We are headed home. Thanks for the prayers, love and support.

This is wes©. I am doing quite well this morning. I think the worst is over and I am fast on the road to recovery. I won’t post the details of my difficulties now, I am just grateful to be on the other side. Thank you for your prayers and thoughts. I am particularly thankful for the Word. Many of you carried me through with great and simple expressions and reminders of what God has told us in the Bible.

I think sometimes we forget that the Bible was given to us for us and for a purpose. To remind us who God is, what He can do, what He has done and how we can make it through this life He created. Too often the Bible becomes a book we look at during a Bible Study or in the church service, and at that time, we feel inspired and really taken by the truth we discover or are lead to. But when *real life* hits, we quickly, and usually unintentionally, abandon the Word and begin solving our issues with human convention. The Bible is living and active, sharper than a double-edged sword. It pierces deep, even to dividing soul and spirit. It judges our attitudes and heart. Perhaps that is why we shy away from it. The truth and power it wields is intimidating. It might expose something that we don’t want to have exposed. It might make us aware that in fact, we are the problem in a particular situation, not the person we are blaming. So to avoid having to face shame or apologize or see truth, we avoid the penetrating eyes of scripture, quite content to have it shared from a pulpit where it probably won’t get too specific for us, as we are just a single listener among many and there is no real accountability to follow through. I don’t know, but here is what I can tell you…

My Confession

This trip to the hospital was one that clearly God had planned for sometime. Of course I had my plans too. This would be easy, I’d only miss a day of work, I’d be back up and at it in no time. But in the middle of my plans, God said, “Now wait a moment, I have some plans here too. I don’t recall you checking your plans with me.” Now God did not come out right and say that, He did it in His usual ‘climb in the window on the second floor instead of knocking politely on the front door’ sort of way. He is so good at knowing the best way to get our attention and do what is best for us. He is the master at using the unconventional to bring our attention to the smallest yet most pertinent detail for our good. That’s what He did this weekend.

I was suffering and going through new treatments that seemed like designed torture methods and losing sleep and thinking that this was not the plan. I even tried to alert you in my quick post before the major suffering came, by typing that this was not what I had in mind. I recall telling Karen that this time through I thought God’s Spirit might have left me, I could make it through and endure, but it felt like it was more on my power than the way it used to be, with me depending on Him. Then the real trials came. The inability to take in enough oxygen, the excess liquids crushing my heart, lungs and surgery site. The procedure to try (4 times) to get a tube in my nose and to my stomach, which I was sure they were doing wrong and my brain was going to get pierced. The fear and loss of mind control from a possible overdose of narcotics to start all the previous off, etc. Clearly I was not in control of this weekend procedure. It was after I had been through the worst and was still trying to recover and get my bearings. It was after I had lay for hours pondering what had happened while soulfully feeling every hard swallow due to the hard plastic in my nose and throat. It was after I finally conceded and gave the victory to God and muttered in my soul “I give up” even though I did not even know what I was giving up or that I had been resisting, it was after all that, that God spoke to me through His Word. Some one had sent an email with a simple message and scripture.

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  2 Corinthians 2:9

(Thank you Betty for your perfect timing and wisdom in scripture choice.)

This scripture is one I know well. It has been the centerpiece of many a fine sermon and mentioned plenty is Christendom as a great verse of encouragement. But I was not living it. I was not claiming it. I was not looking to be weakened so that Christ in me could be glorified. God had to kind of force that on me or sneak it in, so to speak. That reminds me of another scripture that tells me no plan of God’s can be thwarted, but that’s another sermon for another time. For me, I am grateful to my God who does not give up on me in spite of the slow learner that I am. I am grateful that He uses His Word and others to speak into my life. I am grateful that He brought you into my life to pray and remind me of His wise counsel found in His Word. I am grateful that in a dark time in my life, He once again used His Word, His Spirit and His people to change my life and perspective. It was Betty’s scripture that really caught my attention and that God probably intended me to see at this point in my life. But it was all your scripture, and songs that quoted scripture, and your words of encouragement based on scripture that ministered to me this whole time. Thank, thank you, thank you. I. Certainly don’t know the mind of God and cannot pretend to know it, so I have no clue what else He has for me concerning this recent hospital stay. But I will be sure to try to live in my weakness and wait for His power to come, which is made perfect in my weakness.

