Back to Therapy

Well we found out I have a tear in my Rotator Cuff. All the medical people who read this please forgive me if I have miss spelled this. I will start therapy to try and repair this without surgery. So stay tuned and I will keep you up dated on this.

Thunder Sleet!

Go Blazers!

Christopher Loves Hockey!

Haircut Time

Jennifer and Christopher @ bedtime!

It's story time!

Christopher @ the park!

Ain't He Cute

Content Change

Due to my over whelming recovery Jennifer and I have decide to use this blog as a way to share information with our family and friends. We will of course continue to update my progress as new information becomes available.

The 26 letters of the alphabet can not begin to describe the thanks for the continued pray and support Jennifer and I have received from our families and friends.Our prayer has been for God to return every blessing and gift we received 100 times over.

November 15, 2006

Well today is 6 months, and I am 2 1/2 week from finishing my therapy. God has been so amazing through this entire process. I have given God all the glory for my speedy recovery. I plan on playing softball in the spring. I have had people ask why this happened to me. My response is, "Who cares? I'm alive." I will get to see my son turn three next month. I serve an awesome God and I dare anyone to challenge me on this. I was removed from the grasp of death. No one will ever convince me MY God is not real or alive.

Thank You!

We really want to say Thank You to everyone who came to visit, made contributions, sent cards or lifted our families up in pray during this difficult time in our lives. Everyone who came into my room while I was still in the hospital would always comment about all the cards taped to the window. I actually had someone tell me you could see all my cards from the parking lot, and that's how they knew we where still there. I have told several people you always know your family loves you, but it really sinks in when you have something major happen in your life like this. To think my parents dropped there lives for three months to make sure every need I had was met, and I just don't mean my parents Jennifer's parents where right there beside mine.
Words can never express the gratitude in my heart. God is amazing! The word amazing does no justice for my God. My doctor's and therapist continually would comment about the support structure which is in my life. They attributed my rapid progress to the support I have.
The biggest supporter I have in my life next to God is my wife, Jennifer. God has blessed me with an incredible life partner. She has had the most amazing strength. She will be the first to admit her strength was not her own. God will give us the anointing for everything we encounter. However He is a gentleman and will not force himself on us. We have to chose to run to Him and accept this anointing. Jennifer not only ran to God she jumped in His arms. She told me the other day she really felt like the only footprints in the sand belonged to Jesus through this entire process.

Well at this point I feel like I am beginning to ramble. However I really want express our Thanks to everyone who has been there with us through this entire process.

September 11th

Yes, it has been a whole month since I have written. Things have gotten really busy at work. We are re-decorating the children's area and guess who is in charge of it all. ME! I really didn't think I could do it, but I guess I can. The hardest part was picking out colors. The new curriculum we purchased for Elementary came with design ideas and transparencies to help with the drawing. Big City Studio is the name of the curriculum. So all I needed to do was pick a color. How hard can that be. Well I stressed over it. I decided on yellow for the walls. Then I painted the back wall black and the stage black. It really turned out looking good. The best part is....the Pastors said it looked good also. I have to have it completed by October 1st. The Masters team will help me when they get in also. It's fun now that I got the first step over with.

Our church is going through a lot of changes right now mainly in the children's area. So I have really been stressing about it since that is my area. It will be good changes, it's just stretching me some. I will write more about that in October after they are official.

Well, I haven't really written much about me in these blogs, due to that there was so much going on with Eric. Eric wants to start writing in it so I will write this last blog and then it will be Eric writing. I tell you the praise report and then I will write some about what I have been going through. The praise report is that the doctor that was supposed to do the gamma knife on Eric had him repeat a CAT scan and a MRI so they could have current pictures. When they got the pictures back, she and some other doctors at St. Anthony's looked at it and say "I can't find it". The expert doctors can not find the fistula. They say that some fistulas when they burst take care of themselves but we know what really happened! I still ask the question "Why". I don't know and I will probably never know. I have learned that I need to stay away from the Why questions and the what ifs. They are very dangerous.

