Bob Strong Miracle

Dear friends:




On July 29, 2012 Bob had a massive cardiac arrest. He spent 15 days in the hospital. Here is a brief description of Bob's ordeal. We were at home getting ready to go to bed. Our grown daughter Robin was spending a couple of days with us so she could go to the doctor's office on Tuesday. They were walking down the hall toward 2 of the bedrooms when suddenly Bob fell. She yelled at me that he fell and was not breathing and started immediately giving him CPR. I ran to the phone and called 911 and opened the house so they could get in. They arrived in about 5 minutes and got his heart going again and put a ventilator in to get him breathing. They then took him to UMC where they worked on him in the emergency room. Finally they transferred him to MICU where he spent the next 6 1/2 days in a coma. They medically induced the coma to protect his body while they put him in a hypothermic state for 24 hours. After they warmed his body back up and the drugs were supposedly out of his body, they started trying to get him to wake up.



They were unsuccessful and finally told us that his kidneys were shutting down, he had pneumonia caused by the CPR, they could not even find out what heart damage was done as he was too fragile to be taken to the heart Cath lab and that they feared brain damage because he was unresponsive to any stimulation or to the EEG test. Finally on Saturday August 4th, we gathered as a family to hear what the doctors had to say and they offered little hope for a normal recovery. We had them discontinue life support and gathered together for a prayer which I led. Basically what I said was that the doctors had offered us little hope but that we believed in miracles and that we were asking God for a miracle. They discontinued life support and told us to stay close by as they thought he could go at any time.



Miraculously, throughout the day, Bob's body began to respond favorably as he started to breathe on his own, his kidneys started functioning again, his blood pressure stabilized, his heart rate stayed fairly normal although the rate was irregular. About 6:15 p.m. as I sat by his bed, his eyes changed to where I thought he was finally seeing me. I asked him "Robert can you see me?" and he replied "Some". That was the beginning of our miracle.



Throughout the evening he began to ask questions about what happened and where he was. We told him what had happened he wanted to know where it happened and where he was. He asked this several times. He recognized all those who had gathered to see him and we were relieved as it soon became apparent he still had his humor. One of the most amazing things was that early in the waking up process, he kept saying something over and over again. Our son Brad was with me and we told Bob we were so sorry we could not figure out what he was saying. Finally Bob said "Usana Magnesium" as clear as day. Our granddaughter Tiffany immediately looked it up on her iphone and was amazed at the hundreds of health benefits of magnesium. It was then that I knew were getting the whole package back. Bob was going to be fine. He still had his memory, his knowledge, and his humor. What more could we ask for!!!



I asked our son Jimmy to help get his nutrients restored and his fluid, which had to come from the doctor and he did. We had to leave at 11:00 p.m. but when we called the next morning, he was sitting up in a chair, talking with the nurse and responding to commands. He knew all the vital stuff they kept asking him and continued to improve. When the doctors began making their rounds they were amazed. One of the neurology doctors came in he just said "wow". Later that day they transferred him to the 5th floor and everywhere he went they referred to him as the "miracle man".



On Tuesday they did an angiogram and installed 3 stints. Meanwhile they did another eco-cardiogram and determined his injection faction was dramatically improved and that he had a cardiac arrest which is different from a heart attack. They installed a defibulator on Friday. We were at the hospital until Monday afternoon and are now at home. He continues to improve daily and we are overcome with the love and prayers shown by so many people all over this nation. We can hardly believe what all happened but we believe with all our heart that God favored us with a miracle and we will never fail to give him the glory.



I have several heroes that I am eternally grateful for. First our daughter Robin who was with us who was able to do the CPR and do it well, our son Jimmy who was my advocate with the doctors and nurses when I needed it the most, our son Brad who talked on the phone non-stop so I wouldn’t have to and was on Facebook to keep everyone advised of what was going on. He even was able to contact  Bob's good friend in Mexico, Oscar Soto who drove 20 hours one way to be at his bedside, our son Kevin who made three round trips from Fort Stockton in one week and communicated with a whole other set of family and friends, and finally our granddaughter Tiffany Decker who is a NICU nurse who was able to make us understand what was going on and made us question some things that might have made a difference in his care.