By the way, are you quoting scripture but letting it’s authentic, life-changing words by-pass your heart? Might I humbly recommend against it. Recall that I referenced Job 42:2?

Last night around 8:00, what started out as a little walk became a quick race to the bathroom. Wes’ bowels have finally produced. It is now 1:30 and once again he has discharged the waist.

We thank you for the continual prayers and wanted to let you know so that you could celebrate with us. God is with us.

Karen

Emotionally and physically it has been a challenging day for Wes. Since the NG tube was inserted this morning he has been discouraged. The tube was inserted to remove the bile in his stomach that is not being passed. His bowels are dormant, most likely from the high doses of pain medication that he was taking previously.

He did have an episode when they tried to give him oral medicine. They stopped the flow of the NG tube to administer his medicine. When he went to swallow, some medicine got stuck between the tube and his throat. After much force, with swallowing and drinking lots of water, it finally went down but right back out the NG tube, which they had started back up to control the vomiting. They then decided to give all medication through the IV. Good choice!

Wes’ blood pressure has been elevated (more than usual) and he has been hot and cold all day. He is not running a fever, his vitals are normal and his labs are coming back good as well. So far there seems to be no sign of trauma to the kidney.

This afternoon Wes had a CT scan on his chest and an ultra sound on his legs making sure there are no clots in the pulmonary arteries. All tests came back negative.

They gave Wes a second blood pressure medicine this evening and it seems to be helping him feel increasingly better. His bowels have been slowly making more and more noises and the current plan is to have the NG tube removed first thing in the morning. His breathing is still a little shallow because of the earlier pressure from his bowels, but he is faithfully exercising his lungs to get them back to full expansion.

All your words of encouragement, prayers, and use of scripture are much appreciated. At times like these it keeps Wes (us) pressing on.

Karen

It has been a rough morning. I arrived at the hospital around 1:00am. Prior to my arrival Wes had vomitted. When i came to his room, Wes had bags of ice surrounding his body. He was feeling pressure on his lungs and was experiencing shortness of breath. His vitals were all normal however he had not passed gas or had a bowel movement. They suspected that his bowels were backing up. After some time they called for X-rays.

Although his oxygen levels were good the doctor ordered him to have a nebulizer treatment. At 3:00 an X-ray was done on his chest and abdomen. The doctor on call chose to move Wes to ICU for closer monitoring. After his X-ray Wes was transported to his room from his first transplant. He was quickly met by Dr. Ponzio (the on call Dr) and Dr. Munsio who explained his X-rays and said his lungs look fine but his bowels were distended. They suggest a tube that would pass through the nose done to the stomach to remove the excess bile. This was a grueling process for Wes (and myself) but after multiple tries it was finally in and removing the bile and air from his stomach. By 5:00 Wes was able to rest.

From my understanding, the tube will remain in his nose until it shows no sign of backup and Wes is able to at least pass gas. The doctors want to give his bowels a rest.

Wes is still feeling hot and every now and then ice cold clothes are placed on his forehead arms and legs to cool him down. Overall he is feeling some relief. Btw, he just passed gas twice! Yeah! Amazing how in times like these we get excited over what is usually a common occurrence.

Thanks for all the prayers and support.

Karen

Ps. When I said resting it is mostly from being poked, prodded, and moved around. The NG tube is very uncomfortable and is keeping him from getting sleep. (8am) they are working on getting him some Benadryl.

