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I know we just posted, but thought we had a noteworthy day to share! We met with the Neurologist and surgeon's assistant in Albany today. Both ladies were visibly moved by Nathan's progress which was so cool to see! They couldn't stop smiling and remarking on the difference and even sparkle that Nathan had. The Neurologist thought Nathan was doing fabulous and was on board with our desire to wean him from the anti-seizure medication. Our reasoning is that it can have side effects of making people tired, depressed and cloudy. These are all things that someone could be struggling with anyway as a severe stroke survivor, but we want to eliminate any possible things that could make his recovery more difficult. SO we begin the process of weaning off this medication! It is a slow process as they don't want to give any kind of shock to the brain, but it's progress in the right direction! Please pray that there will be no negative side effects to getting off this medication. Nathan will not HAVE to see the surgeon or his assistant again, but they asked that Nathan request to see them when we go back in three months to see the neurologist, just so they can see how he is doing.
Thank you for praying for us, we are so grateful to God to have such positive things to update!
It’s been just over one month since Nathan’s surgery to replace his bone plate, although he didn’t get his actual bone put back in (apparently the freezer it was kept in was contaminated with something) instead he has a piece that was specially designed to fit in place of the skull plate and is said to be just as hard/strong as bone. It is fastened in with titanium screws and the Dr. assured us that Nathan would not be setting off the metal detectors at the airport. Everything has continued to heal well and we will see the surgeon one more time next week to double check. We also meet with the neurologist that day.
I gave Nathan a haircut today and his hair is almost back to normal, I think he would prefer it a little longer on top still, but it’s looking good and you really can’t even see his ginormous scar now that his hair has grown in. There is just a little swelling still around his right temple area, but other than that his head is basically good as new!
Overall Nathan has continued to progress in every area. He is walking mostly without his cane now. He is still wearing the prosthetic brace most of the time. He can walk without it and might be tempted to try to do it more, but his big toe has been curling on him, which makes it difficult to walk. His ankle tends to twist pretty easily as his muscles have been tightening, causing his foot/ankle to turn in some. This is a typical after effects of a stroke. The leg brace actually goes all the way down and under Nathan’s foot which helps keep his toe from curling. We have been exploring a couple of options to help him walk better, one is a Botox injection in his leg which will temporarily allow things to relax and stop tightening and also shaking. The shaking actually makes it difficult for Nathan to walk sometimes and it’s annoying. The Botox would probably be something we would do every few months because it wears off. The second thing we’ve been looking into is called a Walkaide. It is a contraption that would attach around Nathan’s calf and it would have electrodes that would trigger the nerves to relax when needed, enabling him to walk more normally.
Nathan’s right arm has continued to improve, but slowly. His shoulder has pretty good range of motion now and he can lift his arm up to even touch his face. He has had some wrist and finger movement, but it is a little bit and hasn’t really progressed as much as we would obviously like. The Occupational therapist encourages Nathan to include his right arm/hand in as many things as possible so we try to do that. Sometimes this can even help bring back movement. Nathan has tried to play his a guitar a couple of times and the second time definitely went better than the first, but was not able to hold the pick so he tried to strum with his fingers. This has been a pretty big deal for Nathan, it’s very clear that it’s painful to him and he is scared he may not play again.
Nathan’s speech has seemed to be the slowest piece to come back. He now has a new speech therapist, Cheryl and she is amazing, and we have already seen great improvement with her! It’s really hard to understand and harder to explain what Nathan is and isn’t able to do/say/understand. Sometimes he recognizes words, but he cannot read. I can’t even begin to count how many times we’ve studied the alphabet and he is really struggling to retain the letters and sounds. Some information Nathan clearly knows in his head, but struggles to get it out. For example when counting, he counts on his fingers, but the numbers coming out of his mouth are wrong. The same thing will happen with letters. He’ll point to the right letter that begins with something, but say the wrong one. Nathan has been doing quite well with just adding words to his “word bank” and therefore able to say the word he is thinking quicker and more often. He has been working on saying short sentences lately.
Just this week Nathan has been going in to work on his days off from therapy. So far, he has helped out in the mail room a few hours each time . This wouldn’t normally be a part of Nathan’s job, but he is so excited to get out of the house and be doing something other than being a patient! I must say, it’s pretty awesome to say “have a good day at work honey” and “how was your day at work sweetheart?”
