Held

Good morning~

Much better night...even though there were many interruptions for blood work, vitals, etc at least we were in a semi-quiet private room being cared for by people we know and love, who are familiar with all of Ron's history. Ron is still sleeping and I slept in between interruptions on a cot in his room. Not complaining, very thankful I was able to lay down and stretch out instead of spending another night sitting up in a straight back chair! I confess, though, I'm really looking forward to having a room at Hotel Presby tonight where I can get some much needed, uninterrupted sleep!

Some good news to report! Labs from early this morning look much better with lipase normal and liver enzyme trending down; and the chest pain has subsided!!! Praise God!. This downward trend in labs, along with the absence of chest pain and the sudden violent yakking episode he had Monday, may indicate he passed a gall stone.

Now, priority is to figure out what the "thing" is in the Pulmonary artery, which will be addressed in IR by Dr. Coker, with the hopes of removing it. The theory is it could be a piece of the PICC line or some other catheter used in one of his many procedures over the last few months that has broken off. My understanding is this would be done in a manner similar to an angiogram where they would go in through artery and "fish it out"; as long as it has not become embedded in the arterial wall in which case they would leave it alone and pray it doesn't become infected or develop into some other problem sometime down the road..

Once that is taken care of a more sophisticated MRI will be scheduled to look at duct to see if there is any sludge or evidence of gall stones. If there is, that will have to be addressed in some way (not sure how as yet) in hopes of avoiding another scary episode.

Thank you for praying on our behalf; your words of encouragement and assurance of prayer is balm to this weary soul!

Will keep you posted.

Christie

Below is a great song by Natalie Grant that has been running through my mind and heart the last couple of days. Read the words as you listen~~you'll need to copy and paste the web address, for some reason I can't get it to link directly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-hJ87ApWtw&feature=related

Held

Two months is too little
They let him go
They had no sudden healing
To think that providence
Would take a child from his mother
While she prays, is appalling
Who told us we'd be rescued
What has changed and
Why should we be saved from nightmares
We're asking why this happens to us
Who have died to live, it's unfair

[Chorus]
This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was when everything fell
We'd be held

This hand is bitterness
We want to taste it and
Let the hatred numb our sorrows
The wise hand opens slowly
To lilies of the valley and tomorrow

[Chorus]
This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was when everything fell
We'd be held

If hope is born of suffering
If this is only the beginning
Can we not wait, for one hour
Watching for our savior
This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was when everything fell
We'd be held
We'd be held

This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was when everything fell
We'd be held

This is what it means to be held