Pjdriver

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit! 🍅
Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad!

I am sitting in front of my keyboard, musing over times past and friends from long ago. A coment in todays forum concerning love novels reminded me of an author of love novels I have known since we were in the same congregatio and went to the same high school. Barbara Kay Turner of Redding CA, she wrote a series of love novels under that name, When the publishers demanded more sex she dropped that genre, then she wrote a popular series of books on baby names (just checked and they are still selling on Amazon) To me she will allways be Kay Benbrook fro Arcata CA. The sad word we received is that she has had a severe stroke and cannot communicat. The communicato can't communicate, sad. So differnt than the Kay I went to High School with. Just musing 

Our congregation has been combined with the other congregation in our KH. First meeting today. Quite crowded, quite loud. Came away with the idea that is about time to divide again.

 

The Governing Body cannot legislate what websites and videos we see on our electronic devices. But there is a "firewall" for every device, and that is "our love for Jehovah"!
(Based on talk by Mark Noumair: “This Is the Way” (Isa. 30:21)

Just a coincedence, but interesting to our family, the surgeon that just discovered the brain eating amoeba at Swedish hospital, in Seattle,  was my wifes brain surgeon. 

Certain experiences we have had in life have affected us, but what forms us are
relationships. And no relationship can form us and transform us more than the relationship with "Our Father'. 

How encouraging and comforting it would be if more people had this rare view of us?
 

RE: Gertrude 8/9/18
It hs been a rough day. As many noted from my firs t post of the day, the operation was succesful, the Doctor spoke toLelie and I, and was very pleased with Gertie's resilence and even went so far as to say "If she maintains this rate of recouperating she might be released as early as tomorrow afternoon. We just need to get her from recovery and up the to ICU so you can visit her. Expect about  40 minutes before she is settled into ICU." 
That is when I sent out the happy notices. 
15 minutes later he returned to the lobby where we were and said "I am sorry, but your wife is showing symptoms that something is not right, she is loosing function of here right side.We are taking her back to the operating room. It looks like she has started bleeding just beyound the incision area.
That is when I posted that things were not good.
To add to the worry, they post on a monitor that shows where the surgery paitients are at any given time. It looks much like the monitors at airports that show arrivals and gate locations. We are sitting on the edge of our seats when Gertrude asigned number dissapears form the monitor.
We waited an hour, her number stayed gone. Dave Benbrook had come up to lend moral support and he was in tears as the clocked ticked away. Leslie wasn't doing much better. I kept thinking that her last picture might be the one I poster with her great grand daughter. This does not look good. Leslie went over to surgery registation to find where her Mom was. The women at the desk said she went back into surgery so we gave her new number, it has been posted for an hour. "Thanks peoples for not telling us."
Another thirty minutes went by before the surgeon came back "So sorry to put you through this, but Gertrude is doing fine and as soon as she is transferred to ICU, she can have visitors." (I think we heard this once before.)
THE REST OF THE STORY
The second operation was succesful. He decided to remove a little more of the crainium than he prefered, but felt the need to get all of the potential leakers cauterized' As of 6:30 t his eveningshe was wide awake, though drugged. All vitals in the green, taking liguids including chicken soup, which is the hospitals last ditch to cure anything. Both our sons came to see her, the DFd one we hadn't seen in five years.
The three of us left Seattle for Leslies house at 7:00 PM. I had been up since 3:30 AM. We started for the hospital at 6:00 AM this morning, a very long day, but all's well that ends well.
Again I thank all for their concern and prayers.
YB 
Jerry

Gertrude is scheduled for a Craniotomy in the Bloodless Surgery Program at Swedish Medical Center, Seattle WA Thursday 9:00 AM. The words 'blood tranfusion' did not enter the conversation, which were among the first words uttered by her previous surgeon.
Fom here on it is just OLD preaching, pay no attention.
(I fail to see why such a small portion of our brothers take advantige of the many Bloodless Medicine facilities, instead accepting their local surgeons word when they say "I won't give you blood," Which promise goes out the window when complications set in. Then your family realizes what the surgeon actually meant was "no blood? OK, I will let you die." This often places a burden on family members not in the Truth, and on the HLC who get a midnite call to fight for you on an issue that could have been resolved by a little more forsight and perhaps traveling just a little further to support these hospitals that serve our brothers.)
 
