Managing Pain

Before we even made it to Aalesund last night, cousin Odd was on the phone with Kory asking him about his symptoms and how he injured his back. Kory told him all the details and what the doctors said in Denmark. Odd told Kory that they didn’t do a thorough enough exam, as he suspected Kory had a compression fracture in his spine and they should have taken an x-ray. Once we got to Odd’s house last night and Odd took one look at the pain on Kory’s face, he said he was sure he had a compression fracture. So this morning Odd kicked into “solve it” mode and took Kory down to the hospital for a second opinion. He wrote up the papers requesting an x-ray and worked his magic so it was done right away. He then schmoozed with some of the medical staff there and got it read immediately so we didn’t have to wait until Monday morning to know the results. Sure enough, he was right. Kory has a compression fracture to his L3. They examined him further and felt a CT Scan was prudent to rule out any nerve damage. If he had nerve damage, he’d need back surgery, so I was really praying THAT wasn’t the case. The CT Scan again came at lightning speed and after about an hour of waiting we knew he had no nerve damage. Hallelujah! But, according to the ER doc, he had “enough damage” that they wanted to admit him to the hospital immediately. He needed to be immobile and his pain needed a bit more managing.

I had just begun taking everything out of the car to get it cleaned, sort through things and figure out what is coming home with us and what is staying here, when Odd said we needed to get Kory to the hospital. Now, as it turns out, I’ll have a lot of time for cleaning the van because we can’t travel home on Friday as planned. The ER doctor thought it might be two or three weeks before Kory can fly, and a good two months for a full recovery. But the good news is, there WILL be a full recovery and by October 1st he will be back to his OLD self again. HALLELUJAH! (Now I just hope we don’t wear out our welcome at Odd and Turid’s.)

Kaleb left early this morning to go play with friends so he didn’t even know our day was spent at the hospital. I drove by and told him the news because he is having a sleep over and I thought he might want to pray for Kory’s quick recovery. The look of horror on his face when I told him Kory's condition turned to a look of glee when I told him we can’t fly home on Friday. He worked hard at not getting downright giddy as he knew it was a serious situation with Kory, but he couldn’t be happier he will have a little more time with his friends before we head home. I’m thankful for that.

I laid in bed this morning and thought through my agenda for this day, had it down to a science, and then it all went out the window when we headed to the hospital. I had told My Pal Vestina I would come over for a visit at noon today and I didn’t make it until after seven this evening. Stuff happens. But after I got Kory all settled in his hospital room, I couldn’t wait to go find out all that’s new in Vestina’s world (see photo). It’s like I’m in high school again, only WAY smarter. We talked about “boys” and I was able to give her some advice I wish I would have had when I was her age. She is such a hoot to be around. Her relationship with Kim was going along well and blossoming into something quite hopeful when the bubble burst. She wanted him to spend ten more minutes with her one day when he had to leave to go to a party with his friends. When he wouldn’t spend the extra time with her, she swore at him and got very angry. That did it. He didn’t call her or see her for four days and at the end of the four days he said he just wanted to be friends – he pulled the plug on their relationship. So Vestina and I had a long talk about what all that meant and how they both blew it. She just couldn’t understand why he couldn’t give her ten more minutes. Then I had to explain that if he’d told his friends he’d be there at a certain time, keeping his word to someone was more important than just sitting around for ten more minutes with her. I told her today I almost didn’t take Kory to the hospital JUST BECAUSE I had told her I’d be at her house by noon. It was so important for me to keep my commitment to her that I was going to let Kory continue in his suffering because his back problem wasn’t on my agenda today. She finally understood, so it was good we had a chance to talk. I missed her and I’m so going to miss our friendship. I don’t really have anyone in my life like her, so I’m thankful now I might get a little more time with her before we leave.

I feel badly for Kory though, as the hospital he’s in is pretty basic with no frills - he doesn’t even have a TV in his room. It kind of feels like a prison (except they have TVs there). And they don’t cater to “special diets”– everyone gets what the cook makes, so Kory had rice porridge for dinner and loved it, as he hasn’t had cream for years. And I couldn’t believe how vacant that place was. Not many people work on Saturdays so the hospital had empty corridors and many locked doors. It was a strange sensation walking around entire wings with nobody in them. Odd said it’s where they keep the dead bodies, but I’m hoping that was just a joke.

Plan B

The sellers of the house we wanted to buy didn’t accept our offer. When God closes one door, he opens another. We’re back to square one, regrouping, and trying to figure out what to do now.

