4/23/12 - God's Showering of Blessings

Hello Everyone - Let me first start with the good news!  As of Saturday night they were able to move Jason out of the ER and into his new luxury suite in Baltimore :)  So only one overnight in the ER, that wasn't too bad!  At least the room they had him in had doors to block the sound out and curtains to block the light out.  I guess you are treated extra special when you have a lung issue lol.  All kidding aside, the room he is in now is probably the nicest room he's had yet out of all of this hospital stays this past year with it's own bathroom!  Thank you God!  That was very sweet of Him to pamper us knowing we'd likely be here for awhile :) 

As for happenings over the weekend, since Friday they honestly haven't done much of anything because Jason's team of Dr's were all off this weekend.  So, they've tried to keep him as comfortable as they could until they came up with a game plan.  From what we know at this point (Monday evening),Jas is scheduled to have a small chest tube (pigtail) put in tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.  We are PRAYING PRAYING PRAYING that they are able to insert the tube in effectively and that it resolves the abscess so they do not have to proceed with further, more invasive tactics.  I'll keep you posted on how it goes.  Also, praying they are able to keep his pain under control after the tube is inserted as these tubes are painful!  Jas has had three chest tubes since his surgery in January so I'm sure you can imagine how hard it is to consider going back to that again : (  But I'll tell you what, Jas is a trooper!  Our Dr. tonight was recapping with us the past few days and is just shaking his head at how Jas continues to keep bouncing back after each "event" shall we call them.  We know it's all God, that he is able to continue to respond better to these bumps in the road than others tend to and we are so grateful for His continued strength and endurance to help him push through!

In the meantime, if you can please pray for Jason's coughing to stay at a manageable state until the procedure we would definitely appreciate it!  A couple days ago the coughing fits only came on when he was moving/standing up.  Now they are coming on hourly even when he's sitting still in bed.  This is extremely painful for him and jolts all the prior incision areas from his surgery back in January. 

GOD'S RECENT SHOWERING OF BLESSINGS :

So last post I mentioned sending some pics from our past month and a half of blessings that God showered on us with the help of many of you all.  Since we have some time on our hands right now I figured now would be as good of time as any to share! :)  So going back to late February, I had reached out to some family & friends for ideas on fun things we could do as a family to help lift Jas' spirits.  While we knew that he wasn't able to go back to work yet, which he so desperately wanted to do and thought he would have been by 4/23, we had to figure something out to keep him sane in the meantime that initially had the following restrictions: no eating or drinking by mouth, no cold weather (since chemo he gets chilled to the bone easily and really hurts when that happens), no lifting over 10lbs., not much physical activity required (less than 1/2 a mile total of walking including to car and back), close enough to the Baltimore for an emergency, and something that didn't last more than a few hours, as Jas had little stamina.  Tricky!  Thanks to the creativity and generosity of others, we were able to experience a bunch of fun activities and focus on making some wonderful memories together!  

It was a new experience for us as a family, learning what Jason's new physical limitations were.  For example, at Great Falls it wiped him out to walk from the car to the falls and back.  Which was probably 1/2 a mile total.  Those who know Jas, this is very abnormal, as he typically would walk 5 miles easy and then want to go for a run afterward.  And we had to perfectly time when we left on our trip, when we returned, etc. based on the timing of his pain meds and needing to "hook-up" for his nightly feeding starting around 6pm.  So, we had to creatively think of things that we could drive to the site, sitting options were available so Jas could rest and not a lot of physical activity was involved and the weather wouldn't be too cold.  So, that's just a small picture of our new normal.  Each trip he was wiped out by the time we got home, but you could tell he was grateful to have a change of scenery and was able to continue to push himself toward a goal of building up his endurance to return to work as soon as the Dr. would release him.  

We started our adventures off with a quick trip to Great Falls in Potomac, MD.  What a fun day trip for us!  Taylor's first time there and she loved all the "waterfalls." Thanks Dagmar for this great idea!

Look at that tiny bowling ball!

