really works...they'll come out in 2 weeks
Please pray for quick healing!! Thank you all!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Mayne Island

We spent 2 days/nights on Mayne Island (off the Vancouver coast) this past weekend at the retreat home of a couple from church. We were there with the objective of looking at some property/estate for sale (wondering if we could turn it into some kind of retreat centre), but also managed to fit in some great family time looking for seashells, starfish, picking apples, going for walks, watching spiders catch bugs in their webs, playing at the park, and all sorts of other relaxing things. To top it off, we had a great visit with our friends Micah, Sarah, Charis and Chaia. They used to live in Vancouver but moved to Mayne Island several months ago. Micah is at Regent and Sarah was in my spouses' group for 1 1/2 years. What a nice getaway! (by the way, I left out camera's battery at home and so all these pics were taken with disposable cameras - some are pretty bad, but some look cool!)Enjoying the sunny side on the ferry

TJ enjoying the front lawn of where we stayed

The view from our place

There is an awesome park on the island with a zipline! Charlotte did it all by herself!

The caretakers' house on the property we viewed

The front entrance of the B&B

We picked lots of apples from the gardens

My favorite room of all 12 suites in the place

Heading down the steep steps to the property's beach

The view from the main level of the house

It's hard to see, but Charlotte is holding a starfish Jonathan got for her - she named it 'Grass'

Sunset from the lighthouse

Sarah and Micah prepared a wonderful breakfast for us Saturday morning, replete with homemade bread, homemade jams, homemade granola & homemade yogurt!! (and lots of other goodies, too!)

For some reason, I love a neatly stacked wood pile, so I had to take a pic

Taking a family walk through the small orchard on their property

Charlotte and Charis trying to pick some apples

It was so wonderful to see our friends!!!