Update from bethesda

Well finally all checked in and has been seen by the doc. Everything looks good so far! He will go back under for "surgery" tomorrow to do a wound wash of the bullet wounds in his arm and abdomen and hopefully close them. If they have any problems (ie infection etc) they will do the wound vac and try to close in a couple days. This is good though cause it means all his wounds will finally be healing. I will admit though that i am more than a little scared to have him go back under anesthesia and go back on the vent, even if it is just for a short time. Docs said he looks really good right now though. If all goes well he should be moved to a regular post op unit after the surgery tomorrow. Yea for no more critical care! I was hoping he would be strong enough to talk to the kids tomorrow but that was before i knew about the surgery. We will try for sunday. I know jackson needs to hear his voice. The outpouring of support here has been incredible. The team here has been so helpful. I was considering staying overnight at the hospital with  him but he is being a booger and wants to make sure i sleep. Typical husband of mine, still trying to take care of me when i am suppose to be here taking care of him!! He says this bed is comfier than germanys was so he seems to be resting better here. Just cant wait to see him out of this bed! Ok, i am off to try and sleep. Please please please continue to pray for the other soldiers here as well. One of the guys he flew in with is a 21yo kid who lost both legs and will most likely end up losing his right arm. I had the pleasure of getting to talk to his dad on the flight from germany to dc. This yound man needs out healing prayers sent asap. As well as the marine who came in with us who has more staples in his head than anyone should ever have in a lifetime. His family has arrived and my heart is breaking for them. So pray warriors we have been doing our job for jeremy we need to make sure we cover the rest of our guys as well! I love you all and thanks again for all the love and support! 

Just landed at andrews

He is here and doing well! More updates later. But we are back in the us of a!!!!!

i waited 6 months for that kiss!!!!!

he looks better than i hoped! off the ventilator which means his tongue is still swollen so his speech is slurred. but he is "there". he def has a long recovey ahead. doc said his lung function and enduance may never be the same but i have a feeling he will prove them wrong. he is aleady so sick of the hospital bed and it sucks cause he cant get comfy since he is still hooked up to so many wires. i think by this time next week i will see another huge change in him. it may have been small and quick but i still cant believe i got to kiss him. i am only across the street at the fisher house (thank God for this place!!!!) but i do still feel so far away from him. we are scheduled to fly to dc tmrw together!!!!! as excited as i am, my heart is breaking for the other 10th family that is here and most likely saying goodbye to their solider. i am asking all my prayer warriors to lift them up in prayer as well. i cant release any names just please know that they need every ounce of hope we can provide through prayer. i am just so thankful to have jeremy alive and hear him say i love you again. :) well i will try to update one last time in the morning before we head out. love you all!!!!!

MADE IT TO GERMANY!

well i made it! flight was pretty uneventful other than some turbulence about 3 hours from frankfort. waiting at the USO for the other family that needs to also go to the hospital. so far no problems getting through airport thanks to my 10th div liasons. no word on jeremy. cant wait to see him though. should be in about 3 hours. i promise to update when i can later. thank you again for all the prayers and support!!! we wouldnt have made it this far without you!

Leaving on a jet plane....

Well sitting in dc waiting on my flight to frankfort. Called to check on the hubs. Fever is down, ct scan was negative (no abcesses!!) And he could be off the vent when i get there! I think he is just trying to get better before i arrive so i dont flip out on him! =D cant wait to get to germany. Got my new pretty passport, awesome snacks, magazines, and best of all i found my ipod before i left! Woot! Deploymates def took care of me for this flight. Love and miss everyone back home. Especially the kids. But mimi says they are doing great. I will try to update once i arrive in germany. 12 hours........

