February 1 through Saturday, February 14:
Monday 2/1 – I had my annual mammogram in the morning (results all good), and a first visit to the orthopedic surgeon in the afternoon. The doctor says the MRI shows that the rotator cuff in my left shoulder looks pretty bad. He gave me a shot of cortisone in that shoulder and scheduled an appointment for me to return in three weeks to discuss the possibility of surgery. The news announced 5,730 new cases today in Florida. This is the lowest number in quite some time,
Tuesday, 2/2 – I did volunteer work at church and North River Pregnancy Center. When I had lunch with Vanessa, she told me that she was going to visit Rick’s memorial stone this afternoon. I later received the following picture from her.
When I got home, I went over to talk to JP and was surprised to find Kellie home from work. She told me that her work had sent her home this morning and told her to stay home until Emma was no longer quarantined or until she brought in a negative Covid test. She and Emma are getting tested tomorrow.
Wednesday, 2/3 – Great news, JP, Kellie and Emma all tested negative for Covid-19 today and Kellie had to return to work immediately. Emma will return to school next Wednesday, 2/10. In the meantime, she is doing on-line school. I went to choir practice in the evening.
Thursday, 2/4 – I took Dad to a gastroenterologist for a follow-up on the esophageal dilation that he had done last month while at the Lakewood Ranch Medical Center. Dr. “K” said that everything looked good and as long as he kept taking an acid reducer, he probably wouldn’t need to see him again for about 4 years!
Nothing out of the ordinary happened on Friday or Saturday this week.
Sunday, 2/7 – Emma returned to church with me since she had a negative COVID-19 test. Dad and I watched the Super Bowl in the evening and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won!
Monday, 2/8, through Friday, 2/12, were pretty routine. On Saturday, 2/13, Dad was experiencing withdrawals from football!
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Sunday, 2/14 – We hope everyone had a Happy Valentine’s Day. “Papa” gave candy to Emma, Vanessa, Kellie and me. JP gave each of us flowers. A picture of my flowers is below.
Thanks, Son.
February 15 through February 28:
The week of February 15th through the 21st was mostly routine. Saturday the 20th was a work day at church. We were cleaning out the old church office to “morph” it into a Community Outreach building (which will include some storage for NRC). I stopped by cemetery on the way home to put some new flowers at Rick’s memorial stone.
Sunday, the 21st was my brother Rick’s 67th birthday.
On Monday the 22nd, the news reported over 128 million Coronavirus cases in the US and as of today, 500,000 deaths. It was just the night before the Presidential inauguration in January that the US reached 400,000 deaths. While we now have a vaccine and the numbers of hospitalizations and new cases are going down, new strains of the virus are popping up all over the world and reaching the U.S. Dad and I continue to be on the Manatee County waiting list to receive our first (of two) vaccinations. I saw the orthopedic surgeon today. It has been 3 weeks since I received my cortisone shot in my left shoulder and even though I have some pain, it has felt much better. Much to my surprise, he told me that the lessening of my pain actually verified that my pain was in the rotator cuff. He told me that it would not get better and that the pain would return. So, we decided to go ahead with surgery which has been scheduled for Tuesday, March 23rd, in the Coastal Orthopedics East Surgery Center. I will have several pre-appointments for various reasons, then 3 weeks of rest and recuperation at home before I start 6 weeks of therapy. He said that it could take 6 months to fully get back to normal.
On Friday the 26th, I had my annual eye exam. I should be getting my new glasses in about 10 days. On Saturday, Emma and I went to church for a “meet and greet” with Pastor Ryan and his wife Jennifer and 10-year-old son Aaron. They are visiting our church from Santa Claus, Indiana.
Pastor Ryan Akers was the guest speaker at church on Sunday, February 28. The church membership will vote next Sunday whether to call him to be our new part-time minister focusing on children, youth and young families.
Our journey has been inspired by Joy and Steve Fredrick. You can see more of their story at