Trust In The Lord

I am not a person that really has ever liked to talk about things that are personal. But I think I have a responsibility to tell it when it is a testimony to what great things God has done in my life and the lives of those I hold dear. This is an on going testimony of healing and miraculous things that God has done in the life of my Mother.

God works in mysterious ways. Sometimes it is through a chain of events that he works through people to accomplish things even though they may not even realize it. A few weeks before my Mom went in the hospital a friend of my husband Ken gave him a CD to listen to by Pastor Bill Scheer. Little did I know when I listened to it that it would have such an impact on my life in the weeks to come. That it would give me strength through the testing of my faith in one of the most difficult times in my life. The CD was titled "Healed". The key points that hit home were that when we pray for healing we should not ask over and over the same prayer. That shows a lack of faith that God will answer. We should ask in Faith and then thank God and praise him for the healing that is to come even though we many not see the results yet. To help me realize that if I spoke in a negative way about the situation that was not showing faith.  Realizing that God wants us to be healed. Thanks to Pastor Bill Scheer for the words of wisdom and for making the CD, to Ruben Castro and my husband Ken for listening to that still small voice. Thanks to my husband for playing it for me to hear. Above all thank the Lord for me being receptive to his word and applying it to my life.

November 10, 2005

My Mom had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. She was unresponsive. We could not get her to eat or take in any fluids. The doctor in the emergency room said if we had not brought her in when we did her kidneys would have shut down because she was so dehydrated. Her electrolytes were all off and this was why she was unresponsive. This had been a constant battle over the last few years. Due to the fistula she was left with after the last surgery.

By November 15 she was moved to Intensive Care. They had put in two pick lines in each of her arms to pump in the fluids. She was running a fever and was totally unresponsive. They were not sure where the infection was coming from but her white count was high. They were giving her antibiotics to fight the infection. By the next day she had 3 seizures and we did not know what was causing them. She would look at us but did not respond to us. They did a brain scan. Every day my Dad and I would pray for her and thank God for every small improvement no matter how small. We would thank him for everything even if we did not see any improvement yet. But for improvements that were to come.

On November 19 Mom knew who I was when I spoke to her. She touched my face and said my name. Then the next day she was back to being unresponsive. We were trying to feed her by mouth but she seemed like she didn't have the strength to even drink through a straw.

By the 21st of November the doctor had taken her off fluids because she was filling up with fluid around her heart. She was having Congestive Heart Failure. They said her heart was only functioning at 10 %. They were afraid she was going to have a heart attack. Her breathing was so labored. It made me tired just to watch her struggling. When we brought her to the hospital she only weighed 80 pounds. Any nourishment she took in went straight out the fistula and her body was absorbing very little. It was difficult to put any weight on her no matter how much she ate. They put a feeding tube down her nose directly into her abdomen hoping this would not add to the fluid build up. Thank the Lord she was able to tolerate it.

By Thanksgiving my Mom had not shown any improvement. The Holiday came and went like any other day. It was difficult to think of anything but my Mom getting well. It seemed like at every turn something else would go wrong. Our youngest daughter's cockatiel bird named Kailey died that day. My husband, Ken found her at the bottom of her cage. So we buried her later that evening in our back yard.

On November 27 my Mom finally spoke to us. It was only a whisper but she knew who we were and spoke to us after 17 days. My Dad was beside himself with joy at finally getting her to speak to him. He was talking to her like she was a little girl and she was smiling at him and so happy to see him.

Just after 8:00 am on the 28th my Aunt Ruth (my Dad's sister) called me and told me that my Aunt Janet had died (that is my Dad's baby sister) I was in shock. I didn't know how I was going to tell my Dad. I dearly loved my Aunt Janet. She had lived with us when we were kids. Later we were to learn that she had died of a heart attack and no one knew she even had any signs of heart trouble. Telling my Dad was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I prayed for the Lord to help me tell him, to give me the words. I didn't know how much more my Dad could take with all that was going on with my Mom.

