#6 - Praise God - I'm home!

Date Sent: Sat, Mar 8, 2008 at 9:14 PM

I was released from the hospital on Tuesday, and after a 3.5 hour drive, returned home VERY TIRED and VERY EXCITED at around 6:30 pm. Soon after our boys were brought back to our house, and for the first time our family of four was under one roof! WHAT A BLESSING!!!

Over the past several days we have figured out how to make our new family work. We're so blessed to have my mother here. She's done 90% of baby duty, and most of Alex care as well. I've spent most days on the couch and puttering around the first floor. With God's help I'm getting a little stronger each day. I've managed to make it up the stairs twice now, and taken a shower! Sometimes it's the little things that can really make your day!

This afternoon during Alex's nap I was thinking about all of God's blessings during this experience. What a nice way to fall asleep - counting your blessings (sounds like Bing Crosby, doesn't it?!?)... Here are a few...

BLESSINGS:
- Good insurance!!! The two medicines I'm taking cost ELEVEN THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS EACH MONTH! Our co-pay is FIFTY DOLLARS FOR THREE MONTHS SUPPLY!!! Only our God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills could take care of those finances!
- Aaron was given time off work to be with me the whole time we were in at Hershey and in Pittsburgh. That helped make the difficult days SO much easier. He's such an amazing support to me, and he could see what was going on with me. As insanely difficult as it was for him to see me that sick and touch-and-go, it was easier than him being separated with his imagination running wild with extra fear.
- God connected people and places through this whole thing so that everything worked out in a divinely smooth fashion. (i.e. the OB doctor who cared for me in Pittsburgh was the MENTOR of the OB doctor who was caring for me at the Hershey Med Center, I was stable during the entire transport to Pittsburgh - it was about two hours after I arrived that I got sick enough they intubated me).

PRAYER REQUESTS:
- FULL AND COMPLETE HEALING. If untreated, the average life expectancy for someone with pulmonary hypertension after diagnosis is 2.8 years. The sicker you are when diagnosed, the shorter the time. I was VERY SICK. The medications I'm on are expected to give me an additional 10-15 years until I need a lung transplant. The most recent statistics I've found say that the 5 year survival rate for one of those is about 37%. These are very scary things for us to be told. But we're trusting God for a FULL AND COMPLETE HEALING.
- Going through all of this does a toll on our emotions - it's been like an emotional roller coaster. We learn more about pulmonary hypertension, and hit another emotional low. Then when we're overwhelmed we start praying about it again, and a measure of peace is given to us. We need PEACE - more and more peace.
- It's proving difficult to transition back to being at home. I'm no longer in the hospital, so part of me thinks that I should be all better. But that's just not the case. I'm tired of being sick, but have come so far! I need patience with myself as my body gains strength.
- FULL AND COMPLETE HEALING

Thank you for your faithfulness in praying for and with us!

~ The Feitners