The beginning of the journey

On Saturday January 7th, Jeff was woken up by chest pain and knew something was wrong.  He turned to wake me up and let me know what was going on and I, like the impeccable health care worker I am, rushed to his aid.....OK.... well, I didn't EXACTLY rush.    I kinda mumbled something like, "Are you sure?  Cause' it is really early, it's Saturday and I'm so tired."  I would like to throw the disclaimer that I don't believe I was fully conscious when I uttered that, because I'm pretty sure if I was more awake, then I would have said, "just go throw an ice pack on it and you'll be fine."

In a matter of seconds, I was wide awake, still slightly in denial and nervously dialing 911. Then it all seemed a blur.  Thankfully, my parents don't live far away and arrived before the fire truck and ambulance and were able to take over since my brain was not working.  Kenzie was asleep but Brayden was in the living room.  I explained he would be hearing sirens and asked him to go hang out in his room awhile because I didn't want the presence of the emergency crews working on Jeff to scare him.  He was amazingly calm and said, "no problem Mom."

There is something surreal about hearing sirens in the distance and knowing they are coming for your family member.  We were blessed to have a phenomenal team of medical professionals working that day.  It was quickly confirmed Jeff was having a heart attack.  At Memorial, they have a program called STAR 80, which means they have a goal to get the blocked artery open within 80 minutes of arrival.  This was definitely the case with Jeff, a stent was put in quickly and I was relieved to see Jeff as he was being wheeled to his room.

We were told by the surgeon, that Jeff was extremely "lucky"... but we prefer the term "blessed", as we know it was not luck, but instead God's hands and the prayers of many that guided everyone that morning.  Jeff had 100% blockage in one of his arteries and the stent was used to open it up.  Time was critical and we were fortunate to live close to excellent cardiac care.  The surgeon explained that these types of blockages need to be treated within in hours for survival.  He told us Jeff had additional blockage in more arteries and open heart surgery will be needed soon.

After being back in his room for an hour, the pain returned with the same intensity.  He was rushed back to surgery where it was discovered he had a blood clot in the new stent.  They were able to remove as much of the clot as they could and placed an additional stint to decrease the likelihood of it occurring again.  The surgeon told us the next 24 hours were critical as his chance for another blood clot increased after experiencing the 1st one.

It was suggested I stay over night.  The nurse offered me a recliner.  (Note:  they use the word "recliner" loosely in hospitals, apparently they didn't mean a Lazy Boy).  It's a well known fact that we love having family sleepovers, but this one was a tad different.  I didn't end up sleeping that night and Jeff didn't get much either.  We couldn't help but question any slight bit of pain that returned, wondering if it was going to get worse, wondering if it would be another clot.  Yet, through it all, there was this sense of peace.  We later learned of all the people who had been praying for Jeff and our family.  People who were praying with a passion and dedication by lifting us up fervently and intentionally.  We did not have access to Internet for some time and were so in awe of all the encouragement we had been receiving via e-mails, facebook, etc.   Never for a second underestimate the strength a simple sentence can bring someone.  The outpouring of offers to assist and love on our family has shown us just how great of God we serve as he uses so many to be his hands and feet in our time of need.  Words can never express how truly grateful we are for all of your expressions of caring and concern.   My deepest apologies that we didn't have the ability to contact you sooner and know some of you may just be finding out this news as you read this blog.  We now have access back to our phones and the world wide web so please keep your messages coming, Jeff reads EVERY one and it truly lifts our spirits.

The next chapter is not known yet.  They have 2 options and are meeting together as a team to decide which is the safest.   We do know he will be having an open heart surgery to perform a coronary artery bypass graft(s).  We do not know when.  Please pray for wisdom for the doctors as they meet and make their decision.  Pray for the clots to STAY AWAY.  Pray for sleep (if you want try for the hail mary and throw in a prayer for a Lazy Boy - I'll leave that up to you).  Pray for Brayden and Kenzie, as I know they are trying hard to process all of the new information coming at them.  Most importantly, through all this, pray that everyone involved will never loose sight of what an AMAZING and AWESOME God we serve and He makes no mistakes, He chooses what is best and everything is for a far greater purpose than we understand until we reach heaven.  Thanks for choosing to come on this journey with us for the next couple months.  I can't promise this will be updated often, but I will definitely try my best to keep everyone who cares so much about Jeff informed of the his progress and the course of treatment.

GOD IS GOOD!

-Stacy