Now on to me. I really thought that when Eric got out of the hospital, I would be jumping for joy because he was alive and got to come home. Something else hit me from out of no where....depression. For some reason, I became more sad than I was happy. I was angry at life and I must admit I was angry at God. No not me, I'm on a church staff. It happens! Yes it can happen to any of us, when we are weak and tired and the fight is out of us. The funny thing is, just admiting it to God and to myself started a healing process in my heart. I pray everyday now that God will heal my heart and stop the questions of why. I don't know why bad things happen to us. I am learning that for one what you let your mind think is so very important. It only takes one thought to start you off the path. And I am also learning that God doesn't get upset when we tell him things like "I'm mad at you". It's like he is just waiting for our moods to change or something. I have also learned that there are times when you just have to persevere. To persevere is probably one of the hardest things to do. The definition is to persist steadily in an action or belief usually over a long period and especially despite problems or difficulties. Doesn't sound fun! But God still says that we need to do that sometimes to get to the good stuff. (Hebrews 10:36)

So thanks for listening. Thanks for praying!

August 16th

Last week, we met witht the Doctor about the blood disorder. He was a really funny guy. He had eyebrows like catapillers. We thought it was going to be a real serious meeting. It wasn't. The doctor basically said that if Eric gets sick again and is going to be in bed for a while to tell the doctors to give him a medicine to stop blood clots. He said that for the rest of the family also. He said that Eric and his dad looked fairly healthy and to not really worry about it. He didn't want to get Christopher checked because then it would be on his record and it would prevent him from some things like if he wanted to go in the service. So it was really just informative.

We also heard from the doctor who will do the gamma knife. She wants Eric to have another CAT scan and MRI. He will have that done on Friday.

Eric's parents left on Saturday. It was very hard on everyone. They had been here for over 3 months. We were by ourselves on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. But reinforcement came Monday night. My mom came down and will stay for a while to help take Eric to therapy and other stuff.

August 8th

Last week we saw two doctors. On Monday, we saw the Physical therapist doctor who told us that we needed to do 4-6 more weeks of physical therapy. On Tuesday, we meet with the doctor that will be doing the gamma knife. This one was a little frustrating. She came totally unprepared in my opinion. She hadn't looked at our scans so didn't know what she was looking at. Then she couldn't work the computer. She said she would have to take the scans to her meeting next Tuesday (if she were prepared she could have taken it to her meeting that morning). Then we would have to meet with the Neuro surgeon for that hospital, hopefully he can redeem the place. Then we would have to plan a time that all doctors could get together and do the gamma knife. So we were a little frustrated that this isn't going to be sooner than next week.

This week we meet with the Dr. at OU med for the blood disorder.

Pray also for us for this week. Grammy and Grandaddy are leaving Saturday. They have become so much of our lives here that it's hard to think of them not being here. The good think though is that Grandma comes on Monday. So we won't be alone.

July 30th

Monday we have an appointment with the physical therapist to check on how he is coming along. On Tuesday we finally get to meet with the doctor from St. Anthony's. So this will be an interesting week.

Eric and I have tried it twice on our own now. We took Christopher to a local park to run some energy out. We were both kind of nervous about the outing. When we got to the park, one of the Pastors was there playing tennis. Just having him nearby was comforting to us. It went perfectly fine. Yesterday, Eric and I went on a date. It was a little nerve racking for me, because I am always so used to having Martin with us. So we had to conquer a few things, but we made it.

I am constantly reminded of how you must keep your thoughts in order. The Bible says to take every thought captive. This situation has really taught me to watch my thoughts. It only takes a few minutes for one thought to go from death to life.

Speaking of death to life....Pastor Neisent has spoken over us that our ministry will be from death to life. He has also said that there will be opportunities for Eric to tell his story. His voice will be heard.

July 20th

Sorry I haven't written for a while.

Well I am back at work full time. I'm not sure I put that in my last blog. It is sometimes hard to focus with everything else going on.

We heard back about Eric's CAT scan. The Dr. said it looked good, so he was referring us to the people at St. Anthonys. They haven't called to schedule an appointment yet.

