My journey end today...

Well after a very long long week it is time for me to come home. I really don't want to leave but I know in my heart that my time here is over.  I am at peace with coming home so I guess it is not meant for me to be here during these last moments.

Last night during the 9 o'clock visit the nurse gave Oscar a shot and he jerked as if it hurt. This was a natural thing to happen but the parents immediately saw it as he can feel something which then cause a great deal of issues to arise.

I truly felt if he did not pass on his own last night it would be time for me to go. I have done all I can for him and now only the machines and God can help him.

I am at peace that God has Oscar in his hands and it will only be a matter of time until his body wears out. The doctor says they can only force him to live for a period of time. At some point the medicine they are giving will no longer keep his body functioning enough to live and he will hopefully pass on his own. I am praying that if God wants him to come home he will take him because the parents will never pull the vent. They think t that one day no matter how long it will take he will wake up.

I tried to explain things to them but they will hear none of it. It is so sad. They feel they would be killing him if they pull the vent. I can't imagine what that would feel like either. So we wait. The gov't will allow them to keep him on the vent for as long as he is body will allow it.

Please just pray for God's will. That is all we can pray for how.

Carlos just called and he is at the hospital and they are discussing if he is stable enough to move to do the wave test.

I will not be able to know much now that I am not there. The parents don't ever ask questions and get facts. We will be limited in what we find out from now.

Please pray they are more aggresive to ask questions instead of just accepting what they are told.

I will be home after 6 and will call Carlos who is staying at the hospital for me today.

Until then...

Angie

Eyes are responding...

This morning I arrived at the hospital and the nuro doctor was walking out. The dad said he saw him with Oscar this morning already so of course I immediately thought maybe he has done the test already. We stopped him and ask and in fact he had and found a considerable amount of change. Not enough to declare a healing miracle just yet but a difference.

He did a reflex test and his legs responded where as yesterday nothing happen.

He shined a light into his eyes and one of the eyes reacted where as yesterday neither responded.

He ran the nuro test again and the brain waves were more than yesterday by a little amount.

Needless to say this is a huge improvement from one day to the next. They have been giving him the medicine to reduce the swelling in his brain and feel it is starting to work more.

The doctor said that in the morning he will redo the reflex test, if his reflexes are the same he will wait until Friday to do another wave test, if they are worse or better he will redo the brain waves test to see if there is any improvement or not.

This is really good news and has made a major change for Oscar's mom Francisca. Yesterday was a horrible day for her and she did not eat or drink much at all. I have had to force her to eat. Unfortunately, she is having some bad pain from the surgery which is making matters worse. Today she saw the doctor to make sure it was nothing serious and they will followup with an ultrasound next week but feel it is more from the stress than anything and gave her some pain medicine.

Last night during the visit someone came into the room that Francisca is living in and stole all she and her niece had. All of their belongings were taken in addition to the stuff I had bought for Oscar like the towels, his clothes, pj's, her makeup, everything. How cruel for this to happen the night before she thought she was going to hear her child was brain dead.

The doctor is not jumping for joy just yet but feels these are good signs. He said it is to early to tell and we will just have to wait and see what happens in the next day or so and to keep praying. He said there are still many serious things that has happen and we need to just keep our focus on praying for him.

I choose to believe this is God's hand working. I am only here for another day and have to leave early on Friday. I am expecting some really good news before I leave.

I am so glad I have been hear because there have been so many things I have had to take care of. The family is very passive and just receive what ever is given and do not stand up for their rights to know what is going on. If I had not been here the doctor would not have been pushed to do more tests and get the nuro doctor involved. They were going to just say he was brain dead and be done with it and ask her to pull him off the vent days too soon.

The doctors here are treating me like I am the parent since I asking so many questions and challenging them to do more. They do the bare minimum here and find it easier to just give up. Praise God I am very stubborn person some days.

Please continue to pray for more stimulation to occur and for the other symptoms to go away.

I will see the "regular" doctor again this afternoon to find out about the pneumonia and the heart attack issues.

I will keep you posted as I have new information.

Thanks so much for everyone who is praying and sending me encouragement. I need it. Please pray for my health as I have not be able to sleep well and it is the hottest I have ever experienced in Managua. My body is not handling the lack of sleep and the heat well and I am extremely emotionally exhausted. I know it is just the enemy trying to wear me out but that is not going to happen because my heart is much stronger.

Praise God with me for these changes. He is working and your prayers are being answered.

I pray the next time I write it is a MIRACLE story to tell.

Angie

I don't even know where to begin...

Poor Oscar has gone through so much I truly do not know where start. After my last message I was able to meet with the doctor and get a better explanation of what is going on. It was not a conversation I now wish I had. Some of this is going to sound unreal I promise you it is not.

On Friday as I have said he was great. He had played all day and enjoyed every minute of it. Sadly this entire time his body was developing pneumonia at a rapid pace.

During the night in addition to the pneumonia Oscar had a heart attack. Yes a heart attack. The doctor is not sure if the pneumonia and the pressure it was causing on his body caused it or something else. His sugar count was extremely high so that also could have caused it.

