Well I guess you have thought that I forgot about you and that is not the truth. The truth is I have not felt like writing in my blog. I have not felt like doing anything, yesterday I read and cleaned up my e-mail. I sure do thank you for all of your prayers, I am glad our God does not mind repeated request. Your prayers and God’s blessing have allowed me to get to feeling better. I am still whining about one thing and that is my stomach. The doctor told me I tore my stomach muscles while I was coughing so bad because my muscles were still weak from the transplant. I like this doc’s definition of what muscles are, people have always told me that was fat now we know it is muscle.

Tomorrow will be two weeks since I went to Charleston for these last rounds of tests. We still know nothing about the test. I am going to call them tomorrow if I have no news today.

I have some awesome news to share with you, on Sunday February 17; our daughter Abigail was baptized, God is awesome. Preacher Mike stated that being saved was so simple that even a child could understand. Who is Preacher Mike? He is our new pastor at Cedar Shoals Baptist Church in Possum Kingdom, God just keeps blessing us. Please keep Preacher Mike in your prayers along with Preacher Frank. Preacher Frank has a new church in Anderson and God is blessing and challenging him in this new adventure. Prayer is a powerful tool that God has given us, and we so often only use that tool in bad time, pray in the good times as God will make them better also.

I am excited about a new road that I along with others am traveling. That road is called transition because we now are a part of the new era of public education in organ donation for SC. You know how proud I am to be a part of making people aware of the need of organ donation. You know I have been a volunteer with Donate Life SC since my transplant. We now have an old organization that has taken on a new role of public awareness, LifePoint Inc. We the volunteers are now a part of a big organization that will allow us to get the word out for the need of organ donation. What happened to Donate Life SC? Donate Life SC are in the role of the state registry only! WOW to be a part of such a great organization as LifePoint Inc. is truly an honor, so thank you LifePoint Inc. for allowing me and the other faithful volunteers the honor of being a part of such a great organization. Check out LifePoint Inc. at http://www.lifepoint-sc.org/ Please remember get your heart right with God before it’s to late and then commit to help save the life of someone else, when you are gone, through organ donation and please tell your next of kin of your wishes.

I have some other exciting news and that is on Saturday March 1, 2008 I will be one of two speakers at Mt. Bethel Baptist Church Wild Game Supper, there will be about 300 + men there in fellowship and good ole eating, keep your eyes open for the failed Possum crossing yeilds, so if you can please come join us as I will tell you how God humbled me and how he has now opened new doors in my life. Just remember ain’t no plate sharing on the failed Possum crossings. Mt Bethel Baptist Church is located in Anderson County right at the Abbeville County line at 2603 Due West Hwy. Belton, SC 29627. We hope to see ya there, you can even bring your own road kill.

Finally for the latest weather report from Possum Kingdom, today sunny and cool with a breeze 100mph or so, so unless you eat a second helping of failed Possum crossing last night you better put some rocks in your pockets or you will be visiting you neighbors. Don’t worry Mark I am not a threat to the world of weather forecasting, just fact telling in Possum Kingdom.

God Bless You,
Thank You for all you do for me and others,
Lightning,
Pel,
Pelham

Quick update on me, I got sick Tuesday night and on Wednesday the doctors got with me, you know I have one doctor up here to consult and two doctors in Charleston and I have to keep them all on the same page, sometimes quite a task. My lung doctor and my local doctor thought that my lung catheter may be infected. Since somewhere around two months is all they leave them in people, normally. I have just crossed my fifth month. Those test so far have showed the lung catheter to be OK, some test are still out. The lung doctor said that after he checked me out he thought that I had something viral going on causing me to feel extra bad. He did however go ahead and conduct other test such as a CT to look for pockets in my chest cavity and be sure the lung is OK and that the catheter is still where they want it.

When I was down in November and he ran the other nuclear medicine test, there was a national shortage on nuclear medicine. He checked while I was down there and they were able to go ahead and conducted the second nuclear test. Well this is the one that I was kind of dreading because they have to stick a needle between your toes and inject the nuclear medicine in there and watch it flow through your lymph system. Well I was wrong about the test. It was not one shot between your toes it was four shots between four different toes, two on each foot. They said even at MUSC they only do this test about once every three months, glad I got in that number. That study will see if they can find a leak in my lymph system and allow the fluid to track to my lung. Anyway after a full day, starting at 0800hrs at MUSC we arrived back at the motel around 1900hrs last evening.
We arrived home today about 1630hrs, Saturday.

