Please continue to pray

Please continue to pray for my college friend Becca and her family as their sweet little Audrey is now with Jesus.

Please pray for Audrey

My friend Becca that I went to BBC with and dormed with had a baby girl on Thursday morning 10 weeks early. Little Audrey weighed just over 2 pounds and is fighting for her life right now. Ultrasounds revealed some chromosomal abnormalities while Becca was pregnant - they don't know the extent of her problems at this time. I am especially burdened for Becca, her husband Chad, and their other daughter Ella right now because some of the problems that are occurring with Audrey are the same ones our doctors suspected could be wrong with Jonathan last summer when they found cysts on his brain. This is from Becca's blog description "Through ultrasounds and testing we have been told that there are complications with Audrey, but we are excited that she has been given to us and we trust that the Lord will allow His perfect will in and through this".

Thank you for praying. I know that Becca and her husband love Jesus, and they are clinging to Him right now. He is able to do amazingly more we can expect or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). Please comment on her blog and let her know you are praying.

David

I love this man.

More today than I did three and a half years ago when we were married. There have been some {not very good} days that I have even questioned whether I even liked him or not. But I assure you, I like him too.

I don't like what transpired over the past couple days though. I never remember being so afraid.

Or helpless.

Or alone.

Our little boy Trey woke up on Tuesday night crying after he vomited all over his bed. David and I quickly started cleaning him and his bed up. I put Trey in the tub while David washed his sheets. The next day Trey seemed better but not 100%. We were happy that it was just "a little bug" that he had gotten.

Or so we thought.

On Thursday night, I left for work at 6:30pm. David had started to not feel very well that afternoon, but he was still okay to take care of the boys. He felt a little nauseous is all. As I started my shift at work, the texts from David began telling me he was starting to vomit. He told me the boys were in bed, so I was relieved thinking that he could go to bed and rest then.

I told him to call me if he needed me to come home. We were short staffed at work that night, but I told him I would come home if he needed me to. At 10:30, I got a text from him telling me he couldn't stop vomiting, that Jonathan was crying, and that he didn't have the strength the pick him up.

I called my team leader and told her I needed to leave as soon as possible. I called David and told him I would be home as soon as I handed off my patient assignment to another nurse. I asked him if he needed anything, and he asked me to bring him home some Gatorade. I told him to keep taking sips of Ginger Ale that we had bought for Trey earlier in the week.

When I got home, I wasn't prepared for what I was about to see. I love my husband, but he is {ahem} ... a man. And when it comes to being sick, he needs a lot of care and attention. So I was expecting him to just need me there to help him care for the boys so he could get rest.

What I found was a very sick man sitting slumped up against the bathroom wall with a greenish, gray skin tone. He was burning up with a fever. He was almost non responsive at that point. I had him take some Phenergan that I had to stop the vomiting. He told me he had thrown up about 20 times between 7pm and 11pm as well as having severe diarrhea.

As I was talking to him, I saw his muscles start to twitch. I was holding his right arm, and then he slowly fell over to his left side, hitting the floor. His eyes rolled back. His body was completely pale. He was totally unresponsive. I was shaking him, rubbing his face, and screaming his name.

It was the most terrifying thing I have ever experienced. All I knew was that I needed to get someone to help me call 9-1-1 so that I could begin CPR on him if I needed to.

I couldn't even think what to do. I ran the next door down {we live in a duplex} to our neighbors and was pounding on their door and screaming for them to answer. After about 10 seconds, I realized they probably couldn't hear me because they take their hearing aids out at night.

I came running back into our place, and I heard David's voice. As he was coming back to consciousness, he heard me screaming as I came back in the house, and thought something had happened to one of our boys. He slowly came to, but he still looked so sick - I knew I needed to take him to the ER. I knew that I needed to call someone to come stay with our boys. Our friends from church Bill and Sandee answered their phone as I called them crying and telling them what had had happened. They got in the car immediately and came down to stay with Trey and Jonathan.

I know as a nurse, I should have responded differently, but I lost all objectivity. In a hospital if that were to happen to one of my patients, I would have other nurses there to help me. I would have access to oxygen, suction, medications, etc.

I felt so completely alone and unable to help him.

We got to the ER where David was given IV fluids to rehydrate him. After 3 liters of normal saline, they were finally able to get a urine sample from him. The ER doctor said that if he hadn't come into the ER that night, he would have probably died from dehydration. That is how sick he was.

He was in the hospital getting IV hydration for 2 days. He came home yesterday, but he is still very weak. He is lightheaded and still nauseous. He hasn't been able to lift Trey.

Thankfully, Jonathan and I have not gotten sick. Rotavirus is what the doctors are thinking he had. It's something that a lot of children get sick with and can be hospitalized for, but it's not common for adults to get that sick from it. But David did get very sick from it.

I am so thankful that even though I felt so alone in those few moments, that I know God was there. I was reminded of this verse while I was waiting on Bill and Sandee to arrive to care for our boys:

"Even when I walk through the darkest valley {the shadow of death}, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me." Psalm 23:4

I am also thankful that God protected David and spared his life. I am thankful I was able to leave work so quickly on Thursday night to care for David. I am thankful for God's sustaining grace while I cared for our boys all day Friday without having any sleep myself. I am thankful for excellent health insurance and for the assurance of so many friends praying for us. Thankful for God providing all that we needed at the time we needed it.