Power of Prayer works

I am telling you..... Prayer works. Brian was in BAD BAD shape Sunday and he is doing SO MUCH BETTER it is a real miracle.

Not sure if he will come home today or not. Waiting to hear what the doctor says. They are running a gazillion tests on him. EEG on his brain, MRI, CT scans, x-rays on his chest. Ultrasounds on his heart. They are suspecting that he has something going on with his heart that causes his blood pressure to plummet and that is what triggers the seizure.

I hope they find out what is causing this and how to fix it.

A Mother's Worst Nightmare.........

I wanted to make you aware of what is going on with my oldest son Brian (age 23).

When he was in 8th grade he had a grand mal seizure in class. Tests were done. Nothing found. They said it was a fluke.

4 years later (almost to the day!) when he got his wisdom teeth out and was coming out of the anesthesia, he had another grand mal seizure and they attributed it to the anesthesia. Nothing was done.

Yesterday he woke up and felt ill, thought he was going to throw up, so he went in the bathroom. He had a seizure, and when it happened he passed out and hit his head very hard. He bit his tongue and slammed his nose which caused a HUGE amount of bleeding. The way he landed, the blood did not go out of him, but he aspirated it into his lung. The doctors say he had to have been unconscious a good 20 minutes because his right lung is nearly full of blood. He almost drowned in his own blood. Luckily he came to, but he could not walk or breathe and he literally crawled out of the bathroom and down the hall (he lives with his dad and step-mom. They were upstairs and not aware of what had happened). He was making some terrible moaning sounds which caught his dad's attention and so Mark went down and found him. He yelled to Angela to call 911. The ambulance was there in 3 minutes and transported him to the emergency room.

When I got to the ER he was just covered with blood, all over his face, his neck, his arms, his hands, his stomach.... it was very unnerving. After 5 hours in the ER they transferred him to Intermediate Care (a step down from the ICU). He can’t breathe very well at all and they are pumping him full of antibiotics to try to prevent bacterial pneumonia. He's on oxygen, but even with the oxygen his saturation is not very good. They gave him a nubulizer treatment, but that also did not seem to help much.

After they got him in his room he had an episode where his heart rate plummeted to 30 bpm (and actually hit 10 at one point); (normal is 90-100) and so now they suspect he has something going on with his heart. And they think that whatever is going on with the heart may be what is triggering the seizure. He will be in the IMC at least 4 days, maybe more. The doctors said it is very serious. (My mom died from aspirating contents into her lung so I know how bad it can be).

They need to get the pneumonia taken care of before they can concentrate on figuring out what else is going on. He is a very ill young man. It breaks my heart to see him so helpless when he is normally this big 6 foot 5, 230 pound athlete. I call him my "gentle giant".

On the positive side he is young, extremely healthy otherwise, exercises every day, eats fruits and vegetables, doesn’t drink soda, doesn’t take so much as an aspirin, so we hope and pray that works in his favor.

Please keep him in your prayers.

UPDATE: 11:30am, MONDAY, MARCH 16 ---

Brian had a good night and this morning his breathing has improved dramatically! (Back down to 21 respirations instead of 43)

His blood pressure has been good. No more scary drops. So they took him off the continuous monitor and just come in to check that every couple hours.

They had him up and walking a few steps. Not a marathon, but he walked a little and didn't fall down so that's excellent.

He ate breakfast. (you know he has to be feeling better if he was hungry right?)

His color is much better. (yesterday he was an awful blue)

His response is really amazing. The doctors were preparing us that he was going to get worse before he got better. He's still not out of the woods yet, but WOW, he has improved dramatically and I am so thankful!

I am feeling MUCH more optimistic and extremely relieved!!! Prayer works. Yes indeed.

Developments

Introducing baby Mark Joseph L. who was born on Wednesday, March 4, 2009. He weighed 8 pounds 5 oz. He is my friend Lisa's grandson.

But today........ he is fighting for his life. He has that stupid RSV and is in Primary Children's hospital. He is having a lot of difficulty breathing. They said he may be in the hospital for several days. The priest just went over and gave him a blessing.

They told us to expect him to get worse before he gets better. I know so many babies die from this virus -- it is very scary.

I am keeping him in my thoughts and prayers.

The Status on "A"

I can't remember the last time I actually talked to him on the phone but we have kept in touch via text messages. His life is yet again in a downward spiral. Because of the economy he has been cut to 25 hours per week at work. As a result, he missed a couple of car payments so the owner of the car reported it as "stolen" and so there is a warrant out for A's arrest (so he says) Not sure if that is true or not. He can't pay his rent and his roommate won't cut him a deal on paying less so according to "A" he is going to Puerto Rico on the 19th to take care of business with his mother's house(which is unoccupied and he owns it) and then he will go back to Florida for 3 weeks till his layoff is official and then he moves to Puerto Rico. How he is going to afford the plane fares is beyond me... if he can't pay his bills, how's he going to do that? Doesn't make sense to me. Which is why I tend to think he is blowing smoke and won't follow through with it.

I've heard it all before and it never happens. But he IS having trouble finding a job in FL because of the economy. FL is a huge tourist state and nobody is going on vacations, so jobs are being eliminated.