I just got off the phone with Wes.  He has had a rough evening.  Around 5:30 he went for a walk and was having extreme gas pains.  He began perspiring and his surgery site was hurting.  He has not had any food since this afternoon.  They were going to put him on solids tonight but with the pain he hasn’t eaten anything yet.

He has been sitting in an upright position for the past 3 and 1/2 hours waiting for the gas pain to subside.  The nurse just gave him some more pain medicine and once it kicks in, he is planning to try to get up and walk again and see if that will help move the gas out.  He is exhausted and being pushed to the limit with patience.

Please continue to uplift him in prayer.  I am not able to be with him tonight but I plan to be there first thing in the morning after the kids get off to school.

Karen

This is wes©. Still in hospital. Beginning to feel less pain today. Won’t go home till tomorrow at earliest. Catheter still in, no solid food yet.

Not exactly what I had in mind this run. Thanks for your support.

wes©

We are in for a long haul, again. Dr Frank (one of the other doctors on the team, and the one who took care of Steve during the first surgery) stopped in, and based on Wes’ current condition, he does not foresee Wes going home before Monday. Wes is still on a liquid diet and has not been able to pass enough urine. They put a Foley catheter in to avoid prostate complications. They had already had to straight catheter him last night to drain his bladder. Dr. Frank also informed us that many patients with hernias this bad often find the repair surgery and recovery worse than the original transplant.

Regarding the pain, they took him off the PCA drip and he is taking pain medicine orally. They began with Percocet but that wasn’t working. This afternoon they put him on oral Dilauded and it seems to be working much better.

Please continue to lift Wes in prayer. Our expectations were that this was a quick fix, but finding as much damage inside and the repair process is causing him to feel a bit defeated. The doctors don’t seem too concerned with his progress, though, considering the extent of the surgery.

Thank you!
Karen

Wes’ surgery went well today, although it was not exactly as we expected. What we were hoping would be a 1.5 hour surgery ended up being 4 hours. When Dr. Ramirez went in, he discovered that the tear was not a small hole but almost the length of the entire transplant incision. He had to look around for the ends of the intestinal wall lining in order to pull them together and attach them. Because it was such a large tear, he put a mesh “patch” over the repaired tear to help strengthen it. Wes has a temporary drain on it that allows excess fluid to exit the body. He will be staying in the hospital over night tonight and possibly Sat night as well.

Since the surgery was a lot more involved, Wes is experiencing more pain than we anticipated. They have him on Dilauded, the big pain killer they used after his transplants. He was in the recovery room for at least 4 hours waiting for a hospital room to become available. As soon as he got into his room they hooked him up on a PCA drip to help manage the pain. I am telling you about Wes’ pain but he says,”I wouldn’t call it fun but compared to last time, this is a breeze.” To our delight, some of the nurses from previous surgeries are taking care of him. We love the nurses of 7 Northeast!

Wes is doing just fine We are still anticipating a quick recovery and will hear more from Dr. Ramirez in the morning and keep you posted.

Karen

Tomorrow AM I will head to Jefferson for a small surgery.  My original transplant site has a tear in the outer wall that allows my intestine to poke through.  It’s basically an exterior hernia.  The likely cause is the fact that I was opened up twice there in 6 days, when the first kidney failed.  I have had an issue on this site since before my transplant this past May but they were unable to anything about it until my body had a chance to deal with the surgery in May.

My surgeon from this past May, Dr Ramirez, will be doing the surgery.  He and I have developed a friendship over these past 8 months.  I am grateful for his expertise and friendship.  You can be in prayer for him and his team as they open me up and assess how much work needs to be done for the repair.  We are hoping that the tear is small enough to be able to just sew it together and let it heal.  In that case, I will go home tomorrow and the recovery is just a regiment of “taking it easy.”  If the tear is more significant, they will need to use a mesh to pull it together, I will stay overnight, and may need a drain to allow excess fluid to recess from the site.  In both cases, it *should* be very quick recovery.

Grateful for your thoughts and prayers,
wes©