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Miracles Still Happen

I put this over on Facebook, but since some of my friends don't have Facebook, and this is too long to Text or post on another Social Media site I'm a member of, I thought I would post it here and send out the link....

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I am going to try to keep this short. Since I've told the details of what we believe to have been sub-par care from some of the staff, I'm not going to cover all that again.  I did find the appropriate means to report all that, and have been assured that will be addressed.

As you know, exactly two weeks ago today, Rene' woke up feeling an almost unbearable pain in her right arm and her fingers were numb, and the back of her neck felt sore.  She went to bed the night before feeling 100% fine.  She had me rub the back of her neck to see if maybe she had just slept wrong or perhaps overdid it the day before in her garden.

We both continued on our day and both worked our jobs, came home, cooked dinner, etc.  She said her arm was still hurting quite a bit, so she got some kind of lotion and had me rub the back of her neck again, in hopes that it would relieve some of the pain.  It did not.

Next day was basically a repeat of the previous day.  We were excited about going to see CAIN in concert the next day at Emmanul.  We were making plans with our friends to meet them there.  I also had just found out that my cousin Jessi Dodds and her husband Randy Dodds were going to be there as well, so were planning on having a great night the next day.

Anyway, Thursday rolls along, and the pain had gotten worse, so she called our doctor, who, thanks to COVID again, was 'too busy' to get her in until 1pm that day.  Rene' stressed that she didn't want to wait that long, because the pain was so bad, and being diabetic, the numbness in her hand seemed like a bad idea to wait around on, so the person answering the phone at the doctor suggested that if she didn't want to wait, she should maybe go to Urgent Care.   The person almost seemed like she was "rolling her eyes" about that suggestion.  We, however, decided it might be a good idea. 

So, I took the morning off work and then took her to Urgent care and again, due to COVID, I couldn't go in with her, nor could she even wait inside the waiting room.  Long story short, we ran some errands as they were going to call us when it was time for her to go in.  About 20 min later, they called, she went in and got an X-ray and waited to hear the results, which were read pretty quickly.

They suggested that the X-ray didn't really show anything, but because of the severity of the pain, they advised we go to Bay Park Hospital ER to get a CT as a CT can show more information than an X-ray due to the 360 degree computerized topography (CT) that they can do.  We figured that since it was only 11am at that time, that we might as well do it, and not wait until the next day.  

When we got to the ER, they checked her in to a room, and long story short again, was able to get into radiology to get the CT scan.   After maybe an hour or so, they came back with the results, and told us that the doctor that was given that case wanted us to go to Toledo Hospital and have her admitted as it look like she had something going on with her spine that was pretty serious and they wanted her to get an MRI.  We were told that admitting her will allow them to get the MRI that day, rather than having to have it scheduled out a couple weeks and go through the whole insurance approval, etc.   Due to them wanting it that day, we started realizing this was likely more serious than we thought and realized there may not be a concert for us that night.  We were really looking forward to it as well. 

By this time, the pain had gotten worse, and the numbness in her fingers seemed to have been spreading a little more.  They were going to transfer her themselves, but I asked if I could take her instead so we can get there sooner as they told us it might be 4 hours for them to get the order placed for the transfer.   I think, we still had in the back of our minds, that we might be able to go the concert yet.  They said sure, but we still had to wait for discharge.

No joke, discharge took almost 3 hours.  So, by this point, we knew there was no concert for us. 

But that's ok.  It was God watching out for us.

We got to Toledo Hospital and were sent right up to the Neuro floor and had a wonderful staff up there taking good care of us.  Because MRIs are a more complicated procedure and take a lot of time for them to schedule, since they are in use all day, they wouldn't be able to get her MRI until late that night.  I think it was around 10pm or so.  They wouldn't know the results until the next day, so Rene just told me to go home and she would call me when it was done.  Around 11, she called me, was back in her room and I told her I'd be there the next morning, first thing.  

When I got there the next day, we met with the neuro surgeon who said that she needed surgery right away and he was actually shocked that she walked into the hospital that day.  Her spinal cord was severely pinched off by a calcium growth and the amount that it was cut off was likened to what he would expect from someone that fell out of a tree and became paralyzed or even a quadriplegic.  He told us that this was extremely serious, and that this would likely be a very complicated process and the outlook was not good.  He consulted with 5 other neurol surgeons and they all agreed that she should have been paralyzed.  He told us his 3 step plan to get this taken care of.  