I know when he told me this he was hoping I would offer to let him come to Utah, or send him $$ but that is NOT going to happen and I hope it finally makes it clear to him that we are just friends now and I don't want anything more than that. I still love him and care about him, I always will. But I know that we would not STAY happily married.

I seriously doubt he is going to move back to PR. I think this is what he always says when he is getting desperate. It used to get a reaction out of me because I know if he moves back there he is going to end up worse off than he has ever been. So I would always tell him he can't go there and I'd help him out.... and so on and so on.

Not this time.

keeping fingers crossed

I had my cervical spine epidural on Friday. They gave me 10 mg of valium under my tongue because they wanted me relaxed, but not asleep. (I thought they were putting me out for this, but found out no). The gal who was trying to start an IV in me was dropping things all over the floor... and she blew my veins TWICE. She acted like she had never done this before. (Maybe she hasn't?) so she finally called in the other nurse who got it in on the first stick with no problem.

They had me sit there for a few minutes and kept asking me if I was "feeling the Valium" yet and I kept saying "No" because I didn't feel any different.

I have a high tolerance to medications so I really wasn't expecting to feel anything weird. We went in to the procedure room and they got me up on the table. I had to lay face down with my chest propped up on pillows and my head hanging down with my forehead on another pillow. It took some manuvering to get me in the right position. But we got it. The doctor, the nurses, the x-ray tech, and everybody came in and they all kept asking me "So are you feeling the valium yet?" I kept telling them "No... I feel just the same."

They had the radio on in there and so the doctor started singing and then he said, "Well, you're not laughing hysterically so I think you ARE feeling the Valium." I said, "Why would I laugh? You have a nice singing voice." and everybody laughed and the doctor said, "Ok. now I KNOW she's feeling the valium. Let's begin."

I honestly didn't feel like I was feeling any different. But whatever.

So they washed off the area with betadine and then they draped me and that is where I had a bit of a problem because I am claustrophobic and I forgot to tell them that so I am laying there face down with my head covered.... I tried not to panic. I just closed my eyes and kept reminding myself it was only going to be about 15 to 20 minutes and I could handle it....

It hurt quite a bit when they put the needle in. Sort of feels like a NAIL going into your spine. If anybody has had an epidural with a birth, you know what I mean.... imagine that feeling in your neck.

They injected the stuff and it was a burning hot sensation that was not pleasant, and freaked me out for a second. I told them it was really hot and he said "That's normal. It will go away in a minute." And it did.

Then, I was done and they took me back to another room where I got dressed and they gave me cookies and sprite and had me sit so they could take my vital signs for about 20 minutes.

Suddenly my LEFT arm got all numb and tingly. My thumb and my fingers were numb and it was numb half-way up my arm. I told the nurse and she looked like "Uh-oh" and she left. But when she came back, she said the doctor said it was normal and from the position I was laying in on the table and if it didn't get better before I left, then he would come in. But about 10 minutes later it was back to normal.

My friend Lisa picked me up and drove me home. I got home at 10 am. I immediately went to bed and I slept until 6:30pm.!!!! David made me some mac n cheese and then I went back to sleep at 7:30 and slept clear through til 8am the next morning! I also slept most of the day Saturday. My neck area feels like I got hit by a truck, but I think the medicine is starting to work now because I haven't needed any Lortab.

I hope this is the magic bullet that helps me get my life back.

Well, I have managed to shower today, and write this, but now I am tired again so I am going to lay down.

This is a MUST READ!!!

Oh my gosh. I used to be an avid reader and always had 3 or 4 books in progress. Then my eyes went weird and I have difficulty reading anymore. But I am reading this book and I can't put it down! It's a true story told by a woman named Immaculee Ilibagiza who lost most of her family during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. It's the most compelling, amazing, riveting story I have read in a long time.

I am recommending it to everybody I know. My kids, my coworkers. My neighbors.

This gal had to hide in a closet sized bathroom with 7 other women for THREE months to avoid being brutally murdered. It's just an amazing and horrific story but wow.... it's a must read.

Woes, Whaaas and Duhs!

First the woes: My poor father who is 78 years old, frail, blind, and lives alone, had a low blood sugar on Friday while he was outside. He passed out and laid in the snow for 2 hours! When he came to, he could not get up. He does have a Life Alert bracelet/monitor so he pushed the button. Help arrived and transported him to the hospital where they stabilized his blood sugar and warmed him up (he was hypothermic). It just makes me cry to think of my dad laying helpless in the snow for hours.....

Now the Whaaaaa! I watched "Marley and Me." The book was way better than the movie, but I have to admit that at the end of the movie I bawled like nobody's business. I didn't just sniff, I WAILED. I have not cried that hard in a long time.

And finally the "duh".... my son-in-law gave me several packages of salmon and halibut from Alaska that he caught. I had everybody over for dinner sunday and told them several times during the week we were having "Maple glazed salmon"......... When we sat down to eat, Brett said, "This halibut is amazing!" I said, "Huh? It's not halibut... it's.... uh..... salmon....." He said, "Nooooooooooo, salmon is pink.... this is white. This is halibut."

I knew that. DUH!!!!