Prayer Report and Request

Well, we are on day 14 in the hospital and I must say it is getting old. Greg's sepsis infection is under control as well as the Cellulitis. His White Blood Count is almost back to normal. They might even be taking him off the IV antibiotics today and switching him to oral ones. The infection attacked both of his knees and one elbow so Greg could not walk or hardly move without severe pain for several days. The doctors never really agreed on what it was -- likely some type of reactive arthritis flare-up or a form of gout. At any rate, they finally added steroids to his IV's and that rapidly took care of the joint inflammation. He is walking very well and is almost dancing:-) His spirits are great and he is almost back to his normal self, joking and talking and enjoying a roomful of company. The nurses are awesome to put up with the commotion. Luckily he has a large room. Our challenge yet is with his kidney. The kidney numbers went down so low that he has been on dialysis for three days. Yesterday and today they stopped it to see if his kidney would be able to take over. We wait to see what will happen. There are some signs that the kidney wants to do its job. A couple days ago during dialysis the nurse told Greg that he was having a hard time keeping his blood pressure under control. He explained that it was really a good thing and not a bad thing because it meant that the kidney was still "thinking" and wondering where the blood was, so it was raising Greg's blood pressure to try to find more blood. Aren't our bodies amazing? Also, some of the kidney markers are actually up instead of down. A little mysterious. We will meet with the kidney doctor maybe tomorrow or Sunday. He is working with us to give that little diseased kidney one more chance for life. Because of Greg's medical history he is not a candidate for a kidney transplant, so what happens here is crucial as to whether or not he will be tied to a dialysis machine the rest of his life. Of course, never say never in the kingdom of God, but medically speaking when the kidney has the dialysis machine to help it, it sometimes says, "Great! Now I can relax!" and stops working. That's why these next few days and weeks are so important. We know the odds medically are not good and we won't be stupid, but a year ago Greg was sitting with a Stage IV cancer diagnosis and now one year later his cancer is significantly decreased (the latest radiologist report said, "near resolution" in his lungs!) with no chemo or radiation or surgery. Those odds weren't so good either, but we have a God who heals. Now if I were Greg I would give you a little sermon right now, but since I am not I will simply ask for you to pray in agreement with us. Greg feels he is supposed to pray and call this little kidney back to life. When he was at the MacNutt healing retreat this February one of the people praying for him saw a picture of his kidney being held up to God. As she watched it a little green sprout, or shoot, popped out of the diseased kidney...signifying life and new growth? So will you please pray with us that this little kidney will grow new life? We worship an awesome God and he is more than able. So unless he lets us know otherwise, we pray for life and healing and health because we know that is who he is. Thank you. Love, Jeane