Serenity Now !

I came in from Mass this morning and for some reason those are the words that crossed my mind. I had stood out in the driveway for about 15 minutes, watching the incredible sunrise that was unfolding above me. It was absolutely an awesome sight, especially after the severe thunderstorms that had been dumping rain for 24 hours. The blues in the morning sky reminded me that Our Blessed Mother in heaven has her mantle around us. The clouds were brilliant white and wispy across the expanse of blue and the sun was intensely bright in the smog-free sky. A wonderfully fresh, crisp March morning.

I came in and got a hot cup of coffee and a piece of toast, sat down in the front room and watched the birds feeding right outside my window. It doesn't take much to make me joyful..........these are the moments I treasure the most. I sat thinking about how blessed I am in life. Jon and I were able to sit by each other at morning Mass with my sister and her husband. Then I got a big hug from Jon before we parted ways (my other reinforcement for the day!). After that, I got to stand in awe of God's creation, as the sun came up over the horizon, lighting up the clouds. I had a warm home to come to and early spring flowers growing in the front garden. Then there was the extra special joy today knowing that all 4 of my sons were sleeping soundly at Jerry's house! As I drove by his house, I held out my hand and asked God to bless all those wonderful men in my life.

We didn't know what to get Michael for his 18th birthday on Monday, and since he has always been a hard working young man, he has pretty much everything he wants. He is very independent and has always been able to earn the money to get the extras he wanted. We really didn't have any idea what to get him for this special birthday. So we decided to bring his brothers home to celebrate the weekend with him. Jon and James flew in last night and due to the thunderstorms and the very late arrival times (after midnight), Jerry said he would get them at the airport. That way they could stay at his house and visit for awhile. It was supposed to be a surprise for Michael and it would have been except that Michael kept filling his weekend with commitments. He kept making appointments with people to give estimates on their landscaping jobs. When he told us he was also going to help his uncle at the fish fry at church tonight, I asked Jon, Jerry and Paul if we shouldn't maybe tell him, so he would not be gone the whole weekend! I wanted him to be able to have plenty of time with his brothers so it would be a memorable 18th birthday. We told him and he was really surprised. He was able to go with Jerry to the airport, which I was grateful for, since it was so late at night. That way Jerry would have someone with him in case he needed help.

So it is going to be The Guys weekend and I am so happy for Michael that he has something more special than anything we could get from a store!

Yes, Serenity Now. After thinking of those words this morning, I remembered I had heard them before and couldn't place where I had heard them. I knew I wanted to use the words as my title and as I was typing away, it came to me. It was an episode on Seinfeld, years ago. George Costanza's dad (Frank) was told by his doctor, that a good thing for him to do when he was in a situation that caused his blood pressure to flare up, was to say out loud, "Serenity Now". When his wife was doing something that was upsetting him, Frank yelled these words out really loudly. George asked him what he was doing and he told him he was to say it when he felt his blood pressure go up. George asked him if he was supposed to 'yell' it out like that. His dad responded that he wasn't sure, the doctor didn't say. So, throughout the episode Frank is yelling this out at just about every occurrence. I laughed at the rememberance of this show and then again when I remembered my sister Bev and I had mimicked it at our office. My job is very stressful and Bev's is demanding at different times of the year. We would see each other in the hallway or in the break room and if one of us was stressing, the other would say loudly, "Serenity Now!!" It would make us both break out in laughter and thus, serve its purpose.
Oh, what another huge blessing it is, having my sister working at the same place as me!

