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Things have changed a bit. Knowing her body does not tolerate iodine well AT ALL, these numerous CT’s are no doubt an added tax on her frail body. She has not woken yet. Her eyes are open, however there is no focus taking place. Her hands will not squeeze. She is trying to move around, however she is not coming to as we and the doctors had hoped.  The latest CT has shown what is called a converted stroke. The stroke has progressed, and there is a more visual brain bleed. This is something the Nuero person was hopeful about in the small size of it, however, it needs to be contained. This may have happened when they thinned the blood in surgery, as it was necessary. Please allow us to lean on you all again. This has been  a rollercoaster to say the least. I am not putting God in a box, so we will continue to beg for another, dare I say, miracle.

Please pray specifically for:

-reversal, immediate stopping of the bleed

-That there would be no permanent damage

-that whatever comes of the CT, she would be healed.

-that she would come out of Anesthesia soon being alert, responsive and her hands would be able to move.

PRAISE for the amazing doctors, kind nurses and countless mercies God has graciously given us. Praise she is responding to a nurse yelling in her face. We love you and covet your prayers.

They will be repeating this scan in 6 hours. Approximately 8pm. I could not wish you all could be here so I could hug you and thank you any more than I do right now. I know she will be so excited to see these well wishes and meet and love on you as well.

O Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure.

Isaiah 25:1

He did it!!!! Every. Single. Prayer. ANSWERED!!!!! This is a miracle for the 100 different events and details that had to happen to keep her alive and have a ridiculously perfect surgery and prognosis.

The doctors are immeasurably gifted, humble hero’s. God was working through Dr. Fischbein and Dr. Lee to accomplish this amazing feat. 10 hours later, she is on the way to being Nanni again by way of replacing her aorta with a synthetic polyester like material. She now has cage like stents in her corroded artery and intestines guaranteeing healthy blood flow. Wanna know the wax that seals this perfectly packaged success? The heart valve they used to replace her damaged valve is called Inspiris. Guess who makes that valve? Edwards Life Sciences. Guess who works there? Starts with “R” ends with an “ob”. Jaw::floor. This magnificent life saving medical device was born in Robs incredible company. Boom.

I want you all to know you are the real heros as you faithfully trusted our GOOD God and continued to lift her/ us all up and pray. And pray. And pray again.

“When two or more are gathered in my name, there I am among them”

Matthew 18:20

This verse speaks of two or more, and sounds so small. How much more powerful are thousands?

You warriors will forever be remembered and embraced with our deepest gratitude as we all look upon her beautiful face each and every time. Where would we be without you all, your begging and pleading and continual petitioning? Not here. Thank you thank you thank you! Forever and always.

It is my strongest conviction this occurred to glorify and magnify our mighty and loving God in the most dream like way. His faithfulness endures and you all, praying friends or not, have a front row seat to what a true miracle looks like. This is not luck, the universe showing favor, this is the work of the Almighty. This is faith.

What happened over the last 36 hours completely rocked our world and deepened our faith 100 fold in the one and only God of perfection!

Here is why we are silently, (we are in a hospital after all), screaming with joy, in complete awe.

Upon arriving to the hospital, Chad and I were apart of the conversation being had by the Doctor and Rob, my mom and dad. Basically giving us little to no hope. Hospitals were not accepting her or had no beds, not enough surgeons. Delivering the message of the reality of a massive stroke and near fatal tear of the aorta- heart to hip, get ready to say goodbye. Their pity face made me sad for them, and led us to launch into prayer mode.

The doctors assumption she was not going to pass the neurological test to even make step 2 a possibility led them to hault any movement toward surgery. So we waited. They did not know our God.  So she passed.  Only then, they were forced to move forward. The surgeon humbly shared he was not the right surgeon for this kind of surgery. He wanted her at Stanford, the most qualified hospital with the most qualified surgeon. After much petitioning, At he end of the night, Stanford finally accepted her. For an unknown reason, or because God knew we needed this to further exercise our faith, they could not reach the surgeon that night. To deny that our happy hopes were deflated would be a lie. We were frustrated. We all knew and encouraged one another that He would not bring her this far for it to end there. We went to bed at peace, and awoke having been given 6 hours of sleep. We then arrived at the hospital to find out they were trying to figure out the air transportation  and get a hold of the doctor. Hours later the doctor’s assistant informed us the Stanford medical helicopter could not fly due to fog. Keep in mind every second is critical. It takes one deep breath, cough, sneeze to fully rupture the artery, and Rhonda would be in the presence of our Savior. We then found out there was a Santa Barbara helicopter that was willing to fly her as far as they could go before hitting the fog  they planned on an ambulance meeting the helicopter if it couldn’t continue. Keep in mind this was a 2 hour flight or 4.5 hour drive.

