THE FIRST REASON FOR THIS POST
As you can see by the title, it is not the normal My/Our Story BEFORE The Story post.
It is with a heavy heart I am writing to inform you, I’ll be suspending my blog for the foreseeable future. Having blogged since 2009, it is tough to think journeystojoy.net will be shelved.
I’m not sure what God will have me do in the future with journeystojoy.net, so I’m not shutting it down completely – besides – I want you or future readers to have access to all of the past postings from my website – joyaverymelville.com. Especially, those of the last two years with the running theme of The Story BEFORE The Story, a theme God gave me in November of 2019, when I asked Him for a unique theme for 2020. Within two days of my having asked Him to provide, He gifted me that theme, and authors who’ve participated in it the last two years have truly enjoyed giving voice to backstory from the perspective of one or more of the characters they’ve created. I loved doing the same with characters from Meant For Her and Sown In Peace. I was looking forward to doing the same with characters from Kept For Her, Promised For Her, Steadfast In Peace, and other books from the Operation Return To Peace Series as well as from Redefined, the first novel in a bed and breakfast series, that’s been written.
If at any time the Lord has me make the blog active again, I’ll be announcing it loudly. In the meantime, I will continue to put out at least one newsletter per month, if the Lord allows, and I will spotlight an author and possibly one of the characters in each of those.
If I have any special news, I may do a second newsletter in a month. You can subscribe to my newsletter via my website. There is a place on each of the pages there.
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THE SECOND REASON FOR THIS POST
If you are reading this between the time it goes live at 4am Eastern time and 11:30 Eastern time today, January 6, 2022, I would ask that you’ll pray for those who will be caring for me during and after my cervical spine surgery. The surgeon will be performing a discectomy and fusion of four areas and looking at the C-2 and C-7 as they didn’t look right on the images taken of the spine.
One of the major concerns today is what happens after the breathing tube is removed. My COPD and Persistent Asthma get really miffed at those pesky, but oh-so-necessary, things. Before my last surgery, having been made aware of the issue, my anesthesiologist did his very best to see that there were no issues. I woke as I was being wheeled from the OR to the Recovery Room and instantly went into a severe attack. Being unable to breathe for the several moments it took while the poor surgical nurse rushed me down the corridor to my room (used as a Recovery Room due to staff shortages), calling the anesthesiologist in, and the two forms of treatment he had them do, was one of the scariest, if not the scariest, moments in my entire life.
I learned long ago, panic is not conducive to good breathing practices. Doing self-talk to keep away from a crumbling edge isn’t all that easy when one is literally suffocating. So, I’d really, really like to keep from experiencing that again today!
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PRAYER REQUESTS
PLEASE PRAY…
1- for each person God uses to care for me. I especially am praying for my surgeon – his skill, decisions he has to make when he sees the C-2 and C-7, and for the after-care instructions he will give us.
2- for my husband, Jerry, as he awaits news from the surgeon. (He was brought in during the asthma attack after my last surgery) He will be conscious and aware the entire time I’m not.
3- I do not have breathing issues this time.
4- I heal rapidly with no complications.
5- No ANESTHESIA BRAIN FOG – I need to be able to work as soon as possible, and it’s not at all uncommon for me to experience excessive brain fog from having been anesthetized for several hours. Also, I had a surgery in May of 2021, and still struggle with word-find. Which brings me to the next and final request…
6- I can finish edits/revisions on Kept For Her, so it can be released SOON!
THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR YOUR LOYAL READERSHIP & COMMENTS!
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Journeys to Joy Blog 
Praying for you and for Jerry!
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