During the time of the heart attack no one saw it happen because it was 3 in the morning and he was in a regular room and had no monitoring on him. The heart attack caused a lack of oxygen to his body and during this time his body filled up with fluid. Everywhere. This then in turn caused what is called a "Water Stroke". It is caused by an excessive amount of fluid that gets backed up in the body and has no where to go.

So within one night he had a stroke and a heart attack along with the pneumonia.

Needless to say once he was found he was in critical condition. This carried into the afternoon on Saturday where they were able determine that in fact he had had a heart attack. The doctor said this is not uncommon with kidney transplants. She said that for some patients the body just freaks out. It is uncommon for all the rest to take place at one time.

So, by Saturday afternoon they noticed other complications and officially determined he was in a coma. His body organs were functioning at the most minimum level possible without completely shutting down which made no since to everyone.

Ironically his new kidney is working fine and has been.

So today the doctor had a neurologist take a look at him because of different things they were seeing and that doctor determined that Oscar's brain is severally swollen. Mostly they think due to the lack of oxygen received during the heart attack. Since Saturday they have been pumping heavy drugs in him also to slow down the amount the heart has to pump. This has added to the coma and now they are going to give him 3 days for his brain to reduce swelling.

If his brain goes back to normal on Thursday they will remove the tubes that are providing him with a medicine that is forcing the coma and allow him to function normally on his own. The doctors are very concerned that there has been damage to his brain and in fact it will not be able to maintain the normal pace the body needs.

They can not continue to keep him in the coma and they have to allow his body to do what is suppose to do the doctor said.

Wow, I got all this out without completely having a meltdown. I am oddly at peace tonight. I have not been and the family has not been but I can tell you we all are feeling the prayers of others. I can not tell you how hard this has been and then to hear he could have brain damage now.. it's been a roller coaster ride that we all want to get off of.

There are many praises to come here. First of all the nurse found him in time, a minute more and he would have been gone, second he is now in a room where he has the best treatment they can offer and has a team of doctors working on him, third I have already seen and heard his parents praying hard to the Lord. Their faith is growing rapidly and their trust in God is increasing daily.

I was at the hospital a lot today and let me tell you it is not like anything we in the US have to go through.First of all you can't even go inside and you just sit on a hard concrete bench outside and wait. There are no snack machines and drink machines, nothing. Just you and the outside. It has been really hot here but today and yesterday God allowed a nice breeze to blow all day.

I noticed mom and dad were just plain mentally wore out so this afternoon I remembered I had a deck of cards in my back pack and I pulled them out and taught a easy game to the dad and made a huge stand that he could not beat me. Within minutes a look of a desperate, worn out, heavy hearted man turned into a kid playing a game for the first time. Laughter filled the air and within minutes we had a group watching our every steps and cheering the dad on.

God took a very stressful day and gave this family just a touch of his joy and strength using a deck of cards.

It was such a blessing to see them smile at a time that the enemy would love for them to just sulk in their sorrow. Instead we choose to stand firm and be at peace that God has Oscar in his hands.

As you can read Oscar is in serious shape. He is at least stable for now. The doctor said he just about left us on Saturday and Sunday but every since then he is improving. That sounds like people praying to me.

She finished our conversation with saying that there is no way to tell know what is going on or what will happen. All we can do is pray. I made sure she knew I had the best friends in the world praying hard for him and we expected her to see a miracle happen right before her eyes.

For now we need to pray specifically that:

1. The Pneumonia leaves 2. The swelling in his brain leaves and there is no damage of any sort. 3.  His body which is very tired is strengthen super naturally 4. The medicine they are using will work better than ever before 5. On Thursday they are able to remove the tubes and allow his body to come out of the coma 6. His heart and body has no lasting effects from the heart attack or the stroke. 7. Peace for the parents 8. Dad has to sleep outside on a hard concrete bench, pray for perfect peace, rest, and strength as if he was in the most comfortable bed ever made.

I have decided to go to Somotillo tomorrow since he is stable to check in on my garden families and get fresh supplies and clothes for Oscar's parents. Their niece has been with them to help and she needs to go home to do something also so we will take care of that for them. I will be back in a two days max or 3 hours depending on the need. If his condition changes I will just be a few hours way this time and not in another country.

God has opened many doors for me to share God's word with the dad. He has been praying a lot but I am not sure about his actual commitment to Christ. I am working on how to confirm they are saved. Pray God opens that door.

I will update you more as I have something. We only get to check on him 2 times a day so it might take me a while to get answers.

Thanks again for your prayers. Keep praying, it's working and we together are going to see God's wonderful hand do great and mighty things with this situation.

Praise God for his faithfulness and his power...

Angie

Seeing Improvement

Good morning all from Managua, Nicaragua. I arrived yesterday with no hassles and no delays, Praise God because I could not have handled any aggravation coming here yesterday.

I am so blessed to have friends here that on a moments notice will stop what they are doing and help me. 

