a wake up call

On Thursday morning, we were on the bedroom floor with Indy in our arms - crying, begging her to wake up…

After an incredible week home in Waco, and Indy making amazing progress in every way…this morning we are back in Austin at the children’s hospital.

Everything is okay, but for a few moments there… we weren’t sure it would be.

It started with a headache in the afternoon, and then a cough in the middle of the night.

Maybe it’s all the years of it just being Indiana and I, but if I hear her make any sounds in the night, I find myself out of bed and running to her room, before I even realize that I’m awake. Wednesday night around 2 AM was one of those.

But it wasn’t actually a cough, it was Indy throwing up, which for her is what it sounds like. A few moments later, we were all up, the washer was filled with sheets and blankets, and Indy was curled in new blankets on the living room couch, with Rebecca beside her. An hour after that, she was between us in our bed.

But it kept happening, again and again. Indy throwing up - or her body trying to - with episodes of her getting light headed, and nearly fainting in between.

There has been a terrible stomach bug going around the last couple of weeks and so that’s what we figured it was, but by 6 AM. with paramedics by our side, in an ambulance headed to a hospital in Waco, we knew well that something much more serious was going on.

After another vomiting session and trip to the bathroom, she had passed out as we were walking her back to bed. And we couldn’t get her to wake up.

I’m not going to go into the moment-by-moment details that led to us to calling 911 - both us holding her in our arms, literally crying, begging for help - but let’s just say that neither Rebecca, nor I, have been as scared in our lives as we were Thursday morning.

I can hardly think it, let alone write it… but we thought we had lost her.

In what seemed like no time, our bedroom was filled with paramedics, and our doctor… and soon after, we were riding with Indy in the back of an ambulance to Providence, a nearby hospital here in Waco.

Thankfully, as soon as we got there, the ER doctor, who was wonderful, personally did an abbreviated echo-cardiogram, and recognized the seriousness of the situation and made the call to immediately transport her to Austin.

Within the hour, the flight crew was in our room getting her ready, and we were headed to the roof of the building.

Loading Indiana into the life-flight helicopter.

Rebecca’s more than a little afraid of heights, but as you can imagine, none of that matters in a time like this. She was just glad to be able to be by Indy’s side through it.

They gave us time to pray over Indy and for me to kiss her and Rebecca goodbye, and the helicopter lifted off to start their 30 minute flight back to Dell Children’s Medical Center - while I, since there wasn’t enough room for all of us, made my way there in our truck.

By the time I arrived at Dell, a team of doctors and nurses were already surrounding Indy, prepping and explaining to us that the area around her heart had filled up with fluid and it was constricting her heart’s ability to beat properly and they were going to have to take her back into surgery to drain the fluid.

They said that it wasn’t anything that we did, or didn’t do… but that this was something that sometimes happens, where the inflammation from the surgery starts creating an excess of fluid, which is what would make her heart have difficulty pumping and her lose color and struggle to get oxygen, and her body to react with vomiting as it’s trying to counter the problem.

And then once again, Rebecca and I again made the walk down the hall with Indy on a gurney and kissed her goodbye in the same area we did last time, and two hours later, met her in a room in the same ICU, where she’d originally been brought after her open-heart surgery… exactly two weeks ago - almost to the hour.

As Indy recovered and slept the next couple of hours, the surgeon told us that they had drained 610 cc’s of fluid from around her heart (which they made clear is a huge amount), and showed us how on the X-ray the fluid had caused her heart area to swell to twice the size it was supposed to be…. and they said it would have felt as if an elephant was sitting on her chest. But they also said that during the surgery, as soon as the drain went in, her heart rate immediately went back to normal.

By the evening, Indiana was awake and feeling much better, and ordering her favorite items again from the cafeteria (ham and cheese omelette and a yogurt parfait).

And by yesterday morning, Indy’s color was back and she was pretty much her old self.

While the nurses and staff cared for her, she kept us busy with endless games of Uno, crossword puzzles and coloring.

Thankfully, since we were going to be here awhile, friends from home brought clothes and things down to us that we’d not had time to think of, or pack, when we left at sunrise - we hadn’t even brushed our teeth, or combed our hair, when we road off in the ambulance on Thursday morning.

Indy’s also been enjoying opening the hundreds of other letters and packages that had come into the hospital after we left last week, and that the nice lady at the hospital brought in right after we got here.

The doctors say that Indy is doing great and should make a full recovery, and hopefully have no further problems like this in the future. And so, the color has returned, not just to Indy’s face, but to her Mama and Papa’s too.

It’s been a very scary last couple of days. To be honest, looking back now, Rebecca and I feel like while when we were on that cold floor next to the bed with Indy in our arms, trying to wake her… God was doing the same thing to us. Yelling, “wake up! Please, wake up!” Reminding us as a family how fragile life is, and not to take another breath He gives us for granted. And how no matter how well things are going and how good life seems on the surface, that in a moment everything can turn on a dime, and how we need to cherish each and every moment we have.

Maybe things like this are what it takes for God to get the undivided attention of His people. To get us to truly wake up and see what a gift the life He’s given each of us truly is.

And so I’d say, Indy and our family aren’t just okay today, we’re more alive than ever. More grateful than ever been before.

As I’m writing this, I am reminded of the blog post I shared this past January that was about a song that God had given me to remind us to be thankful - not only for the good things that come our way - but also for the incredibly difficult things too.

And so this morning here in our hospital room - Indiana, Rebecca and I can truly say ‘thank you Lord’ for answering our prayers, and also for the terrible, wonderful wake up call we’ve had.