1) He would go in through the back of her neck, remove the back part of her spine in that area, allowing the cord more space.  He didn't want to go in through the front first, as that would likely cause swelling that would finish the job of completely cutting off her spinal cord.

2) Once that part was done, he said he would then go in through the front, remove the vertebrae to free up the actual required space, replace that section with a cage and then...

3) Go back in through the back of the neck and put some plates and screws in there.

The whole process should take 5 hours.  If all went well.

It did not. 

After completing the first step, the monitors that were keeping tabs on her neuro signals went off, saying that she had no more neuro signal throughout her entire body, meaning basically, that she was paralyzed as a quadriplegic.  The doctor, knowing that this was likely due to the position her neck was in for surgery,  immediately stopped the surgery, straightened out her neck, stapled it and put her back on her back.  The signal came back.  

He then came and got me and said he had to abort the rest of the procedure saying that this was even more serious than he thought and was going to wait on steps 2 and 3 for her body to calm down.  He said it would likely be the following week before proceeding with the following 2 steps.

I was relieved that she still had signal, but he also told me to prepare for the worst.  The outlook wasn't good, but he was going to treat this case as it was his own mother, who had almost the same issue, but was caused by an accident, not genetics and it was a success.  He also told me that in spite of that, this was a monumental case for him because in spite of his mother having a similar incident that he was able to fix on her, Rene's case was way worse, and it came with a very high risk.  In spite of being told this bleak news, I wasn't prepared for what came next, while she was in ICU.

When I got up to her room to see her, she was crying.  And not just crying a little...I had never seen her cry like that before.  In fact, the whole time we'd been married (going on 26 years), I've seen her cry  maybe 3 times.  She was crying in such pain, that it broke me.  The pain I saw in her face has forever imprinted itself in my memory, and even now, it makes me tear up.  

She could no longer move her right arm or her right leg, but I was assured that that was just because of the swelling still pinching off the cord.  I questioned that, seeing how we were told that removing the back bones would give that cord more room, and since the back plates were not put in yet, why is that the case.  They told me the swelling was so severe that it was basically doing the same thing the bones were doing only worse, but there were two things to keep in mind:  Swelling is good for the healing process.  It means fluids are getting there and fluids are what heal.  And two, swelling eventually should go down.  (There's that word that techs and doctors like to use...should)

I stayed late that night with her.  She was scared.  I was scared.  Eventually that night, I had to go home and go to bed.  

The next day, I got there, and she showed me that she could now move her arm, but still couldn't move her right hand fingers or right leg, so that was nice to see a little improvement.  

I have already explained in previous posts about the care that we felt was sub-par, so we are going to skip over all that for now.  After a few days, and many texts to friends, family and church, and several of our friends actually coming over to visit and encourage and pray with her, the surgeon came up to talk to us and lay out his plan for the rest. 

He told us that we going to do the next surgery that next Monday, but due to the nature of how the calcium was lodged in there, and when he was actually in there to see it with his own eyes, and not off an MRI scan, he was going to leave the rock in there.  He said it was fused to the cord, and removing it would be a disaster.  He told us that that sounded scary, but it was the best option to give us the most hope.  He would just remove the vertebrae, put in the cage, and then put the plates on the back of the neck.  There would still be plenty of room for the cord, but he was afraid if he touched the rock, it would anger the cord and spell disaster.  

I asked what would keep the calcium from getting larger.  He said, it wouldn't because the calcium feeds off of the bones it is touching.  Those bones would no longer be there.  That made perfect sense to me.  He still assured us this would be a very risky procedure, but at this point, it was not unlike a lot of other procedures he had done previously.  

Over the weekend, the care got even worse, again....that story has been told....but there were bright spots here and there with some staff being amazing.  One nurse in particular named Callie.   She even came in to check on her when she was scheduled elsewhere just to see how she was doing.  

