Miracle Upon Miracle

I have FINALLY been able to attack my office, and I cannot TELL you how happy that makes me! It is HARD work going through filing cabinets, moving files, shredding, rearranging, we're talking files, reams of paper, books...But I'm doing it....ON MY OWN!!! You name it, I've got it in my office. Several know of my office supply addiction...well, I am BARELY seeing the scope of it going through all my stuff. Let's just say Jacob will probably not have to buy a pen or loose leaf paper until 2026. If we're still on this fetid planet. I mean, how many stick pens can one person use in a lifetime???

Anywho. That's one miracle. That I have been able to finally get to this room! While going through the files, I came across the first sleep study I ever had, in September of 2000, while trying to get diagnosed. To say it was a jaw-dropper is the understatement of the century. I was looking at the report, and I stopped breathing 32 times in 6 hours. That's almost evey 10 minutes. I had 178 episodes of shallow, or insufficient breathing, called hypopneas. That's almost every 2 minutes. The longest amount of time I went without breathing was 29 seconds. I can't even hold my breath for 29 seconds right now! My oxygen saturation went down to TWENTY SEVEN. Yes, that's 27. "Normal" is 98-100. When you're under anesthesia and your oxygen gets into the upper 80's the docs start freaking out. Mine was 27. They checked my ABG (arterial blood gas, which hurts like a bugger; they have to draw blood from an artery, not a vein) and the carbon dioxide in my blood was 68.7. The reference range is 35-45. My oxygen was 54.7; the reference range is 75-100. When Jacob was in the NICU, he was on the vent when his CO2 was 59. Because there was so little oxygen in my blood, my heart had to pump harder and faster to try to keep my brain alive...so my average, resting heartrate was around 130. "Normal" is 60-80. When your heart beats that fast it's called tachycardia, and it can kill you.

I give you all these numbers so you fully understand the dire situation I was in! I shouldn't have been functioning (which I wasn't doing very well at this point) let alone not have brain damage, or even be alive! I had been making these horrible noises in my sleep for almost 3 years, so you KNOW that this didn't happen overnight. I can trace my first MG symptom back to July of 1995. Fourteen years ago. Yet I went undiagnosed and untreated for over 5 years....

You know the rest of the story with the MRI under sedation, the emergency intubation, the staph pneumonia....I'm telling you, friends, that what satan meant for harm God turned into good! He IS the God who parted the Red Sea! He IS the God that stopped the waters of the Jordan river so the Israelites could cross over. He IS the God who raised His one and only Son from the dead....and He IS the God that saved my life. The enemy tried hard to wipe me out, but God would not allow it.

We all have purpose. We are all here for a reason. There are no mistakes. I am so thankful that I am here, typing, reading, that I can see and hear...that I don't have permanent braind damage, not to mention the fact I can walk on my own, drive, speak (even though I have a trach), and have an amazing husband and absolute miracle child. It's just overwhelming.

If God has done something recently in your life, PLEASE share...If it's been a while, PLEASE reflect...everyone has Red Sea moments...you just have to recognize them for what they are.