August 25, 2011

God's miracle

Wow it has been such a long time since I have been on last. There is a good reason why and all though this post may be long, there is a lesson in the end! So grab a cup of coffee and enjoy.
It started two years ago when my sister and her family relocated to Columbus for her husbands job. Yes it is only 2 hrs away, but it was the point that my nieces and nephew weren't 5 Min's away anymore, which is what we were all used to.  I was so upset and wondering why God would relocate them. Unfortunately that answer was made clear to us almost One year ago. My brother in law Eric became very ill one night. My sister kept saying he needed to go to the doctor and he said no because he knew what they would say....he is overweight, it's just his bleeding ulcers and take medicine. This continued for 24 hrs until Eric was on the bathroom floor and turning a greenish yellow color and could hardly make it back to bed after violently throwing up for 24 hrs. My sister called 911 and the whirlwind started. He was admitted to the hospital and was told he had severe pancretitis. My sister told me to just go on our camping trip for Labor day because it's just controlled with pain meds. Unfortunately, he went down hill FAST. I received a call at 6 am  the following day that Eric was in critical condition, on a ventilator, had multiple organ failure and they needed to get him to Ohio State University Hospital, but could not get him stable enough to move him. He was dying and I was hrs away and there was nothing I could do. I was told not to leave and just wait. After several hours he was stabilized and the OSU Critical Care Team came and transported Eric. When they arrived at the hospital there was a team of doctors, surgeons, nurses just waiting for him and started right away with him. They kept him stable, but his body went septic. I was finally able to get to him and my family the day after we returned from our trip, which was 3 days later, and when I walked in to the MICU I saw my brother in law just laying in a bed, hooked up to a ventilator, a dialysis machine, tubes, meds and much more around him. I have never seen anything like it in my life. This continued for a long time and he was transported to the SICU because he was going to need surgery, but was not stable enough for it. What had happened was he had gallstones and was not aware of it and one let go, lodged in his pancreas duct and sent poison through his body. They had to keep fluid going in him at all times and there was so much fluid that after weeks his lungs started to collapse due to the pressure. They had to do emergency surgery to relieve the pressure and my sister was sat down and told they were sorry, but they did not think he would make it out of the operating room alive. He just was not stable enough. We prayed and prayed and he made it though. This was the beginning of several surgeries and several set backs. We almost lost Eric 7 times total over the past year. I can't even say all that happened because it would take days. Eric was in a coma for 8 weeks and had  all these surgeries and woke up and saw his blood going through a machine, had a tube in his throat, missed his 34th birthday and more. It was all to much to take in. With the fluid they put on him he ended up weighing over 400 lbs which was over 200 lbs more then he was when he went in. I traveled to Columbus several times a week just to sit with him and talk to him even when he couldn't hear me. His brother traveled form NC every weekend to be by his side. When he was awake he was struggling. He has had many set backs. They diagnosed him with Necrotizing (sp) pancretitis, went septic twice, kidneys failed twice, had a liver infection which was shutting down his organs again, was bleeding internally and they could not find where and could not do surgery because they knew he would not make it through. I am happy to report that God has worked his miracle in Eric and he is alive and making more progress everyday. He had a feeding tube for a long time and they just removed it yesterday and they are changing his liver drain today. He will be having another surgery in January to fix the hernia that was created from his first surgeries since they could not close him. The doctors and surgeons said they have never seen anyone as sick as him survive. They are all in disbelief. My sister was by his side everyday no matter what. My mom moved in with my sister to care for the kids while my sister was at the hospital and even though he came home he still has physical therapy, dialysis and more. He had been very sick and at the worst time the devil came to visit him. He told my sister the devil was in his hospital room, what he looked like, he was playing games with Eric, told him my sister had done some unspeakable things. It was so scary that we were all on our knees praying and collecting pictures of Jesus and putting them all over his room. The devil finally left because he couldn't get him. There is so much more that happened and several trips back to the hospital after making it home and chances of losing him again and again. The last time we almost lost him was May and it was so scary. I could go on literally for hours, but the point to this is I have been very busy with all that and also in being angry at God, questioning God, wondering how this could happen, begging and praying that God would heal his body and make him a miracle, make him a testimony that God heals.  God finally gave me peace and said he will be ok. God is healing his body and God saved him. God made it clear to me that all the things we/I questioned about why they had to move was that it was God's plan. He knew Eric was going to be so sick he would need OSU medical center because if he was here in Canton he would not have survived. God has showed me that I need to trust in him no matter if I understand or not and just let him work. I sit here today and still tears streaming down my face because not only is it hard to relive this, but it's also God touching my heart. If someone doesn't believe in God and his powers please read this and read it again until you see his miracles. God is here and he will save you and he will be there for you. We may not always get the answers we want and I haven't, but I know God is doing it for a reason just as he did with my sister. I will close in asking that everyone continue to pray for my sister and her family. The kids are 14, 10 and 5 and it's been so heartbreaking for them. They still need lots of prayer as he still has a lot of healing and a long way to go. He finally has 10% kidney function which is unbelievable! I also ask that if you do not know God as your savior please accept him. We all need him. I need him to work in my life right now as well as my sisters and Eric's. God loves us all so much! If you have any questions feel free to ask I can explain or go into more detail about what happened to Eric. I just didn't wanna write a book!!!!!
Eric before his last trip to the hospital. Praise God He is alive

2 comments:

Leah said...

God is good. An amazing story and I can't imagine how hard it was for you to write this. God is using you and your family to share this story with others. Maybe you should write a book! :)

Mommy of 3 said...

It was hard to write it emotionally and also the fact that I could not get his whole story out there. With everything he went through and everyday something else was going wrong it just showed more of God's miracle. Maybe one day I will write a book about it!