Before we came here we were told by the consulate that we can only live in the Aalesund “kommune” (county) because that’s where our condo is, but as it turns out, we can live outside that area if we just register with the police when we move. So, knowing that now opens up at lot more possible places for us to live. Hallelujah! And the further away you get from Aalesund, the cheaper the housing prices and the more things are available.

The most beautiful place I’ve ever seen in Norway is the area where Kory’s mom comes from – Solevaag (That’s it in the photo – her birthplace is a white house on the grassy slope on the right side of the photo.) It doesn’t get any more picturesque. It’s just outside the Aalesund Kommune so we didn’t consider living there before, but now with the closed door on the only house that would work for us in Aalesund, we feel we can consider it. We took Kaleb over to Solevaag today (he’s actually been there many times) and we checked out the one and only place for sale in this ideal setting (one of the buildings on the left side of the water in the photo – if you double click the picture it will get larger so you can see the details) and he decided it would be OK to live there. Hallelujah! (We were so worried he wouldn’t want to be so far from a library, but there were other things that changed his mind – like three dogs next door, boys his age behind the place and all that water to splash around in.) Oh how I wish we could have bought that condo on the spot, but once again, the systems they have in place here are far different than anything we know about in America.

The condo we saw at Solevaag just came on the market a few days ago and is advertised to have an open house this coming Thursday. It’s the law that the real estate agent cannot accept any offers until 24 hours after the end of the open house. So that means we have to wait an entire week to make an offer on this place and for me, it feels like an eternity. The start of school is fast approaching and we need to know where to register Kaleb. Pressures are mounting but I can’t even say how thrilled I would be to live at Solevaag. There is water all around, mountains behind and relatives in every house in the neighborhood. Kaleb would go to school at the same place Kory’s mom went. The views from there are breath taking. And it’s a ten minute drive to Moa, where our condo is located. We need to keep looking for places to live but we trust God to lead us to the right place (and oh how I hope it’s this place!)

Today was a very full day. We found out while we were visiting Solevaag that one of Kory’s mom’s cousins had died and the funeral was going on at that moment. The man who died is one of those old men that give all Norwegians the reputation for being hard headed. He was never married and was difficult, to say the least. We decided to crash his funeral and got there just in time for “coffee” afterwards. Kory wanted to see some relatives he hadn’t seen in a while so it was a good opportunity for that, and I got to see how Norwegians do funerals. I didn’t see the church part, but the reception afterwards was quite interesting. It was a formal sit down meal (Norwegians are VERY formal in all they do). It was catered, so after we all sat at a fancy table, platters of open face sandwiches were brought out and passed around. I wish I had my camera. The sandwiches were a work of art themselves and they couldn’t have tasted better. The pastor made some comments about the deceased and then offered anyone who wanted to talk about him to clink their wine glass with a knife and stand up. So, for at least one hour we sat there and ate food and drank coffee (some yummy cake was served after a time) and occasionally you’d hear the clinking of a glass and then someone would stand and tell a long story about this man who was their neighbor or old childhood friend. No family spoke of him that I am aware. Then someone played the piano and sang a beautiful song about heaven and then we all sang a song from the songbook and it was over. Lots of informal visiting of relatives followed and then we took Kory’s aunts home.

We had to rush from the funeral to catch a ferry as we were invited to dinner tonight across the fjord at the banker’s house (Kory’s old childhood friend). We had a delicious meal sitting out on their deck overlooking the fjord – you just can’t beat the views around here. After dinner they drove us into the mountains to have cake and coffee at their cabin. Kaleb was in heaven as they have many secret passages around their cabin and he loves to disappear through one of them and reappear in another. They were so kind to indulge him. On the drive up in the mountains we had to stop more than once because cows were wandering in the road; their bells tinkling a beautiful rhythm. Then after cake and coffee, as the sun was starting to sink in the horizon (around 10pm) we drove another road back to the ferry and stopped off to watch some fishermen catch fish at a rather historic old port. A cat was there jumping up trying to be the first one to get the fish off the line (very funny to watch.) Dolphins were swarming all around in the fjord just off shore. The setting sun was turning the sky shades of pink and lighting up the rock faces by the water. I took so many photos today that it was hard to decide which one to use for the blog. Everywhere I looked was like a postcard.

Some friends are coming from Seattle next month and the woman asked me what there is to do in Norway. “Just drive around and look at everything,” was my answer. How true that is. It’s such a beautiful place.