Day 652 - March 29 - Tidbits

Not much to tell here on the western front. Connor has been fighting insomnia all weekend, with both Friday and Saturday nights going pretty much "awake all night". Everybody managed a nap Sunday afternoon, and last night he was finally able to rest peacefully for more than a few minutes at a time, so we're kind of in shape for the week ahead. I don't know how my wife manages, though - I get more sleep than anyone here, and I'm exhausted most of the time. I have no idea how Cherié continues to function! God's grace, of course, but it's an amazing thing to see her go, day after day after day. What a blessing she is...

Many of you have been praying about the van, so here's the update on that - it appears to be fixed the way it's supposed to be fixed. The shop had it an additional two days, and (if you care) found that some bolts hadn't been torqued down properly, allowing exhaust fumes to leak into the cab and keeping the turbocharger from developing the pressure needed to work properly. Once they figured that out, things are how they're supposed to be. So that's all good.

Of course, it wouldn't be our life if something else didn't immediately go wrong to keep Connor homebound - I don't know what the purpose of all these headaches is, but it's a safe bet that at a minimum we're supposed to be learning patience from them! Late last week we started having problems with the power supply for the ventilator on Connor's wheelchair. That's a problem because without the chair's power supply, the travel vent runs on a one-hour internal back-up battery. That effectively removes our ability to get out of the house - the chair's power supply gives Connor's vent a 10-12 hour lifespan, but without it there's only an hour lifespan before the vent has to be plugged into a wall or fail. So, effectively he can't leave the house with the power supply malfunctioning like this.

So all weekend we've been wrestling with more mechanical headaches. First we replaced the cord that brings power from the external battery to the vent, having deduced (incorrectly, it turns out) that the problem was there. Nope, it still exists. Then I rewired the connectors in the battery box, actually finding a bad connection and correcting it. Problem solved, right? Wrong. We're still getting an intermittent power supply problem that's keeping the external battery from getting power to the vent. So the next thing is replacing the battery - perhaps the battery itself is failing. I hate electrical problems...

Cherié and Connor met this week with a woman who is going to come work with Connor a couple of times on a trial basis to see how it all works out. She's a massage therapist with a background in physical therapy and nursing, and has worked with ventilator-dependent people before. So her skillset seems to be just what the doctor ordered, so to speak. We're going to see how this works out, but hopefully we'll see positive results from it all. Many other people offered their services to us in this regard as well, over the last few weeks - we're very grateful for each one of you.

Today also marks the first day that my bosses at work are requiring me to return to a rotating schedule close to the one that supervisors always work at my facility. Since I came back to work after Connor's accident, I've been working straight dayshifts Monday-Friday. That's an alien schedule in the FAA. What I'm supposed to be working each week is Monday 2:30-10:30 PM, Tuesday 1:00-9:00 PM, Wednesday 6:30 AM-2:30 PM, Thursday 4:30 AM-12:30 PM, and a midshift that begins at 9 PM Thursday night and ends at 5 AM Friday. That would be what's considered a "normal" schedule where I work. Now, I'm on orders from Connor's doctor that two of us must be at home with Connor at night to ensure one doesn't sleep through an alarm or something, so I literally cannot work the midshifts, but they're beginning to push me to return to something more close to the regular rotation, which adds a whole new dimension of hassle to our lives.

I would appreciate your prayers concerning resolution of this issue - I understand that the facility needs people who can actually work the schedules needed to cover the operation, and I'm not able to do that any more. Unfortunately, there aren't any options at work for getting out of the operational environment, leaving me in the potential position of having to choose between obeying my bosses or caring for my family. I'm actively looking for solutions to this problem, even as far as taking a pay cut to move to a location that doesn't run 24/7, so I would appreciate any prayers you could manage. If you do, pray that God would open doors to the right location, that He would provide enough money from a new position to meet our needs, and that we would have the courage to follow once the way is open. Pray also that when the time comes, my bosses will be willing to let me go - that's always a concern in a facility as short-staffed as ours.

So that's all the news that's fit to print from the Williamson household today. Thanks for traveling with us and continuing this prayer journey we're on. You have no idea how much we appreciate it.

Eric

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