CHRISTMAS LETTER 2010

Christmas 2010

I am sitting at my desk looking out at many twinkling Christmas lights. It is a beautiful scene. Christmas is my favorite time of year. I love  joining in the celebration of the biggest birthday party in theworld!

And I am so thankful for God’s love and this reminder of His gift of love in the birth of Jesus.

It is over a year now since we moved out of Gateway and into our condo at Parkway Estates. We have enjoyed our new lifestyle very much. We are very blessed to have such a comfortable home and wonderful neighbours.

As many of you already know, John’s health has deteriorated considerably over the last year. Actually, looking at what he was able to do when we moved in here, compared to now, was a real eye-opener. I have detailed all of that on the blog that I write to update our friends on his condition. For those that do not already know, you can check up on John at http://bjlombard.blogspot.com



In March of this year, we celebrated John’s 72nd birthday with an open house in the activity room of the condo. Over 80 people came to celebrate with him. He had a good day that day and was very blessed by all the love and caring. Our bishop, The Rt Rev Silas Ng gave him a wall hanging of Psalm 121.

NamJun, TaeYeon, OnSol and Haram Cho

We have also appreciated visits from a number of Gateway graduates this year as they  passed through the area. It helps us to still feel connected to their lives and ministries around the world.

The other seniors who live in our condo have been a real blessing to us too. One man comes in every week and stays with John while I go out and do the shopping. Another one comes and sings hymns with him. Several others have volunteered to help out when I need it.

John and Nahal

This fall, John went to speech therapy at Surrey hospital for 12 weeks. Nahal was our therapist and she and John had a wonderful time together. The therapy helped him a lot although he has not been feeling well enough to be consistent in doing his voice exercises in the last month or so. One of the blessings we have is that John has not lost his sense of humour even if he cannot always express it. One week when we said John needed a haircut, Nahal suggested that he should grow it long instead. Next week he arrived wearing a long blonde wig. What a handsome husband I have??????

It has become obvious that I cannot handle the physical care for John (moving,dressing etc) by myself any longer. The disc problem in my back is objecting to the load of lifting him etc. So we now have Home Care coming in three times a day to help with those duties. It is a blessing to both of us. But it means I have to be up at 6:30 am every morning – ugh!! And by the time we have him bed bathed, dressed and bedded down on sofa, I am wide awake and cannot get back to sleep. They come to put him to bed at 10pm and I cannot go to bed until he has had his 11pm meds so I have to “sleep fast”. The Occupational and Physio therapists will be coming to tell us what other equipment we need ie lift for bed, wheelchair etc. The family is increasing and all are doing well. John Jr and Charlene moved from Beijing to Dongguan this past year. He is currently in negotiations for his own TV show on how to do  business in China. Ted and Sabryna welcomed their new daughter, Shyla, on November 27th. Our 7th grandchild. Tanya’s family is growing quickly and flourishing.

John, Charlene and their family

Tanya and kids



Ted and Shyla

Greg

One of our family does live in the area and that is our foster son, Greg. He plans to move back to Langley in the near future and hopefully will be able to spend Christmas with us.

Due to John Sr's health, we cannot travel to be with any of our other kids this Christmas, and due to various circumstances they cannot be with us either. But we have some dear friends coming to enjoy dinner with us and we are looking forward to that. We can still enjoy the birthday party!!

Although this has been a difficult year in some ways, we are thankful for our many, many blessings.

We have been aware of God’s provision for us over and over again. So it is with thank-filled hearts that we look forward to whatever 2011 may hold for us.

O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant.

O come ye o come ye to Bethlehem.

Come and behold Him, born the King of Angels,

O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him

O come let us adore Him Christ the Lord

Christmas Blessings

John and Bev

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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

John woke up at 2am and wanted ice cream!! He enjoyed every bite and then went back to sleep.  Just as well he enjoyed it then because when he woke up in the morning he felt awful so could not eat any then. He had a very bad morning and early afternoon but then started to feel well enough to get up and sit in his chair.
The lady from Home Care came today and starting tomorrow there will be somebody coming in at 7am to get him out to the sofa, 11am to bath and dress him and get him into his chair, and 10pm to put him to bed.
Hopefully this will be a big help for me.An OT and a PT will be coming in sometime in the next couple of weeks to evaluate him and see what else we need. Looks like we may have to get a lift to get him in and out of bed, and a wheel chair to transport him from one room to the other. Not sure what else they may recommend. The home care worker was looking at his recliner chair and wondering if he needed a different kind of chair as he keeps sliding out of this one. But all of it will be less expensive than having to put him into a nursing home, and much better for John.
Ike and Trudy Agawin, the Directors of Gateway, came over tonight for a visit and brought us a beautiful big poinsettia. We had a lovely visit and John was able to sit and talk (well, whisper) to them.
7am will come early so I am off to bed.

One thumbs down for today.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

John had a better day today - not great, but better. However, the issue of his mobility continues to be a big concern. He keeps "sliding" out of his recliner chair and I have to get him sitting up again. He cannot stand up alone even hanging on to the his walker. So I have to try and hold him up and get the chair back into position, and get him sat down again in a better position. This happens every 15 - 30 minutes when he is not doing well. Once again after 6pm things got worse and he headed for bed early again and then I gave him his meds at 11pm.
Gus, our neighbour, came in to stay with John so I could go and help Margie in the office at Gateway this afternoon. Unfortunately, John had some personal needs come up that he could not ask Gus to help him with, and so he called and asked me to come home shortly after I got there.
Still have to give it a one thumbs down today.

