Waiting Room Update

We are having turnover of the waiting room families so I thought I would give everyone an update of who you have been praying for.

We saw Ruth today, and her sister is upstairs on the transplant floor. Ruth is hoping to go home this weekend. Her sister may be getting a pacemaker on Friday at 10AM if she doesn't have an infection. Her sister's husband may be coming. We noticed that every morning Ruth would come down here to get a 2 cokes out of the coke machine. She said they only had RC upstairs. One day someone brought us a 12 pack of coke so Justin took them to Ruth. She appreciated them so much. What ya'll do for us is providing for others too.

Irma whose husband James has throat cancer, and we sat with her during his surgery came down yesterday to tell us they were being discharged to a rehab hospital. She came to tell us bye.

Brad came to tell us bye today too. His dad is doing better and they moved him to a regular room.

It is sad about Demetra's family. We saw her mom leaving and so we told her congratulations because we thought they were moving to a regular room. She said that her son-in-law told her that he didn't want her up here anymore. She has been up here forever day and night. We hurt for her.

Joe Michael, the 19 year old whose trachea closed on him, went home today. Praise God for this!!!

Some new families to pray for...

Judy is here with her mother, Rhea, pronounced Ray. Rhea is 88 and was on coumadin, a blood thinner, and has had a headache for a few days. The doctors just thought it was a virus, but when it progressed they brought her to the ER and the CT scan showed that she had a bleed in her head. They also have family troubles too. Her brother has not spoken to her mom in 8 months so that has been hard for her. Beth and I had a great conversation with her. We praise God for this opportunity. Continue to pray for her brother and her relationship. Also pray for Judy as she doesn't want to put her mom in a nursing home.

Another man is here with his 2 week old baby. His wife became short of breath last night and he brought her here at 4AM and she went into shock. They found that she has pneumonia. Please pray for her and that God would heal her infection.

Phil has remained stable this afternoon. His feeding tube came out of place so they may have to take him to interventional radiology in the morning to put it back in place. He is almost off of his blood pressure medication. His saturations on the monitor have been 100% this afternoon. This is good because they were at 93% this morning. These numbers they have found do not correspond very well to the actual blood gas numbers which have been low (in the 60's). They only check his blood gas in the morning. Please pray for his lungs to be healed. It is not good for his lungs to be on 100% oxygen. Pray that his blood can take up the oxygen. Please pray for us as tomorrow the doctors are going to be talking about experimental treatments for this lung shunting. I have reveived some input from a doctor at my medical school. Please pray for wisdom/discernment/patience for the doctors as they try to decide what and if to try any medical therapy. The drugs they are talking about using have not been proven to be effective, but they don't know what else to do. When I say experimental medications, I don't mean new drugs. These drugs are approved by the FDA but not necessarily for this purpose. We really need God to touch Phil's lungs tonight in a way only He can. Please pray for God to intervene in a mighty way.

We praise Him that He continues to sustain us and that his grace is sufficient for each day. We are thankful that we have HOPE because of him. We can't imagine what it would be like if we didn't have hope because of Jesus. We continue to praise him for the larger work He is doing and for allowing us to see glimpses of it.

We love everyone and thank you again for all you are doing for us, most importantly your prayers. At one time today, I was in Phil's room and didn't even know what to pray for, but God told me to just be still and know that He is God. I was also reminded of Romans 8:26-28,

"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

and 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."