We kind of left you all hanging as far as my Dad’s health. As some of you remember, my Dad got inadvertently struck by lightening while sleeping in his bed on Memorial Weekend. He really had no visible signs the first couple weeks after the strike. The only thing was his memory and doing daily activities and walking were getting worse. A doctor in Des Moines sent him to Iowa City for some testing. My mom, Sister and I took my Dad over to Iowa City. As our time there past, my Dad’s health became increasingly worse. After our horrible night in the hotel, we got my Dad back to Des Moines. His doctor at home sent us straight there. After 9 hours in the Emergency room we found out that my Dad was full of Ammonia. He had approximately 48 oz. of toxic fluid floating in his blood stream. So, they freed his body of the toxins. He then was put in the hospital. After several tests they found nothing, other than that his kidneys and bladder had somewhat stopped working. Luckily there is a drug that can help with that. He was then sent home three days later. (Which to all of his family is amazing considering he was on the brink of death).
After a few days of being at home, my Dad’s health increasingly got better. He was able to walk without a cane. He was only taking the minimum pain medications for his back. (no morphine). And was in a great mood. My Dad from years ago is back!
Now this is where it gets crazy again!! For about the next two weeks my Dad was having “visions” (that’s what I call them). At night when he went to bed, God would visit him. I’m not going to get into the details because I don’t know them all. But, God explained to him why he took Cory, (my brother) and that all the deceased people were doing fine. God told him to make peace with everyone. So…with that, my Dad did. We didn’t know if this meant he was going to die or if God was just telling him to be kind to everyone. Around Josie’s birthday, June 21st, my Dad had these really bad shakes. Something he’s never really had before. It was a total body shake and his voice was weak and shaky itself. He got to Josie’s birthday and gave me a big hug. We don’t hug!! Of course I broke down cuz I thought this meant he was telling me goodbye cuz God told him too.
So after all this shaking stopped, he still has the visions and talks with God, but he has become more and more healed! Can a person really be healed? He now has feeling in his lower back that he hasn’t had in years. He walks like he can go for miles. He’s happy and full of stories like he used to be. People ask me how my dad is doing and I have to ask them, “Do you believe in higher power?” Because if you don’t, this story will not make sense! Or you’ll think I’m crazy! We can’t explain a lot of things that happen in life and this is one of them. But I’m so glad my Dad did not die and that my family can enjoy my Dad for many years to come!
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Hey everyone,
We are still in Iowa City tonight. My Dad had his testings this morning/afternoon. During the afternoon they couldn’t keep him awake to ask him questions and get the testing done….so they were going to just send us home and come back next week. but…we asked if we could just stay tonight and get it done in the morning. So that’s what we are doing. We found a hotel close to the University that wasn’t flooded..(Hawkeye country…YUCK ) 
My Dad has literally gone down hill since we got to the hotel. My Mom is recovering from surgery three weeks ago so my Sister and I are handling the brunt of everything. My Dad was very, very, very non-coherent after he had a nap and all that. He knows who we are, but he’s talking about farming in the field, book sales, and going to school tomorrow. It’s very sad. Then we had to try and get him to the bathroom. He’s also very immobile tonight. We are hoping it’s just from sitting a lot today. We don’t know if we are going to be able to get him out the door in the morning if he’s still like this. My sister and I aren’t quite “mighty” enough. So…that’s what we are dealing with right now. We know that Walgreens down the road has a wheelchair we can go buy if all else fails.
This is about the most depressing day I have had in a long time. My Mom says this is the worst he has ever been so far. Hopefully we can make it through the night without calling 911. We don’t know.
So, needless to say, we don’t have any answers yet. Hopefully we’ll know more tomorrow. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be good news, but we’ll at least be able to know more about the lightning and what it actually did to him.
Thanks for all your prayers and support. This is insane!! I never thought it would come to this. We have a feeling the nursing home is in the near future. I dread that very much, but we know my Mom can’t handle him either. It’s a lot for three of us right now!