At the airport

Well made it to syracuse. Had to convince united airlines that i didnt have to pay for my bag (hello its on my orders!) But now i am all set.
Just talked to doc. Jeremy is still running a fever so they are doing a ct scan of his chest/abdomen and sinuses. Thinking he could have a sinus infection (common with intubation) or there may be a post-op infection. Wont have results til this afternoon but doc sees no real reason for him not flying friday! Woo hoo! They tried again to see how he would do without the ventilator and he went 20 min this time before they had to turn it back on! Thats awesome! So i am off to get something to drink (aka coffee!!!) Prayers for safe travels and his continued healing.

leaving tomorrow

well got my travel orders. leaving syracuse tomorrow around 10, then to DC have a ride to the state dept to get my passport, then back to dulles to get on a plane to frankfort. i leave DC around 7pm and arrive in germany thursday morning around 9am. that means i should have a whole 24 hours with him before he hopefully flys to DC. excited and scared all at the same time. just glad i dont have to be up SUPER EARLY! the good news is he knows i am coming and there isnt any real huge change in his condition. about to call for an update since shift change is over. yea for PLANS! so please pray for safe travel and of course his continues healing and that he wont kick my ass for coming to germany to be with him. :)

Well orders have been made

Going to germany. Spoke to doc about 330. Waiting now to talk to transportation to find out if we can even get me there with enough time to spend at least 12+ hours in germany before flying home with him friday. Doc said they were just too unsure if he could tolerate the pressure changes in the air today. His lungs are just still that coarse sounding. He is improving though!! They are just going to try not to push him off it as fast now.
I am exhausted. Think i maybe got 4 hours of sleep and was woken up about every 30min by something. Lets hope i am not too much of a zombie to get stuff done this morning. Gotta do one last load of laundry and try to pack. Please continue to pray. I will update as soon as i can. 

90% chance I am headed to Germany

it still isnt official until docs do rounds in a couple of hours but basically jeremy isnt tolerating being off sedation and or off the vent. he is extremly agitated, scared, hyperventilates, stats drop, then they have to re-sedate him. doesnt matter if he is "awake" and on vent or if he is semi sedated and they try to turn down the vent and let him breathe on his own. beth (the most amazing night nurse!) said he starts having trouble breathing when they try to wean him off the vent so then he starts breathing to fast, thrashing and overall freaking out. i know he is probably going to kill me for writing all this about him but oh well. its his own fault! =) love you babe!

anyways.....he is hard to reason with when he is like this and has to be sedated again. beth thinks if they would leave him in the heavy sedation he would be FINE on the vent to fly. the problem is convincing the docs, especially the flight doc of this. she said lung issues are the hardest to get them to have fly. it carries the most risk for easy complication with the many pressure changes throughout the flight. beth thinks though that if i am there i will be able to calm him and keep him from freaking out so much and either help get him off the vent to fly or at least keep him calm enough on it to be able to fly on friday. so still praying that he comes to us (sedated) today (cause its after midnight here) but the chances of it happening are very slim. better brush on my german. ha! this is what i get for taking latin in high school! going to try and get a nap in (orders from beth) and keep praying that we get a solid answer in the next 3 hours. promise to update when i know more. on the plus side my mom is here so i know the kids are gonna be ok (although the princess is still awake watching toy story 2 with mimi downstairs. its cause i have been on the phone so much tonight.... she refuses to sleep when we dont follow her routine. darn little princess).

i have to admit i am scared and excited all at the same time. no matter what i will have a solid answer on him by morning. thats awesome. just praising God tonight that wonderful people are taking care of him and that we have such an amazing family who can support us all through this. we are so blessed. going to go be "courageous" and sleep.

and to his brothers: he flipped off the nurse when she told him not to try and take the tube out......sounds like simon right!?!? =)

struggling

well its getting to that point of uncertanity again.... they tried to push jeremy and move his oxygen down more last night and he couldnt tolerate it. he spiked another fever and they were forced to move his oxygen back up to where it had been and to put him back on a little airway pressure. not sure if its still the RDS (respiratory distress symdrome) or pneumonia or both or is there something else going on that they arent sure about yet. incision still looks good and lungs sound ok. docs are just getting a little chicken now about sending him tomorrow. PLEASE PRAY HE COMES TO US TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!! i will find out via phone call about 2 or 3 am our time tonight when they make the final decision. i told the nurse that he needs to know he has a goal. that when he is "awake" they need to tell him that he has a chance to come home but he has to be stable enough to do it.  i know that this info will help him. he is such a goal oriented person and once you give him a task he will do it and to the best of his ability (i am sure all his panther and catamount brothers are going heck ya he will!!) i watched our prayers work to bring him to a place stable enough to fly on and i think that they just tried to push him too fast. he needs to stay where he is and he will be able to fly home. trying to convince the docs of this fact is another story. please continue to pray for his healing, for safe travels and for strength for our family. its getting harder and harder to stay so strong for him.  