Yes, there is serenity now. Paul's appointments with Dr. Matthews and Dr. McLanahan really got my hopes up. They both were pleased to see how well Paul looks. He does walk very upright and while he has these severe headaches, they both stated it is just a matter of time before they will figure it out. Paul had his treatment for the nerve at Dr. Matthews and then we got some lunch. (I had wanted to take Paul to St. Patrick's Cathedral to show him where I had been going to Mass while he had been in the hospital. We weren't able to get there, as we were scheduled for the isotope study only 45 minutes after Dr. Matthews appointment. )

The most amazing thing about Dr. McLanahan is his humility. He is a well known neurosurgeon and people come from all over the U.S. to get help. Yet, when we were still sitting in the general waiting areaat the hospital, where we were to stay until the receptionist at the Nuclear Medicine waiting room called us, Dr. McLanahan came looking for us to let us know we would be called shortly. We had run about 10 minutes late ourselves, and Dr. McLanahan has enough to do to keep busy at that hospital, but he came to make sure we had made it. He sat and talked for a moment to Paul, asking him how he was doing. He said Paul's coloring was terrific and he looked so good. He even noted that Paul's hair sure does grow fast! Later, he met us in the room where the isotope study would be done. He tested the brain pressure and it was on the mark. He was very pleased about that. The test he was doing was to make sure the shunt was functioning............which was something I used to ask the previous doctors..........how do you know it is working? They told us to go home and wait to see if Paul felt better or worse and let them know. Those were such difficult days, where we had to 'wonder' if Paul's shunt was actually working. But with this study, they put a low grade amount of radioactive material into the reservoir of the shunt and see if it flows to the stomach cavity, where the overflow of brain fluid is supposed to empty. We met Dr. McLanahan back at his office a couple of miles away and he told us that the shunt is working very well. I asked him when we would know if the leak was truly fixed and he smiled just a little and said, "Well, if we could get the fluid to stop coming from Paul's nose, that would be a good sign." He said he was lowering the shunt setting to make sure the fluid goes out the shunt and if there is a leak, allow any portion of the opening in the bone to heal by itself. The additional xray taken has shown that the accumulation of fluid in the area where the surgery was done has cleared up, so if we continue to see fluid it is definitely brain fluid and may mean another surgery to get the leak closed for sure. Dr. McLanahan just seemed more hopeful after seeing Paul this time and his assistant, Julie, did also. They were very relieved to see the shunt is working, the brain pressure is good and the fluid accumulation has been absorbed. One by one, the variables will be checked off and the cause of the headaches will be found. The caring ways of these people has been amazing. Because we come from so far away, they truly accomodate us. They fit us in at both the hospital and Dr. McLananhan's office. We didn't have to wait any more than 15 minutes for the isotope study, the CT scan, the Xray. Paul and I left at 5 AM and got home at 8 PM. In that time, there was the 8 hour drive time, an hour long test at the hospital, an hour long test at Dr. Matthews, and an Xray and CT scan at Dr. McLanahan's. All of those things done in a 6 hour time frame! We used to be gone 14 hours just to get an Xray done at the local hospitals!! So all in all, it was a good day for us. The doctors have a lot of hope and they definitely showed it this time. Paul and I went home with full trust that God truly is working on "Paul's Project" and it appears we are 'trending upward'.

Paul has not had to take Lortab except for one time since the appointments. He was having to take it every 4 hours to keep his headaches down to a level of around 5 on a scale of 1-10. He went 7 hours yesterday without Tylenol and we are hopeful he will start to feel better each day. He went to his job again and worked a couple of hours. He should be able to get back to at least 4 hours per day this next week, along with his workouts at his personal trainer's home.
Michael mentioned to me that he heard a guitar being played and thought to himself, "Dad doesn't play like that" and he came down to find Paul playing his guitar almost like before! He said he was really surprised. We know that there are a lot of possibilities sitting right in behind those headaches and that once the headaches are cleared out of the way, Paul will come to light!

Jon, James and Michael walked in a little bit ago and to complete my 'Serenity Now' moment, I got to hug my sons before leaving for work. Truly, God has done great things for me.

"If you know how to suffer in silence, you will undoubtedly experience God's help. He knows when and how to deliver you; therefore, place yourself in his hands, for it is a divine prerogative to help men and free them from all distress." (Thomas Kempis)

Blessed are you, O God of the universe,
Giver of all good gifts.

Peace in Christ,
Jon and Rebecca