Once again thanks so much for caring and praying.

Love to all

Hysterical

This story requires a little background. Bob and I are not young anymore, much as we wish we were, but we have always been willing to learn new things for the most part. A number of years ago we got our first computer and have since upgraded 3 times. When we got the first one Bob dutyfully went to some computer classes and promptly never touched the computer again for several years. By the time he got back to the computer he had forgotten everything they taught him in the class so it was back to square one.

Now fast forward a few years; I have tried to teach him a bit of navigation several times over the years and he would take copious notes, practice the routine, then promptly put the notes up so good, they were never to be found again. This process has been repeated several times over. However in the past 6 to 8 months he has determined to learn the process again. He can now type in "Google" and then type in the key word and then generally find what he wants. He has gotten especially good on looking up the weather in Manuel Benavides, in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico.

What makes this story a scream follows. This evening we went to the Drug Emporium. Bob was looking at a natural sweetner and wanted to know the glycemic index of it, since we were unfamiliar with that product. He asked the young man to look it up on the computer and the kid said I don't know if I know how. Anyway Bob said just go the the address line and type in www.google.com and then when on google, type in the word of the product which he did. Then the kid said, I don't know how to find out the glycemic number on this. Bob said just type in the product name and then type glycemic index number after it, which the kid did. It immediately pulled up the information.

What is so funny is that as Bob was leaving, the kid said "You Sure Do Know Your Computers". I laughed until I nearly cried as Bob has been so frustrated over trying to learn this. We have not even tried to learn email yet.

Now I want you to know Bob is really smart and can learn anything, he just has trouble with his wife teaching him and he has trouble sitting still long enough to learn the process. Anyway laughter is said to be good for the soul and so we had a good soul day.

Fabric Fiasco

You might be wondering what in the world would be interesting about fabric on a blog. Bear with me. A number of years ago I operated a small clothing business from my home. I sold things in craft shows and a local craft mall. It was definitely small stuff but I did make $33,000 from things I made myself my last year in business. I made beautiful skirts, matching vests, decorated T-shirts, appliqued vests, appliqued blouses, beautiful glitzy jackets, a cute Santa sitter couple and so on. After reflecting on the hours I was working each day (7:00 a.m. to 12:00 midnight), I decided to get a job. For awhile, I did not only the job but continued to maintain the booth at the craft mall and did both.

Those hours got to be too much after awhile so I decided to close the business. I always meant to do something with all that fabric but had never gotten around to it. The reason I had so much fabric is that to get the best price, you need to buy the whole bolt. Well anyway, I had the fabric stored in a spare bedroom. It was stacked according to colors, types and so on. One weekend a few years back while I was out of town visiting my oldest son Jimmy, my husband decided he wanted to pack away the fabric. He did so without my knowledge and when I came home there were 17 large boxes in the garage with my fabric.

Now the problem with all this is that I would have liked to do this myself. I would have put the stuff I wanted to keep and use somewhere different than the other stuff. Although I want to rid our lives of most of it, there are some fabric that I absolutely will not part with. I had much of it sorted out and in shelves with all the reds together, the blues together, the blacks together and so on. The purpose of this was so that if I wanted to applique something, or if I ever got around to learning to quilt, it would be easy to see what I had and get with the task. This was all mixed in with the other stuff.

I have to tell you that my husband Bob is the greatest. He is a good husband in most important ways but with regard to this one endeavour, his virtues were lost to me as he had no idea of the problems he created for me. To get back to the story, in getting my mother's house ready to sell, we have had one garage sale and now plan for at least one more if not two. The reason was to sell mother's stuff nobody wanted but I needed to sell some of my stuff to make room for the things I am moving to my house. So we have been selling not only her stuff but some of ours. I decided to tackle the fabric issue for our upcoming sale and started going through the 17 large boxes in the garage.