On November 29 they had to put my Mom on a respirator. They said that her heart was working too hard and she was really laboring to breathe. They said that once you are put on a respirator if you are left on too long you become dependant on it and could not guarantee that she would be able to come off of it. It was very difficult to see her on the respirator. I remember my mother's brother Bud and his son Randy came up that day and all the family was there. Everyone was having a difficult time to maintain self-control. I never gave up faith that God was in control but seeing her on the respirator broke my heart. Within the next two hours everything went bad. They had her full throttle on the blood pressure medicine Dopamine and NEO because her blood pressure had dropped to the dangerous level and she was not able to maintain her blood pressure on her own. She was kept sedated because of the respirator so we never seen her even open her eyes. Sometimes it would look like she was choking on the tube down her throat but we learned within time that she was just coughing. In ICU they have restricted visiting hours so you can only see your loved on for 30 minutes every two hours. My Dad spent 24 hours a day there and never left the hospital even though while she was in ICU he could not see her after 10:45 pm. He slept on the sofa down the hall from ICU just in case she needed him.

December 4
My Dad went back to my Mom's room because the doctor called him back to talk to him. Within minutes he came back out and said that my Mom started bleeding. Her doctor, Dr Bennett said there was no more they could do and it looked bad. Along with that her kidneys were not functioning properly either. So I went back to talk to Dr. Bennett myself. She was physically shaken with emotion when talking to me but by the grace of God I remained calm when she told me that my Mom was loosing blood as fast as they were putting it in her. They gave her 6 pints of blood in a 24-hour period. She explained that after so much blood your body starts to reject the blood being put back in because it thinks it is foreign and will fight against it self. I told Dr. Bennett she was to do everything humanly possible to save her and when it was my Mom's time to go it would be God to decide that. This was not the first time God had pulled her through and my faith was in God that he was the one in control. I saw one of the nurses look in amazement and shrug her shoulders. I turned to look at her and said, " You do not have to believe a word I just said but I know it is true and my faith is in God and he was the one in control." Dr. Bennett said she was going to call in a gastronoligist and that they thought the bleeding was from stomach ulcers. As I was leaving the room my Dad came back to see my Mom for visiting hours and the gastronoligist came in and told my Dad he was going to try a few different medicines and not to give up. My Dad and I laid hands on my Mom as we always did and agreed together in prayer that the bleeding would stop and the kidneys would start functioning normally.

The next day I woke up with a scripture going through my mind over and over. It was Proverbs 3: 5 & 6. It was like a voice repeating it over and over in my head. I had never experienced anything quite like it. It made me want to get out of bed and find my bible to see what the scripture was. When I opened my bible to the scripture it read "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thy own understanding. In all things acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path." Praise the Lord that day the bleeding stopped and her kidneys were functioning again. She was maintaining her blood pressure without medication too. I felt like the Lord was telling me to rest in him that he was taking care of everything. Within a few days they started weaning her off on the medicine that kept Mom sedated with the respirator. They were waking her up so even though she could not talk she would acknowledge my Dad and wink at him sometimes. The day the respirator came off we were praising the Lord with thanksgiving. Within a few days after that she was moved out of ICU to a heart monitored room just down the hall from ICU. But it wasn't long after she was moved out of ICU we noticed she was looking very jaundiced. They were not sure what was causing her skin color, and eyes to turn yellow. Obviously it was something to do with her liver. Every day we prayed for even the little things and thanked God for even the things that had not gotten better yet. We asked in faith and believed God would answer and he always did. Sometimes our prayers do not get answered in the time frame that we would like but they do get answered in God's time. There is always a reason why things happen the way they do even if we do not understand at the time. Sometimes we may never understand but we still put our trust in him. I use to really stress when things would happen to the point of it making me sick. Over time I have learned we can't control the things that happen to us most of the time. But God is in control and we have to have that child like faith and give our worries and concerns to him. Leaving it there is the hard part. This is one of the lessons I have had to learn.

December 18
Mom started having blood pressure on the high side so they had to give her blood pressure medicine to lower it. And as always her electrolyte levels are always a concern with her fistula. One day they can be normal and in a heart beat they can be off. Her gastronoligist said that the fistula is her biggest problem. He said that one of these times we are not going to get her to the hospital in time. The battle with infection was like a see saw from day to day. They ran a test on her liver to see if there were any blockages by the liver that maybe this could be the cause of her jaundice. The test results came back that there were no blockages. We thanked God. A few years back they had put a stint in by her liver because she was jaundiced. Soon after the stint dislodged and they now feel the stint is causing blockages. Every doctor that consulted on her case said they would not attempt to take it out because they felt it could not be reached without doing surgery and she was not a good candidate for surgery. Even now one gastronoligist said that it was unreachable with a scope.

