Abbey's 1st Thanksgiving

Enjoy these pictures of Abbey taken on her first Thanksgiving. Stay tuned for a "Rachel update." Her surgery will be on December 19th.

Christmas Will Come 6 Days Early!

Much to our surprise, Rachel will get her skull bone back on December 19th! We had an appointment with our neuro-surgeon on Tuesday and he said Rachel's latest MRI looked good and he agreed to move up the surgery date. Originally it was scheduled for mid-February. Great news!!! Rachel is ready. She experiences a lot of discomfort when she stands up, coughs or sneezes. Due to her skull bone missing, she feels pressure when she strains. She also is excited to grow her hair back especially since it's winter now, her head gets VERY cold when she is outside. We still are confused about the heart procedure. Our neuro-surgeon said that she should have the procedure. He did agree to refer us to another doctor (cardiac surgeon) to get a third opinion. However, we will get the skull bone back before we make any decisions about the heart. A lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. A few months ago I was certain that Rachel and I would never have another holiday together.

This was by far my favorite Thanksgiving. It becomes so cliche but it's so true...there is no greater blessing than family.

Confused

Rachel and I had the appointment with the cardiologist last week. We were expecting to get specific instructions on how the procedure would be done and when. Well, much to our surprise we received some unexpected information. If you remember a tiny hole was found in Rachel's heart and we were told by our neuro-surgeon that it needed to be patched. The neuro-surgeon believes the infection that grew in Rachel's brain slid through this tiny hole and found its way to the brain. If Rachel would not have had this hole the infection would have gone to the lungs and been filtered out of her system. Keep in mind; this is our neuro-surgeons "theory." Well the unexpected news we received from the cardiologist is that he does not want to do the procedure. He seems to think it is unnecessary. Furthermore, he explained that people who have had brain abscesses (which is just a handful) do not have this procedure done. This procedure is typically only done on stroke patients. In fact, the procedure is not even FDA approved for any other reason but stokes. That being said, our cardiologist said he would defer to the neuro-surgeon. So basically he will do it if our surgeon insists. But that leaves Rachel and I very confused. The cardiologist reasoning made perfect sense. He explained that the risks of the procedure were greater than the risk of her ever getting an infection in her brain again. We also learned that 28% of the world's population has this tiny hole but they go through life never even knowing it. And even if they did know about it they would not have the whole patched. Therefore, our cardiologist does not think Rachel should have the procedure. Another thing I failed to mention is that if Rachel has the heart procedure she will be on blood thinner for 6 months which means she can not have surgery for 6 months...which means her skull won't be replaced for at least 6 months! Rachel does not want that!!! We are going to see our neuro-surgeon this Tuesday to discuss things. We are a little nervous because we know that he wants Rachel to have the procedure but we are not so sure. Please pray that we might be able to get some clear direction on this matter and feel at peace with it.

Please Pray For My Friends

Brian and Aly Thrift our good friends of ours. We grew to be close friends last year while in Abilene together. They recieved some bad news yesterday. Aly had a "lump" removed and it tested positive for cancer. They did find out today that only the inside of the mass was cancerous so we are hoping it did not spread. However, Aly is 5 months pregnant and her doctors are recommending chemotherapy. I spoke with Brian this evening and they have calls in to a doctor in Boston and Houston. They are waiting to get some advice on what to do next. I tried not to say much to Brian on the phone but since I have a little experience I told him to get the best physicians he can find, establish a plan and start the journey. I do not know how much they are talking about this but I feel the need to ask for prayers. I know how much it meant (and still means) to me to hear people praying, calling and emailing. I urge you to post a comment encouraging the Thrift family. Aly is 30 and Brian is 33 and they are 5 months pregnant. They face some difficult times and I pray that they feel loved and supported by their family, friends and their entire faith community. Please pray and feel free to write your prayer as a comment.

Thank You.

I Wish I Had My Dad's Heart

I didn't want to post a blog until I had the diagnosis. My Dad had an irregular heart test the other day and went in for a heart catherization. They ended up putting THREE stents in during the procedure! The doctor said he was a "walking time bomb" as his main artery was 90% blocked! His other arteries had minimal blockage so we avoided open heart surgery. He has had a difficult year. The following are just a few events he has been through in the past year. He performed his father-in-laws eulogy, his best friends eulogy, Katie Kirkpartick's eulogy (a close friend who died of cancer at 22 yrs of age), his own mother's eulogy, his wife (my mom) suffered a stroke, his daughter (my sister) had 3 miscarriages and he almost lost Rachel, his daughter-in-law. My mother is begging him to take some time off as he teaches, preaches and coaches! The good news is that he should start to feel young again as he has great blood flow to his heart. He is rocking his grand-daughter to sleep as I write this blog. If that's not motivation to follow up with diet and exercise I don't know what is.