Sunday Sept 25....faith promise

""For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,"

Ephesians 3:14-18

Today was our "faith Promise" weekend at church. A chance to promise in faith what extra you could give to the missions of the church. I unfortunetly missed majority of the sermon by Pastor Chad due to an issue with J and getting to chat with a friend about ways to help him through this difficult time. But even though I didnt hear the whole thing I did get to have one thing written on my heart. WE MUST HAVE FAITH. Faith that God is going to provide for us, that His promises never fail. That in faith we can do his good works and glorify Him. I ended up at the alter with some of the most amazing friends surrounding me, praying for me, the kids and most of all Jeremy. I walked away from service today, knowing that I MUST have faith that God is going to heal Jeremy, that he could fly "home" to us on Tuesday. That I must just keep putting one foot in front of the other, that even when it looks like there is no ground beneath that next step, God is going to provide solid ground to stand on in His own way. Tonight I am seeing that solid ground again more clearly!

He is off the airway pressure!!!! and only at 40% O2!!!!!! this is a HUGE improvement from 24 hours ago! They are switching his sedation drugs to something a little milder, and are now really planning on him being fully able to fly to DC on Tuesday!!!!! THANK YOU JESUS! His nurse tonight said he is doing tons better than yesterday! they are even going to try turning his oxygen down a bit more tonight. What a good note to go to sleep on!!!! Cant wait to find out how he does while I am sleeping! How great is our God?! :)

i got to "talk" to him!!!!!!!

I GOT TO TELL HIM "I LOVE YOU"!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I want to jump for joy and cry all at the same time!!!!! bethany was hoping i could calm him down cause he was getting "feisty", didnt work, i only got a min cause his heart rate went up, he started making faces, and she needed to put him back under. but i was able to tell him that i love him, that the kids are i are ok, that i am so glad he is going to be ok, to get better and that people around the world are praying for him. it was very hard to stay calm and just talk slowly. i dont think my heart rate is gonna calm down!!!!!! so much for sleep tonight! probably gonna call bethany back in a few minutes and make sure he is back to sleep. so yea for I LOVE YOUS!!!!!!!!!



ps: called and he is back out! whew!  :D LOVE YOU BABY!!!!

just some pics

Some of you who are praying for us have no clue abut our family. just a glimpse......

in afg, our hero, SSG Jeremy Simon

day he left, march 2011

at aunt kendras

crazy pic for mothers day (this is sooo my life)

daddy kisses (day he left)

it was a bit windy and kind of chilly at the end of march! cant wait to be back in your arms simon!

Sept 24 afternoon

sooo i keep getting cut off from his nurse! darn international phone calls/transfers! but before we got cut off she said there are no major changes! woohoo! o2 still at 50% and airway pressures down some from last night which means his lungs are able to do it themselves a bit better! keep praying! hopefully i will have more news soon. gonna give the phone lines a few minutes before i try again. gotta find out what time i can try to talk to him when he is awake. :) KEEP PRAYING!

