To know the Oldham Family is to love them. On December 14th both Nick and Becky were diagnosed with COVID. As the days progressed both of them became extremely ill and by December 20th the situation became scary. Although Becky began to feel somewhat better her concern for Nick’s breathing grew and ultimately lead her to take him to the hospital in Elwood. Due to COVID restrictions and having two young children to care for, she was forced to just drop him off at the ER and say a prayer. After a few days in the hospital in Elwood Nick’s care warranted that he be transferred to an Anderson Hospital so that he could be placed in ICU there. This meant that he would miss Christmas morning with his family. Those of us that have children know how quickly time passes and missing moments like this are upsetting. Thanks to technology Christmas morning was had and there was hope that he would be home sometime this week. But, of course in life there’s always more. While in the ICU in Anderson Nick had been complaining of leg pain and it was attributed to his sciatic nerve and being confined to a bed. If you know Nick then you know he’s persistent and his complaints led to the discovery of blood clots in his legs with the most dangerous one being in an artery. The blood clot in the artery of his left leg was large enough that it required surgical removal in order to prevent him from losing his leg. Nick was transferred to Methodist Hospital so that he could undergo the surgery. Plot twist- Surgery meant that he would have to be placed on a ventilator and it was cause for great concern. The concern was that if he were placed on a ventilator it could be days or months before he could be weaned off of it because of his COVID status and his required high concentration of oxygen. Nick was adamant that he would not be placed on a ventilator. The surgeons developed a plan to perform the surgery under a nerve block while Nick was awake to avoid him being placed on a ventilator. After a four hour surgery - while he was awake- the blood clot was successfully removed. Nick has a long recovery ahead of him with both his leg and his lungs. Both Nick and Becky give a lot of themselves to the communities they live and work in and my hope is to be able to give back to them.