Friday, April 3, 2009

A Peaceful Rest After a Rough Night

Lamentations 3:22-24
"Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.'"

Waiting is very tough right now. Tammy had a rough night. We got to ICU about midnight. By the time she was settled in it was around 12:30. She woke up with intense chest pains, probably from the pneumonia. It got bad enough that they did some cardiac tests to make sure she wasn't having heart problems. They came back negative.

After sleeping for a couple of hours, she started throwing up and kept that up for quite a while. Because she couldn't use her oxygen mask her O2 levels dropped to near 50 percent. They had her alternate between the mask and throwing up. She finally got through that and has been in and out of sleep since then.

They closed ICU to visitors from 7-8:30. When I got back, she was resting peacefully. She responds when I talk to her, but keeps her eyes closed most of the time. I'm glad she's able to rest. She needs the rest to withstand this latest trial.

The nurse said they'll do the endoscopy (tube down her breathing passage to look at her lungs) around 2 p.m., not because she needs to improve first, but that's when it's available. They're fully expecting to find that it's pneumonia, so they're treating it as such already.

I don't know how anybody gets through a time like this without faith, family and friends. We have both felt the prayers of many people, and that is a great comfort. We know that God knew this would happen and it's all in His plan. It's a little scary, to be honest, to completely turn it over to Him, because His plan may not be our plan. But He is the Lord of our lives, and we decided many years ago to trust Him regardless of the situation. That's more important now than ever.

We also feel the love of family and friends (you all blend together). The numerous calls have been great, and the concern we know is out there lets us know that we're not going through this alone.

Our kids are okay. Julie is having a harder time with it because she's far away. But their faith is their strength as well. Please keep them in your prayers.

I'll update as new information becomes available. You are very special to us.

4 comments:

JJ said...

We are praying for you all at LIA.

Thanks for the updates.

Blessings,
J.J. Peterson

Dave VanderKlay said...

Tough times David. We are praying for Tammy and the rest of y'all as well.

Anonymous said...

Hello, I met your daughter through Facebook. Isn't that strange? I'm almost 55 years old, surviving Multiple Myeloma. I had the stem cell transplant at Siteman Cancer Center/ St. Louis summer 2003. Julie gave me your blogsite. After reading part of it, I totally understand the meaning of "The first 100 days". I am praying. Please tell Tammy that Pam Hughes (sister to her in the blood cancer family)sends my best wishes to you all. Tammy and I truly are fortunate that God allowed us to feel "living for the moment"! I will be reading your post. God Bless You! Sincerely, Pam Hughes, Columbus, MS (lived near Nashville when diagnosed Jan. 2003) Dr. Vij was our main doctor at Barnes Jewish.

Anonymous said...

We are praying! Give her our love. Please let me know if you need anything!! I hope you get some rest too.

Thanks for keeping us updated!

Lizz Selders