December 25
Mom was in the hospital for Christmas too. My husband Ken, the girls and I went to see her and bought her Christmas present to her. She didn't have the strength to open it for herself so her granddaughters helped her. She was alert but tired.
By December 30 Mom's kidneys were not working again. Her potassium levels were in the danger zone and her blood pressure had dropped to 80. As always, we gave it to God in prayer. Blood was ordered and later in the day her blood pressure came back up. There was not a day that went by that we did not anoint my Mom with oil and pray for her. Always giving thanks for what was to come even though we did not see the results yet. We prayed for the doctors and nurses, for the Lord to give them wisdom. God answered that prayer too because a different gastronoligist took an interest in Mom's case.

January 3 the gastronoligist went in with a scope and removed the stint without a hitch. He said he felt if the stint was removed that he could give her medication that would close the fistula. We thanked God for sending this doctor in Mom's path. Because every other doctor felt it could not be done. But with God all things are possible. Now our prayer is the fistula will close without infection or complications.

As of today, January 20, 2006 the fistula is slowing down and things are working normally. She is no longer jaundiced and gaining more strength every day. We put absolute faith that God will answer prayer and the fistula will seal with no complications. You have to keep the Faith and never give up. God tells us that if we have the faith as a grain of mustard seed that nothing would be impossible unto us. Even when we pray we have to ask in faith and believe with all our heart and trust the answer will come even though we may not see the results yet. One of my favorite scriptures is Hebrews 11: 1 "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. " I live by it daily.

UPDATES
January 24, 2006
I got a call about 3:00 A.M. that my Mom's had woke up in a sweat. Dad called the nurse in to check on her
and when she checked her sugar levels they had dropped extremely low and was continuing to drop. Mom is on TNA (which is the white milky stuff they feed you through the veins. Usually you get very high sugar levels from this but her body was not absorbing the sugar) They gave her straight sugar by mouth and it raised it but it kept falling back at a fast rate. The levels had gotten down to 30. This went on for hours during the night. My Dad anointed her with oil and prayed. The next time they checked her sugar levels they had went back up to normal and stabilized.

February 1, 2006
They are giving Mom low doses of antibiotics because they feel the fistula has infection under the skin and that is what is not allowing it to close. She is on a pureed diet instead of clear liquids now. They have had to go back and forth with the diet adjusting it when the fistula has more output. She is gaining more strength daily. Today with assistance she was able to walk a few steps out to the hallway. We are just waiting on the Lord when it is his time for the fistula to close. In the next day or so they will be moving Mom to a different room on the skilled nursing side of the hospital. Keeping the faith!

February 5, 2006
When Mom went into the hospital she weighed about 82lbs. It was very difficult to keep any weight on her no matter how much she ate. Today the nurse weighed her and she is now 104 lbs. She has gained most of it in the last 2 weeks. And the another exciting thing to report is the fistula has not had any output in the last 24 hours. Praise God!

February 10, 2006
My Mom came home from the hospital this afternoon. The fistula started having some output today but we think this may be because of her up and moving around and then also due to stress. We are trusting it is healing and will close soon. We thank God for all he has done and is continuing to do. God is not finished with her yet.

February 16, 2006
We told my Mom about Aunt Janet passing away while she was in ICU. My Dad felt that he couldn't do it. He asked my husband Ken to tell her. We had prayer just before we told her that God would lead Ken and that she would not develop complications in her recovery from the news. It was not an easy task nor one that anyone wanted to do even my husband. But God was there and it all went as well as could be expected. Better than if Dad or myself had told her.

My Mom is doing great health wise. The fistula has not had any output in days and has the appearance of closing. We praise the Lord for everything for without him it would not be possible.

May 2006
My Mom is up to 121 lbs now. She looks healthier than I have seen her in years. She and Dad are attending a church near them and fellowshipping with other Christians. Something they have not been able to do for many years and it is another answer to prayer. She is not wearing a bag where the fistula is but only a small bandage. We know the fistula will close completely in God's time. We have faith that he will answer this prayer too.