As I started this huge task, Sunday night I became angry all over again because I was reminded of the huge amount of extra work this had created for me. I was not a good role model of what to do when irritated with the spouse for some reason. Bob disappeared for awhile and I don't blame him. I finally got down to the last box last night and I have sorted, measured, and priced the fabric for the garage sale. It is all dirt cheap and I hope there a few people who will appreciate the beautiful assortment I have. One of the things that made my things different and pretty was the combination of patterns and fabric in my original way on the garments I created. I do owe Bob an apology although he has been sweet ever since regardless because I think he realizes he should have asked me before he packed it all up and I would have begged him to wait til I got home and we could do it together as it would be better for me that way.

To be fair, when these 17 boxes are gone and the stuff my packrat husband has saved for years is gone our garage might again resemble a garage. It has not been that I want to hold on to stuff, I just hate cleaning closets, sorting drawers, organizing cabinets, and all that builds up. I have noticed that I have over used the word "stuff" in this piece but really can't think of another word that would do the job.

Mother would be so proud of our garage as it will be in a few days, as she always hated it when I could not park in the garage. Bob is really trying to let go of some of the things and that is definately real good.

Am I Accident Prone or Just Careless

Wish I knew the answer. It seems I am either accident prone or careless but probably it is a combination of the two. My latest episode happened Saturday afternoon about 3:00 p.m. Robert was going to ride his bicycle and I said wait I want to go. I got my bike but did not put on my gloves, or even tennis shoes. This proved to be a very foolish decision. About half way through the bike ride I got too close to a retaining wall around a flower bed and nearly ripped the little toe on my left foot off. It required 7 stitches in the emergency room to repair what happened due to my haste. The toe is broken and is now taped to the toe next to it for the next 6 or 8 weeks. Actually I am grateful I was not injured more seriously. I am still mad at myself because I don't have time for this. Do we ever?

Actually I have had an accident of some sort for the past three years. Last year I stubbed my big toe (of course I was in sandals) and ripped the nail nearly off. A friend of mine, Dr. Craig Barker rescued me and took the rest of it off. He said it was the ugliest toe he had seen in awhile.

Then in October of 2006, I took Brianna, Meyson, Isaac and his friend Andy to The Corn Maize". It is a real neat place here near Lubbock. They actually plant a one mile square field into a different maize each year. Then in the fall when the corn has gotten really tall, they allow groups to go through the maize. They are making more money off the maize than they ever did when they just farmed this land. Anyway, Brianna and I got through the first half with no problem. When we were going through the second half, it was really dark by that time. The boys ran off with the flashlight and so I could not see too good. We came to a spot where it look kind of like the path but actually was not. As I stepped that way I was caught and flipped over a substance that keeps the corn from falling down and landed on my left shoulder and broke it in three places. It was really the arm in the shoulder area. It was so high up that it could not be set so that was quite an ordeal.

I need to explain that my husband Robert goes to Mexico quite often and usually whenever, I have an accident, when we have a disaster at our home, if the car breaks down, he is in Mexico. Luckily when I nearly tore my toe off, he was here to not only advise me how to avoid such incidents in the future he was able to take me to the emergency room.

When I broke my arm he was in Mexico so he was unavailable to help. The Maize people helped round up my group and I took Isaac's friend home, then took Meyson, Brianna and Isaac to our house. Brad (Brianna and Meyson's dad) was out of town so I could not call him. Isaac's family live in Mexico so that was out. I drove myself to the emergency room and was there until about 4:00 a.m. when I drove to an all night pharmacy for pain meds and then went home. I had to sleep in my recliner for about 6 weeks as they could not cast the arm so trying to lay down was very painful.

Sooo you can see where this is coming from. I hope I am through with careless accidents for all time. My whole left side is a mess. We can start at the shoulder - broken in three places 2 years ago, wrist broken about 7 years ago, big toe nail - ripped off last year and now this. I am healthy in every other way so I am grateful to God and Usana for that. But I am a very visable person ..... I teach adult Sunday School, sing in our church choir, and sang at a funeral today so I am always having to explain what happened to me. It is pretty embarrassing.