Over hill and dale

Rick and I went to the open house at "Step it Up" in Sanford and boy was that an encouragement. Most of the current clients are young and look great! It was so cool to see them on typical gym equipment with their trainers strengthening their muscles, coordination and in a "walking" machine. They were all very positive and all they could say was "we gotta get Dustin here."

Rick and I had a some quality time at the Marriott for a whole 17 hours before heading to Tampa. The social worker was able to get some of the big whigs together for a meeting requested by me. We had several concerns including decreased cognition, increased pain while on enough pain meds to take out half of the ward, him refusing treatment and just laying in bed and the wounds (found out he has 2 new ones). They "heard" me and moved into action. They have already eliminated one med that I know of, changed others, got him a new improved bed and assured me about the wounds. The large one has actually decreased 1.5 cm and that apparently is good. His old doctor that he greatly admires and who has great discernement with Dustin has been called back onto his case along with the head guy of the spinal cord unit who is new and seems very concerned and on the ball.

After the meeting, (he was in so much pain he couldn't come) the visit went downhill pretty quick. We left early and got dinner and got a priceless 9 hours of sleep. I spent much of the morning at the pool fortifying myself with the book of James which really helped me see that I had gotten caught up in his negativity, was getting angry at his passivity and what I perceived as "giving up". I repented to God for this and decided I would from now on "walk by faith and not by sight". When I speak about Dustin I will no longer talk about what it looks like in the natural but see him by faith as a strong, healthy young man with a sound mind. I will also speak and treat him just as that and not get pulled into the demonic pit of hopelessness and destruction. Now most of you that know me would be saying "but of course you have doing this walk all along," Let me tell you I was starting to get sucked into all of the generational iniquity but some quality time with God helped me see I was on slippery ground.

Today he was like the old/new Dustin. We had a great visit, he looked good and seemed motivated to get up, let me work on his tense neck and we enjoyed a whole raw juicy pineapple as well as a strawberry milkshake outside. Our great friend from Naples came to visit and we all had a few laughs of old memories. That is the first time in awhile he has laughed and actually looked someone in the eye. This is worth a billion dollars to me or any other thing in the world.

We fed him dinner (4:30 - my usual lunch time) and he was going to take a big nap. He had had a full shower with the old hippie Dr. Bronners peppermint soup that Rick and I love, had a big day and now ready to rest. It was a delight for that "normal" schedule. They are looking at possible Botox injections into his neck to alleviate the tenseness, extreme pain and headaches that he gets. The one thing they are not sure about is apparently it decreases the strength of the muscles which is probably not good right now. The good thing is then perhaps he could get off most all pain meds. I will trust that God has the perfect plan with no side effects.

Rick is recuperating well with his knee but it does swell up after he stays on it for very long. He finally finished all of his blood thinner shots (yeah!!!) and rarely uses the "real" pain meds. He is limping around with no crutch or anything and doing his exercises.

I am very grateful for this day and all of you who pray for us. We will look back one day and see how we all changed and matured in our faith and how God brought us all into His perfect plan. I can't wait and will try to patiently wait. Until then I am still walking.......

love to all
mary pat