Then we headed into Jason's birthday.  Because of his restrictions at the time, we decided to have a surprise "duck pin" bowling party.  For those of you mid westerners out there, yes this was a new concept for us too, as we just didn't have this in Ohio growing up!  I had to laugh when I booked the lanes for the party, they asked me if the party was for Taylor.  Hee hee.  Nope, I shared, it's for my 35 yr old hubby!  Too funny!  Anyway, with duck pin the bowling balls weigh 2 to 3 lbs, the bowling pins are half the size and there are bumpers up on the gutters.  It was fun and met the test of all of Jason's restrictions and fun for the kiddos too so it could be a family friendly party. Praise the Lord! So grateful for the Shanks for this creative idea :)  

Eric & Jas tallying the scores

Next we had an awesome time at the Baltimore Aquarium with Eric, Brandie and our "niece" Maryssa!  We had never been before and the Couches surprised Jas with this fun opportunity, including a dolphin show :)  Taylor continues to talk about those dolphins daily!  What an amazing treat and what fun we had creating such wonderful memories with such a special family at the aquarium!

Maryssa & Taylor

The Circus McGurkus with the Shanks

It's crazy, but the blessings continue to keep showering on us, just keep reading :)  Thanks to the Shanks, we were blessed with getting to go to a Barnum & Bailey Circus!  Can I just tell you what an amazing show it was?  Jason and I enjoyed it every bit as much as Taylor did if not more!  So much fun!  Taylor's favorite animals are elephants so can I just tell you how special that was to get to see an elephant paint with it's trunk before the show (which is her favorite craft right now).  And we were able to create more awesome memories with Courtney, Brett and their adorable twin boys, Brady & Taylor.  What another incredible show that we were blessed with and with such a special family!  And it was perfect that not much walking was required, just a fun time inside, sitting and enjoying the show.  

The daddy/daughter train

Somewhere in there we were able to pull off an impromptu trip into DC to see the cherry blossoms.  Again, another first for Taylor and it had been a handful of years for Jas and I since we went last.  We had a fun time with our neighbors Francis, Laura, Sammy & Emma (twins) & Jessie!  Such a treat, because normally we would have to find the crowd on a weekend!  Luckily we drove right to the playground, didn't have any walking really other than from the car to the playground and then drove around to see the rest.  But hey, we still got to enjoy a beautiful day and have a a great time!

Then we had some visits from Matt, our bro-in-law from Colorado, and Jonathan, my bro from Ohio.  We were so excited to see them while they were in town for business and sure did appreciate them making the effort to meet up with us while close by!

Uncle Jonathan at National Harbor

Uncle Matt & T

Brandie & I

So, we had asked for your prayers for clarity on whether or not I should go to my Women's Retreat at the end of March in the Outer Banks.  Well, it came down to the wire, but God perfectly arranged every single detail for us as a family to make sure I got there!  Including having meals provided for Jas and Taylor for the entire time that I was gone without even asking for them (thanks Bekah & Nate) and having "back up help" for Taylor for each day that I was gone in case it was needed.  HOLY COW!  Thanks to the many families involved that helped make this trip happen!  You guys ROCK! I was a little leery, but Jas was persistent and seemed to be doing ok at my departure time which was the day after his stent was put in.  So I went, trusting the Lord and putting it in His hands.  With the exception of an April Fool's Day joke that made my heart stop for about a day, it was a fantastic trip!  Oh yes, Jas thought it would be funny to tell me that his stent fell into his stomach and food was already getting stuck again the day after I arrived at our retreat.  Wheew!  He got me hook, line and sinker that STINKER!  Wheew. As for the retreat, it was truly a Breath of Heaven (the place was actually called that), such an amazing time of rejuvenation, drawing close to the Lord and focusing on spending such sweet time with the Lord and my Sistas in Christ!  Thanks to an amazing group of women for including me this year!  And Ginny, I'm so grateful for your huge heart for the Lord and opening your home up to us in this way!  And it was so nice to see how rewarding it was for Jason when I got back to have time to re-engage with Taylor and know that he was able to accomplish taking care of Taylor by himself! Thank goodness she still takes naps though!  Jas had to sleep every day when she did in order to keep his energy level high enough to keep up with her.  He was exhausted when I returned but very pleased that he was able to take care of his daughter.  What a blessing on both ends!