Guess what cleared? Yep. They were off and she arrived at Stanford 2 hours later to be rushed into the operating room. A 10 hour, yes 10 hour surgery ensued without one word. Zero communication and we all pow wowed it up eating weird food, yapping and laughing our way through the hours clothed in peace and joy.

That moment, God’s full glory in this transaction was realized as these tools of our Almighty came through the doors in the most amazing way…

Big smiles. Surgery was a success. Her kidney failure is regressing, she is urinating. They repaired the broken, reinforced the weak. Redeemed the loss. How illustrious of our salvation. We are broken. We are weak. Because of Jesus’s work on the cross, sacrifice, WE ARE REDEEMED. Not just restoration, “fixing”, but making all things new and more brilliant than before! Those prayers? That God would be glorified-open the heavens! Glorified indeed!

So…what happened?

Rhonda had a minor stroke, (you would never know it), in 2008 and has battled high blood pressure and a partially blocked corroded artery  ever since.

During breakfast Friday, her blood pressure randomly spiked, causing the pressure that led to the dissection, which then in turn caused the stroke. 

You guys. God delivered Rhonda-moreso us all. He is so BIG. We woke up from the nightmare. Good morning sweet friends!

THANK YOU for your endless prayers.

Big hugs and much love,

Michelle and Family

 

Getting to this point has felt like a nightmare and it would never happen at times. Yet we trust!

Praise! She is currently in the OR. Please pray. The time is 3:15pm, the surgery can take up to 8 hours. Their goal is a complete aortic aneurism repair. Hers is dissected from her chest to below her belly button as of yesterday. Huge huge repair and very complex surgery. Please pray for success in the OR, her recovery and there would be no neurological damage. We love you all.

I don’t know how to update without doing the blog thing. I don’t think Facebook is the best place.

Rhonda is responding to stimuli. People, tests-she is squeezing hands, making eye contact. She was in pain this morning which as gut wrenching it is to watch her, it was equally reassuring to see her awake and show feeling, give eye contact. They have put her back to sleep to keep her blood pressure down so there is not a rupture, which is fatal. Each minute is so critical. We all are just so frustrated at the time this is taking-as like I said, each minute is so important.

The doctor said she is in renal failure. Which I personally believe will be reversed. She had a 100. 9 fever that has lessened to 99 something just a bit ago. I have faith  God will continue to move mountains. Her passing every test and being responsive and awake is just such a beautiful miracle. I don’t use that word lightly.

Friends. You don’t understand  gravity and hope we have because of YOUR prayers. The continual answer to prayers. Our whole family will NEVER ever be able to appropriately show our gratitude. I want to cry knowing SO many of you are begging God in her behalf. This is the most devastating trial I have ever been through. Christian was so hard. So painfully hard. But he was not our mom, sister, wife, friend. We NEED her. She is the joy, love, continual godly example, and prayer warrior we all desperately need.

I am going to get personal here. Please pray:

That she would begin voiding urine.

That this surgery would be successful and she would recover perfectly and be restored

that her diagnosis of renal failure would be reversed.

That God will get her transported to the Stanford hospital ASAP. The surgeon is waiting for her. Apparently the surgeons phone died, which we know God’s hand was over that as well. Satan wants so badly for us to cower in fear and be anxious. We WILL NOT. God is so much bigger and we will continue to pray He will be glorified through this transaction.

Thank you forever for your loving prayers.

In his grip,

Michelle and family

People don’t understand that us only children-our mothers’ hearts beat for us when we are hurting, their hearts beat with ours when the good times are upon us. People don’t understand our hearts can’t beat without theirs.

My amazing, precious mom in law had a massive stroke this morning and will be going into open heart surgery tomorrow. I am crying out to you all-if you are reading this-it is because God brought you here. He wants you to be a part of this. Please pray with me! I am petitioning and begging for a miracle. Please Lord!! I don’t know why this is happening to an angel here on earth. But then that’s just it. She is from heaven and is lent to us. I don’t know what tomorrow holds. I don’t know how this will unfold. I do know that God is in control. As out of control we feel right now, He is not a God of chaos, but of order and control. He loves her more than all of us do. Which is impossible to understand as everyone who knows her adores, loves and appreciates her. Always serving, helping, doing, praying. My Rhonda is so deeply beautiful-her soul radiates Christ, joy and love. For everyone. Not just the shiny nice people. The people in the corner of a room no one will talk to. Grumpy people. Children. Older people. The unloveables.

Please friends, please pray God’s will is she will be fully recovered and given back to us.

That God would heal her for His glory.

Please pray for mercy on our whole family, Rob especially.

Please pray God would choose the perfect surgeon and be the surgeons hands.

That she would awake and we can now serve and love on her. Please friends, pray. I need you. Our family desperately needs your prayers.