A Record of God’s Presence in the Furnace

An offering from my journal because I process best when I document…

Monday, the 21st of September, Phil and I drove to Houston, TX. On Tuesday Sept. 22nd, our daughter had a stint inserted in her renal stint to alleviate complications from a rare condition called Nutcracker Syndrome. Jessica has seen every doctor in every field, throat doctors, heart doctors, vascular specialists, dietitians, internists, etc. looking for answers. She’s endured many pain-filled frustrating years hearing suspected diagnoses of a list of diseases or conditions that didn’t pan out, and she’s suffered a host of painful symptoms including but not limited to blood clots in her legs, numbness in her hands and feet, flank pain, pelvic congestion, and weight loss before she finally got the Nutcracker Syndrome diagnosis. We were all praying for relief and healing from the stint.

The insertion of the renal stint went off beautifully. It took a mere 45 minutes and her surgeon was pleased with how “it landed perfectly”. He was able to show us the immediate increased blood flow to parts of Jessica’s body that desperately needed relief. She came home. Weak and sore but she was home and we were rejoicing and looking for better days ahead!

Over the next couple hours she began experiencing increasing pain in her chest and shoulders accompanied with shortness of breath. We were communicating with her doctor on whether to bring her back to the ER out of extreme precaution against the very rare chance the stink was migrating towards her heart. However, she was able to get some slight relief and she began to rest, albeit fitfully, so the decision was made to stay home. The doctor would call the next morning.

By the morning of Wednesday the 23rd with Jess’ pain steadily increasing, her doctor wanted her to come in for imaging, again out of great precaution should the stint have migrated, but not thinking this to be the case.

Imaging showed the stint had moved, and it was indeed pressing against her heart. A team of specialists began collaborating quickly. It had to come out immediately, but the best way to retrieve it was being discussed. By the time Jessica was intubated and surgery began, the stint was lodged in her heart. Thus began a six hour surgery to try and remove it through her groin (the way it had been inserted) without resorting to breaking her breastbone and opening her heart.

At this point, I’ll stop and begin documenting the many ways our faithful Father was and is showing Himself strong in her journey.

Sept. 23rd. Jessica’s miracle day. So Many Reasons to Praise:

Due to the Covid outbreak, it was only last Monday that the hospital began allowing anyone other than the patient to be in any area of the hospital, including surgery waiting and ICU. One week earlier and her husband Patrick (one person per patient Covid limit) couldn’t have waited on site for her and he couldn’t have seen her when she got to ICU late Wednesday evening. Nor could her dad and I have seen her Thursday.

Pre-surgery: Jess was crying from the intense pain the stint was causing and the onslaught of anxiety from the doctors informing her they would have to break her breastbone to get to her heart to remove the stint if they couldn’t retrieve it from the groin. The OR nurse took my girl’s face in her hands and said, “Look at me. Look at my eyes. We don’t know why this is happening but God has got you. We don’t have a choice. We have to go through this. I would trust these men with my life and you have to trust them with yours.”

Jessica’s anesthesiologist prayed with her before they intubated her and put her under. The body of Christ is amazing. 

Misty and Scott are close friends to Patrick and Jessica. Scott, is an anesthesiologist and chief CRNA at a different branch of Houston Methodist than the one where Jessica had her surgery which allowed him to pull strings so he could stay with Patrick in the waiting room, the entire time. Scott could’ve easily been in surgery, or called to surgery. He wasn’t. Phil and I were so grateful Patrick didn’t have to wait alone for those six hard hours.

During the middle of the surgery, when they could’ve given up at hour 3 or 4 or even hour 5, they literally got medical journals out and researched if there was any other way other than breaking her breastbone and opening her heart…Our Faithful God showed them a way. Very short and clumsy layman translation: Basically the male and female cardiovascular systems have slight differences. After comparing them, the doctors decided to break the stint into two pieces where it was and retrieve it from two directions, through her neck and and her groin. I don’t pretend to understand any of that. Just praising God for His mighty hand of faithfulness!

