2/27/20 - 1st Day After Surgery

Hi All- I wanted to send a quick update out on how Day 1 after surgery went today!

To start the day off, while the pain meds were keeping the pain to a manageable level, they were also causing nausea.  So most of the day he was unable to open his eyes or the room would be spinning.  By late afternoon they tried a different type of anti-nausea med which worked.  So I was able to see his eyes open a little bit!  They did get him out of his bed and into a chair for most of the day, which was really good progress!!!

By the end of the day, Jas surprised us all and did his first walk around the ICU.  Trust me, this is no easy task. It takes about 10 minutes for the nurses to even get all of his cords/tubes/wires arranged so that he can stand up!  This man of mine is a tri-cancer kind of athlete and a FIGHTER!  He even went further than they anticipated!  A whole day sooner than last time around.  🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼. Thank you God for making him a determined and strong man!  You will have to visit our actual blog to view the video at wilestrials.blogspot.com

As a result of this AMAZING progress today they moved him into a step down ICU unit where the nurses have more patients to care for and he now has a roommate.  Please pray that this be an opportunity for us to share the love of Christ with whoever that may be.  His first roomie situation started off challenging and I’ll leave it at that.  However, over the course of the next few weeks who knows how many he may have.  On a positive note, they will interrupt his sleep at night much less in this area which he is desperately needing some good sleep to heal.

Lastly, one simple thing that helps us stay positive on the progress and celebrate the wins is that we keep track of the number of tubes/wires/cords attached to his body.  He started off with 21 and is down to 20 as of tonight.  We will take it!  One less cord to hassle with!!!

Lots of BIG wins to celebrate and PRAISE THE LORD for today!!!

Much love!

2/27/20 - Pain Managed

Morning all!  I was able to call first thing this am (Thursday) to see how Jason did through the night.  They were able to manage his pain so he could rest which is a HUGE answered prayer 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼. Thank you Jesus!!These next 3 days will be critical to keep his pain manageable for continued rest and healing!  As for me, what a huge difference being able to sleep in a hotel last night was vs being woke up every hour on the hour for a solid 3 weeks like last time around.  So thankful for all of the donations from so many around the globe that helped cover a month of hotel expenses 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

Also, I wanted to take a minute to highlight my friends Amy and Jana.  I met them both during our post in Thailand.  Amy now lives in Texas and Jana in NJ.  They both walked into the hospital yesterday am as they wheeled Jas back into the OR, so I had someone with me the entire time yesterday!  How quickly the time went after having 1.5+ years to catch up on in person.  When coming back to the hotel last night exhausted, I came back to a fully stocked kitchen in the hotel room w food for the next week thanks to Jana!  Wow wow wow!  What an incredible gift!  Amy will be staying with me through Sunday, Jana will be helping again Friday as we take the car to Uncle Snake and Auntie Dee's house to park for the duration and to bring us back into the city.  (Parking costs are insane here!) Then Kelley, another friend from Thailand will be coming for the weekend.

So many people pulling together to help us through.  From meals being provided back home for my mom and kids, my mom staying for the long haul to take care of the kids, playdates for the kids being arranged, so many committing to prayer all day yesterday, continued donations, texts/cards of encouragement from friends all around the world, I could go on and on.  God is providing for EVERY.SINGLE.NEED! I’m so thankful for our tribe that God has given us ❤️