Lillie Ammann's Blog, page 82

Trapped!

I love my walk-in therapy bathtub–except when I get trapped in it. That’s happened three times in the last year, and that’s three times too many! The first time it happened last year, the tub drained partially before stopping. Finally I opened the door and flooded the bathroom, hallway, and bedroom.

Several months, thousands of dollars, new floors, and a new sewer line later, I felt safe. Then after a nice, long soak, the jets stopped, and I opened the drain. The water drained a few inches and stopped. I waited quite a while hoping it would continue to drain before I tried to open the door. However, there was too much water, hence too much pressure, to open the door. I was truly stuck with no way out.

Finally, I punched my emergency alert button.

“Is this an emergency?” the operator answered.

“Well, it’s not a life-threatening emergency,” I answered. “But I need help!”

I explained the situation to her, and she said she would call emergency services to come rescue me. When she asked if my front door was open, I explained that there is a lockbox on the front gate with a key, and the emergency alert company has the combination on file. However, she had no record of the combination.

I remembered setting the combination to the date of a particular event, so I gave her four digits comprising the month and day. Although whenever I’ve had to call for help in the past the operator has stayed on the line until help arrived, this lady wanted to hang up.

Before she did, she asked, “Are you hurt?”

“No, ma’am. I’m fine–I just can’t get out.”

“Are you bleeding?”

“No,” I answered. “I’m not hurt.”

She asked, “Are you in pain?”

I repeated that I wasn’t hurt.

“Okay, then,” she replied. “Please don’t eat or drink anything before help arrives.”

I didn’t even ask her how she thought I could get to food or drink if I was trapped in the bathtub.

I waited … and waited … and waited … and waited. The water turned cold. I felt like I was shriveling up like a prune. I wondered why it was taking so long for help to arrive but figured it must not be a high priority since I wasn’t in danger.

Suddenly, I heard glug, glug, glug, and the water started draining. I waited until the tub was completely drained and I opened the door before contacting the emergency alert company again to cancel the call for help. The operator kept me on the line while she made the call.

“Mrs. Ammann, emergency services is at your front door preparing to break the door in. The combination didn’t open the lockbox, and they’ve been trying to get in for nearly an hour.”

I threw on a robe and pushed the cart I use as a walker to the front door. There stood three firefighters and two of my neighbors.

I explained that the water had drained, and all was well. I thanked them for coming, but they wouldn’t leave without making sure I had the right combination.

“If you get in trouble again, we don’t want to have to break your door down,” one of the firefighters explained.

I called my sister, who reminded me that, while I remembered the right event and date, the combination was the month (one digit only), day (one digit only), and year (two digits). A firefighter confirmed that combination worked and said, “Oh, your neighbor called the lady who cleans your house, and she’s on her way over to open the door.”

I called Betsy to tell her she could turn around and go back home and said a prayer of thanks that everything was okay.

A friend came over the next day and used a plunger on the drain. He told me he thought he cleared up the blockage, but he recommended that I keep the plunger handy just in case he didn’t get it completely unblocked.

A week passed, and although I kept the plunger within reach, the tub drained completely every time. I once again felt confident of taking a bath without fear.

Then I opened the drain after my bath. The water drained a few inches and stopped. I tried the plunger, but it didn’t help at all.

I was determined I wasn’t going to call for help again. After all, the tub had started draining again after an hour the last time I had a problem. I fully expected it to start draining again this time. So I continued to read my Kindle as if I were still relaxing in the warm, bubbling water.

An hour and a half later, the water was cold, my skin was like a prune, and I was out of patience. My housemate came home, and I called to her for help. She brought in empty plastic bottles. I dipped and filled the bottles and handed them to her. She emptied them in the sink and gave them back for me to fill again. Finally, I’d dipped all I could, and we put down old towels to soak up the residue. When we could get the door open, I threw on my robe and collapsed in bed.

The next morning, my housemate greeted me with the words, “We had another incident last night.”

She had put the towels in the washer, then fixed and ate dinner. After she cleaned up the kitchen, she went back into the bathroom and discovered that the drain water from the washer had backed up into the tub and out onto the bathroom floor. She had been sorting her laundry on her bedroom floor, and everything had gotten wet when water flowed from the bathroom into her room.

I was convinced that this problem would be covered under the guarantee on the sewer replacement, but, alas, the plumber explained that this blockage was between the tub drain and the sewer line. So I had to pay again. I’m still shaking my head over that.

All this reminded me of an earlier time in my life when I was trapped. I was still on the scooter following my stroke. As part of quality control and customer relations for my interior landscape company, I periodically went to client sites, walked (er, rode) through the facility to look at their plants, and visited with the contact persons. Typically, I had an inventory sheet and an inspection form so I knew where the plants were and could systematically record anything of note.