Last weekend, Christopher woke up at 4 am throwing up. First he threw up in our bed. We only own two sets of sheets, one on our bed and one on Susan and Martin's bed. So we had to dig to find some new sheets. We then learned the throw up signs of Christopher. So as soon as he showed him we would practically throw him off the bed and run in the bathroom with him. I taught him how to throw up in the toilet. He threw up several more times that morning. He seemed fine the rest of the day. Although he would run to the bathroom and spit in the toilet and tell us he was throwing up. On Sunday, Susan started getting sick and we thought it was a migrain until one by one we ran to the bathroom. At one point, both bathrooms were taken so one of us had to run to the kitchen trashcan. We hoped that Eric would not get it, but after I left for work on Monday he started to get sick. I felt pretty bad but I was not throwing up, so I guess around one, Betty told me to go home. When I got there it was a sad sight. There were several trashcans in the living room. The house was completely dark and everyone had sad faces. I crawled in bed and slept for several hours. So we had a pretty wearing weekend. Eric missed therapy on Monday and Tuesday because of it.

We are all better now, just very leary of the last thing we ate before we got sick. I could handle never seeing a salad again. Actually I could handle never having a taco salad again. I know that was not what made me sick, but still!

I also didn't say that Christopher went home with my mom for a week. He got to be with a little of everybody up there. He got to ride 4 wheelers, ride a boat, jump off a boat...you know all the things you can do in the country. He had a good time.

July 15th

Eric had a CAT scan on Wednesday. The doctor was supposed to call us Thursday or Friday, but we haven't heard from him yet.

Eric is doing well at home. He has physical and occupational therapy 3 times a week. That wears him out sometimes. But he is getting stronger and stronger everyday.

July 7th

Eric has been home for a week now. Things are going good. We didn't have physical therapy until Wednesday. Yesterday, we went to see Dr. Kelly (the neuro-surgeon). We were in his office for about 5 minutes and most of that time Eric did the talking. He said that Eric looked good. He scheduled a CAT scan for next Wednesday to see if the blood was still in his brain. If there is no blood there, then he will refer us to St. Anthony's for the Gammaknife. Dr. Kelly said that the procedure usually doesn't take full effect until about 6 months, so he could start to bleed again in that time. We also have an appointment scheduled for August 10th with the Hematologist at I think OU med. He has therapy three times a week.

Just recently, I heard something that someone said about our situation. It was not an uplifting thought and it bothered me. But it bothered me in a way that put condemnation on me. I was reminded by several people about the scripture that says to take every thought captive. I'm sure there are several but the one I am talking about is 2 Corinthians 10:5. I like what it says in The Message Bible, "We use our powerful God-tools to smashing warped philosophies." You should read it in the Message. You can go on line to Crosswalk.com and look up scriptures in any version. Anyways, I was reminded to come back to God and he will help clear things.

July 2nd

Well Eric has been home for 2 1/2 days now. I was really nervous about having him home. Mainly nervous about the "what ifs". What if he falls? What if he can't do this? What if he is in pain? I'm learning that you can keep living in the what ifs. They will absolutely kill you.

Yesterday we tried some outings like Lowe's and Home Depot. We needed stuff to raise the furniture. The trips were okay but you have to get past some hurdles. We got to Lowe's and the wheel chairs are not convient for tall people. But the outings where good for Eric. It is good to have his parents here with us also. They have moved into the living room. I couldn't do this without them and my parents (and A LOT of other peopele).

Friday morning, my mom took Christopher home with her for a week. We thought that Eric could learn to get around a little better if we didn't have a 2 year old under his feet. Christopher first got to go to my Aunt's farm. That is always fun for kids. Then they are going to their house to be with Poppie. I miss him but it is kind of nice for Eric and I after 7 weeks of being in the hospital.

So the next steps in the process is to go to physical therapy at Jim Thorpe south side 3 times a week. We have to schedule an appointment with Dr. Kelly, the neuro-surgeon, next Thursday. And we also have to schedule an appointment with the hemotologist about the blood clot problem.

I'll continue to write until this is all over with. God is good!

June 29th

Eric is coming home tomorrow!