Set Free from the Chains - Part III of Persevering in this Race of Life

<If you missed the previous parts to my story, checkout Part I and Part II>

Things improved greatly since my junior year of high school in my struggle to heal from being molested until my sophomore year of college. I had helped to organize a missionary forum through our Student Missionary Fellowship during a missions conference week. One of the missionaries who was on the forum looked, acted, and sounded like the man who molested me. I experienced for the first time the “feeling” of the sexual abuse rather than just “seeing” it as on onlooker. This sensation rattled every fiber of my being.

Now I must say that God definitely has a sense of humor, because He chose to use a guy friend of mine (the closest and one of the first male friends I was ever able to have after working through my issues in my junior year of high school) to be the one to minister to my deeply troubled soul. This friend called me on the phone that same night and realized something was terribly wrong. He met me outside my dorm where I poured out my heart to him. He held my hand to comfort me (and I didn’t even flinch) and stood at my side while I called to talk to my parents. God certainly does work in mysterious ways, and little did I know that God had ordained for this guy friend named Tim to become my husband in a few years.

Tim and me at the Christmas Banquet in 1999 (this was the first event that I had ever gone to with a guy escort besides my dad) - We were really good friends at this point but far from dating

This picture was taken during Spring Break, days before the dark night of the Missionary Forum. Tim & another good friend from college came to my house for Spring Break.  Also present in the pic are my sister & brother (this was taken outside our church)

A wonderful psychology professor at my Christian college offered to provide free counseling. Tim attended the sessions with me for moral support. Through those wonderful counseling sessions, I came to the realization that God was powerful enough to totally remove those scars that I had convinced myself that I had to live with. This professor used thought-stopping therapy with me by using specific Bible verses about thoughts that I had to memorize for the purpose to quoting in my head every time Satan had my mind drift to my struggles, which proved to be extremely helpful.  In the end, I gained complete victory over being molested and was able to forgive my molester and live a life free of pain, fear, and hate. Like the songwriter Chris Tomlin wrote about the power of the forgiveness of sins in “Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)”, I could say, “My chains are gone, I've been set free.”

David's Current Situation and Prayer Needs

October 2010

So all of that history mentioned in the previous post of the summary of David's life brings us to now where David is a thriving 4.5 year old despite the recurrent sinus and ear infections he continues to get.  His doctors are beginning to be concerned about his immune deficiency because most kids outgrow it by 4.  He had great test results just before he turned 4 making us all hopeful he was outgrowing it.  Then his most recent immune studies showed a decrease in his numbers shocking and disappointing us all.  In light of the last few months of sinus infections back to back as soon as David finishes an antibiotic treatment and the last test results, his one specialist wants to run more tests to determine the underlying cause since it seems that an immature immune system can no longer be blamed.

On Wednesday, David will be having a Milk Scan done at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.  He had one of these done as an infant which revealed that his GERD was the cause of his blue spells.  He has since been discharged by his GI doctor who said her GERD is resolved.  His allergist and ENT both wonder if there's residual GERD going on causing the sinus infections.  David is also going to be tested for Cystic Fibrosis, which could also be a culprit.  David is going to also have a comprehensive immune work-up done, which will give a better picture of how his immune system is functioning to see if there are any other defects contributing to the IgG Immune Deficiency.  These last 2 tests will be done at CHOP on June 14.

On August 26th, David will be having his 5 year echocardiogram done to check to see his the hole in his heart has closed.  We are praying that the hole has closed on its own with God's help.  If it hasn't, David will need heart surgery to close it by the time he becomes a teenager.

Today marks day 5 of really high fevers for David.  He hasn't really been acting sick except for an unpredictable appetite, momentary complaints of an upset stomach, and a cough that went right to an asthma flare (it's not been fun waking up at night to his complaints of not being able to breathe, hearing him wheeze, and having to do nebulizer treatments while half asleep).  He only gets lethargic when his fever gets over 103.  It has gotten as high as 104 (under the arm).  I took him to the doctor today, and he is being treated for strep throat.  We will know for sure if that's what he has when we get the culture results in 2-3 days.  This marked a full 3 week of no antibiotics for David, which sadly is a record for him since last year!  He just came off of a 30 day treatment on Augmentin (a very strong antibiotic that's horrible on the belly), which seemed to buy him a little time, but definitely not enough.
So that pretty much sums up David's life, medically speaking.  As you think about our family and our precious children, please lift little David up in your prayers!  We praise the Lord for this unexpected child who brings us much joy with his big heart for God and people!

March 2011

David's Complicated Medical History

For those of you who are friends with me on facebook, you know David, my 4 year old son better than those of you who only follow my blog of the last few months.  Now it's time for me to get my blog current with the life of precious David!

One of David's Birth Announcement Pictures

David is our sweet, thoughtful, shy-upon-first-meeting, easy-going, and obedient child.  Everyone who meets him either tells us he's "so cute" or "so sweet!"  Behind his lovable face and bubbling personality is a body that has known its struggles for all of its 4.5 years of life.  Although David was born a healthy baby despite being borderline premature, within a few months, we knew something wasn't right.  To make a very long and complicated story short, I'll give you a quick timeline of his young life:

3 months old - mouth area, hands, feet, legs started turning blue at various times when he was lying on his back

4 months old - found out David had 3 heart defects including a hole in his heart and an artery coming off of his aorta that was going the wrong way and pressing against his esophagus

5 months old - diagnosed with Gastroesophageal Disease (GERD - "reflux")

7 months old - scheduled for open heart surgery which ended up being canceled 2 weeks before the surgery when a cardiac MRI showed his heart defects weren't the source of his blue spells (ended up realizing his GERD was the culprit after a milk scan was done- he was aspirating on his relux)

David at 7 months

9 months old - big month of development because he finally was put on the right medicine to control his acid reflux -- started babbling for the first time (delayed in speech because of pain from GERD); was no longer considered "failure to thrive" for his weight/height

0-1 years - several bouts of bronchiolitis and 1 bout of pneumonia during the winter and spring; exhibited allergic symptoms but tested negative for all allergy testing - put on allergy medicine anyway to control symptoms (doctors thought he just had an immature immune system and would outgrow it)

1-2 years - multiple ear infections; diagnosis of asthma

Almost 2 years old

2-3 years - fractured and lacerated left index finger in heavy metal door at church requiring stitches and splinting; got a concussion because he talked his brother into sending him down the stairs in a laundry basket only to crash into the entertainment center; Surgery to drain infection in his ears that was resistant to 5 different antibiotics and to insert tubes in his ear drums (Jan. '09); start of multiple sinus infections

David sporting his fractured and stitched up finger (Jan. '09)

3-4 years - multiple sinus infections (at this point, he had been on antibiotics more months of his life than he had not been on an antibiotic); Surgery to remove his adenoids (Feb. '10); diagnosis of IgG Immune Deficiency

David in June 2010 - he and Josh were ring bearers for their Uncle Tim's wedding

For a summary of David's current health concerns and needs for prayer, see the next blog.