One day, however, I had an appointment in a building in which we maintained plants. Since I had a little extra time, I decided to do an unplanned quality control visit. There were three buildings in the complex, and without the inventory sheet, I wasn’t sure where all the plants were. So I just scooted through the building lobbies and elevator lobbies on upper floors where plants would normally be.

One of the buildings was only two stories high. When I got off the elevator on the second floor, I saw nothing but construction materials. The whole floor had been gutted. Obviously, there were no plants there. I got back in the elevator and punched “1.”

Nothing happened. I punched the button again. Nothing happened. The battery on my cellphone was dead, so I punched the emergency button in the elevator. Of course, the operator at the elevator company wanted to know where I was. I had nothing with me that showed the address; all I could do was describe the intersection and the position of this building in the complex.

The operator insisted I couldn’t be where I said I was. “That building is under renovation, and the elevator is cut off.”

“It’s cut off to go back down,” I said. “But it certainly wasn’t cut off to come up. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here!”

Soon I heard the building manager and several staff members on the first floor calling up the shaft, asking if I was okay. I assured them I was fine–I just couldn’t get down. I don’t know whether the stairs were locked off or not, but since I had to use the scooter to get around, the stairs would have been useless to me anyway.

After what seemed like forever, an elevator technician arrived. Finally, the elevator started, and I returned to ground level.

What an experience! But a writer never wastes any experience, good or bad.

The experience of being trapped in an elevator inspired my novelette, Trapped by Love, which is available for free from Smashwords. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as all the readers who gave it 5-star reviews.

American Stroke Month

According to the American Stroke Association, stroke is the leading cause of disability and the fifth leading cause of death in the US. One out of six people suffer a stroke sometime during their lifetime, and someone has a stroke every 40 seconds.

Having had a stroke and written a novel about a woman who has a stroke, I’m passionate about raising awareness. Although I’ve written a number of posts about stroke, the following are some I consider the most important:

National Stroke Awareness Month: My Stroke – the Beginning
National Stroke Awareness Month: My Stroke – The Next Three Days
National Stroke Awareness Month: My Stroke – the Aftermath
National Stroke Awareness Month: Stroke Risk Factors and Symptoms

MAYDAY Prayer Initiative

Turn on the news, open social media, talk to a friend, maybe even think about your own life, and you’ll be reminded of tragedy, natural and man-made disasters, pain, suffering, hate, and evil.

The problems in our world, our nation, and often our own lives may seem insurmountable. Where do we turn in time of trouble? God tells us:

“Call upon Me in the day of trouble;

I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.” ~ Psalm 50: 15

Anne Graham Lotz of AnGeL Ministries is calling upon believers to pray during the MAYDAY Prayer Initiative. Anne Graham Lotz says:

The nine days between the day of the Ascension of Jesus and the Day of Pentecost have Biblically and traditionally been days of prayer and fasting for an outpouring of God’s Spirit. This year those days fall on May 15-23. On each of those 9 days, join Anne Graham Lotz and thousands of other followers of Jesus Christ, as together we implore God to save us from our distress. Before Jesus comes and judgment falls.

Pray one hour each day for 9 days, May 15-23.

Sign up to receive daily email updates with prayers and resources.

May God’s people storm the heavenlies in intercession between Ascension Day and the Day of Pentecost this year!

Fibromyalgia Awareness Day

signs and symptoms of fibromyalgia. Human silhouette with internal organs. Vector illustration

May 12th is Fibromyalgia Awareness Day.

As you can see from the graphic, fibromyalgia often has many symptoms beyond chronic pain and fatigue. When I was in my early to mid thirties, I had severe pain that none of the several doctors I saw recognized. Some even said it was “all in [my] head.”

Fibromyalgia was just coming into public awareness at the time, and when I read an article in a popular women’s magazine, I was convinced that fibromyalgia was the cause of my pain.

The article showed an image of a human body with eighteen points marked. Pain and tenderness in eleven of those “tender points” indicated fibromyalgia. Fifteen of the areas were painful to me.

I took the article to my family doctor and told him, “This is what I’ve been complaining about.” At the time, I had no idea that there would be other symptoms. I was often extremely fatigued, but I didn’t attribute it to the disease. After all, I lived a hectic life–running a business, rearing a son with my husband, caring for our home, and doing volunteer work.

Through the years, I’ve experienced many other symptoms in addition to the pain and fatigue. However, with the aid of medication and self-help treatments such as a therapy tub and plenty of rest, I can usually function well on a day-to-day basis.

People notice my walker, which I use primarily because of my poor balance as a result of a stroke, and my oxygen machine, but they don’t see the fibromyalgia symptoms.

