Urgent Call to Prayer

Dear Prayer Partners,

Val got back from the Dom. Rep. at midnight Thurs. night, very tired and weak. Over the last 20 months Valerie seems to get increasingly anxious before and after ANY procedure. To the point that they cannot control her anxiety with anything that normally calms people down----------anti-anxiety drugs, sleeping pills, etc.. Even when we get her home it seems to last for weeks. For instance I went in her room at 4:00 the other morning (before she went to the D.R.)and she was scooting around organizing her things. There were many issues involved, but it was definitely exacerbated by the extreme stress she felt and inability to sleep. I felt like she wasn't well, so I slept with her and noticed the strange sounds she made and the coolness of her arms and legs.

When she woke up, I suggested we go to the hospital for a little check up. She said she felt too bad, but soon realized it was a necessity. They drew blood samples and the tests revealed several bad problems. First was the bleeding, then the acid build up, white cell count, and her temp was 93.7. She felt so cold that I was very frightened.

Dr. Doug (cardiologist) came and and looked Val in the eye and said "Valerie, you are very, very sick, do you want us to use aggressive and maybe hard means to save your life, or do you want us to just treat you and let nature take its course" Val has been getting weary of the battles, and I wasn't sure what she would say. We of course would have stood by her decision. She very definitely said "Please try to save me". They rushed her from her room to the ICU where a team of Dr's and nurses began giving her antibiotics, drips, oxegen mask, blood infusion, ex rays, etc.

Gene spent the night, he has had little sleep in 5 nights, and when I left the Dr. told us that they were doing everything they could, but they could not give us any assurance she would pull through. As always my first thought is of Kennedy, because if Val wakes up with the Lord, what a day of rejoicing that will be to see friends and family and then see the beautiful Light of the Lord Jesus Christ. About 10:30 Gene called and said her numbers were better, she was talking to him-------------trying to be humorous, and her temp had risen to 97. This morning I called and he said about 2:30 am she begin to get very anxious and they couldn't calm her down, so they had no choice but to intubate her. Her most dreaded thing is the ventilator, thankfully they had her sedated.

I don't know where all of this is going, but the Lord does. I was thinking of the scripture we used to have on a poster in her room in Mpls. "And I will give you a NEW heart, and I will put a new spirit in you". I prayed that long and hard.

Then this morning I was reading the rest of the verse, and I thought "We all need a heart transplant!!! It says. "And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you, and I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender responsive heart. And I will put my spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations". When we turned to the Lord in repentance and asked for Salvation, we got a heart transplant, but sometimes we don't "guard our heart with all diligence", and we let it get hard and cold--------spiritual "plaque" builds up and we get blockages. The only thing that matters in this world is our relationship with the Lord. AND, each other.

If Val lives through this, how will it affect her stemcells? We don't know. Her blood was down to six, and that means her platelets or blood cells were breaking down. Did the stem cells cause this? I don't think so, Val wasn't feeling very well when she left, then extreme stress, two 10 hour flights, problems regulating her blood, and no sleep probably triggered something already there. Four other people had the procedure when Val did, and they seemed to have no problems. We talked to several people there for check ups when we were in Florida, and none of them had had problems and all of them were happy with the results. It saved our neighbor's husband's life. We would absolutely do it again if we had to make the decision all over.

I know you are probably tired of these "rollercoaster" crises of ours, we would appreciate intercessory prayer, but just pray as you feel led. We have certainly had more than our share of your prayer time.

Love, Sharon