Thanks again for all the kind thought and prayers you have expressed in our behalf
The Lytles

Update to "Gertrude is still..."
Dear Friends, Thank you for you interest and support.
The last two days have been more than a little nerve racking. For those that didn’t see my prior description of what my we have been going through I am providing a brief summary: In early April Gertrude came down with the shingles. It ended up that most of the irritation was internal involving her left leg. It was a little difficult to get a diagnosis. She was sent to the neurology facility to investigate the extreme neuralgia pain that persisted when other symptoms had disappeared. While being examined the attending asked a Neurosurgeon to take a look at her. The Neurosurgeon was not concerned about Gertrude’s leg symptoms, but noticed her eyes weren’t tracking correctly. Had she banged her head lately? She had taken a tumble and banged her head on a doorjamb in April, but didn’t even get a headache from it.
The Doctor scheduled a series of brain scans as well at MRI of the damaged leg. The brain scan revealed a subdural hematoma, likely caused by her fall. If it showed no increase in size surgery might be avoided, it still required monitoring on a two week basis. If it was shown to be increasing in size surgery would be indicated.
Over six weeks of monitoring by brain scans it appeared to be stable, which was good news. The brain scans are done locally with a follow up appointment with the Neurosurgeon later in the week. The DRs appointment is a little difficult as she is located an hour and a half inland, and is almost always delayed by an hour or so.
Back to last Monday, as usual we went to the local Newport hospital for the scan, easy peasy. We were leaving and almost to the parking lot when the technician came running after us and said the radiologist wanted to talk to us ASAP. The radiologist was very concerned and showed us the latest scan. The hematoma had increased by a third in size and fresh bleeding was clearly visible. We told her that we had an appointment with the Neurosurgeon scheduled for Wednesday. The radiologist said she would give the Neurology a heads-up phone call. Before we got home, about 20 minutes, there was a phone call from Neurology saying Gertrude’s appointment was now bumped up by 24 hours to Tuesday.
We let the family know that the bleed had restarted. I called Swedish Hospital Bloodless Surgery in Seattle (Blood Management is the official program name) Seattle to see if they could fit Gertrude’s potential surgery into this week if needed. I was informed it would not be a problem. Note: there are two closer hospitals that use bloodless procedures, OHU and Legacy both in Portland, but Gertrude had volunteered for many years with the program at Swedish, plus all our adult children live in the Seattle area.
There were phone calls and text messages flying back and forth all evening. We had a sleepless night hampered further by a medical emergency next door. Fire engines and emergency vehicles with their flashing lights and motors idling right beside our bedroom window. 3:30 AM was the end of sleep for the night.
It was my idea to throw a minimum of overnight things into a bag just incase we had to drive to Seattle after our up-scheduled visit to the Neurosurgeon. The blood issue had not been discussed specifically with her. They do have our ‘Advanced Medical Directives’ on file, but my experience is doctors seldom look that deep into our files and have to be reminded for any procedure.
After all the nerve racking, sleep defying previous 24 hours the doctor was a little ho-hum about the whole thing. “Yes, continued bleeding would require surgery, but lets continue monitoring.”  “Did you have a fall, or over exert yourself this last week?” Gertrude, “Yes I helped Jerry move a king size mattress Saturday.” Doctor: “That probably upped your blood pressure enough to restart the bleeding, I should have warned you not to do anything more strenuous than walking until this thing is cleared up.”  (Now she tells us!)
We are now back to square 1-1/2. Monitoring is now every week and I still need help to unload the old mattresses.
Thank you all for your concerns and prayers, who is to say that the prayers didn't work? Not me.
(Sorry this was so long.)
YB
Jerry
 

Gertrude is still ill and it is looking like brain surgery, we will know tomorrow. Today she is resting and I whipped up a batch of short cake. It is in he oven at this moment. I have prepared a couple of cups of blue berries partial crushed and sugared. I will suprise her when she awakens. If she soesn't want blue berries I have cup of rasberries, her choice.

"LOVE"
is not something we invented. Love transcends the dimensions of time and space, 

Spiritually, sometimes we fail. And sometimes we may fail badly. But may we remember this - “Never confuse a single failure with a final defeat.” 

Woke up a little dizzy, blood pressure machine has dead batteries, so can't check it. Was informed last night that a brother about my age had a heart attack yesterday, still waiting to hear on his condition. Got my assistant cover the meeting for service this AM and asked him to be sure and let our move-ins from CA that it is best to stay out from under trees this morning, 50 mph winds.
 

Here is a nice thought that can tie in with our life as a Christian:
"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough"