Over But Not Out - A Sabbatical

As many of you already know, a few weeks ago, Mark suffered a small stroke that sent him to the hospital. His symptoms were mild, as strokes go, but the residual effects left him with some difficulties managing the right side of his body. The first thing we noticed, on the very day he was discharged from the hospital, was problems walking without tripping. The second was slurred speech. And last, but not least, was an occasional problem with gripping things in his right (dominant) hand. The issues with the right hand and right foot told us that driving was out of the question for him, at least for now. 

Mark is the only driver of our rig, so we are essentially stuck where we are for the time being. And where we are is Shreveport, Louisiana. Not an especially comforting idea heading into summer, but it is our current reality. God always tucks blessings in with trials though, and the blessing in this trial is that we are "stuck" at Mark's daughter's home, in a spot where we have access to water, power, and sewer-- where we won't be pressured to leave before we're able, and where we have family support and grandchildren to entertain us. It could have been much, much worse. As Proverbs 16:9 says, we made our plans, but the Lord directed our steps. He brought us here and kept us here, and in his good time, we'll move on.

We had some trouble getting follow-up medical care for him due to all the bureaucratic rules (associated with the ACA, I expect) restricting access to medical specialists--in our case, a neurologist. You can no longer just make an appointment with a specialist; you must be referred by your primary care physician. Since we have no such relationship in Shreveport, we went back and forth for weeks trying to resolve this with his Minnesota doctor. The good news is, he has an appointment with a local primary care doctor this week and will see the neurologist the first week of April. Until those appointments are finished, we won't really know how long to expect for recovery. 

Heartfelt thanks to all our RV friends who have offered their help and support! Under different circumstances, we would have been in much greater need.

Now, about the blog. This pause in our life seems like a good time for me to take a break from it. Thank you to all my readers for your interest in following our life and activities. Without readers, writing is pointless.

Nevertheless, as you've probably noticed, my posts have been fewer and farther between, which shows more than anything else that I could use a break. I've decided to take a bit of a sabbatical from Finne's Follies. At this time, I have no plans to close it out entirely, but I won't be posting to it for the foreseeable future. 

In the meantime, Mark and I are both posting periodically on Facebook and will keep our friends and family who are still on that network updated with our situation. For everyone else, you can always contact us by email or phone to touch base -- that information is available on our "Contacts" page.

2021 is shaping up to be a challenging year for many of us. We wish you all the best-- health, joy, and safe travels for those still traveling, and may your troubles be few.

Until next time, God Bless!