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Wow, time has gone by like you wouldn’t believe and with it have quite a few events. We had a garage sale on the 3rd and ended up selling quite a bit of stuff. It’s really amazing how much “stuff” everyone has in the U.S. Just look at all the people giving to Good Will on weekends (after garage sales).
Around the same time period, Jayden and Josie got pink-eye and then gave me the pleasure of experiencing it too. Needless to say Josie ended up getting it twice and Jayden three times before it was all said and done.
Kim’s Mom had surgery back on the 19th so I watched the kids (I took last week and this next week off from work) while Kim went and waited with the rest of her family. We took the kids to see Grandma Pat that afternoon and then went back again that night to help Kim’s Dad get back to our place to stay the night.
This memorial weekend was rather interesting to say the least. On Friday Kim came back from shopping with a friend and said that she had some interesting news for me. As soon as she said it was about her Dad, my heart sank as his health has been questionable as of late. The good news is no health problems that he currently has was the issue. The bad news was that he had been struck by lightning while sleeping Friday morning. Dale was sleeping when he felt the lightning bolt start up his feet and continued up through his spine and ending at his head. He especially felt it when it hit his back as he has metal rods in his spine from previous back surgeries. He told Pat that he thought his legs had blown off when it initially happened. It’s odd that he even drove himself to breakfast that morning as he was pretty incoherent later that morning. The lightning knocked the picture off the wall and left a mark on the white paint (see larger image from link above).
So we decided we’d head down to Creston on Saturday after attending a couple of graduation parties. It’s always an eery feeling going somewhere when you’re not sure what to expect. Yesterday Dale feel asleep a lot (he fell asleep with his breakfast in his lap). He also slept through Dinner. Fortunately he was doing a lot better today. He even drove himself to the restaurant for breakfast this morning.
It’s amazing that more damage hadn’t occurred and I consider it a miracle that Dale even survived. So all in all, quite an eventful month.
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“Oh this is the Grandpa one.” - Jayden
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Ace by Kim
This past weekend we took a trip to the Minnis Farm. Jayden was thrilled and couldn’t wait to help Papa and Great Papa. He wouldn’t take a nap on Saturday because he just had to help Papa feed the cows. One of his favorite things to do while on the farm. We also did some exploring with Jayden and Josie. Kevin took Jayden out on Great Papa’s 4-Wheeler. They both had a good time and could have ridden all day. Josie was infatuated with all the cows. Even though she wanted to see some sheep too. But there are no sheep on the farm. 
Jayden actually let a cow lick his fingers. That hasn’t happened since he was probably under 1 year old. He thought that was cool. Josie was going to let it lick her fingers until it jumped and she got scared. Maybe next time. Good thing for their “farm boots.” It was extra muddy with all the melting and rain. Josie loves her “farm boots.” She would wear them everyday if i let her. 
Even the big boys like their farm boots too. Kevin is modeling his new boots for the next issue of “G.Q.” Quite the stud he is, huh? I, on the other hand, need to invest in some farm boots! “Cosmo”–here I come!!
The most exciting thing from the weekend was actually witnessing a birth of a cow! Tis the season for births and after 6 years, I actually got to see one live. “Ace” as I like to call it, was born around 9:30 Friday night. I gave him/her the name Ace because it was the first birth of the season and my first birth to see. (Except my own children). It was really really cool. Man, to think we as humans get the opportunity for drugs to cope with the pain! Poor animals have to go through it all naturally. Thank Goodness for an Epidural! The cow really didn’t make any noises, she just kind of walked around/laid down and had him/her. It was fun watching the process afterwards of the mama cow, owning her child. It takes awhile, but she warmed up to it and started to lick her clean. (could you imagine if humans had to lick their child clean, yuck!!!) I’m glad it was a good birth and not one of those where Kevin’s dad would have had to pull it out! So it was a happy ending!
Kevin, Jayden, Josie and I, rode out in the bucket of the tractor (loader bucket) the next morning, to see baby Ace. They had moved the mom and baby so that they could be alone. The kids thought that was really cool to ride on the tractor like that. They were also excited to see the baby. Great papa was even more excited to take us out on the tractor to see it! What a ride!!
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