Pinkie's Retreat 2012 - What an amazing group of women!

Check out the cowboy boots :)

Easter Dress

Awesome sand sculpture of Jesus!

Oh, don't stop reading yet, the blessings keep showering on us!  The day after I returned from the retreat, we as a family packed up and headed for Ocean City, MD for a long Easter weekend.  Wait till you hear this one!  A couple weeks prior to our trip, Jas and I had talked about how he just needed to get away from the house for more than a quick day trip to pick up his spirits and have a change of scenery.  While he appreciated all of the fun day trips we mentioned earlier, there's something to be said about unplugging from the world for a few days and having a break from reality and just focus on building family memories together.  The walls off the house were closing in on him as there had been a lot of daily repetition and it was starting to wear on him mentally. So, the stressful part of all this was that we only had one weekend in the month of April that was available to go away - Easter weekend.  And I only had a small window to plan something close enough to Baltimore if an emergency trip was necessary and cost very little.  So I stressed 1 night/day over it before God completely handed an amazing gift to us on a silver platter, taking the weight of the world off my shoulders yet again.  The VERY NEXT DAY, my neighbors approached us and asked if Ocean City would be too far to drive for a get away for our family as they had a condo there we could use.  Can you imagine my surprise at the timing of this offer?  And, now get this.  Before I could even say the only weekend that we had free at that time (as Jason thought he would be returning back to work this Monday before the last ER trip), they said, "what about Easter weekend?"  REALLY?  REALLY GOD?  It just brings me to tears each time I think about what He did for us via the Hyrkas Family!  Thank you Hyrkas' for your generous hearts!  God is so faithful to us through all of our good times and bad times!

We had a fantastic trip to the beach and had a wonderful time celebrating that JESUS HAS RISEN!  Here's a special video from Taylor, singing a cute Easter song :)  You'll have to go to wilestrials.blogspot.com to view. 

After returning home, we celebrated Taylor turning 3 years old!  She feels like she hit the jackpot with all these fun things God blessed our family with this past couple months.  Seriously, we're going to have to level set the girl when birthday #4 comes around LOL.  She did a great job transitioning to her new big girl room and absolutely loves it!  Wendy & Ian, we could not have pulled this off without your help!  Thanks so very much for all of your time and hard work that went into helping us getting her room together in time! Here's her annual birthday picture in "her" pink tree :)

 

Last but not least, our dear friends who have become family to us here have organized a Miles4Wiles fundraiser for Jason on June 2 at 9am.  For more details, click on the Miles4Wiles link at the right hand side of our blog (wilestrials.blogspot.com) under the Resources header to learn more.  We are so grateful for them and their willingness to put in a ton of hard work to help out our family right now!  We love you Couch's, Conrad's, Grammie Bev & Kristina!  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!  

So, what do you think?  Pretty amazing right?  We hope that by us sharing how God continues to shower us in love and blessings, that your faith is strengthened as well to see His promises in action!  And how in between the hard times God provided us sweet rest, lots of joy and time as a family to create new memories, knowing that there may be more trials ahead.  But we are so blessed that God continues to give Jas the strength, energy and endurance to push himself to do these kind of things to lead him back on a path to recovery!

Thanks for taking the time to read through this very special post to us!  This is one that we ourselves will continue to visit to remind ourselves when times are tough what all God has done for us that we are so grateful for! 

With Much Love in His Healing Name,

Meg 

4/20/12 - Greetings from the ER

Greetings from the Emergency Room at the University of Maryland!  We realize we’ve been quiet on the home front these past few weeks, so we wanted to bring you all up to speed.  All in all, these past few weeks really have been great!  However, we hit another bump in the road these last few days that we wanted to update you on what transpired.

