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
