March 13, 14, 15

Facebook post from Patrick

We're coming home! WE ARE COMING HOME!!!

Our Arizona journey started two weeks ago today driving through a snowstorm on our way to Phoenix. One leg of the journey will end today as we fly home, with a scheduled stay with our friends at Covenant Rehab.

We can not thank the staff at St Josephs Hospital/Barrow Brain Institute enough for their care of us over the past 12 days. We are beyond thankful to be boarding this plane on our way home.

Dr. Spetzler spoke with us yesterday for the first time since viewing the post surgical mri, he gave us the words we have been longing for. "Jamie, we could not be more pleased with the outcome of the surgery. The cavernous malformation was removed successfully." It was the first time I heard it come from his mouth...it finally hit me.

To all of the village at home helping with our kids, so very grateful and thankful for each and every one of you.

We are boarding now....Iowa, see you in three hours! : )

Do Better.
Be Better.

P.S. I have informed Jamie that her 15 day stint on the DL is almost done. I can't wait for her to take this back over, I havent written this much since Mrs. Hageman's College Prep course.

March 12

Facebook post from Patrick

"Trouble and distress are woven into the very fabric of this perishing world. Only My Life in you can empower you to face this endless flow of problems with good cheer".

Good Cheer would be a great way to describe our Saturday. Jamie had No Nausea, let me repeat that...NO NAUSEA. Thank God!

As typical with a lot of hospitals St Josephs pt and ot staff is off for the weekend, so who was Jamie's therapist yesterday? Me! And boy did we have fun. Actually, every test and course I set up for Jamie she crushed. So. Proud. Of. Her!

We had the opportunity to enjoy the healing garden a couple of different times yesterday, that place is simply Heaven on Earth! Peaceful. Quiet. Healing. Perfect.

Enjoy a few of the pictures below...and a side note, I survived the laundromat in what I would call not a very safe neighborhood, but I survived and lived to tell the tale. PS- Thank you Aunt Kelli for taking on Linden and Myah over the weekend.

March 11

Facebook post from Patrick

Friday Recap - Yesterday was a first, we had our valley and peak all in the same day. In the famous words of Billy Bob from one of my favorite movies, "Varsity Blues ", Jamie puked and rallied. (My attempt at humor, sorry if too detailed).

Our morning started off very good as Jamie showered and ate breakfast all by herself. Then came a rage of nausea that consumed her for most of the morning. The Dr's still feel that the surgery could have irritated the nausea control system and it will simply take time to heal.

I personally thought that we were going to have a duplicate of Tuesday (or whatever day was our challenging day, at this point it has all melted together in my mind), but just like my wife has shown me a thousand times she battled back and had the best afternoon of her post surgical recovery.

She dominated pt and ot. She went outside and with assistance from the walker completed a 100 yard walk. She simply owned the afternoon. I could not have been more proud of her.

The afternoon was topped off with a short visit from a Turkey Valley friend that I hadn't seen in probably 15 years. A high school teammate of mines mom stopped in to give us hugs and well wishes. Although it was a two minute visit, it put huge smiles on our faces to see another one of our Iowa friends. Thank you Donna Karnik for your gift and visit.

Enjoy the pictures, they sure do a much better job of showing you Jamie's fight than my words do.

God bless! Thank you all for everything.

March 10

Facebook post from Patrick

"Walk by Faith, not by sight. As you take steps of Faith, depending on Me, I will show you how much I can do for you.....The issue is not your strength but Mine, which is limitless. By walking close to Me, you can accomplish My purposes in My strength."

We have continued to progress and happy to report that we were able to meet up with a few from our Arizona Army!

Molly Mac, a friend from NLXF, surprised us with a short visit in the healing garden yesterday. It was soooo great to see a friendly Cedar Valley face. She even provided us a Starbucks gift card for future smoothies and a gift for our special Starbucks employee Ruthie. I said to Jamie, "Honestly, who does that, who would think to give a gift to a complete stranger that I mentioned one time in a FB post". Jamie's response was perfect, "Molly Mac does". Thank you Molly for shining your light!

A very good friend of ours Angie Haskovec slipped up to our room and dropped off a gift basket for us filled with Jamie's favorites. I unfortunately missed her, but it speaks volumes of her as she provided for our family while 29 weeks pregant. You can see more of her storyhttp://haskovecstwolittleangels.blogspot.com/?m=1.

Lastly, I had the opportunity to visit old neighbors of ours from Apollo St. Max and Gwen lived two houses down from us and our girls frequent their driveway as a turn around point with their bikes and little cars. Max and Gwen took very fondly to our girls and served as almost another set of grandparents for our kids. It was soooo unbelievably nice to see them. As we start to make plans on how we are going to get back to Iowa, they have offered to take some of our items back with them. As we sit here today, we will be flying home....as to when, we hope sometime next week.

As you can see our army continues to provide and we could not be more grateful for every ones generosity and genuine care for us.

Jamie update- PT and OT went well yesterday. Although she did vomit at 430 am, the steroid that was administered yesterday helped to reduce her vomiting and give her an added boost. Her stamina grew substantially yesterday. Step by step we are getting there...it just takes time.

Specific Prayers for Jamie's double vision to improve and reduced nausea would be greatly appreciated.

Do Better.
Be Better.

