Tag: Health

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Update on My Grandpa Carnes

Thank you, to everyone who has been praying for my Grandpa Carnes, who fell down his basement steps last Thursday night (April 23) and broke his neck.

I went to visit him in the ICU on Saturday in Atlanta. He looked a lot better than what I was expecting. I was thinking he would be bruised up pretty bad, looking as if he just came out of a fight with Rocky…and lost. He did have a huge gash in his head, beginning at the crown and going down towards his neck. It was split open pretty bad in the fall, so bad it required staples to close it up. I did not see bruises anywhere. Besides his head and his neck the only visible sign of damage that I could see was his hand wrapped in gauze from where he banged it up pretty bad.

In total he fell down 20 steps to the bottom concrete floor. One step is completely broken from the impact while the bottom step is covered in blood from his head. I believe they are going to be boarding that door up or padlocking it shut. Yesterday, the doctor gave a better than expected report. It is a total miracle that he is alive, much less that he did not break anything else in the fall. If the break was one space higher, he would have been paralyzed, or he would have required a trach to breathe the rest of his life. They are not going to do surgery (most likely due to age), rather they are going to leave him in the neck brace to heal and issue him a walker to prevent him from falling and doing more damage. The area that is broken is still very dangerous, if it fractures any further and cuts the spinal cord, he still could be paralyzed. He will still be in the hospital to recover for a little while, it will be interesting to see if he obeys the doctor and uses the walker when they let him go home. As for now, I believe they still have him in ICU.

Please continue to pray for him and for my Grandma. It is already difficult caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease, but now, she has to keep very close tabs on him and help him prevent any additional damage to his head and neck area. I’ll update you all here on the blog if anything changes.

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Prayer for My Grandpa Carnes

grandpa-and-sons
Granpa, Center; Dad (Tim Carnes), rear center; Harley Carnes (Uncle), right; Kevin Carnes (Uncle), left

If you would take a moment out of your day to stop and pray for my Grandpa, Jack Carnes. He has Alzheimer’s Disease and was walking down a set of steep stairs to his basement last night and fell. I am not sure how far up he was, but in the fall he broke his neck. He is currently in ICU in Covington, GA Atlanta, GA. My dad sent me a text this morning telling me that they are deciding when to operate. His neck was broken in the same spot where actor Christopher Reeves’ neck was broke. Fortunately, his neck did not fracture all the way through and as long as it can be maintained and the spinal cord is not cut, he should not face any paralysis from this. However, my grandpa is over 80 years old and has Alzheimers, so this is not going to be an easy surgery or recovery for him or for my Grandma. Fortunately, my uncle Kevin, lives with them and is able to assist her.

My Grandpa is a great and godly man. He is however hard headed, that’s probably why he was walking down the steps when he shouldn’t have been. If he makes a full recovery from this accident, it will not stop him. If he were a car he would have one gear, Drive. I guess that’s what’s kept him going all of these years!

Thank you very much for your prayers for him!

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America Do Yourself A Favor: Get The KFC Grilled

kfc-grilled

According to Gallup the Average American is 17 pounds overweight.

Nicki and I saw the advertisement for the NEW KFC Grilled Chicken the other night and we both immediately and repeatedly said that we wanted to try it. Beginning the week after Thanksgiving in 2007 I have been on a journey of eating healthier and wiser, therefore I cut out a lot of fried chicken, in fact, there have been very few times we went to KFC since that week and most of the fried chicken I’ve eaten in the last year and a half has been from a Chinese restaurant when I splurged and rewarded myself. We went to a local KFC that has a buffet on a few occasions because we could get all of the vegetables we wanted, but could still control how much fried chicken we ate.  When you lose 50 pounds, its easy to learn to say ‘No!’ to a lot of things that did you harm in the past.

Nicki got a purse order today and we decided to take the children out to eat. We decided to go to KFC to try the new grilled chicken. Typically, it costs extra for grilled chicken or the healthier choices at restaurants, especially fast food restaurants, however, at KFC you can get the grilled chicken in leu of the fried chicken for the same price. Fortunately at KFC we can take the whole family (all 5 of us) and still eat affordable. We decided to go to the new KFC right down the road from our house. It was very clean and modern looking. A nice atmosphere for a fast food joint.

