A story of hope and survival

First, let me say thank you to everyone for all the prayers and concerns that our family has received as well as those for Louie, Ruthie and their family. Greg will say it’s not about him, it’s Louie who is in need of the prayers. I understand where everybody is coming from and sincerely appreciate it.

Abby, you and the girls are doing such a great job with this blog. People everywhere wait anxiously for a new update! I just want you to know that it’s really appreciated.

We, ourselves, as some of you know, are no strangers to the ICU. The best advice I’ve given Ruthie, second to praying, is to buckle up because it may be a bumpy ride. We’ve been on this roller coaster before! When you go up and down, maybe even upside down at times, for so many times, you finally let yourself ride it out, and just hold on tight for the next turn. It seemed like Lacy, who has been in remission from leukemia since her bone marrow transplant in March of 2000, would go forward a couple of steps and back a step or two. Forward a few more, back another one or two. We still face obstacles, but you know what, Louie, like Lacy, has a very strong will to live. Add to that the many, many, probably thousands and thousands of prayers that are being said each day for Louie’s strength and for God to heal him, I just feel he WILL survive this. No matter how bleak the situation may look, don’t ever count him out. With that I’m going to tell you a story I call my 10-Minute Story.

This is a Lacy story of survival & hope. I’ve already shared it with Ruthie and want to share it with the rest of you. Anyway…this happened about 3 weeks or so after Lacy’s bone marrow transplant. During the middle of the night, her nurse noticed she was breathing rather shallow. She hooked her up to the monitor and found out her oxygen level was not good at all. The doctor came in and decided Lacy needed a trip to the ICU. I was told she may be developing pneumonia or there was one other possibility, which would be a worse case scenario. The doctors and nurses acted quickly to put Lacy to sleep (that in itself was a fight) and get her intubated while rushing her down the halls and elevator to ICU.

As it turns out it wasn’t pneumonia. Her lungs had begun hemorrhaging on the inside. All of the fragile little blood vessels were bleeding and filling her lungs with blood. The ICU doctor basically told me she had 10 minutes to live if they couldn’t get the bleeding under control. The only way to stop the bleeding on the inside of the lungs was to put her in a coma, paralyze her, and basically fill her lungs up with air pressure which would put force against the bleeding and hopefully stop it. The coma and paralysis were done because with her lungs being inflated, if she moved or fought it, could run the risk of her lungs bursting. They were able to stop the bleeding, and from that point the ICU doctors told me that if they could string some hours together she stood a chance to survive. Then it was if they could string some days and then weeks together, she would probably be okay. She was there for three weeks before they moved her back to her room, free of the ventilator. I knew that first day after the 10 minutes had passed that she would be okay. I just felt that God was watching over her. The moral of this story is you just never give up. It “ain’t” over ‘til it’s over. Lacy has had numerous close calls her entire life. Honestly, if she was a cat, she would have probably used up over half of her nine lives.

The road before Louie may be a rough one. It may be a long one, but at least he’s still on the road. Ruthie, our prayers are constantly with Louie, you and the girls. We love you.

Cindy