Repaired

For those of you who have followed my blog for awhile you will remember Ruth's little incident with her grandparent's cat about 15 months ago. We gave Ruth a ring for her 16th birthday and we had to cut that off her finger as her finger was swelling like crazy after the cat bit her. Since she had that emergency surgery and stitches on her ring finger, it took awhile for her finger to heal up. It took months before she even wanted to think about putting anything on that finger again. A little while ago we went to the store we got the ring from, to see if they could fix the ring. They said they couldn't promise anything but they would try to repair it. Yesterday we went to pick up the ring. It looks pretty good. Ruth can feel a small knot in the back but anyone looking at it wouldn't notice anything. At times her finger does bother her and it gets stiff, so it will be an adjustment to get used to wearing the ring again. However, Ruth is happy to have the ring fixed and will slowly start "breaking it in".

REMOVED

Today Ruth was able to get her stitches out. Her finger is looking really good. She is supposed to be careful for a day or two and then she will start exercising it so she will be able to have full use of it again. Thanks again for your prayers for her during the healing process.

UPDATE ON RUTH'S HAND

We want to thank-you for all your prayers for Ruth. She went to the doctor yesterday for a check up. Our doctor here was VERY happy how her hand looked. She will go in on Tuesday to get the stitches out but all signs of infection are gone. When the stitches come out she will have to be careful for a few days as it is a time when infection could set in again until everything is totally closed up. Ruth will have to do some stretching exercises with her finger so that she will be able to use it normally again. But how thankful we are for how things have healed up! We had a letter from our insurance company waiting for us and so we will start filling out paper work. We would appreciate your prayers that everything goes through smoothly so that our travel insurance will cover all the medical bills. Thanks!

RELEASED (for strong stomachs only)

We were happy that we were able to get Ruth released from the the hospital today. She will still need a lot of time to recover from all the trauma she has gone through with her finger. The doctor said she should not even think about going back to work for 6-8 weeks. Her dressing needs to be changed twice a day. And the nurse walked Vern through it this morning before we could leave. It is quite painful to do anything to her hand so Ruth usually needs to take some pain medicine before the dressing change. The trip of leaving the hospital and getting to my sister's place totally wore Ruth out. Thanks again for your prayers for Ruth please continue to pray for her as it will be quite the healing process.

Holiday in the Hospital (for strong stomachs only)

Thanks again for all your prayers for Ruth. The last couple of days have been a bit rough and yet we have totally sensed God's presence. Here are a few shots of Ruth's time in the hospital. I am warning you that there is a graphic picture of her finger. I know there will be some of you out there that would like to get a peek. Last night when the nurse changed Ruth's bandage two nurses came in to see the wound. They were disappointed that they were a few minutes too late.

Surgery

This morning Holly and Vern took Ruth in for her Specialist appointment.The doctor took a look at it and sent admitted her into the hospital for a surgery. The infection has not gotten any better and her hand is redder now than yesterday. She will be in the hospital for 3-5 days and her surgery is today (Tuesday) at 2:00.

We would all appreciate your prayers for Ruth, Vern and Holly and the rest of the family. It's not exactly the way they planned to spend their time here in Chicago but we are all very thankful that they are getting such good care here.

Thank you for your prayers and thoughts, we will keep you updated when we hear more.

Kristina

911 EMERGENCY

When Ruth got up this morning her finger was still hurting and there was a red streak up her arm. So we decided to take her to an immediate care center. After waiting there over 1 1/2 hours the doctor took one look at her arm and told us we needed to take Ruth to the emergency room right away. When we got to the emergency room they gave her antibiotics through an intravenous drip. They also did some blood work to see if there is anything that shows up in that. We would REALLY appreciate your prayers for Ruth. If her infection spreads and she develops a fever she needs to go back to the hospital right away. She already has two appointments tomorrow to see two doctors. One is a hand specialist and the other is the same doctor she saw today that is going to check to make sure she hasn't gotten worse from the infection. Thanks for your prayers they are GREATLY appreciated.