Saturday Sept 24 AM

Just talked to his nurse. He said no major changes and everything is looking good. Def not going to make flight tomorrow but they are trying to get him stable enough to fly out Tuesday! His 02 levels are down to 50% (thats 20% more room air than last night!!!) which is AWESOME! it means his lungs are working to get rid of the fluid! they said his bp stays stable until they roll him to keep him from getting sores. then it drops for 30 min or so but comes back up. said all his meds except antibiotics are on low doses, he just needs that little extra help. only bad news is they dont know yet if there may be nerve damage from the wound in his right arm. he CAN move his fingers on that side but because its bandaged up they cant ask him to do more. not sure if it was shrapnel or a bullet that went in his arm but it went right between his bones! i know his arm will be just fine. he may have to do some physical therapy on it to get it back up to normal but i think he will be FINE. as long as he can grip a baseball he will be all good!!!! going to try again tonight to call and talk to him since i slept through my alarm last night to do it. so all in all a good report!!!! keep praying everyone! still have a LONG road but i know in my heart God is bigger than this. my friend stephanie gave me an awesome quote this morning

"dont tell God how big your storm is; let God tell the storm how big HE is!"

total reminder that this is all for His glory and that whatever He has in store for us is so much better than anything we could ever imagine. Thank you all again for all the love and support and to my local friends thanks for the meals!!! not having to worry about cooking has freed me up to make sure i have everything ready to go to DC! thank you again!

so far

"...there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficent for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest in me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persucutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Whats happened so far.....
On Tuesday Jeremy received a gunshot wound that went through his forearm into his abdomen on the side. It damaged his right kidney enough that the kidney had to be removed. He also has a grade 1 liver laceration (which will totally heal on its own). After the surgery to remove the bullet (and his kidney) his wound was left "open" and packed/sealed to make sure that if they needed to go back in they could. He arrived in Germany Thursday in the ICU and was still intubated, sedated, and stable. Everything looked GOOD once he got to Germany they were able to close the incision in his abdomen which is HUGE (in the sense of "this is awesome!" not size!)!!! It means that he is beginning to heal enough that they don't think they need to do anymore surgery.

Here is the the new stuff:
 He was holding stable until late last night (still in ICU). Then he spiked a fever and began to have more difficulty breathing and his bp dropped. After stabilizing him they did a bronchial scope to test the fluid that has now built up in his lungs. They think he has pneumonia as well as sepsis (an infection of the blood). Doc also thinks he has bruising around his lungs from the gunshot wound/surgery that is causing his poor lung function. He is currently on more meds than I can count. 2 for his bp, lovenox to prevent clots, 3 antibiotics for the infections, and drugs to keep his pain under control and keep him asleep. As well as a feeding tube in his stomach to give him nutrients, and the ventilator so that his lungs don't have to work as hard. They wake him every shift (so twice a day) to do his checks (squeeze my hand, wiggle your toes etc) he fights the ventilator hardcore (his guys are going THATS SO SIMON!). They even caught him trying to sit up and pull the damn thing out this morning!!!! We know he IS fighting and that he CAN pull through this. his o2 is currently at 70% and they are planning on moving it down a smidge in a little bit to see how he tolerates it. They are planning to wake up again around 5am Germany time (11ish here). I asked if I could call and try to talk to him. I know he wont be able to speak to me but I think if he hears it from me rather than the nurses that we are doing good, that SOOOOOO many people are praying for him, that he has to get better cause I am not potty training the princess alone then maybe he will turn the corner!!!!

Some good news:
Doc thinks he will probably stay stable the next 24 hours with no major change in what they are doing but should be looking better after that. He offered to put in the order to have me come to Germany now. I said no. Only because i KNOW in my heart that I would be coming right back with him to DC on Tuesday. I really do think he will turn this corner and come to us Tuesday. Granted we wont be seeing him til after travel orders are made from DC by the Army but I am placing this in God's hands, His timing is perfect.

I cant begin to thank you all enough for the prayers, love, and support. I am so humbled by the outpouring of love we have received from around the world. God is SO GREAT! I promise to try and update this as much as possible. If you have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to email me. AND KEEP PRAYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

introductions

so many people wanted a place to know about jeremys progress that i decided to start this blog. please bear with me as i am NEW at this AND under mass amounts of stress at the moment. i hope i can keep you all up to date as well as help you find the peace and comfort jeremy and i know through Jesus Christ. This will be mostly the medical updates and just our general "going ons" of our family life as it changes. thanks for ALL the love and support!!!!!!!!! i promise to post a better update on him tmrw!