Since this past Sunday, Jas was fighting what we believed to be a cold that Taylor and I had the week prior.  He had a low grade fever off and on, body aches, headache and a cough that progressively worsened.  So the week came to a head Friday morning, that made us realize what he was dealing with was a much larger scale than a cold.  While getting ready for our scheduled clinic appointments with our esophageal cancer team Friday morning, Jason could not stop coughing for a straight 4 to 5 hours.  Without getting too graphic, know that he began coughing/throwing up blood and an extremely foul smell was associated with it.  That led into not being able to catch his breath and turning a grayish color.  SCARY!!!!  Needless to say, his clinic team took him down to the ER very quickly after seeing the shape he was in!  Praise the Lord that after they started pumping him full of various things in the ER, he was able to drastically cut down on his coughing and recover from the morning.  Can I just tell you that it felt the weight of the world lifted back off my shoulders once I knew Jas was being treated urgently by the ER team?  They have been fantastic!

After doing multiple types of scans/tests on Friday, they discovered a few things that were going on.  Jas has a new leak in his esophagus around his stent.  He also has a 2 inch pocket of air/fluid in his right lung (same one that was collapsed during his surgery) that should not be there, that is causing the coughing fits and surprisingly not associated with the leak.  This caused an infiltrate in his right lung that they are concerned about and will do additional testing on to see how to get his lungs back to good shape.  Needless to say, our surgeon is extremely concerned that they don’t know why Jas’ right lung is experiencing the problems it is.  He even shared that typically someone that experienced what Jas did yesterday would have to be on an intubation ventilator.  Praise the Lord that Jas doesn’t have to at this point! 

So here are some really cool things about Friday that God did for us that continue to show us how truly tenderhearted He is!  As we’re in the ER, I pulled up the Bible App on my phone to look up a particularly comforting scripture to keep myself grounded.  As I did, I forgot that this App now pops up a “verse of the day” completely in control on the program’s end, not mine.  Guess what scripture popped up?  

1 Peter 5:10 -  “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”  This is the exact scripture my women’s bible study has been claiming in prayer for Jason’s healing for many, many months.  How awesome that God saved the “verse of the day” for one of our scariest days yet to remind us that he has a plan!  I’m no statistician, but think of all of the verses in the bible for them to choose from and how this verse may be an option once every 10 years.  God is so good to us! 

After that Jas got his “scripture of the day” texted to his phone which was Romans 8:28 - “And we know that for those who love God ALL things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”  That's a verse we've been claiming since last fall for these cancer trials!  God once again reminding us that he is in control and has a perfect plan for Jas even on our worst days!

Here’s the icing on the cake.  Jason’s nurse in the ER shared that his mom was diagnosed with esophageal cancer 5 years ago and is alive today.   See how He continues to provide us with hope that there are some happy endings to esophageal cancer?  What an awesome God we have!!!

So, by mid afternoon Jas looked more like himself again, which was such a blessing!  To be able to carry on a conversation without going into a coughing fit was a big step forward!  Hallelujah!  Since they are at max capacity here at the hospital, we spent the night in the ER.  Most people would cringe at that, but bc Jas has a lung issue he’s in a type of isolation room that has doors and his own bathroom.  Seriously, it was luxury compared to the other options in the ER!

At this point, it looks like he’s going to be in the hospital for awhile until they can get their arms around why these things have happened and a game plan on how to fix them.  We know that they may possibly take a look at Jas’ stent on Monday.  We are unsure whether or not they will remove it to get a better look at the new leak?  Other than that, he won’t be going home until this pocket of air/fluid is gone. They are hoping that they will be able to rid of it without having to open up Jason's chest again.  Praying praying praying that they will find a way without another major operation!

Praise the Lord yet again for lining help up for Taylor so perfectly!  My mom happened to still be in town visiting and she is extending her stay until Jason’s mom is able to get here to help.  Praise the Lord for these mommas, we are so incredibly grateful to them for the sacrifices they continue to make for us!  Again, a HUGE relief knowing that Taylor won’t have to be uprooted from home and we’ll have live in help for a few weeks.  THANK YOU GOD!!! 

Well, that’s it for now!  We’ll keep you posted as we know more.  And, stay tuned… a fun post will be coming soon that highlights all of the blessings we experienced these past 3 weeks that were amazing gifts from God to help keep our spirits up through this all!

With Much Love in His Healing Name,

Meg