the roller coaster continues....

"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times...He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace." ~Micah 5:2, 4-5.

These are the verses God laid on my heart this morning. That even though we are going through a difficult time right now, soon we will be celebrating the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and rejoicing in what his birth means for us.

The last few days have been a roller coaster. There was the ER visit on the 29th, and then a couple days of recovery, then jeremy had a few more good days and the throwing up started all over again. It not just 2 steps forward and one back its like 4 steps forward and 3 back. He is currently at sick call trying to figure out why he was getting sick every hour. so help me God if they tell him its a stomach bug i may explode. The doc he saw monday thinks it has something to do with the bacteria in his intestines, maybe a bad one. quite possible after all the trauma to his system. so they are running some labs on that already but he CANT keep throwing up like this. dehydration is not really an option with only 1 kidney.

so i am asking once again for prayers. for healing and strength for jeremy and for patience and understanding for us both. the patience thing is getting harder and harder for us. we are so blessed that the recovery he has made so far has been so amazing, but there is still a long way to go before he is back to his "normal" pre-injury self.  thanks everyone!!!!!!

things at home

i am still amazed at how much progress jeremy has made in the last few days since being home. its killing him though that he cant pick up the kids yet. he tried to pick up b today and just didnt have the strength to hold her up. :( took him with us to church last night and this morning. so glad i could finally introduce him to so many of people who have been praying for him and us. tomorrow he is suppose to start his con leave, 2 weeks of NADA! woohoo! he is also scheduled to finally get the last of his stitches out on friday. he is walking better, and has more energy than when i came home a week ago. abs are still sore and doc started him on a new med for the nerve pain/numbness in his right leg. will probably need to increase the dosage (had to start at lowest dose, doc expects to increase) but at least its getting worked on. its seriously amazing HOW far he has come in the last 3.5 weeks.

I want to give a HUGE thanks to everyone who has been praying for his healing and for strength for our family. I can't say thank you enough to our friends and family for their physical, spiritual, and even financial support. God has truley blessed us with amazing people in our lives, even some new ones thanks to this ordeal. We are so very blessed. THANK YOU ALL!

the sun will come out TOMORROW!!!!!

he is scheduled for a flight to ft drum TOMORROW!!!!!! wow! so much to do, so little time! so glad my friends here have been able to help! i could not have survived this without them. so thanks deploymates!! you rock! =D they know i love them dearly. jeremy was again a little sore after a PT session and an OT session but is just very anxious to be coming home. The kids are both very excited. I keep stressing the  fact that daddy cant lift them, or really do more than hug them. no jumping, rough-housing, or climbing of any kind. i know once they see his stomach they will be careful.

so tmrw i need to run to the grocery store, finish disinfecting the house and complete some welcome home signs. thinking about letting friends and family "sign" one. going to post this on FB too, so please leave me a comment below or a comment on the FB post telling me what you want your message to jeremy to say and i will sign them on his welcome home banner for you. local friends feel free to stop by and sign it yourself!!!!! you have until 4pm to do so! =D AND DONT TELL JEREMY!!!!!!!! iwant it to be a surprise! this is gonna be a great but insane day! i am just soooooo thankful that God has provided for us in such amazing ways.

purple heart

Jeremy got his purple heart today! and from the president no less!!!! it was a quick meet-n-greet type thing but still he got pinned (on his KU tshirt!) jeremy said everyone was very nice and i cant wait to see some of the professional pics taken and hear more about what happened. so proud of him!!!!

ok onto his progress. he is def more sore today. big PT session yesterday wiped him out. they changed some of his meds to hopefully curb the anxiety. still looks like he should be home with us in the next couple of days!!! i am so excited!!! there is still tons to do to get ready for his arrival though. with both kids having been sick i have to scrub this house and clorox the crap out of every surface. ugh! i am just glad he is continuing to make tremendous progress. this whole thing has really made us have to evaluate what we want out of life, our marriage, our faith, and i cant wait to see how God is gonna work through us in the coming weeks. its gonna be rough, there is no getting past that. But that doesnt mean it wont be good for us. i love you baby, im so proud of you.

I am simply amazed

Jeremy has had another good day even though his anxiety is bad today. Hey it happens, mine hasnt exactly been controlled lately! Lol! His went downstairs for occupational therapy and did really well that is until they had to peel him off the ceiling when a balloon popped!!!  Got my papers done for coming home to drum, and had lunch with him then rode the metro (scary!) to downtown and went sightseeing! Met up with inlaws to see the white house and when i got back found out we saw the 1985 chicago bears superbowl team on the grounds meeting president obama! Da bears!
Now we are waiting to meet back up with inlaws and have dinner. I still gotta do some laundry for j and pack for my flight tomorrow. Sad to be going but so glad that i am able to leave jeremy in capable hands. =D so thankful that God has given us the chance to grow closer through this experience.
Simple amazed......

Getting the staples out!

Better day today with just about everything! Staples coming out, not as much pain, and better appetite. cant believe how well he is doing today. Walking is better with pt, and i feel so so blessed to have been able to go through this journey with him!

