Home Again Home Again Jiggetty Jog

Whenever it's time to go home from the hospital I always think of the nursery rhyme from which this line is derived. I don't know why, I just do. I've been using it to let people on facebook know that Adam is home from the hospital again as I don't usually make it public knowledge that he's in until we're out.

We came home Tuesday at five thirty. I had hoped to be home earlier, but we had to wait for a ct scan and he had to have his two o'clock dose of antibiotics before we could leave. That night, the nurses came to teach me how to give the meds through the PICC line. All the supplies I would need were delivered at six thirty and the nurses came at seven. One was the teacher, the other was new to the company and was here to learn paperwork and procedures. They were really nice and made the learning easy. We had tea together as we waited for the ten o'clock dose to be given, which I gave to Adam. They wanted to be sure I knew how to do it.

Today is the last day for these meds. Tomorrow the visiting infusion nurse will come and pull out the PICC line. We will do the Happy Dance! Adam wants to go driving, and if he feels well after the nurse leaves, out we will go.

You might think that after all that's happened, the rest of Adam's recovery should be a breeze,  but this is not so. Adam is particularly sensitive to the changing pressures inside his brain. Oftentimes after seasons of surgeries like this one, it takes many, many weeks for his brain and body to acclimate to the new system. He has frequent headaches and vomiting and sometimes this goes on and on until his brain finally accepts the new shunt system. I'm praying the time is short and he recovers quickly. It's hard watching him suffer. All I can do is give pain and anti nausea drugs, hold him, and pray.

Sometimes it's hard finding the balance between trusting God for healing and accepting what is going on.

 I don't know how anyone else does it, but I have learned to accept what is, and lean on God while we go through it. I don't really understand the "name it and claim it" kind of faith. It's never seemed to work for me, and when I tried that approach to our circumstances, all it did was leave me hypercritical of myself for not having enough faith for Adam to be healed. When I've heard  the Father speak into our difficulties, it was never that I didn't have enough faith, it was always that he's with me to bring me through to the other side of the "valley of the shadow of death". Shadow of death. Not the actual valley of death. We've been close a number of times, but Adam is still here and we're so very thankful.

I remember a particular season during the summer of 2004, what I call the year from hell, when Adam was much younger and had a season of surgeries much like this last one. I was hanging laundry and crying to the Lord, and weeping for the suffering of a little boy who could not understand any of it, or even talk about it. He had very little language then, much less than what he has now. All he could communicate was by screaming "MY HEAD, MY HEAD" and holding it with both hands. As I was talking to God and yelling to God and screaming a bit myself about why he gave me this child if it was only to take him away, and did I ask him for this child, he quietly spoke to me and gave me a scripture passage to look up. So I did. Here it is; 2 Kings 4:8-37. I won't put the whole story here, but it's the story of  the Shunemite woman and her son. The child is a gift to her from the Lord because of her many kindnesses to Elisha when he comes to her town. One day while the boy was in the fields with his father, he fell ill and cried out "My head, my head!". And lay down in his mother's lap and died. She put her son in the prophet's room, shut the door and said that no one was to enter there, and went to get Elisha. She would not speak to anyone but him, and when she did, she said " Did I ask you for a son?". She would not leave and go home until Elisha agreed to go with her. He prayed for the child and the boy was raised from death and was given back to his mother.

I was bowled over by the goodness of the Lord to show me in his word how he was with us in all that was happening, and I believed that Adam would survive. It didn't shorten the suffering, and he wasn't miraculously healed. What did happen was that my heart was healed. God stopped by while I was hanging laundry and spoke to me through his word and let me know that he's always here. Not just near, but here. I have learned to lean, as someone has said. When my strength fails, or even when I'm strong, I lean on the One who is stronger still. He will not fail to keep my head above the water and will rescue me from the fire.  And we are home again, home again, jiggetty jog. God is good, all the time.

Thanks for coming along on this journey with me. I enjoy your company so much. Blessings and peace to my readers today.

 

We're Almost There

It's 12:30 Sunday morning, March 16, 2014. We've been in the hospital for 12 days. Yesterday I finally heard from the infectious disease specialists about the length of treatment for Adam. It will be a total of 14 days from the start of the specific antibiotic needed to treat klebsiella pneumonae. 14 days! Amazing! We were originally told it would be 4-6 weeks. The last 3 samples of cerebral spinal fluid were clear of any sign of bacteria, and the white count has continued to drop. We have a move of God in my humble opinion. The neurosurgeon will make the call in the next few days regarding when Adam will be able to go home. It will depend on how Adam feels and whether everything is going smoothly with his new shunt system.

Thursday Adam had issues with his heart rate all day and overnight.(up to 161 beats per minute when up and walking) I asked for a cardiac consult as I was concerned that the extremely high rate would negatively impact him going for the final surgery, and the neurosurgery team agreed. I didn't want him to be at risk of not going to the operating room. I wasn't worried that there was anything wrong with his heart as he was seen by a cardiologist in October when he was admitted for shunt issues. He had been going between bradycardia (extremely slow rate) and tachycardia(extremely fast rate); it was determined that the problem was because his shunt had failed and his intra-cranial pressure was too high and was causing the fluctuations. Anyway, the cardiologist came in and ordered blood work, and later ordered more blood work, an echocardiogram, and a Doppler study of the veins and arteries in his legs to rule out a possible blot clot as the cause of the tachycardia. The lab work was done overnight and the other tests were done in the morning and Adam was cleared for surgery. The determination was that he was probably dehydrated.

Adam's surgery to internalize his shunt took place on Friday. Everything went very smoothly, and all the hardware needed to keep him safe and his brain free of excessive pressure was put back in. He was so tired from his ordeal of the previous three days that he slept in recovery for five hours! Every time the nurse or I woke him up, he refused to stay awake until about seven thirty p.m. That ran into shift change time, so we had to wait.. We got back to his room around nine o'clock that night.

Adam's PICC line is working well, he feels and looks better, and he will probably go home on Monday or Tuesday. I will need to give him antibiotics through the PICC line for just a few days. I am breathing big sighs of relief. There is no swelling around the shunt wounds, except for what is normal after surgery. He is uncomfortable, but that is also normal and his pain is well controlled with the prescribed medications.

Thank you Father for giving me peace and strength. Thank you for taking care of Adam. Thank you for all the prayers and the pray-ers around the country who have so faithfully held Adam before you. And thank you that you always stop by. You are good.