A note about that mid-surgery research effort. I got the following text from our daughter-in-law Carey when we found out about that research and subsequent decision after the fact. “Oh my goodness….I’m crying…like bawling. You don’t even know but Holy Spirit had me praying, ‘When there isn’t a way show the doctor the way, Lord. Show them through divine revelation’ ”.

During the entire surgery, the doctor’s partner and their entire office was watching on video as the team worked on Jessica! The staff was text thread praying with each other throughout it!

God’s People were praying everywhere. So many stories of how He was orchestrating intercession. I’ll just choose one. A couple days after the larger surgery our son was talking to our unofficial “granddaughter”. Dede is a beautiful young woman Phillip and our daughter-in-law Carey took into their hearts and lives and adopted in every way but legally when she was 14. She’s now a journalist and publicist married to a 2nd lieutenant in the U.S Air Force. Phillip was catching Dede up on what was happening with Jessica when she astounded him by telling him she’d dreamed about Jessica and her boys a couple nights earlier and it wasn’t good. It alarmed her to the point that she got up to pray. That would’ve been somewhere around or between the two surgeries.

God’s continued to show Himself faithful through the people surrounding us with stories like the next one. The ICU nurse bent the rules the day after surgery. Per Jessica’s wishes and with Patrick‘a blessing, it was decided that I would be the “one visitor” allowed for the whole day. Current Covid rules are that visitors don’t get to rotate. Whoever would see Jessica first would be the only one to see her that day. I was very grateful that Patrick was okay with Jessica’s decision. However, once her dad and I were both there, Nurse Lisa let Phil come back for a short time, too. The picture of him seeing our baby girl and her seeing her daddy… and the tears…It can’t be shared. I was taking that one with my heart.

Jessica was discharged to home bed rest Friday, the 25th. It’s obvious Jess has tended to her tribe of friends out here. They are now returning her love by tending to her family in an Ephesians 3:20 way with gifts of food and flowers, by offering to pick up/drop off the boys, and in one of the greatest acts of love, holding a prayer meeting for her. They included me in a text group thread that said:

“Hey guys, Alison and I are meeting in the parking lot of Kingwood Bible Church at 8:15. We are going to pray over Jessica. We would love for you to meet us. If you can’t, will you please pray for her with us at that time, wherever you are? Share this with anyone I may have forgotten.”

I was with Jess and they understood I couldn’t make it. I’m sure I was included in the invite because I had been keeping them all updated and they knew it would be a blessing to to Phil and I. It was indeed.

When I thanked everyone on the thread, Kacy replied, “I’ll speak for the group. We are here…FOR ANYTHING! Jess is always one of the first to act and now it’s our turn to love on her.”

They are doing it with excellence. My baby girl is harvesting and we’re praising the Lord of the Harvest.

We’ve tried to keep everything as normal as possible for Jess’s boys, Grant 11 and Connor 8. They’re being “grand” champs about it all.

Sunday, the 27th, four days past surgery. Jess is sleeping lightly right now. She had a good bit of tachycardia last night that kept her from resting well until about 2. Her fever and heart rate are normal this morning. She just needs to eat, sleep, and repeat. The main prayer requests right now are for her blood pressure and heart rate to stabilize. Healing continues. Blessed be the Rock of our Salvation.

Last update for now from Tuesday, the 29th: I’d be lying if I said I’m not emotional about leaving Jessica just shy of a week since her surgery, and that Jess isn’t emotional about it, too. That said, after a sincere family conference, I flew home today. (Phil had driven home Sunday evening. He picked me up the airport.) Jessica basically said she would be emotional regardless of when I left, and since moving in isn’t an option, we both agreed it was okay for me to head home.

I’ve reminded myself more than once today that Patrick will be working from home and their friends have been orchestrating an amazing meal train that will continue. I’m choosing deep gratitude over all the other emotions vying for my heart today, and we are all offering God ongoing praise. He is worthy!

Hugs, Shellie