I'M BACK!

I want to thank you all for your understanding, patience, encouragement and prayers while God helped get a handle on my newest mission He has granted me.

As many of you know I have temporary custody of 2 of my 6 grandchildren. I feel honored God trusts me to step into this position.

The difficulty is not over by a long shot, but I feel God's comfort through everything.

Please keep my family in your prayers as your in mine.

I'M BACK! I'm going blog as much as I can.

I love you all dearly.

I am blessed
Merrym Dawn Bruce

These verses has been my strength this last little while and I felt the need to share it with you:

³ All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. ⁴ He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. ⁵ For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. ⁶ Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. ⁷ We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.

1 Corinthians 1:3-7

The Gift (Conitnued FINALE)

We walked in, full of overwhelming excitement. SO SURPRISED!
Mer was on her way out of this dark tunnel, just as we were on our way home.
WHAT A RELIEF!

We sat with her and explained that we had to get back home to our families and jobs.
She couldn't speak any louder than a whisper, but she begged us to PLEASE release her from the wrist restraints. She promised she'd be good!

The only way I could keep myself from crying over her sad, puppy dog eyes was to pull another silly joke out of my hat. We all tried to make up some crazy story why they had her hands bound.

She then begged us to take her with us. OH, MY THIS WAS GOING TO BE A TOUGH ONE!
Out of no where God sent a diversion. Courtney, her husband and kids showed up. Yeah! This would make for a much less emotional and lonely departure for Mer.

We each hugged and kissed her goodbye, promising to call as soon as she was up to talking.

That walk back down the corridor that morning was the longest, but then again God had granted us our wish. Mer, our GIFT, was seriously on her way to another successful recovery. AMEN!

For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.
Psalm 84:11

Love You Mer

NOTE: There is more to this story which includes Mer's wonderful friends visiting her. In particular the mother of the gentleman who found Mer the day she ended up at the hospital. When we get this in book form I will include that story

The Gift (continued, but almost done)

Back at the hospital, Mer was still pretty much comatose. The Dr. was very nervous over the situation because Mer was not reacting to stimulus. So, they wheeled her down the corridor to do a CAT scan on her brain. This concerned us, but not too bad, we just knew that God was on 'TEAM MERRYM!'

There was a problem! The machine wouldn't work for Mer. So back she came, as out of it as ever. The plan was to take her to another facility in the next day or so and use their scanner.

Now of course my brother Robert was back at it too. He had me alone in Mer's room, where he went about telling me that his girlfriend was going to fly out to see Mer, (Mer and his girlfriend had been pretty tight friends at one time). Robert proceeded to tell me that I would put this flight on 'MY' credit card and when his girl friend arrived, she'd pay me back in cash.

"Uh, NO!" was my response. "That's NOT happening! You and you so called girlfriend can get a so called credit card of your own, mine is for MY families emergencies!"

Boy was I hot under the collar AGAIN!

Anyway, we continued our turns doing rounds with Mer, but it was time to discuss heading back home. Robert and I really needed to get back to work, as we were both on leave without pay. I think Ann would like to have stayed, but the only way she could was to hand over the Suburban to Robert and I, then fly home on her own.

Well we settled on a homeward bound trip for that Sunday after church. We were supposed to stop by Debra's for an early dinner and then head out, but we opted for a earlier departure.

That Sunday we hit the hospital for our goodbyes to Mer. When we arrived to our surprise Mer had been down-graded and moved to a less intense ward. GOD IS GOOD!
Here it was our GIFT! Mer was sitting in a chair, still bound, but wide awake!

For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.
2 Corinthians 8:11-13

LOVE YOU MER

The Gift (continued one more time)

Well I was sick, the good old ROTA virus got me!

Jazmin finished up my hair cut and Glory made a small list of items to pick up from Mom's, because we had decided that it would be better if I kept the germs at Glory's.

The two of them headed over to Mom's for the family dinner and I sat in the TV room waiting for my niece Debra to visit. She had been fasting at the time so she really didn't want to be around food.

Debra showed up and we had a wonderful, one on one chat session, catching up on each others families etc... When Glory and Jaz came back, they brought Deb's kids with them and they set out for home.

