It's been a spell...

Update, update....

Let's see...has been over two weeks already since my accident?

Friends, I have truly felt your prayers and I am so thankful for all your support, concern and encouragement. Please know, I am doing really very well...

The day after I last posted was Halloween....

I dressed up as a clown (don't have a pic with the crazy wig, hat and nose!) for our fall festival and made balloon animals for community kids in the midst of helping out with perhaps the busiest day I have seen at Crossroad.
...suicide attempt, chest pain, shortness of breath/anxiety attack, head trauma emergencies...

Picture me dressed in mismatched plaid and crazy stripes calling out for an ambulance!

Vehicle update.
My truck was totaled. This is actually a relief and an answer to prayer. I received a more than fair settlement from my insurance company and now I won't have to overcome the fear hurdle of driving that particular vehicle again.

I am pain free in my back...no lingering injury! Praise God.

And I have sat wheelside again...I drove about a hour north to church and back in a borrowed and much appreciated, wheel-studded old buick this last Sunday.

It was quite a triumphant drive...

On the flip-side...I got to church to teach a fun Sunday school lesson and no kids attended!

How much of ministry is really just showing up?

Work update.

I love working days & I've been working quite a few. I just finished my few weeks of days...so I'm back to nights this upcoming week... I have given so many shots in the past couple weeks. Yesterday my heart just about broke as I had to administer five injections to a squriming, frightened four year old...Not my favorite moment.

Let's see...much time is spent with faxing, phone calls and many other seemingly random tasks... but let me paint a picture of a few patients that I've seen lately...
Gentleman #1; passed out from smoke inhalation after he caught his food on fire. Alcohol was involved. This man had a mishap with frostbite in the past and is missing all but a couple of his fingers. He has a rough reputation and many people have some mistrust or grudge they hold to him. He is lonely and hurting...physically and in every other respect. He mentioned that he wants to go to church, but that the last time he attended, "some folk got up and left in disgust."

Pray for this man.

Gentleman #2; knarly laceration to the arch of his foot. We had to do everything we could to hold down his leg to numb the area for stitches, he was kicking and jerking and yelping

"Holy, wow, cow, holy, man, cow" over and over. It was a painful, riot.
He was heading down the road to sepsis as well...we flew him out, of course.

Gentleman #3; homeless man that couldn't walk or sit up by himself. He's been on a drinking binge for most of the summer, hasn't eaten regularly for the same amount of time. Emaciated. Weak. Hasn't showered in a very long time. Dirt is caked on to his skin. Night nurse got him in the shower and scrubbed him down for over an hour. Pray for his rehabilitation road...

Gentleman #4; last night's emergency. Vomiting and diarrhea led to disrupted electrolytes, grand mal seizure, altered level of consciousness, moaning, flailing extremities. Four of our staff are required just to hold him on the gurney...and we do so for about four hours. Family members lined the hallway. Possibly cancer metastases at the root of it all.
Please pray for him as well, he was in poor shape.

Lady#1; anxious, anxious. Nauseous and trembling with anxiety. Stressed and attempted to cope with life by drinking for the first time in a long time. Please pray that she may find healthier avenues...that she might open up her life to the Prince that loves her and offers peace...

Lady#2; epigastric pain off and on for a couple days. Decision to rule out cardiac problems revealed a positive troponin value (enzyme that signifies cardiac stress/damage, but not necessarily exclusively). Sweet lady, she asked me to braid her hair.

Turned out she had to have her gallbladder removed.

Though I can't say, "there's never a dull moment," because there are...I'm definitely growing in experience and am mostly grateful about being here for "such a time as this."

In other news, I'm working with a group in the village of Gulkana to get a youth group started. We showed up last week for the first time and no kids were there...but there were a couple boys outside sledding...I rode the hill a couple times and explained what we were going to be doing on Saturdays and I think they're are going to come next week!

Pray for this grassroots ministry!

Other fun adventures update.
I have now officially gone cross country skiing! I LOVE, LOVE IT!

I walked on a frozen lake for the first time...and ate frozen pizza for breakfast on it as I watched the sunrise! Let's just say, sledding in the dark is awesome. I went on a wonderful road trip up north last week and saw spectacular, truly spectacular mountain views, moose, caribou and foxes.... Alaska never ceases to amaze...it was twenty below zero last night.

I'm getting to better know my new friends and community...and I have found myself so very grateful and blessed by each of them in different ways...

This is awesome Millete. She makes awesome Filipino food!

This is Carston! The new babe of one of my coworkers!!

And this is my friend, Tim. Stay tuned...