March 9

Facebook post from Patrick

As I sit here and try to come up with a recap from yesterday....I simply pause and reflect on the past 6 days and I am overwhelmed with gratefulness. Grateful for the surgery outcome, grateful to be on this road to recovery, grateful for all the friends and family that we have in our corner back home cheering us on and caring for Seeri, Jaelyn, Linden, and Myah!

Simply grateful for all of you!

We had an eventful day yesterday and we're able to take in about 20 minutes of sunshine. Jamie asked me how the weather was prior to going outside and I replied with, "It is probably a Top 5 day for Iowa weather", which is the typical norm these Arizona folks get to experience.

We had our pt and ot visits and all went well. They continue to challenge Jamie to build her stamina. Every activity we do just zaps her energy, but we have been here before and as what has been our theme...We are taking it step by step.

Grateful to post that we had a positive Wednesday! I sit here, in my elevated blood pressure state, watching the Hawkeyes as Jamie is taking her afternoon nap.

We're battling and Doing Better. Being Better. Grateful!

March 8

Facebook post from Patrick

"Live in the Light of My Presence, and your light will shine brightly into the lives of others".

It seems as though every morning I pick up this devotional it has something in it to grasp on to and hold. If you have read Jamie's blog you have heard her talk many times about shining your light, shine it bright. Well yesterday she was shining her light as usual, it was just a little dimmer than Monday.

It is very easy to come on to Facebook and flash up pictures of your wife, three days after a major brain surgery, walking the halls and smiling after a shower. In the very same breath, it is challenging to come on here and be honest about yesterday.

We had a challenging day. Jamie's nausea is causing her to not get very much nourishment. Anything she takes in - comes right back up. It is almost like having a horrible case of the stomach flu on top of a brain surgery. The Doctors reassure me that it will subside with time. The route that they took to get to the cm went right by the main nausea control center of the brain. So nausea is expected, but we trust it will subside.

She was able to take three walks yesterday, every walk zapped her energy. But I point out that she got up and battled...I know she didn't want to do them, but she forced herself out of bed and did them.

An update on deficits - Jamie's double vision remains no more nor no worse than when we went into surgery. Her left side remained the same with forearm to finger tip stiffness and lower shin to toe stiffness. Her right toes have followed suit, but we hope like her right fingertips this will subside as well. Her balance remains "off", but we both feel it may be due to her still being "higher than a kite" (her words not mine) They do have her on so many narcotics to dull the pain.

The good news, check that, the great news is the the tingling and numbness in her face and lips is gone. The majority of her pain is coming from the incision wound in her neck. They went in to great detail with me regarding the manipulation of her neck muscles during surgery, I had to ask them to stop about half way through their description as I had enough. Honestly, I probably know 10% of what happened to Jamie during her surgery on Friday and that may be 9% more than I want to know.

Sooooo, yesterday we expected. It doesn't make it any easier to live through. We didn't expect to be riding out of here on unicorns with rays of sunshine and rainbows coming from our butts. We know that peaks and valleys are going to happen and yesterday just happened to be a valley. Today we will wake up and fight again and get better. One step at a time.

Specific Prayers for strength - healing - and rest. Jamie has a very difficult time listening to her body, if you could pray for her ears to listen a little more intently, I would personally appreciate it.

PS, I wrote the majority of this post last night in my 6 foot 6 inch cot. I am very glad to report that Jamie ate a piece of french toast and her smoothie this morning and kept it down. We took our lap in the hall at the speed of light, got her shower in, and she is now snoring as loud as her father-in-law does. Please take this post with a grain of salt. Pray for us and know we will be fighting every minute to get back home!!

March 7

Facebook post from Patick

"Seek Me first and foremost; then the rest of your life will fall into place, piece by piece."

Jamie received a daily devotional as a gift prior to leaving for Arizona. I have read the devotional to her each morning, today the above hit home to us.

We have a long road of recovery ahead, but we trust in Him and know that piece by piece and step by step He will help us to fit everything back into place.

Speaking of steps, yesterday was more steps than I could have ever imagined. PT challenged Jamie to get up and get moving...well for those of you that know Jamie, she rose to the challenge. We took 4 walks yesterday, albeit only about 50 feet in length they were still walks. They were one foot in front of the other walks that required naps immediately following, but they were WALKS!! I was so proud of her, coming so far in only such a short period of time.

The highlight of the day was her shower. It made her feel like a million bucks and truly washed away the old and brought out the new and improved version of Jamie 3.0.

Her appetite is minimal due to the fear of nausea setting in after eating. The only constant and positive food she looks forward to is a strawberry smoothie from Starbucks. Ruthie and I are on a best friendship basis at this point. "Mr Patrick will take one strawberry smoothie with whip for his wife please", without me even saying a word. This morning the smoothie was waiting for me at the counter prior to ordering, with a piece of pumpkin bread that I didn't even order. Ruthie gave me a wink and said, "Enjoy your day Mr Patrick". The kindness of a stranger, as we are in a foreign land, was overwhelming.

I will let you enjoy the photos from yesterday, they do a heck of a better job showing you how Jamie is doing than my words do.

As we continue our pt and ot therapy, I ask for your prayers of strength and courage for Jamie. She's fighting!!

Do Better. Be Better.