I put my PJs on and Jazmin, being a sweetheart, gave up her bed for me. The night was a long one, being that I was up several times visiting the bathroom. Usually running through the dark. Thank goodness I knew the lay out of my sisters house!

The next morning I got up and joined my sister in her room while she showered and dressed for the day. I still felt like crud, so when she left to go to the hospital I stayed in her bed and napped the morning away.

Later that afternoon she called to check on me and then I moved to the TV room to watched trash television. Glory soon came home and warmed up some left-overs for me. And YEAH! I kept them down!

We decided I was well enough to attend the family dinner that evening and that's where we were off to. When I got there I just crawled into bed until Mom woke from a dead sleep. I forced myself to get up and join the family on the couch., where I could visit with everyone. I couldn't eat though, YUCK!

Thank Goodness, by the next morning I had fully recovered, showered, ate and got back on the Merrym tread mill.

Worship the Lord your God, and his blessings will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you,
Exodus 23:25


Love You Mer

The Gift (Continued Again & Again)

After we dressed up the tree Court took off for work and I headed back to the waiting room where I asked Jazmin if she would like to go to the hospital chapel with me. We walked a few steps down the hall and entered a small, bright, yet chilly room. There were a lot of books and information pamphlets on the shelves and ten or so simple chairs had been set up in front of a podium.

We stood at the podium where there were small sheets of paper with questions on them. We each filled out one, the questions were something like:
Who do you request prayer for?
What is their illness?
What would you like God to do in this difficult time?

We then dropped them in a box that said deposit prayer requests here. As I let mine slip from my finger tips, I silently prayed, "Dear God, heal her and take away her suffering. Amen."

Now at this time there was a huge H1N1 scare going around the country, so the hospital was very touchy about allowing ANY children past the lobby. But Courtney and Michelle seemed to know how to slip by. They always got caught later and asked to remove the kids from the waiting room.

On about Thursday Glory's Grandson had gotten ill at school so Glory, being the supportive Grandma that she is, picked him up from school early. She needed to come by the hospital for some reason and called me to say she would have Chase with her. When Robert heard this he blew a gasket directly at me! I told him that I wasn't in charge of Glory and the hospital would take care of it. He just continued to fume at me. All about how germs could go in and out of Mer's room and that Chase needed to stay away. I reminded him that on any given day any one of us could carry germs in and that Chase wasn't allowed past the lobby anyway.

It became a ridiculous fight that I thought I didn't deserve to be involved in. I was so angry at Robert for taking it out on me, that I stayed in Mer's room for a very long time. When Glory did arrive, (without Chase) I shared Robert's issue with her, telling her I was so upset that I couldn't be in the same room with him or I'd bite his head off! She calmed me down and we decided that I would go to her house, where Jazmin would cut my hair and then we'd just hang out.

The three of us, Glory, Jazmin and I, took off. Jazmin set me up for a hair cut and we all discussed our day. In the middle of the cut I announced, "Hey, I don't feel so hot. If I jump up and run to the bathroom you'll know why."
Snip, snip, comb, comb. Up I jumped and headed like a bullet for the bathroom, where I barely made it before losing my lunch. UGH! NO WAY! I CAN'T BE SICK! I JUST CAN'T!

The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?"
Exodus 2:13

Love You Mer

The Gift (Continued Again)

We hurried down the corridors to get to her room and as we passed the other patients rooms we could see looks of fear and horror on their faces as if to say. "OH DEAR GOD, what are they doing to that woman?!"

As we crossed the threshold to her prison, we saw Mer thrashing around best she could with her restraints on and making unintelligible, very loud noises! But she was not awake.

I threw my belongings in a chair and grabbed the sheet she had kicked off and covered her for modesty reasons. She calmed when she heard our soothing words, telling her it was OK we we're here now. Touching her helped her relax, so I squeezed her hand and began massaging her fingers.

This was going to be one long suffering day for each and everyone of us.

Courtney, Glory and I decided she needed music. This would sooth her and keep her mind busy. So Glory ran home and grabbed a CD player. Courtney rounded up a couple Christmas CDs and brought them in. We played them for her which seemed to keep her calm, cool and collect.

