I apologize for the big break in updates, but we have been busy in many good ways. We left Moberly on July 15th to go to Nicole's so I could return to work at University of Missouri St. Louis. Randy continued his iv antibiotics and the Home Health nurse in the O’Fallon area taught us how he could take care of his meds on his own. It worked perfectly by extending the tubing and we learned he was able to keep track of the flushings and the infusions.

About ten days ago, Randy had follow-up visits with the cardiologist surgeon and the infectious disease doctor and both discharged him from their care. In addition, the infectious disease doctor stopped his infusion treatment. It was a great day when his picc line was removed and we celebrated with a Batman cake!

Once Randy was discharged from Home Health, we were able to get him started with Cardiac rehab at Barnes-Jewish in St. Peters. The location happens to be familiar territory for Randy as Mike and Nicole at one time lived near the hospital. We are relieved as Randy will soon be driving himself to the sessions. The insurance through the military covers 36 visits so he will be doing the rehab at least until November three times per week. We see so much improvement in him already and believe after 36 weeks he will be a new person!

We have been staying with Nicole and Mike since we came to St. Louis a month ago. They have been a couple of rocks for us and we can’t thank them enough. Also, Kim and Ricky have been watching the house in Moberly and are always there when we need something. This is our big week though. Starting tomorrow evening, we work toward the final move to St. Louis. We will be in the new house as of Thursday and at that point we write a new chapter.

It’s been a crazy summer and I wish we could have a “do-over”.  Someone I admire reminded me about a year ago that, “sometimes you have to pick your big girl panties up and move forward”! So we are doing just that. Although Fall is just around the corner, we are anxious to spend a few weekends at the Lake and a few Saturdays at Tiger football games. In the meantime, we plan to make sure Randy stays well and enjoy being so near to Nicole and her family. 

Since this will hopefully be the last chapter of this Caring Bridge piece, we want to again thank you for your thoughts and prayers. We were thrown a huge curveball this summer, but with the help of so many, we are moving on. We are blessed to have our family, our friends and our faith in God as without all three I don’t know how we’d have such a positive outcome. Blessings to you all. . .