{ A Story of Grace :: Part 2 }

It has now been a month since Katy Grace's illness.  Life has been very busy and I have struggled to find the time to sit down and finish this post.  It is a beautiful, sunny Sunday morning and I am home from church with the little girl who is still recovering from the sickness that has gone through our family in the past two weeks.  Oliver came down with RSV two weeks ago and it hit him hard.  It was a scary and emotional week nursing him back to health.  Praise the Lord, when the rest of us got it we came through with not much more than a common cold.  It is highly contagious, however, so we have stayed close to home in hopes of not spreading it around.  So here I sit, disappointed to miss another week of church and fellowship, but very overwhelmed with gratitude for the health that is returning to us and for the continued grace that God has shown us through this very challenging past month.  We are so humbled and immensely grateful when we think of just how much God has seen us through and that He saw fit to restore our little daughter so completely to us.

And now to complete this:

It was about 3:30 in the afternoon when we began our drive north.  By that time we had two friends offering up their guest rooms for the night and a dinner waiting for us from a friend of a friend, someone we didn’t even know.  The blessings just did not stop!  Tim and I had so much peace as we drove.  The landscape was breathtaking as the sun was setting pink and turquoise over the snow-covered hills.  We wished we had brought a camera.  During the drive we had time to talk and pray together.  We didn’t know how things would look when we arrived at the hospital.  We were told Katy Grace would either be in ICU or Intermediate, depending upon how she did during the transfer.  We received no calls from the flight crew during our drive, but we were also in spotty reception, but we assumed that no news was good news. 

This was the first time Tim and I had really had a chance to talk since all of this began.  I asked him if he remembered me saying a few weeks earlier that I was having some disturbing thoughts, a feeling that something was going to happen to Katy Grace?  He remembered.  We had taken it to God in prayer at the time, not knowing if it was natural motherhood anxiety and completely unfounded or if in fact we would face something with her in the future.  I don’t profess to have any special “powers”, for lack of a better term, but there have been several times in my life when I have felt God impressing something on my mind that later comes to be.  I told Tim that when the paramedics were at our house and Katy Grace was in the midst of her seizure that God brought that to my mind and very clearly showed me that this was what He had meant by it.  He had wanted me to be prepared and wanted me to be on the lookout.  It was an amazing feeling to know that God had prepared me in some way for this experience.  

When we arrived at the hospital, Katy Grace had just been settled into her room in Intermediate care.  What a relief!  Touching her again and seeing her calm breathing was a sight we were so relieved to see.  She had done great on the flight and she was continuing to stabilize.  She still had not come around at all and was completely unresponsive to us so that was difficult.  I was able to hold her when we arrived.  It was heaven to take her in my arms and feel her next to me again, to be able to provide her comfort.  It was difficult to hold her with all of the monitors connected to her, two IV ports, one in each arm and her little arms restrained in splints.  I hated seeing her like that.  

Not much changed that evening.  She just slept while being closely monitored for fevers and another seizure.  Tim and I finally felt comfortable enough leaving her for a little while to go out for some dinner about 8:30 pm.  It helped a little to be away from the hospital and clear our heads a little.  When we returned she was still sleeping so we settled in for the night and best we could.  I stayed through the night with her and Tim went and stayed with a friend who had offered their guest room up for us.  It was amazing to us that even though all of us were in different places that night, we did not feel separated.  I was completely exhausted by the time I lay down to try and get some sleep.  I lay there for a while, trying not to think, just go to sleep.  It was the first time I was still and quiet enough for my mind to start to process all that had happened and the natural feelings of "what ifs" were overwhelming.  It was then that God reminded me of His promise,
"You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you: because he trusts in you." 
Isaiah 26:3. 
I kept my mind stayed on Him by recounting things from the day that followed the model of Phil. 4:8
"Whatever is true, 
whatever is noble, 
whatever is right, 
whatever is pure, 
whatever is lovely, 
whatever is admirable—
if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—
think about such things."
It was then that I was able to drift off to sleep.  It was not great sleep, but it was peaceful.  

