Update on Josh

If you’ve been following my tweets, or are on any prayer list I’m even slightly affiliated with, thank you for your prayers and concern!

By posting an update here, I have a central location to point everyone to and might lower my stress level.

WEDNESDAY
Josh wakes up, eats breakfast. One bout of diarrhea later, he’s on the couch for the rest of the day. Never a fever. More and more complaints about his abdomen. Poppi (my dad) thinks possible appendicitis and calls me at the Oregon Christian Writers Summer Conference. Pain eases. We decide to wait and see. I have two fabulous appointments with editors, tape a 30-min interview with Mom and my niece about our legacy. (Don’t worry, I will post a link when it airs.) Go to book signing, get pictures with Bill Myers & Nick Harrison with their books I had bought. Check my messages before going to sign my own books and find a gasping message from Josh and another from Dad saying he is begging for an ambulance. My roommates pack me up in under 5 minutes and send me on my way with the promise of lots of prayers.

Josh’s dad & I meet at the St. Vincent’s ER in Portland. Josh arrives shortly thereafter, not seeming in a ton of discomfort. We begin to wonder if the hospital was necessary. Maybe he was just missing me?

They hook him up to monitors and we begin to see a pattern develop. When his stomach hurts the most, his heart rate changes. They start coming in waves and we dub them “episodes.” After a period of calm and nightfall, Josh’s dad goes home and I stay in ER. Suddenly things change for the worse. Episodes are stronger and coming faster and faster. Kevin rushes back. I witness the worst episode. Nothing changed in Josh. His resting heartbeat was about 77. With out any movement or breathing change or thought on Josh’s conscious part, it skyrockets to 165 and his oxygen level drops one number lower and lower and lower until it hits 72 percent and goes to a question mark. He writhes in pain, vacant-eyed, complaining of weight on his chest and his head splitting apart. This lasts about 8 minutes, with code blues going off, and me facing a very real temptation to panic. He demands, “PRAY! PRAY!” I choose to push the panic down and pray over his body.

Am I losing my son in front of me? Why had he just been talking about how heaven was going to be so cool?

 They give him two doses of morphine and the episodes fade away. Extreme vertigo and abdominal pain stay. He has an EKG, two x-rays, urine analysis, blood work, and preps for a cat scan. After the episodes, he suffers from hyperventilating. His feet and hands curl up and paralyze painfully.
 
THURSDAY
At 2 AM, they transfer us by ambulance to Doernbecher’s (OHSU). By the time we arrive, he seems like a normal sick. No more episode, but his oxygen level drops every time he falls asleep, an after effect of the morphine. By 4 AM, we both fall asleep for a few hours. Nurses & doctors & team, oh, my! All day long. Another EKG, deeper level of blood panel. Urinalysis, stool samples, etc … We are released at 5 PM. Just in time for rush hour. Takes 30 minutes to go 2 miles. He gets home and sleeps for 12 hours.

FRIDAY
Continues to be a normal sick. Can’t walk at all yet though, and has to tip head if carried to trick his body into feeling like it’s flat. Begs and begs to go back to the hospital because he needs to be seen by “professionals”–which implies that a mom is somehow not. At 10:30 complains more and more of stomach pain, begins to panic, and cries & moans until I get him to sleep at midnight.

SATURDAY
Wakes at 2 AM, crying and moaning. Intense pain for 2 hours before I can insurance and they say to take him back. Arrive at Doernbecher’s before 5 AM. Another X-ray, ultrasound of intestine, and finally some meds that make him loopy. I glimpse the real Josh for a few hours, though his silliness is amplified and downright hilarious after the amount of sleep I’ve gotten. Released about 12 hours later with a long list of what it isn’t, and the general idea that it must be some strange bug that messed with him pretty badly the first day, but should pass quickly. Test for Celiac, as we have a family history of it, and we find that out next week. Loopy half the way home, seeing crazy things in the clouds, screaming for the hospital the second half. Get him to sleep about 4:30 PM. He sleeps … and sleeps … and sleeps.

SUNDAY
He wakes up at 10 AM, 17.5 hours later. More of a normal sick day on loopy pills. Still unable to walk. Barely eats, but keeps hydrated.

MONDAY (today)
Eats a bit, begins walking, has times of pain, but finally gets to play every now and then.

To all of you, again, thank you for your prayers. Josh was baptized the weekend before this started. It’s been years since he initially made a statement of faith. This experience confirmed something for me. He has truly placed his faith in God on his own volition, begging for prayers and saying how much better he felt knowing so many people were talking to God about him.

Love you!