Our Journey to Healing Day 14

2 Peter 3:8-9

⁸ But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

It is Wednesday Thursday morning, which means Monday morning happened 72 hours ago. It also means that there is 72 hours between us and Monday mornings incident, so I am ready to write about it.

As many of you know, we have been having issues with Derek's left lung. It was badly bruised during the accident and just was not healing at the speed they were hoping for. Monday morning around 1:30am, Derek really started to struggle with his breathing. Above his head sits a monitor which tells me what his oxygen level is at. 100 is the best and anything below 70 can potentially cause brain damage. I was told those levels really need to be there for about 15 minutes for there to ever be permanent damage. I usually just stare at the monitor anytime he starts really having a hart time catching his breath.

Monday at 1:30am was no different.

He started to lose his breath and his oxygen levels started dipping. Before I knew what was happening, there were lots of medical helpers in the room trying to get those levels up. For about 5 minutes, the levels were hovering in the 50-60s. Since trying to help him level out his breathing was not working, I just put my hands on his shoulder and started praying out loud. Within 5 seconds, his oxygen jumped up to 95. Now, I am not one of those people who runs around laying hands on every sick person I see but I just cannot get over this moment. The Respiratory Therapist stopped dead in his tracks and asked what I just did to make it jump back up. Go God.

Around 2am, he was able to get his breathing down and go back to sleep for a few hours. At 7:20am, the attack happened again. This time, those levels were not popping back up and his left lung had collapsed.  Our room quickly filled with doctors, nurses, and just people standing in the hallway wondering what was going on. They used a "bag" to help manually inflate his lungs while they prepared a bronch. A bronch is a little scope that will go down into the lungs and check out the situation. It also allows the doctors to suck out any secretion. that may be building up in his lungs. Also, I am not in the medical field, so no judgement on my descriptions. 

After signing a consent form, they did the bronc procedure which really helped clear out his left lung. They sedated him for the rest of the day and allowed his body to get some rest. Monday morning has seemed to be the turning point for us. His lungs continue to look better and better every day. It sounds as though we will be able to head to rehab within 10-13 days. We are praising God for his turn around and no known brain damage. Derek is taking this whole thing in stride. Obviously, we are sad but we are hopeful.

So, a brief peak into our marriage.  Derek hates the phrase "It's no big deal". I have said it a few times but quickly learned that those string of words only make him more upset and do not calm him down. We have had actually disagreements over that phrase. I dump salad dressing on my new car seat.. "It's no big deal". I forget to pay a medical bill.." It's no big deal".  Over the past 2 nights, we have been processing this accident together right before we head to bed. I finally was able to say the words my heart has been feelings for 2 weeks. It's no big deal. Derek belly laughed, I giggled, and we both realized that this really is No Big Deal. We've got this.

Thank you again for all your prayers, support, cards, gifts, and love. We feel so supported because of you all!

With Love,

The Lavenders