As with any hospital experience, we were woken up every four hours when the nurse came in to take her temperature and check her vitals.  It was so hard when Katy would wake up because she was still so groggy and had no idea where she was or what was happening.  She was incredibly strong and it was all I could do to keep her in my arms while she thrashed around and finally fell back to sleep.  At some point in the middle of the night she did wake up enough to smile at me.  I don't think I'll ever forget how beautiful that sight was.

She was scheduled for an EEG about 10 am the next morning, so the doctor had ordered she be woken up at 6 am so that she would be ready to nap at the time of the test.  We woke her up, but it was all I could do to keep her awake and so I just let her fall back to sleep.  The nurse and I woke her up again about 9:30 am and she slept just fine through the test.  All she wanted to do was sleep.  

Tim came back to the hospital in the morning and we had breakfast together in the cafeteria.  Coffee tasted so good that morning, let me tell you!  We spent that day so hopeful that we would be able to go home that day, but it was discouraging as the day wore on.  By the afternoon Katy Grace had come around to being somewhat alert.  She looked at books in the afternoon and tried her best to play with toys.  She went back and forth on being held by Tim and me.  It was a bittersweet time that we were able to spend with her and only her.  A very rare luxury for a second born! 

The EEG was completed and we went back downtown for lunch while Katy napped and we waited for the results.  They came back showing that both sides of the brain were not working together quite like they would like, so the neurologist then ordered an MRI.  Thankfully he got us one that day, the last one of the day and stayed on duty longer in order to read it.  The most they could find was a tiny spot on one half of her brain.  He ruled out a tumor and did not find it necessary to put her on antibiotics.  He said this spot may have been what contributed to the length of the seizure.  We are scheduled to see him again in a month and she will need another MRI in 6 months, but we were released from the hospital at 8:30 pm that night! Praise the Lord!  

We were then allowed to feed her for the first time since noon the day before.  We have always known she likes to eat, but we had never seen the excitement that she showed when we started giving her food there!  She couldn't eat fast enough!  In the matter of about half an hour she consumed 3 Go-Gurts, graham crackers, animal crackers, goldfish crackers, a banana and part of a cheese stick.  She also drank a ton of water.  It was amazing how much better she seemed after eating all of that real food! 

The final challenge before we could leave the hospital was finding a pharmacy somewhere in Spokane that had the correct medicine (an injection medicine that we have to carry with us in the case of another seizure) and the correct dose that was open until at least 9 pm so we could pick it up on our way out of town.  Tim and two nurses were calling all over town trying to find one.  Finally there was ONE way out of the way, but it was closing in 30 minutes.  We quickly signed the release papers, got our little girl dressed, gathered out things and basically ran to the car.  We arrived at the pharmacy 5 minutes before they closed!  But then we were on our way home!  I don't know how Tim managed to drive home and stay awake!  Katy Grace and I fell asleep almost as soon as we got in the car.  

Oliver was asleep when we arrived home, but I tiptoed in and kissed him, so thankful to be back home with both of our children.  I then collapsed in my own bed, snuggled up to Katy Grace who was sleeping so contentedly, free of any wires or IV's, thank you, Jesus!  

The next couple of days she was still very unstable on her feet and not able to walk, which really confused her.  We monitored her very closely for the return of a fever and waited for our little girl to be completely restored to her happy little self.  That Sunday we were able to take her to church.  It was amazing to be confident enough in her health at that point to be able to put her in the nursery.  We were absolutely humbled and blessed by the body of believers who had been praying so much for us over the week.  

Tim had requested that the elders pray over Katy Grace, so after the service we gathered with them.  We spent a time of recounting God's blessings throughout this ordeal and then praying for her.  She was doing really well by then, but still did not have that spark that she had had before the seizure.  By the time they had finished praying, however, it had returned.  We could tell that she was restored completely.  It was truly miraculous!  All glory to God!

Now as we go on from here, wading through the finances and the paperwork, trusting God to meet our needs, we look back at this time as one of testing but also of great blessing.  We saw God at work in truly miraculous ways.  We don't take the time we have with our children for granted so much.  We value our health and the days we have together a lot more.  Our greatest desire is that God receives from us the growth He desires out of this.  We have weathered a huge storm and God is good!