Here’s the bottom line…The Grilled Chicken at KFC rocks!!! It is very tasty (Great spices) and best of all its healthier than the fried. Here are a few nutrition facts (Click Here for the entire breakdown):

Original Fried Breast:…370 Cals.
Extra Crispy Breast:…..490 Cals.
Grilled Breast:…………180 Cals.

Original Fried Thigh:…..260 Cals.
Extra Crispy Thigh:…….370 Cals.
Grilled Thigh:…………..140 Cals.

America, do yourself a favor and get the KFC Grilled Chicken instead of the fried. Sure, it won’t kick all of that extra weight the average American is carrying around, but it will help you not add to it, plus it gives you an affordable alternative. Don’t believe me? Visit your local KFC on Monday, April 27th to try the new Grilled Chicken for Free!

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One Year Ago Today

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On Thanksgiving exactly 1 year ago today, I began a journey that has changed my life, hopefully forever. It took a lot of pain and sickness to begin this journey, but now as I look back, I can say I am glad I endured it.

Since last year I have lost 47lbs. I was 193 lbs the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and as of Monday (the day I am scheduling this post) I am 146 lbs. I told my wife I was going to try and lose 3 more pounds so I could round it up to 50, but no luck so far! 🙂

For those who do not know the story, I was extremely sick and in a lot of pain the Wednesday before Thanksgiving last year. I drove myself to the Emergency prompt care where I was diagnosed with an ulcer. I was given some medicine and sent home. The pain increased the next day and moved to the lower right side of my abdomen and eventually let me dad talk me into going to the ER. Once I arrived and saw a doctor, I was almost sent home without even being checked. The doctor read the chart and the diagnosis from the prompt care doctor and didn’t even walk in the door, before he turned to leave, I asked him a couple of questions that prompted him to do his job, and he skeptically decided to do a CT Scan on my Abdomen, he still stated he doubted I had anything wrong other than an ulcer. When the test results came back, they decided they needed to do an Emergency Appendectomy, and the rest is history…except the fact that the surgeon said my Appendix looked very sick, so I could have been sent home and it burst giving me gangrene or killing me. So, in my week of recovery I lost 6 lbs and determined to keep it up, I worked hard to lose the additional 41 lbs. My original goal was 165 lbs and I have overshot that by 19!

The positives: I feel great! I don’t dislike looking at myself in the mirror or having my picture taken. I’m in a whole lot better shape, I’m healthier, and I can encourage and empathize with people who are on a journey to lose weight and have a healthier lifestyle. Looking at old photos and seeing success!

The negatives: I’ve been criticized more since I lost weight than when I was 40 + lbs overweight. I guess some people don’t like to see others actually be successful at something they set out to accomplish. Along with losing 7 years of weight I lost as many years worth of clothes, so it has been challenging to replace them, especially with the changing season. Looking at old photos and regretting I let myself get so overweight.

The humorous side: Having people ask me, “So what did you do to lose all of your weight?” and then upon hearing my answer having them reply, “Oh, I could never do that!” – I guess some people want it the easy way!?

By the way…I missed Thanksgiving dinner last year and will be making up for it this year! 🙂

The Journey – Starts HERE – 6 lbsHERE – 10 lbs HERE – 179 lbs HERE – 172 HERE (Changing my Goal) – 167 HERE – A Meal of Pills & 159 lbs – I feel like Amway – 2 months finally lost 1 pound – 3-D Plan to eating healthy part 1 – 3-D plan to eating healthy part 2

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Sharing Life Through Difficult Times

I was contacted a couple of months ago by Samantha, an editor, writer, and representative for Bluefish TV, about contributing to their new website, The Small Group Exchange. I was really blown away & honored that they would be asking me (a nobody) to write something for such a well known ministry resource company.

My article, Sharing Life Through Difficult Times,  went live today. The article focuses on how huge of an impact our small groups had during the devistation caused by Hurrican Katrina. The other day, after Hurricane Ike, I posted a little bit about my former churches involvement surrounding Hurricane Katrina and posted two videos to show a little bit of what we did and what we saw. You can check those videos and that post out HERE.

Go read my new article on the Small Group Exchange and come back here and let me know what you think.

Join the Conversation: How have small groups impacted your life or your church?