She did still have her moments though. Through out the day she still, yelled, screamed, kicked and thrashed herself to exhaustion. At one point we had all gone back to the waiting room to rest when all of a sudden, down that hall and around that corner came Mer's voice shouting in a scary, raspy horror movie voice, PEEEEEEGGYYYYY!
We all looked at each other with bugged out eyes and then burst out in belly busting laughs. I stood up and said, "Well I guess I'm being paged!"

I quickly skated into her room so she wouldn't continue to disturb the other patients. She was still not aware of the on going world around her. I just adjusted her sheet, fluffed up the pillow behind her head, repositioned the one under her butt and decided to put lotion on her very dry cracked puffed up feet.

The nurse came in with a very young soft spoken CNA and explained that her load that night would be very full and so she was required to have the CNA set in the room with Mer to keep an eye on her. That sounded great to me since Mer was having such bad withdrawals.

I went back and told the family. I also decided that when Mer did wake that she should have a little Christmas in her room. So I took off to Wallmart and bought her a small iridescent tree and Courtney and I decorated it with small family pictures.
Courts were of the grand-kids and mine were some that my daughter Brittney had asked me to bring to Aunt Merrym of her two children. I remember Britt saying tearfully on the phone very heart broken, "Mom I want her to see Marcus, she has never had the chance to meet him." How could that not twist your heart in a knot?

My Sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
Psalm 51:17

Love You Mer

The Gift ( continued XII)

We were then shuffled down the hall to our 3rd waiting room. This one was definitely three steps down from the first two. We squeezed into a small, cold and drafty square, with very uncomfortable chairs and a monster flat screen on the wall.

Now on this unit we were allowed to see Mer as we pleased. She had been placed as usual, right across the hall from the nurses station.

We decided to let Mer get settled in so we went back to Mom's for the evening. But the next morning we were at it again. Mom stayed home this time, but we were joined by the usual crew plus Glory's oldest granddaughter 'Chatty Cathy', Jazmin.

I immediately walked through this small unit to Mer's room and was slapped in the face by shock. Mer was unconscious, no not sleeping but completely out! I didn't realize this might be a part of how her body might respond to detox.

I stepped through the doorway and went around the bed. As I grabbed her bound hand I was alarmed again! Her hands were bloated to the size of an inflated latex glove! There was an IV connected to keep her hydrated. There was a tube secured to her nose, this was so they could feed her. She was having difficulties swallowing normally, caused by yanking the inflated respirator out.

My brother Robert followed me in, got right up to her pale, freckled face and said, "Hi baby."
Mer's eyes flickered quickly, and she responded back in a raspy whisper, "Hi baby."

This brought joyful tears to the rims of our eyes. I massaged her swollen hands which felt so tight and hard I thought the skin would burst open at any minute. She lay there in her deep, unwanted slumber as I snatched up a comb and tugged the snarls out of her short mop. Robert left as I rubbed her forehead and chatted softly at her.

The Dr. for this unit came in to check on her and introduced himself to me. He explained a few things and went about his morning rounds. Then in floated her nurse. A sweet woman with a marvelous British accent, who called Merrym honey.

I had a hard time leaving the room, but I knew I needed a break, so I switched out with one of my other siblings. We all took our turns doing rounds with Mer. Now they weren't picky about who visited, they just had to be over the age of 14.

While we sat in our drafty holding pen, Ann and Karen would work on a Christmas search and find book together. Bill would wonder in and out to smoke. Gaylia, Bill's wife would crochet Christmas wash rags for each of us. I brought my bills in and paid them. Robert, Glory and Jazmin chatted. Ace and Michelle came and went. Courtney would show up before her work shift and visit as long as she could.

By 5pm we were spent and Mer still unconscious, so we headed back to Mom's.

Each day, although Mer was slowly recovering, her body and mind would go through some very vocal and physical laboring.

That next day when we entered the hospital and walked towards the one on one unit, we could hear Mer yelling, YES YELLING! At the top of her lungs...

When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house."
Genesis 39:15


Love You Mer