**Above picture is a stent procedure. Dad has three.

Tuesday Mornings

Rachel is doing well. I have always wanted to journal. In fact, I have gone in and out of stages the last 5 years of keeping a diary but it's tough to do consistently when you work 15 hours a day coaching, traveling and recruiting. The reason I say that is because I have nothing to report on Rachel at the moment but I still want to write. It's easier for me to do this than to write in a notebook. I realize there are some things not everybody needs to see; therefore, occasionally I will write something but not post it. So feel free to read, comment and participate in my journey OR just tune in when there is a "Rachel Update."

The highlight of my week is early Tuesday morning. I meet with two trusted friends to talk and pray. I have always had very close friends and I believe that is one of the big reasons I remain faithful. Below is a quote by C.S. Lewis that Mike Cope had on his blog the other day.

"I gave up Christianity at about fourteen. Came back to it when getting on for thirty. An almost purely philosophical conversion. I didn't want to. I'm not the religious type. I want to be let alone, to feel I'm my own master: but since the facts seemed to be the opposite I had to give in. My happiest hours are spent with three or four old friends in old clothes tramping together and putting up in small pubs--or else sitting up till the small hours in someone's college rooms talking nonsense, poetry, theology, metaphysics over beer, tea, or pipes. There's no sound I like better than adult male laughter."

I have said things like this before. In fact, this quote is a pretty good description of my journey. I've never been one just to accept things without questioning and digging. I have a hard time believing that Noah and his sons actually walked the earth and gathered every animal. Have you ever stopped to think; how did he get the elephants, water moccasins and lady bugs? I bought Abbey a big blue stuffed whale when she was born, but I'm wondering when she grows up if she will really believe that there was a man named Jonah who was swallowed by a whale, spit up and lived to tell about it...her Dad struggles with it. The bible can be a dangerous thing when your brain works like mine. However, this Tuesday morning it will all make sense. I will sit down with my two friends and we will remind each other that, yes, being a Christian is crazy. Some days it makes no sense. We pray to a God that sometimes seems to be so far. Christians that worship at the same place and worship the same God yet one tumor is malignant and the other, well, it's not even a tumor. We read Psalm 22 and then Psalm 23 and wonder what in the world is going on??? We cry, doubt, laugh and worry. But so far we always leave our Tuesday meetings as Christians. We keep on believing the story. We always spend time in the Psalms because that's where we find ourselves. In the same Psalm we see incredible faith and incredible doubt. We see songs of praise and songs of lament. We see dancing before the Lord and the next breath there is crying. Our group relates to the Psalms because it's there where we find our own journey. Tuesday mornings are "holy ground" because we don't study a book or exegete a text, but we laugh, cry, doubt and worry. We decide together to cast our lot with an unseen invisible God. Why? Well, I can only speak for myself. I peeked ahead and read the last Psalm. And after all the confusion, doubt and lament the very last line in the last Psalm says, "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord." So for now I will...and then I will decide again on Tuesday.

Abbey's First Halloween

I know I'm her father but is she cute or what?

Appointment With The Heart Surgeon

We were finally contacted by the heart surgeon that our neuro-surgeon assigned to us. We will see him on Nov. 17th. It sounds like the procedure will be done ASAP. Earlier, I mentioned it would not be done until Rachel had the skull bone replaced; however, that is no longer the case. The good news is that it seems the procedure will be done through an artery and not open heart!!! So now we are waiting for the 17th as well as Rachel's driving therapy class to begin. Rachel does go to speech therapy every Wednesday and Friday morning. It better be helping as Rachel and I do "homework" two times a week.

In other news, we had a fun time with Abbey on her first Halloween. She dressed up as pooh bear and helped pass out candy with her cousin Palmer, Oh, I'm sorry Peter Pan. I'm going to try and put some pictures of her up soon!

You might want to check out my father-in-laws virtual daily bible study/discussion. I'm really enjoying it. www.morenoble.blogspot.com