Fibromyalgia is an invisible disease, because the symptoms are usually not apparent to others. Friends and family may believe that the patient is lazy or that the pain is “all in their head” because there isn’t any obvious evidence of illness. Yet the symptoms are real and painful to the patient.

If you know nothing or little about fibromyalgia, today is a good day to raise your awareness. If you know someone with the disease, recognize that they are truly suffering and not just complaining of imaginary symptoms. 

Image: © Depositphotos.com/edesignua

National Day of Prayer

Today, May 7, 2015, is the National Day of Prayer, a day to pray for our nation. The theme for 2015 is Lord, hear our cry, which is based 1 Kings 8:28: “Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day.”

Let us pray for our country and its people in the words of the National Prayer or the prayer of your choice.

Heavenly Father,

We come to You in the Name that is above every name—Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Our hearts cry out to You.

Knowing that You are a prayer-answering, faithful God—the One we trust in times like these—we ask that You renew our spirits, revive our churches, and heal our land.

We repent of our sins and ask for Your grace and power to save us. Hear our cry, oh God, and pour out Your Spirit upon us that we may walk in obedience to Your Word.

We are desperate for Your tender mercies. We are broken and humbled before You.

Forgive us, and in the power of Your great love, lift us up to live in Your righteousness.

We pray for our beloved nation. May we repent and return to You and be a light to the nations. And we pray for our leaders and ask that You give them wisdom and faith to follow You.

Preserve and protect us, for You are our refuge and only hope.

Deliver us from all fears except to fear You, and may we courageously stand in the Truth that sets us free.

We pray with expectant faith and grateful hearts.

In Jesus’ name, our Savior.

Amen.

~ 2015 National Prayer by Dr. Jack Graham

The Big Give SA

Today is The Big Give SA. You can donate to participating charities online, and the charities have chances to win cash prizes for such things as the most unique donors in a time segment or to earn matching grants under specific conditions.

I chose 10 of my favorite charities and made a small donation to each–it’s very easy to make multiple donations at one time. If you are in the San Antonio area, I encourage you to donate to the organizations you want to support. If you aren’t in San Antonio, chances are there is a similar day of support for nonprofits in your area, and I hope you will support it and organizations that are important to you.

These are the charities I supported:

Battered Women & Children’s Shelter

Christian Assistance Ministry

Daily Bread Ministries

Eva’s Heroes

Pregnancy Care Center

Project MEND

SAMMinistries

Soldiers’ Angels

The Children’s Shelter

The Salvation Army

The End of Comments

I have had comments on my blog since I started blogging almost nine years ago. Of course, I didn’t actually get my first comment until some time later, and boy, was that exciting! Although I’m not sure of the exact count, I’ve had somewhere around 25,000 comments through the years.

However, comments are no more. In recent years, social media like Facebook and Twitter have become far more prominent than blogs. Since my posts here automatically post on Facebook and Twitter, people are more apt to leave comments on social media than here.

Now I get far more spam than real comments from readers. Since I haven’t had a real comment in weeks, I’ve decided it’s not worth the effort to deal with the spam and for my associate Jan to keep the comment plugins up-to-date.

If you want to get in touch with me, you can email me or complete the form on my contact page. Or reach out on social media!

Image: © Depositphotos.com/olly18

No…Not Again!

All of us experience loss in this life, but parents never expect their children to die before they do.  Edith Eveon Brown experienced the death of an adult child not once, but twice. 

Her new book, No…Not Again, which I was honored to edit, describes her experiences in a way that everyone who has gone through tragedy in their own lives will appreciate. The book is also a tribute to the young men whose lives were cut too short.

The book is short and easy to read, but it will touch your heart.

National Child Abuse Prevention Month

April is National Child Prevention Month.

Heavenly Father, protect Your precious little ones from abuse. Heal the hearts of abusers and bring families together in love. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

 

Watch the video below for a song about abuse (ignore the misspellings in the text).

Image: © Depositphotos.com/pressmaster

National Autism Awareness Month

April is National Autism Awareness Month. Although I don’t have close personal experience with autism, I know several families with autistic children. I have great admiration for those who care for a child who, as one father I know describes, “God wired differently.”

Parents and children may be subjected to rude treatment by people who don’t understand and think the child is just undisciplined. As I’ve written in earlier posts, some of the behavioral challenges children with autism experience remind me of those of individuals with Alzheimer’s. Having cared for my husband with Alzheimer’s, I sympathize with those facing the challenges of autism.

The next time you see a frazzled parent and a child having a meltdown in public, give them the benefit of the doubt. If you don’t know about autism, April is a good time to learn more.

This video about one family is a good place to start.