That was an interesting wakeup call....

While finishing getting ready this morning at the hotel I got a phone call from the charge nurse to let me know how Jeremy was doing. He appears to maybe have pulled some muscles in his chest and back and was having some "chest pain". They went ahead and did an ekg (was normal) and a chest xray (still waiting on results). His vitals are still fine (O2 still 97% on roomair, no fever, bp good) but looks like he did a little too much yesterday and today will be a setback day. We knew it was gonna happen sometime. He is still in fairly good spirits and actually slept fairly well until about 5am. I will update this post later as i know more. =D

Look ma! No tubes!

Today has been another eventful day. Not only did he get the feeding tube out this afternoon, but he also got to shower, shave, and is up and walking like a champ. I am simply amazed at how far God has brought him in the last week. A week ago we were worried that he couldnt tolerate being off the vent. Werent sure what i was going to see in germany. I am simply amazed.....
We have also been so humbled by the amazing people who volunteer their time here. Not only did the uso serve a fab lunch for families today, but jeremy also recieved 2 new coins today. 1 from "marines care", and one from the under secretary of the navy!! Tomorrow he is scheduled to recieve his purple heart. Not sure who all that entails but i will have my makeup on! Lol! And also met a couple who is going around to all the armed forces blood centers and donating blood. Considering we found out that jeremy had almost 50 units in all during his surgery we were so very thankful for their sacrifice. Its also amazing how much quicker paperwork can get done here. All mine is now done (as much as can be for this stage), his mom and bro have their orders and are coming tomorrow, and his purple heart papers are done! I seem to remember those taking a lot longer last go round! So excited to see the fam tomorrow!!!! =D
Best news of all is that everyone is working very hard to get him moved to drum as soon as possible. I am so thankful that God has placed so many of these people in our lives. Each day here has been a gift from the most high king.
Thank you Lord....

Talk about progress!!!!

Wow!!! So night went ok. He was having crazy vivid dreams keeping him awake after waking. Today has been insane with all kinds of consults with everything from his trauma team, pain management docs, social workers, liasons, finance for his LES, dental, concussion check, physical therapy, and still waiting on warrior transition brigade liason & occupational therapy.
Got to meet some of my faith deployed friends which was awesome! But now the concussion team just had to have him go through what happened to see if he needs further neurology eval for tbi or concussion. This is the first time i have heard what actually happened.  I will not be posting it but i am so thankful to now know what has happened. Seems to be handeling it ok. 

Lots of major changes today. Central line in neck is out, soft mechanical diet starting, change in pain meds, foley coming out, has walker from pt so he can get up when he needs to, and no oxygen!!!!! Overall today has been amazing. He has seriously made leaps and bounds today. I am so so so proud of him. Thanks you jesus for the amazing progress he has made and the amazing team of people caring for both of us..

Today is a better day

Well yesterday after i posted was kind of rough. Jeremy was ok but it seemed like we had to fight to get his basic care done. At shift change i felt a lot better and confident that his pain was going to be better controlled and he would be better taken care of. So i went back to the hotel to sleep. Bad idea! He had a bad night, getting sick, having to try and hold himself up while doing so (not ok!!!!!). So when pain management team doc and his surgeon from yesterday came by this morning we expressed our concerns and they were PISSED. dr. Malone (surgeon) flat out said people could lose their jobs. I now have her card and have been ordered to call if we have ANY issues. She apologized profusely said it was totally unacceptable and pain doc was mad that he wasnt notified of jeremys problems controlling his pain. I hate that "heads are gonna roll" but the lack of care yesterday sucked.
Everything is going so much better today though!!!! He is way more comfortable and seems to be feeling a bit better. Even held his O2 stats at 94+ while off the oxygen when we were getting him cleaned up and changed into his sunday best (aka the pretty striped blue hospital gown! Lol!). Thats seriosuly great progress! Got him his wounded warrior quilt and a good pillowcase so he is feeling a little more at home.
Also got to check on kevin, the 21yo soldier who was on the medevac flight with us is going to get to keep his right arm! PTL!!! Lots of surgerys and wont have 100% use of it but still will be tons TONS better than losing it. So overall today has been much better. Cant wait to talk to his whole team of docs tmrw and get a full report and care plan in place. Lots and lots of info, meetings, therapists (physical, occupational etc), and paperwork for me (finance, woohoo!). Keep praying y'all! Its working wonders! 

Post op oct 1

Well he is done with the wound close surgery (it was really quick!) And is now on a regular unit rather than icu!!!!! PTL! He is scheduled to meet with the physical and occupational therapists monday. I am waiting on a full report/update from doc to find out what the overall care plan is. I am every nurses stations worst nightmare. A family member who knows how the system works and what quality patient care is!! Lol! They just gave him some more pain meds. Think we are both going to sneak in a nap.....scratch that in the time it took me to type that last sentance he is OUT! Does this mean i can turn off college game day now? Well thats it for now. He is making real progress and i cant say thank you jesus enough!

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!