Road to Recovery

Grant had a checkup at the urologist this morning.  He told me yesterday that he was praying that the doctor was going to tell him that he was a miracle...one in a million...and was completely healed.  We discussed how that was completely possible because God is God.  But, if not, He is still good.  Well, while the report was not of complete healing, he did get good news.  Notably, he was cleared to start driving again.  The doctor also told him he could start being more active (in isolation).  He can do light workouts and even shoot a basketball (alone).  This is all really great news.  Today marks 4 weeks since the accident.  Grant had hit a mental wall this week.  He was very frustrated because of how limited his activities, and therefore social interactions, had been.  We are thankful for a move in the right direction today.

Physically, Grant is feeling better.  He is not needing any pain meds and is mainly just sore on days he is more active.  The sonogram today still showed a very large blood clot around his kidney, which we are just waiting to dissolve.  This is going to take a while as he lost 30-40% of his blood in the original bleed.  The kidney was nearly cut in half, so the sonogram showed that there is also a clot between the 2 halves that will need to dissolve before the kidney can heal itself.  And the kidney is functioning.  He is no longer bleeding, just sloughing blood from the clot.  That is great news too!  He's also been seeing the chiropractor 3x a week.  His alignment is looking a lot better.  She's still not doing a full adjustment, but just the muscle release has been significant.  Slow and steady.....not so fun for anybody, especially a 15 year old boy.  

Again, we can not thank you all enough for how you have supported our family through this, especially the prayers.  Grant is still praying to salvage some of his basketball season, which starts next week.  

Baby Steps

 

Grant has been making small improvements each day.  His appetite is returning.  I've caught him in the pantry snacking the last 2 days.  That's a praise!  He's sleeping a little better each night.  He has not slept in his own bed because his room is upstairs and he's not quite ready to tackle those yet.  But, sleep is good for everyone!  His blood counts had also increased at his visit to the pediatrician on Tuesday. It's going in the right direction.  I also just want to say THANK YOU for every card, text, gift, meal, prayer, visit and every other way that you guys have loved on our entire family.  It's truly been overwhelming and we are so very grateful.

Some prayer requests:

Grant is still bleeding.  This was concerning to us, his pediatrician, and the urologist UNTIL the urologist looked at his medical chart including his CT scans (which he did prior to his appointment on Friday and gave us a call today).  He kept reiterating how serious of an injury this was and that Grant is just lucky to have his kidney.  So, at this point, we are still waiting because he will need to stop bleeding eventually.  Also, we know that he's not just lucky.  He is being held in God's sovereign hand.

Grant is severely out of alignment.  You can see from the picture that if he stands on his right foot, his left foot does not touch the ground.  This is obviously uncomfortable in most positions; standing, sitting and lying down.  The chiropractor told him that it can be corrected, but it is going to be a long, slow process.  Right now, he needs his muscles to release so that he can be adjusted.  And that is secondary to caring for his kidney.

Thank you for praying!

He's home!

 

He's back!  We are so happy that Grant was discharged from the hospital today.  His brother and sisters could not wait to hug him.  He's glad to be home too!  

We will be looking for a pediatric urologist for follow up.  We are still trying to manage pain and soreness.  He's still bleeding so we will still need to monitor blood levels.

But we are so relieved to have him home.  Please continue to pray for complete healing.

A little bit of freedom!  The catheter came out today.  That was a little scary and exciting all at the same time.  So far...so good.  Grant had a really great afternoon.  He was able to shower and dress in real clothes.  He got up and down out of the bed by himself several times.  We were even given a little hope that he might be able to come home tomorrow.  He is definitely not in the clear and has a LONG way to go.  But today really felt like we were moving in the right direction. His pain is a lot more under control and manageable.  He just says he is really sore and is using a lot of ice packs.  We are still praying for the bleeding to stop completely and 100% restored kidney function.  Also needing that hemoglobin count to go up.  Praising God for answered prayers!

 

Prayer list

A few prayer requests for today:

Grant's hemoglobin dropped again last night to the point where they felt like he needed a blood transfusion.  He is currently getting a unit of blood.  Pray that he has no reactions to the blood and that it gives him the energy that he needs.  This was a tough one for me.  Grant is no stranger to a blood transfusion.  They had to transfuse all night the day we took him in for his leukemia.  And he had them several times along that journey.  He doesn't remember them and has asked me a lot of questions, but I sure do.  While it's disappointing that his body couldn't keep up on it's own, I'm thankful for the tools we have to help him.  He has joked that he hopes it's not girl blood or he won't know how to "identify". :)

The doctors also decided to turn off the infusion that was flushing his bladder to prevent clotting.  This was a pretty scary thing for Grant because the clotting had been a problem and VERY painful.  It has been off since 4:30 p.m. yesterday.  He has not had any clotting issues, but there is still blood in the output.  Pray for wisdom today as his team of doctors makes decisions on next steps.  And pray for peace and comfort for Grant during the unknowns.  They would like to be able to remove the catheter because they don't like them to remain in this long.  But, they do not want to encounter a problem and have to replace it.

The blood in the output indicates that his kidney is still bleeding.  Please pray that the bleeding will stop.

Please pray for the kids...Trent, Cori, and Maci.  Their world has been rocked.  Their brother is missing.  They've had to be updated on where they are going to be for the next day every night.  We have some rockstar friends that are making this as easy and fun for them as possible and we are so grateful.  

Also, please continue to pray for Rudy and me.  We are tired...mentally, physically and emotionally. The hospital sleeping arrangements are not kind.  The trips back and forth are long.  Eating is difficult.  The responsibility of advocating for Grant is heavy.  It feels like the world is moving on around us, but we are stuck.  But God is good.  And he is providing just what we need and we are so thankful.  And I just want to say, there is no one I'd rather go through hard times with than Rudy.  He is a rock and always pointing us to Jesus. 

