Hi Everyone -
I know many of you have been asking for the "details" from the last few days, so I'm going to attempt to remember the whirlwind of events for you all : ) If you aren't a detailed person, WARNING - this is going to be a long one, so enter with caution LOL.
Let me first start with the address of the hospital, for those of you who have been asking to mail things and visit. He now is open to visitors,since he has a room. If you are interested in coming to see him, please email me at megan_wiles@yahoo.com and I can give you directions and make sure you know where you are going in the hospital : )
One day to AVOID is Sunday, January 15th. The Baltimore Ravens have a home playoff game on Sunday, about a half mile down the road and you will not find any parking in the city! He may be in the hospital until Monday, January 23 give or take.
University of Maryland Medical Center
C/O Jason Wiles - Room 950
22. S. Greene St.
Baltimore, MD 21201-1595
MONDAY:
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| Easy Ladies! |
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| Believe Big Sweatshirt |
So Monday morning was surgery day. We started off the day by preparing ourselves with Jason writing Romans 8:28 on his chest in permanent marker and with me arming myself with my brand new, cheery Believe Big Sweatshirt that has the No Fear Prayer written out on the back and a bright big sunflower on the front. When we arrived back to MD from our trip to Ohio there was a box sitting on our front porch. Low and behold, God provided for me the perfect shirt to wear for our big day on Monday (thanks Ivelisse!) Here are a few pics.
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| No fear prayer |
We arrived at the hospital at 5:30am and they took Jas into pre-op at about 6am. At that time we learned that they would have a chest epidural in him for 7 to 10 days to help minimize the pain to allow him to heal. We were surprised but completely understood the strategy. Of course we continued to see the humor that Jason would get to go through yet another pregnancy type experience. As they wheeled Jas back to the OR at 8am, our surgeon walked me up the stairs to show me where the waiting room was, bless his heart. With me walking in front of him, he had to have seen the no fear prayer on the back of my sweatshirt that you all have been praying for us.
Dr. Burrows shared that he had just gotten off the phone w our dear Dr Aboulafia (surgeon for jas' sarcoma) and that he sends his best also. Dr. Burrows also said that he was thinking about Jas all weekend. He must have been feeling all of our prayers for him also and I shared that with him later in the day - that we had many people praying for him too! :) Also during prep, a nurse who was caring for Jason wrote down Romans 8:28 on her notepad after looking at his chest so she could go look up the verse on her own. Awesome right?
The surgery started at 9am and ended at 5pm, however Dr. Burrows didn't come out to talk to us until a bit after 7pm. He stayed with Jas for the entire procedure including the stapling back up, making sure he came to and that he did well when they removed the breathing tube. He shared that Jas took awhile to come out of being under which was why the gap from 5 to 7pm. Most surgeons typically don't do this but boy did we appreciate that he did! So when Dr. Burrows came out to find us in the waiting area, he spent about 45 minutes with my friend Brandie and I. Like I shared earlier, he told us that Jason did very well through the surgery - remaining stable the entire time. He also shared that he removed everything from Jas that needed to be taken out of his body - esophagus and a large amount of lymph nodes. Included in the large amount of lymph nodes, specifically he identified the 3 lymph nodes that we knew were cancerous at the beginning of all of this - which is a big PRAISE to GOD! So, we'll have a week, give or take, until pathology comes back on the esophagus and all the lymph nodes to see if there was any cancerous activity evident. That will determine whether or not Jas will need any further treatment after he recovers from the surgery. When Dr. Burrows left he said, "I have to send Dr. Aboulafia a text to let him know how Jason's surgery went." It feels so good to know both of our surgeons have partnered together in this way. And, we continue to be amazed thinking about what a surgery like this requires out of the surgeon team. I can't even imagine standing up that long doing such tedious work like that!
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| Jas after surgery |
I'm thinking it was a little after 8pm that we got to see Jas for the first time in the transitional care area. He actually looked better than I ever expected him to! Lots and lots of tubes and cords, but we decided that we would celebrate each time one is taken away! I think he is around 15 to 16 cords at this point so we'll have to count down with you all : ) Celebrating the small wins!
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| Full body shot after surgery. |
So one cool thing that Brandie experienced while we were in the waiting room on Monday, was a couple sitting with their bible talking with another man and then praying with him as he accepted Christ into his heart. How awesome! I was bummed that I missed seeing it since I was out of the room at that point. But Brandie sure had a great big smile on her face as she shared the awesome news! Also that day I had the pleasure in talking to many families to learn about what they were there for and asked for the names of their family members so I could pray for them. True gratitude washed over me as I realized that I was such a minority that day, in a room full of anxious, fearful, terrified people as they awaited the news on their loved ones. God totally blanketed me in complete peace that passes all understanding, which was such an amazing blessing that I am so incredibly grateful for! Thanks for showering us with your prayers!
