He can't take it anymore

Jason came home from work this morning after working an hour. GI doctor recommends surgery, but the surgeon is out of the office today having a procedure himself. We may be heading to the ER because the pain is so bad he can't take it anymore. Please pray for all of us. Also, all three kids are sick so please pray for child care arrangements and their comfort and peace in mommy and daddy's absence.

Sunday update

All three kids are sick now :-0 Poor "Meanie" just asked me for a bath and fell asleep on the toilet before we could put him in it. We checked his temp and he had a fever :-( Jason felt too bad to work on his van this weekend, so he is just going to drive it and hope for the best (it died 4 times on the way home last Friday). We stayed home from church today, and Grammy and Grandpa stopped by after church, bringing us a McDonald lunch. Very nice of them with everyone under the weather. I don't think I am sick, exactly; I'm just exhausted.

Isaiah 30:18-21 "Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it.""

Tonight, I am asking the Lord to make clear his path for us. I am asking us to use teachers and others to guide us to make wise choices about our health care, our finances, and our family. And I am praying, that in the midst of this storm, we will see his graciousness and tender love and mercies towards us.

Please pray for "Miney"

"Miney" is still not doing any better, and actually seems to be worse. She is coughing so bad that she cannot sleep, and it has also caused her to vomit :-( After being on meds (Z-pack and steroids) for two days, we expected to see at least some improvement. Doctor on call says that, if we cannot get the coughing under control, we need to take her in somewhere (which will mean either an urgent care clinic or the ER). Jason really needed a restful weekend, and now it doesn't look like we are going to get one. Please pray for her and that, somehow, Jason will get the rest he needs to reduce his pain level. Right now, his pain is a 4 (1 to 10 scale), and the day has just started :-( Also, Jason's van is having problems, and he needs to do some work on it. I don't know how much longer he can keep going. . .

Friday morning. . . Jan 18

During our morning check in, Jason rated his pain at a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10. Not terrible, but I know when he was in the hospital, they wanted to see it at a 3 or less. It is also early in the day, so it will probably increase. He had a good heart to heart with his boss this morning which really encouraged him. His boss realizes that he is still hurting and knows that Jason is trying his best to work through the pain. He was reassured that, even though he is a highly-valued employee, that they want him to take care of himself (even if he needs to take more time off and pursue a resolution to his health issues). God always knows exactly what we need and I am continuing to pray for Jason to have wisdom regarding when to work through the pain and when to stop and pursue further medical treatment.

Meanie woke up this morning complaining that his neck hurts. I'm still unable to determine if it is actually his throat or his neck that hurts, so I am keeping an eye on the situation. I checked his temperature and it was running low 94.7 F to 95.3 F. This tends to make me believe he has a virus of some sort. He asked for a Popsicle for breakfast, which would normally be a no-no around here, but I relented and gave him one to see if it would make a difference. I'm also wondering if he slept wrong on his neck. He screams when he tries to turn to the side or lean back. I wanted to hold him and comfort him, but it hurt him too bad to lean back on my arm :-( I'll be watching him, and, if things don't improve, I may take him to the doctor for a strep culture just to be sure. He has done nothing today but sit around on the couch, and that is very unusual for him.

Miney is still coughing quite a bit, but she has perked up some. She gets up and plays for a little bit and then lays down for awhile. She slept in quite late for her this morning (9am), so I think her coughing is bothering her and keeping her from resting very well.

I'm thinking that until everything is resolved with dh, I'm not going to take the children anywhere else!! We do not need to have sick kids if Daddy has to have surgery or go back to the hospital. I also don't want them to be sick with anything contagious if we have to have people over here watching them, while we deal with Jason's medical issues.

Please pray for strong immune systems for our entire family, and grace and peace on all of us. I must confess that I've been a very grumpy mommy this morning. I don't do well when everyone is sick at once and there are more who need help than there are helpers.

Thursday evening. . .

Well. . . I spoke too soon about how "Miney" was feeling. While I was typing my last post, she sneaked off to bed and WENT TO SLEEP (which she never does voluntarily). This should have been my first clue. When she woke up, she was a running a high fever and now she is just laying around. I just gave her the first dose of medicine, so I really hope we see improvement soon. This just reinforces my belief that we did the right thing by taking her in to the doctor earlier today. It's just too bad that she didn't act this sick for him! Please pray that she gets well before the next crisis with Daddy hits. Also that no one else in the family gets what she has. I just can't imagine the pain Jason would experience if he started coughing!!

Jason came home hurting badly again tonight. We are not sure if this is significant or not, but the left side of his abdomen feels very hot to the touch. I am wondering if it is inflammation or an infection. We just don't know what to think. . .

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." James 1:2-5

Tonight we are confident that the Lord is using this trial in our lives to develop perseverance and maturity. We are trusting that he will give us (and our doctors) the wisdom to know what steps to take in helping Jason feel better.

Update on "Miney"

At the doctor's this afternoon, we found out that "Miney" has bronchitis, asthma and an ear infection. We were sent home with an antibiotic and some asthma medicine. Normally, I'm hesitant to jump to antibiotics, but with everything going on with Jason, we've decided just to go for it. We need her to be well--especially if her Daddy ends up back at the hospital. She seems happy enough, so hopefully, things will improve shortly and she will be feeling all better.

Thursday afternoon update

Jason woke up hurting very badly this morning but still went in to work. When he sleeps and rolls over on his left side, it aggravates the pain. Apparently, he rolled to his left side last night and he woke up with a sharp pain. On a scale of 1 to 10, his pain today has ranged anywhere from a 2 to a 6. When I spoke with him a few moments ago, he said he felt better this afternoon than he did earlier today. Please keep praying.

Last night, our youngest daughter, "Miney", started coughing and could not stop. We were quite concerned about her and got her to calm down, do some breathing exercises and drink some water. After listening to her with our stethoscope, we were convinced that she was having asthma and possibly some fluid in her lungs. Giving her a puff on her big sister's inhaler (sshhh! don't tell anyone ;-) seemed to help a little, or we would probably have been at the emergency room.

I spent this morning calling all over trying to find a Medicaid doctor who would take her. The pediatrician we've been seeing doesn't take Medicaid, and with dh off work for a month, we didn't want to have to pay to take her anywhere. Every doctor I spoke with this morning was either booked or wasn't taking any new Medicaid patients.

I cried out to the Lord for help, because I just didn't know what to do, and He provided help in two forms: First, a nurse friend of ours came over and listened to her with the stethoscope. She confirmed the wheezing but didn't hear fluid in her lungs, which eased my mind considerably. Second, a check came in the mail today, which will allow us to go to any doctor we want, rather than waiting to get an appointment with a Medicaid doctor. Yeah!! We took this as a sign from the Lord and an answer to prayer and scheduled an appointment with our regular GP this afternoon at 2pm. We have a nebulizer and feel that if we can get her her own meds, she can be treated at home, thus avoiding a trip to the hospital.

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; His love endures forever." Ps 118:1