Thank you for your prayers!

Sovereign God

Today was a really tough day.  Grant was in a lot of pain for most of the day.  The nurses were trying everything to get him some relief.  This evening, they finally determined that he had a large blood clot in his bladder.  They had to flush it out.  They always ask him what his pain level is on a scale of 0-10.  He usually stays around a 4 and creeps up to a 6 or 7 before getting some more pain meds.  He has been at an 8 or 9 for most of the day and said he was at a 12 while they were doing this procedure.  Thankfully, he got instant relief once they were able to flush it out.  

He has eaten a little bit today but we still need that to increase.  He also walked a lot today to try to alleviate the pain so that should help too.  His blood counts had been dropping, but they checked them again and they have gone back up a little this evening.  

The word God has been reminding me of today is Sovereign.  When things have felt out of control or confusing or overwhelming, He just reminds me that He is Sovereign.  He is always in control and never surprised.  He keeps showing me ways that he knows right where we are and just what we need.

We are hoping for an uneventful night and significant improvement tomorrow.  Thank you again for all the prayers.  Keep them coming!

Update to my update

I typed this this morning and I wanted to still publish it.  A more recent update is below.

Grant had a pretty good day yesterday and slept well last night.  This morning his pain has increased again so we are trying to get that under control.  This has definitely been a roller coaster ride so far.  It just feels like we aren't making much progress.  Everything seems to be remaining about the same.  He has been agitated and seems frustrated this morning.  He got a CT scan around noon yesterday, but none of the doctors have been in to tell us what it showed.  That has been frustrating for me.  Some of his blood counts dropped overnight and there was increased blood in his urine.  It sounds concerning, but I don't really know what any of that means.  Please pray for: a spirit of peace over Grant, that his pain would subside, that the doctors would give us some answers, and of course, for complete healing. 

Update:

The trauma team came in to give us an update.  His kidney still looks very beat up which was to be expected.  But, God totally revealed himself in the report.  When he injured the kidney, it nearly split it in two.  Most people have one artery going to their kidney.  If that had been the case, he probably would have lost at least half his kidney.  However, God gave Grant 2 arteries going to his kidney.  One went to each side and that's the reason they were able to save his kidney.  God created Grant perfectly at birth.  He's not surprised by anything.  God is so good.  The rest of the report pales in comparison to that story.  There is still blood in his output because of the trauma to the kidney.  We are waiting for that to heal itself (God's design), enough to move to the next step.  Basically, he's going to be here for a few more days at least.  God is doing the healing and we just have to wait.  

Grant got some pain meds and has had some visitors.  The combination has helped him feel better.  We are actually planning a wheelchair ride outside later.  He's going to continue to be up and down for a while.  We are just along for the ride. 

Thank you again for your continued support.  The texts are very encouraging and your acts of kindness are overwhelming.  

Here we are again….

I’m sitting in another hospital room, blogging my thoughts as therapy. No mother wants to be here. No parent wants to feel helpless when it comes to taking care of and protecting your child. But, that’s where I am…again. 

This time Grant had a bad bike wreck. We had gone out as a family to walk/ride Friday evening. Of course, coming by it naturally, Grant had to make it into a competition. He and Trent were going to try to ride 2 loops before Rudy and I could walk one. They took off and just as we got to the edge of the park, we saw Trent riding toward us, not the path he should have been taking. He was very concerned and told us Grant had crashed. As we ran toward him, we could hear him crying out as he laid on the ground.  This kid has been through it and it’s not often that he complains of pain.  He’ll complain of a bug bite, but not pain. 🙃  I knew he was hurt but there was no visual evidence of where. I went home with the other three kids to get a vehicle while Rudy stayed with Grant. Once Rudy got him in the truck, they went straight to Cook Children’s urgent care in Prosper. As soon as they saw him and heard what had happened, they wanted to send him to a hospital. He was transported to Medical City Plano (because they are level 1 trauma) by ambulance. After X-rays and a CT scan, they determined that the damage was to his left kidney. They did an angiogram to try to stop the bleeding. He was admitted to ICU for monitoring and that’s where we are as I write on Sunday evening. 

SO. MANY. EMOTIONS. 

But the most overwhelming one is PEACE. 

God has been faithful so many times (as you can read in this blog) that I know I can trust him to be faithful now.  Don’t get me wrong…this situation stinks. And if I could go back and change it, I would. But the peace that passes understanding is a real thing when you know Jesus. Know Him! Trust Him! He is good and he cares for us. 

This time things have been a little different because Grant is 15, not 5. He has already been reflective on how God is going to get the glory from this situation. Where is the “good” that is going to come from this? I’m thankful that I’m seeing my children live out the truths they know. God IS good. He WILL be glorified in all things. We can TRUST Him. He IS faithful. Prayer works! 

We live in a fallen world. Things are hard. Our hard may be different than somebody else’s hard. But God is always the same, yesterday, today, and forever. 

I could go a lifetime without ever having to see one of my children in a hospital bed again. But reality is, that may or may not happen. (And if you know us very well, it’s not likely.). But either way, my faith is in the the One who created them. And I choose to trust that he holds them, and me. And one day, we will have no more pain and suffering and will spend eternity praising our Savior. Thank you Jesus!

We are also so thankful for our people, our friends and family that have rallied around us. We have been blessed by so many of you. 

We continue to ask for prayers. Grant is still in a lot of pain that is hard to manage at times. His kidney seems to have begun healing itself. But the doctor told us this will be a lengthy road to full recovery.