God Bless You,
Pelham, Claire & Abigail

I wanted to give you an update.
I have talk with my doctor in Anderson and the doctors in Charleston. I was thinking I have a cold or the flu, they think something may be wrong in my lung or with the catheter. Anyway they tested the fluid from my lung for infection last night and I have not gotten a report as of yet. The lung doctor in Charleston however is uncomfortable with what’s up so he said no matter what the test showed, he still wanted me to come down there. Claire is now not feeling well but she, Abigail and myself are headed to Charleston this afternoon for an appointment in the morning with the lung doctors at 0820hrs.

I will keep you updated.

Greetings From Possum Kingdom,

I hope all is well and I hope you are having a wonderful day or a beautiful night if it is already dark.

Word Of Wisdom
Well as we all know of the tradition last week with the Groundhog and you may or may not believe that the Groundhog can predict the future weather. On the issue of maybe or maybe not, we here in Possum Kingdom have a sure prediction that has been tested for years and we know it to be a fact. That is here in Possum Kingdom we have Possum Night, that is to see if the Possum can cross the road with out becoming road kill, well the test has once again added to the factual results, the Possum can still not get past that second yellow line in the road, oh well Happy Possum Night.

OK I will try to be serious now, I want to try to catch you up since I have been dragging my heals, really I have been chasing my Possum, trying to keep him from being a statistic. He is just hanging around right now, so I wanted to catch you up.

Just to recap a little, about the last two postings, I told you how I was in Charleston, to see the doctor for my one year check up, which by the way my year was up last Tuesday. The liver doctor said that my liver was doing fine, but he had some concerns about some of my blood work, he discovered I had red blood. He changed some of my medication and scheduled blood work the following week. I wanted to wait so I could tell you about those test, but as you know I did not tell you nothing because they did not learn nothing, because for what ever reason the improper test were conducted. Therefore I had to go last Monday to get more blood work drawn. If you remember two of my problems are the fact that I am retaining fluid, not just in my lung area, but all over, the other is this uric acid and the pain that it causes all over my body. I gladly went to have the blood work drawn again so maybe they could treat my uric acid levels. I received notice back from the doctor’s office that my liver number are up a little, still in normal range, my creatinine is still way to high for them to administer Indocin to me to treat the uric acid. What does that mean, well as I understand it; my kidneys are not acting right and if they administered the Indocin to me right now, that could damage my kidneys more than what they already are. I guess I will have to wait until February 25, 2008 to have more blood work drawn.

I am up to a weekly call to the lung doctor in Charleston, still waiting for that return call. He sure must be busy, but he sure is seeing my name and number a lot or at least someone is. The fluid is still about the same, for some reason I am having some pains, just minor like cutting your finger nail off in the quick, in the area of the tube, no signs of infection, guess I just needed something new to whine about.

We have gotten some great news about the future of promoting organ, eye and tissue donation. I can’t let the Possum out of the bag yet but keep praying and watching for future events that will promote this great cause. I am so proud of one thing and that is some of the same great folks are working toward this exciting future.

The other event that is so exciting is the gathering of Christian Fire Fighters, we had a wonderful meeting last month we had about 15 present and we are planning another meeting this month on February 28, 2008, the exact time and location to be announced shortly. It was an uplifting event for me as we shared what God has done for us and how we are trying to stay in God’s will and we pray for his blessings on each gathering. We have one goal at each gathering, that is to honor and praise God. We not only feed our hungry souls from God’s word but we feed our bellies, you just can’t get no better than that. Come and join us on February 28, 2008, I will let you know where and what time soon.

A note of what has been taking my time for the past week. Well you know how I love gadgets, so I upgrade my Nextel phone to a hybrid phone, Sprint voice & data with Nextel walkie-talkie. OK no big deal right, wrong. This thing has a bunch of gadgets for the gadgets and now I am at one week still trying to learn all that it can do. I can talk, text, IM, e-mail, browse the internet, play games, get directions and even carry on a conversation with just my phone with voice commands. The tech support people now know me well. I have cause things to happen to this ic902 that they did not know it could even do must less how to fix it, so I have figured some of them out. The biggest issue right now that is whopping me is the e-mail notification, it will notify me when ever it wants to or when I want to use the phone, so I have to figure out how to make it inform me without bothering me, I let you know how all this works out.

Have a great day
or night if it is already dark,

God Bless You,

Pel