Monday, December 6, 2010

John did well last night until 4am. Then things got a little rough as he could not get comfortable. Another dose of meds and sleeping pill looked after him until the morning.
Today was not too bad.Pastor Ed Hird called and John was able to talk to him on the phone for awhile.

 It was the Christmas dinner at the condo tonight and I was very encouraged when John said he felt well enough to attend. His strength has weakened considerably in the last few weeks so he could not walk that far with his walker, but I pushed him and we made it OK. By the time grace was said, he had to come back home as he was beginning to feel quite miserable. Gus helped me get him home and settled and then we went back and had a beautiful Christmas supper. I brought up some nice chiffon style dessert for John to have when I got home (which is all he would have been able to eat if he had stayed) but he missed the fellowship. I only stayed for the supper but not the Christmas entertainment that followed.
John is experiencing more pain these days - namely in his feet, now his hands, and his knees..
It may be neuropaphy from the diabetes but that is only a guess not a diagnosis.
It is the Christmas carol night at Gateway tomorrow night but I do not see us being able to go because John's evenings are not good at this time. I am going over to Gateway to work in the office and help Margie tomorrow afternoon and Gus will come and stay with John so I can do that.

I also talked to the Home Care worker and the neurologist's nurse today. We will have to see if either can offer any solutions for us at this time.

One thumbs up for the day and one thumbs down for the evening.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

John had a really good night last night and slept through the entire night. He also had a pretty good day until 6pm. Then the meds stopped working well and he had a miserable evening. He went to bed at 9pm but he is still awake as I am writing this. I am praying he will go to sleep soon and that we will not have another night like Friday night.
I will give it a one thumbs up for the day and a one thumbs down fro tonight.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

The last few days have been very difficult. John has had a terrible time with the meds working minimally or seemingly not at all. Yesterday was bad. Last night was horrible.
Usually, when John is very uncomfortable, going to sleep will bring him some relief. Last night he never went to sleep. I gave him sleeping meds at bedtime and more an hour later. But the first time he drifted off to sleep was at 6am this morning. In the meantime he was suffering all through the night - the really bad spells seemed to come in waves - really bad and then let up a bit and then start again. So every time he would almost get to sleep another session would start.
On top of that, the valve for his feeding tube had cracked. Fortunately, yesterday I went and got a replacement. But in the meantime I had replaced it with an older one that was wearing out. So at about 3am when I gave him more meds hoping to stop the cycle, the valve did not close properly and soon I found all this gunk all over John and the chesterfield when he was laying, backing up from his stomach. I had to get him up and change everything. I changed the valve too.
But this valve was different and I did not turn it off properly, so pretty soon we found there was another, bigger mess, all over the chesterfield, the floor etc. Poor John had to get up again while I cleaned him up and that mess as well. I just got him settled, and discovered that in the struggle, the valve (which had been turned the right way, had somehow got turned on again.) And we had a third mess. I was running out of sheets and towels to cover the chesterfield with!! I had three full loads of wash waiting for me in the morning.
At  6am I gave him another sleeping pill and this put him to sleep until about 9am. He has been up (well, awake) ever since then.
When he woke in the morning he was as bad as ever. He tried getting up but soon went back to bed and stayed there all of the morning and early afternoon. He had me read to him to try and distract him.
Finally, another dose of extra meds seemed to boost him over the top and he was able to get up and watch TV. Soon after that we had lots of  company arrive. Debbie dropped in from Tsawwassen and Margie, Kim, Paul and Manuel came over from Gateway. So we had a lovely tea party and lots of stories and laughs. John felt well enough to enjoy most of that although a couple of times he had to be moved to get comfortable. Having two strong men here to help get him up and sit him down again was a big help.
But after 6pm he began to feel badly again. By bedtime he was not well at all. After I got him into bed he said he felt terrible and asked me to just sit with him and hold his arms. But he was sound asleep in about 5 minutes.
 I will call the neurologist again on Monday and see what else, if anything, he can suggest.
I do not think I will be able to get to church tomorrow as his condition right now does not allow for leaving him on his own at any time.
Transferring him from one place to another is getting to be a big problem as he has no strength to help himself, stand on his own, etc. and I am hoping the physiotherapist will be coming soon to help me with that.
Please pray for sleep for both of us.
Two thumbs down, at least.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

December already!! Time to get out those decorations, and send out those cards!! Well, I have our Christmas letter almost done... but waiting for some sunshine to put up the Christmas lights. I may wait awhile
John's day was a little better for most of the day. The lady from Home Care came and did an evaluation. Although she says I am doing too much and need help, we could not really come up with many ways they could help me. Because it is a government program there are all sorts of strings attached. I can have someone come and stay with John while I go out but they would not be allowed to give meds by tube feeding - so not a lot of help. They will send in someone once a week to help bath John - and we will try that. But it will cost $25.00 each time they come and I will have to see if it is really worth it.
Her suggestion was that I might try and hire someone privately that would be able to do more things that would be helpful, but I will have to explore that and it's possibilities.
The best thing she could offer was that she will send over a physiotherapist to give me help in transferring John in and out of bed etc.  But I don't know when that will happen.
Zeke came over tonight and fixed my car - just a loose connection on the alternator. So I have wheels again. hallelujah.
John has had a lot of saliva today and he has been coping with it by stuffing kleenex in his mouth and chewing on it and soaking up the saliva that way. He is on his second box of  kleenex today! 
That's all for now.

Not sure how to rate today.