Unfortunately I wasn't able to stay the night Monday night, as they did not have a room for Jas yet. The floor he needed to go was an intermediate care floor that only has 10 beds, in between the ICU and the normal recovery areas. So, we went back to Frederick that night exhausted. However, I was able to get a good night sleep that night Praise God!
TUESDAY:
Then Tuesday morning rolled around. My girlfriend Mel (who ran the marathon in the fall) spent the day with me at the hospital - THANKS MEL! I had called prior to leaving Frederick to see how Jas fared through the night and found out that a room had not yet opened up. This meant Jas was still in the temporary recovery area with 20 to 30 others and a roomful of loud nurses. That was tough and he was not a happy camper! To top it all off, the nurses were having a training right outside of where he was. Praise God when a room opened up at the end of the day on Tuesday after a very long, restless, frustrating day for Jas. So, we followed him into his new room - where he'll be the majority of the next 2 weeks. I literally sang outloud (yes I'm a dork) bc it was such a nice change for him and I was so happy for him! He could have the lights off, shut the door, sleep in a cool room and not hear a ton of loud voices! THANK YOU GOD!
Speaking of which, this is pretty funny looking back now but wasn't at the time. In the past 1 to 1.5 days that Jas was in the transitional care area, we had a horrible track record of visiting him. We were allowed to see him for 15 minutes every 2 hours. Needless to say, every time I went to see him I almost passed out bc it was so incredibly warm, the air was stagnant and it had the weird hospital smell. Oh it gets better. Not only did I almost pass out, so did Brandie and then Mel the next day. I don't think there was one time that I went to see him that I didn't almost pass out. Geez Louise right? Well, Praise God we are done with that area. We didn't like it and it didn't like us : )
So, back to the new suite that we are so happy with. We had quite an unplanned surprise! While it has an awesome view of the Baltimore skyline, it unfortunately doesn't have a restroom with a shower like every other hospital room I've ever been in has. So, we have a snaffo to our original plan. I was planning to stay with him the 2 weeks and not have to leave : ( So it goes. Thanks to close friends for opening up their home to me so I can stay locally to shower vs. make the haul back to MD. We are so grateful!
WEDNESDAY:
Now to Wednesday (today). When I arrived in the morning with my friend Kelly - THANKS KEL! - I was quite surprised as to how Jas looked and sounded. He didn't look nearly as well as yesterday and quickly told me that he had a really rough night. His diaphragm was severely cramping on him throughout the night to the point where he couldn't control the pain. They had to cut through the diaphragm during the surgery. So, he then had a hard time breathing - even catching his breath : ( Poor guy! So they introduced a new medication to him this morning and coupled that with some Valium to help get him more comfortable. He finally was able to take a couple hour nap to prepare him for Physical Therapy this afternoon. Let me tell you, we've had some funny conversations about the dreams he's having on all these drugs!
Good news on the Physical Therapy! One of the two Physical Therapists came into our luxury suite I'll call it, and commented right away on Jas' Romans 8:28 on his chest : ) YEAH! They got him up and walking for a bit - hooray! I kept silently praying Philippians 4:13 the entire time - "Jas can do all things through Christ who gives him strength." While he about passed out a handful of times and felt nauseous - he did it! Praise God! And he's been sitting up in a chair since. Tomorrow he has much more rigorous goals to accomplish. He will be sitting in a chair all day and walking at least a couple if not a handful of times. It's so nice to see him get up and moving! Here's a video of his first walk so you can join us in celebration! Not to fear, everything that needs to be covered is covered LOL. You'll have to go to the blog to actually view the video at wilestrials.blogspot.com vs. playing from the pushed email.
After PT we met with Dr. Burrows (Wed - 4:30pm). He shared that he was going to introduce one more pain med to help reduce the pain that Jas has been experiencing in the kidney area. Once we get that under control, he really thinks it will help get Jas moving around even more. He shared that while he's not worried, Jas is a bit behind on the PT end so he's really going to be pushed tomorrow to catch up to where he wants him to be with walking and all. So now with the new additional drug (6:30pm), Jas has his pain under control and is acting more like himself - THANK YOU GOD!
Thank you Thank you Thank you for your showering of prayers! We so appreciate our team of prayer warriors!
With Much Love in His Healing Name,
Meg
