CHAPTER 204 RECOVERIES, SEARCHES AND THE ANNIVERSARY 2013
In late March I discovered I had black stools. Fearing cancer I called and made a doctor appointment. My doctor at this time was Dr. Sue Kirchdoerffer (right), but she was known as Dr. Sue. She noted I was 70 and asked when did I have my last colonoscopy.
myself booked for one on April 4. I was send instruction on preparing. I was dreading this because every body had always told me how bad the prep was.
The preparation took a full day, but was not the horror I expected. I bought some Crystal Light and mixed up a galleon of this with MiroLax. I had to drink this over the course of the day, a glass every horror so until it was gone. It did not taste bad at all.
Sometime or other I had to drink 16 ounces of Magnesium Citrate. This drink is basically a stool softener, allowing the intestines to infuse them with water.
Jello, which I had made early that morning and refrigerated, something to look forward to.
Of course all this produced the desired effect of cleaning out my bowels, when sent me to the bathroom for a long session somewhere around 11:00 that night. All-in-all, it was not that bad an experience. I even taped my preparation, except for the climax.
The next day my wife drove me down to the clinic. After maybe. Half hour I was led from the waiting room to a staging area. Here were two dozen small cells hidden by curtains. Inside was a small cut.
I sat up on the cot and a nurse handed me a clear plastic bag and a hospital gown. She told me to take everything off and pump clothes and shoes in the plastic bag and tuck this under my cot. I was not to tie the gown in the back. It must remain open.
I lay on the cot and another nurse come in and applied an IV to the back of my hand and she was followed by the Anesthesiologist who explained his role and what he would do. Another nurse appeared and asked if I was cold. I was. She brought me a blanket.
hallway and into another room.
Here sat my Gastroenterologist at a computer screen and a half dozen pretty young women in scrubs squeezed in around me. Some of these left before the procedure.
I was told to roll onto my left side. I felt a breeze behind. One of the pretty young women stuck something in my not that her it open and then then asked some questions I answered this way: gubble-gooble, gurgle. The Anesthesiologist repaired as I gobbled and squirted something into the IV feed. Then just blackness.
When I next opened my eyes I was back in the curtained cubicle upon the cot. A nurse came in and asked if I was thirsty, She gave we a container of orange juice.
“Get dressed,” someone said and I led out to the front door of the. Waiting room here outside my wife sat with car ready. I felt incredible. I was giddy and who knew where. I blabbered all the way home and probably Made no sense.
Gastroenterologist’s office for the results.
He told me they told me they had also done an endoscope since I was already there. I didn’t say, but I chopped they didn’t use the same tube. As it was, I had a bleeding ulcer in the duodenum, which he fixed.
The Colonoscopy was clear, no polyps, no cancer. Hooray!
it worked well, except suddenly it disappeared off every shelf. I guess they overdosed a leg rat nd it died of cancer so they banned this for people. I asked the Pharmacist and he told me I could use Pepcid in its place, which I did and do.
Meanwhile a number on events happened.
For one, the church I attended wasn’t in a church. It was in a rented meting room at the Edgemont Community Center. At our board meeting we discussed looking for a more permanent location. I was in the group participating in the search. This would continue over a few months. We had already checked out a number of places. A church building inn a storage place off Philadelphia Pike, but they wanted too much money to rent it. We visited several buildings along Philadelphia Pike, including one housing a radio station and a deserted Greengrocer store.
Most if these were too small for our purpose, with the exception of the Greengrocery, but the owner steadfastly refused to rent to a church. Apparently church had a bad reputation for not paying their bills, sad to say.
One place was very anxious to rent to us. The owner wanted to reach out to churches. This was a used furniture store called Lamb’s Loft. Unfortunately then spaces inside were too small to accommodate a church service. Thus our search would continue. What did it matter if we didn’t have a proper building. We could have held services on a hill side, just as Jesus did.
seems Hurricane Sandy wasn’t finished with our little disaster relief team yet. Between April 5 and June 25 we were engaged working in a Salvation Aemt Distribution center in Seaside Heights, New Jersey.
Several of us were driving up Route 70 in Jersey to man the fort. I am not in this group photo because I took it, but that is my daughter, Laurel, the tall girl in the middle.
Our job was to distribute food and supplies to victims of the hurricane. They would come in and fill up their shopping cart with what they needed. There was no cost to them. Besides food this included clothes and books.
Yes, my daughter again. She will appear in several of the photos taken over those three months.)
Trucks would deliver to us almost daily and we would help carry the stuff inside and then put it on display.
people to begin a clean sweep in their lives.
There was a gaggle of nurses their one time giving medical exams to those came it. I allowed them to use me as a guinea pig and practice dummy. My visuals proved sound.
some of the ladies their to work the shop. She didn’t enjoy it as much as I did She is the woman on the right all in black.
She did get to experience a dune buggy ride across the beach, something I didn’t;t get to do, though you can see in the photo my daughter did.
Here was our core group of regulars.
On June 8 Iron Faith had a booth at the annual Green Day in Claymont.
So what was Green Day?
Every year Claymon does this. People go out during the
morning and clean up litter about the neighborhood. In the afternoon a kind of fair is held in the front yard of the Community Center. The booths may hold information concerning businesses or churches or social organizations. Souvenirs may be handed out and food is available. There are sometimes outside entertainments or demonstration. It is done out of community pride.
For years Cahlie and Cheryl Reber (right) have supplied and prepared the popcorn for our various events. As this summer ended, Cheryl passed away still in her forties.
Iron Faith Fellowship had been a church for one year when July came and we had grown in members and attendees at the Communist Center. On July 20 we held a One-Year Anniversary Celebration! One of the things we had was a photo boot. Get your photo snapped and we would send you the result. Here are my daughter Laurel and I. Trying it out.
What didn’t we have at our celebration?
We certainly had music. There wasn’t the Raymond Lee Band, a popular Christian Rock Group in the twi-state area.
Here was the Sunday
Mission Choir, made up of those who escaped drug addiction and alcohol through Christ.
This is Pastor Randy’sson, who is an Army Ranger, climbing to the rafters to hand a banner for us.
This is Jacob Losse helping the Inflatable amusement people set up the bouncy house and the slide for the children amusement.
It became part of my
duty to setup chairs and tables for lunch. I could still lift and carry things in 2013.
We put up a history of our church on the outside wall of the Community Center.
.
We had good times and events.
In September we had our first Baptisms as a church. Even though our sanctuary was equipped with a Baptismal, we held our. Baptism down in the Brandywine River, just like people did in the Bible. We practice emersion.
current. September was nice, but she didn’t get dunked until October there were hints of winter wind and the temperature dropped.
A good crowd always turned out for these services.
The year was capped off in the Claymont Christmas Parade
in which the Claymont Weed was escorted in, blessed, decorated and set along the road. Years before some people saw a weed that sprouted up through the concrete of new construction. They decorated it. Someone stole it, then someone replaced it and from that Christmas on the Claymont Christmas Weed has been displayed at the border of Claymont, like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree.
We gave out candy and tracks along the route. The first year we began with 1,000 packets, but ran out halfway. The parade is very popular. I marched in it as long as I could, but by 2020 had to give it up. There was no parade in 2021, by the way, because of Covid.
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