Anyway, we were Sunday night that she would be scheduled as an "Add in" on Monday, meaning she would be at the end of the day.  We were told she couldn't eat 8 hours before the surgery, and that they would know that next morning exactly what time, but that we should have her eat late at night, just in case she got scheduled earlier in the day.  We were told that if she was scheduled at the end of the day, it would be at least 5pm so she could eat up until 8am.  So the plan was, I was going to bring her breakfast at 7.  

Unfortunately, I had to leave early on Sunday, because first, I was completely physically and emotionally exhausted, and second, I had no laundry left.  Laundry was always something I almost took for granted because the laundry gremlin always took care of that.  But at this time, the laundry gremlin was in the hospital, so the music guy had to take care of it.  (That was me).  

Fortunately, a really sweet friend of ours from church offered to come in and sit with her and help her eat at 11pm that night.  She also brought her harp and played a bunch of hymns and other worship music for her.

Meanwhile, during this whole week, I had been reaching out to people, who also reached out to people, etc.  I am a member of the "Not The Bee" community as well.  (It's another, far superior social media site run by the people that run "The Babylon Bee".  It is a Christian site that has quite the large community as well). I posted throughout the week, and my posts started going viral with people praying all over the world for a miracle.  Friend and family also praying for a miracle. 

Also, two friends of ours that have never met before went to a church service, and when a prayer time was called, one friend went up to pray for Rene, and the person that prayed with her was another friend of ours that also knew her and was there to pray for her.

My cousin went to a conference that had 2000 people attending and she put in a request for her, and that got prayed for from the stage to the entire crowd.  All praying for a miracle.  

You might be thinking, "But Gregg, you said the doctor seemed more confident because at this point the surgery would be more routine."  Yes.  I did say that, but you haven't heard the rest yet...

That Monday, we were told surgery would at 5, but Rene wasn't allowed to eat the breakfast I brought, because there was a chance surgery could be bumped up.  So, we were glad she ate the night before at 11pm.   5:00 rolls around and we were told it would be delayed.  We were not given a reason at this point.

7:15 rolls around and we were told that there was an emergency case that had to be taken care of.  It was life and death.

At this point, Rene' is asking if we can just delay it until the next day.  We were told no, the doctor didn't want to wait even one more day because of how serious this was.

We are not happy about this.  The surgeon has been doing surgery starting at 7:30 that morning.  It was now 12 hours later.  He had to have been tired.  I was trying to be strong and encouraging her that he does this all the time, but down inside, I was scared as well. I texted my pastor and a few close friends that I was scared and while I was quoting 1 Peter 5:7 to my wife (about being anxious and casting your cares on Him), I wasn't even listening for myself.  My friends and pastor were encouraging me.  

7:30 rolls around and they take her down to surgery.  Rene' is scared.  I'm scared, but trying.  

I sat down in the waiting room, prayed, read several Psalms and then decided to go get something to eat...I had eaten since noon.  

When I got back, I felt a sense of peace that I believe God sent to me.  I went over by a TV and watching some stupid game show called "The Chase" and continued praying and praising God that no matter the outcome, He was in control and would be glorified somehow. 

At 11:15, the surgeon came to talk to me.  I was the only person left in the waiting room at this time.  

He started off by saying, "I have to tell you, this case is definitely the monumental case for me.  I have never had anything like this happen before."  The way he started that, made me think that there was bad new coming, but no....

"Not to toot my own horn, because this wasn't expected, but I don't know if you believe in miracles, but I do.  This was a miracle.  Not only was the surgery a success, the calcium deposit was able to be taken off without me touching the spine."

I told him that I do believe in miracles and that I had literally thousands of people praying just for that.  He said, "Well, it worked."   He also assured me that her motor controls should return, but don't expect it over night.  It will take time, and require a lot of rehab. 

He then went on to tell me that he would schedule the 3rd part for next week, but that that surgery would be a cakewalk.  Super simple, however,  recovery is going to be a long road ahead.  Up to 6 months, but seeing how things went during that surgery, he was sure we'd get through it.  He then fist bumped me and let me go visit her in her room.  

Of course, she was pretty much out of it.  I know she's going to be in a serious amount of pain today when I go see her.  I also know she likely won't be able to talk much, eat easily, and still likely won't be able to move for a while. But, God is a God of miracles.  

I hope and pray that someone will see or hear this story and be impacted in a way that brings them to a strong or stronger faith in Jesus.

So much for keeping this short.

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