I went straight to the hospital from the airport and as I open the door to get out Ocsar's mom came running. She did not know I was even coming down so needless to say I was a nice surprise.

They have Oscar in ICU and will only allow 2-30 minute visits a day. One at 2:00 and one at 9:00. This is nuts.. You have to go all day and all night just to see him. I got there around 5:30 so we waited until the 9 to see what was going on.

Mom and dad insisted I go in since I had come such a long way. I argued very hard and lost. I did not want to offend them and of course I wanted to see him but did not want to take from their time. I wished I had not gone  in.

It was so hard to see my little boy laying there with tubes in his mouth and his eyes taped shut. What if he wakes up I asked? He can't open his eyes. I guess this is standard procedure for coma patients but it just didn't look right for me.

I talked to the nurse in charge of him and she told us that his problems are not from the kidney at all. The kidney is working perfectly as of now. Needless to say my mouth dropped open and I gave this woman the 3rd degree trying to find out what was going on.

Apparently something happen during the night on Friday and he had a seizure. This seizure caused his body functions to stop working and put him in the coma. For the past two days they have worked feverishly to get his body parts working as normal while they are draining fluid  from his lungs.

They are not sure what caused the seizure as far as the nurse knows. I will be leaving soon to go to the hospital and speak directly to the Doctor. Praise God they do not have the "Can't tell anyone about your condition" rule around here. I am hoping we can get to the bottom of what is going on because I think the lack of education is causing the parents to express things that don't make since.

I do know that last night the nurse got a test result back and his blood counts had dropped a considerable amount which is exactly what they wanted to happen. The nurse said she believed that the doctor said his sugar counts were way to high on Friday and now they have them under control. 

A lot of unanswered questions...

We are even unsure of the risk that he is in right now but hope to clear that up soon. 

Anytime a person is in a coma there is obviously something serious going on WHAT is the million dollar question.

I hope to find out a great deal more very soon today.

Additionally, the family is struggling with the hospital because the fund that is paying for the surgery and all the medicines  they have not received from the government and there are many tests that still need to be done and can't be done in the hospital Oscar is in. it is crazy here because this hospital can not even run a blood test. They are giving the blood to the dad each morning and he has to ride 3 buses and 2 taxis just to get to the hospital where the test needs to be done. Then he has to wait for it. If it is in the evening he has to spend the night outside until morning to get the test results. It is sad to see what they are going through just to be here with him. The hospital says they are going to pay them back for the money they have spent but they know it won't happen.

Pray this money comes to the hospital soon.

There are so many things that need praying for I don't know where to start. Just pray as God leads you and that will be fine. 

I want his perfect will and I of course want Oscar healthy. The family is drawing closer to God through this, mom and dad are wore out. They need a break. I am hoping I can give them some relief while I am here.

I will tell you more after my visit. I'm leaving now.

Angie

P.U.S.H. Pray Until Something Happens..

That is exactly what you are doing. I have gotten so many comments from folks that they have been praying for Oscar and it has been so uplifting. I feel like Moses these days, needing someone to hold up my arms for me during this battle, I truly can not imagine what Oscar's parents feel like.

I finally got word today that the Doctors are now saying that his counts are normal..... Yes I said Normal...

She told Carlos that she is not sure how the medicine worked so well but it did and his counts have gone from extremely high which meant that he was in kidney failure to being normal in a day.

She told him that as of right now she sees no signs other than the kidney is functioning normally and his body is accepting it. Could that change? Maybe, but not if people like you praying for him.

All signs as of today look as what ever was causing his counts to be high are gone and his body is functioning as normal as possible.

This is a huge PRAISE REPORT... To God be the Glory.  He is truly the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

He is so faithful, even when I am not. I had the hardest time praying today. I will admit, last night I was angry with God. I felt like He was letting me down and I was not about to accept that. That is not the God I serve. I don't know about you but I have no problem telling God what I think. Knowing He will still love me even if I yell at him gives me the comfort in knowing I can be real with him.

God knows my heart is to see this little boy grow to testify of His mercy and grace and His healing power so I am pretty sure He understands my frustrations. I'm glad I serve a God I can be honest with, don't you.

This is extremely hard for me I won't lie. I am so attached to this child that I can't see things any other way but God knows that in the deepest part of my soul I only want God's will for Oscar, even if I don't agree with it. It's hard to get to that place sometimes.

I challenge all of you that are struggling through battles in your life to ask yourself if you truly want the will of God or do you want it your way? Based on that answer you mind figure out why you are in the middle of that struggle to begin with.

This battle for Oscar is stretching my faith farther than it's ever been and just like when you stretch out during exercising  there are pains to follow. Today I am having those pains but No Pain, No Gain, right?

Praise God today His will and His plan was to remove that sickness from Oscar.

Thanks to all of you what have been on the throne for Oscar. Please continue we are not out of the woods yet. We're over this mountain for now and striving to move forward. I will keep you posted as I have more information. Put him on your daily prayer list until further notice.

God bless all of you, smile today knowing your prayers were heard and answered by our loving Father..

Angie