I actually asked Nathan if I could share some things as prayer requests in his blog post as I knew it is so personal to him, but they are specific and therefore we know that helps so much! Nathan has been struggling more and more recently with not being able to do the things he loves to do. Nathan was an avid reader, not necessarily because he loved to read, but he LOVED to learn. I used to laugh because he was constantly looking things up on Wikapedia, and finding new songs on itunes. Nathan also loved to sing, play his guitar and the piano. He has always been involved in helping with music on some level in church/camp or work. It’s very painful for him to not be able to be involved with things he was used to, especially when he was so focused on serving the Lord with his abilities. It’s heartbreaking to watch my husband struggle to communicate and be unable to participate in the activities he so loved and looked forward to. Continuing to pray that he would grow and honor God during this time and that I would have wisdom in how to encourage his heart.
Please pray for the connections that need to be made for Nathan to be able to remember what he is studying so hard, letters, numbers, words, sentences, etc.
Pray for the continued healing and use of his hip/leg/foot/toes and his shoulder/arm/wrist/fingers. If Nathan could just hold a pick and strum his guitar, oh the therapy that could be taking place! And not just physical.
Pray that we, and the Neurologist would have wisdom about taking Nathan off anti-seizure medication.
Pray for Nathan’s parents Doug & Nedra. They went home to Alaska last weekend. Nathan’s mom hasn’t been home since the week of Nathan’s stroke. Please pray for them as they settle back into life and their routine in AK. Nedra was a huge part of helping Nathan with his speech.
We are so grateful for continued prayers, financial help, meals and help around our home and yard. It’s truly overwhelming to be literally showered upon with grace and love constantly!
A couple weeks ago, John and I were able to take Nathan to the gun range for the first time since his stroke. As most of you probably know, Nathan is an avid hunter and sport shooter. John and Nathan have spent many Saturday afternoons at the gun range. It has only been in the last year or so that I started to join them from time to time, shooting skeet, paper targets and bowling pins.
I’ve only seen him a handful of times in the last month, and I am just now learning how to communicate with him. But it was very obvious to me that Nathan was pumped to be out at the range. He parked himself on the picnic table, donned his camouflage Snow Camp hat and positively beamed. I showed him my new rifle, and he told me about the handgun that he is eyeing up next—a Smith & Wesson M&P of which by John and I both own a variant. Communicating with Nathan can be challenging, but it is highly possible.
John and I alternated shooting at a number of cardboard targets that we had set up. One of us would be at the table reloading and talking with Nathan while the other was up shooting. After watching John and I shoot for about an hour, Nathan decided that it was his turn. He walked down range to the targets, I started running through the guns we had brought to see which one he wanted to shoot. He answered a very emphatic yes to all of them. It was clear he didn’t care which one. I loaded up my Smith & Wesson for him, and he ran through a couple magazines, shooting left-handed with great concentration. After a couple magazines on my Smith & Wesson and a couple more on John’s Glock, Nathan had gotten his fix. The sun had been pretty warm all afternoon, and we were all feeling pretty tired. We made for home and John started in on the second reason for our trip to the range: telling Nathan about our idea.
John and I have been talking about putting together a skeet shooting tournament & cookout at the gun club where the three of us are members to raise some money for the Shoultz family. We raised the idea to Nathan, and as you might imagine, he was all smiles.
Nathan’s recovery has been nothing short of miraculous. The greater communities of Mountainside Bible Chapel, Word of Life and Warren County have rallied around the Shoultz family in a way that has been moving for Nathan & Beth and made me proud to live and work where I do.
Here is a picture of Nathan with his breakfast this morning, he was VERY happy to have food! I made him a Starbucks coffee single which went over very well too.
He did good last night, of course they had to wake him every hour. This morning the Dr. came in and didn't do much but said Nathan would have a CT scan probably before noon. He is doing very well and will probably get to be moved to a semi-private room later today…. I did notice a couple of those rooms were singles so maybe we'll get one of those!!! Nathan stood briefly to use the restroom, has eaten breakfast and had a little coffee. Now he is resting again, but doing great!
Well here we are in Albany! We were able to get rooms at the Hilton Garden Inn which is actually on the Albany Medical Center property so not only is there a small discount for being a patient (& family) at AMC, but we can access Starbuck’s which is right downstairs, the parking garage AND the hospital without ever even going outside! It’s funny the little things that can bring so much enjoyment these days!
I wish there was time to write more often to keep everyone updated, but since I do not normally journal or blog, I guess I’m struggling to make it a normal part of life now that we’ve been home with Nathan and our four kiddos. There have actually been some super cool things that Nathan has been doing these past few weeks since we updated last. Pool therapy has been added to his schedule once a week, which has helped a lot (and we hope to add to this on our time with a pool we have accessible to us). Nathan’s walking has improved tremendously. He can walk much of the time without a cane at all, but still keeps one with him for longer distances and/or going outside. This past week was really exciting for Physical Therapy, Nathan exceeded the “norm” for many of the tests including the endurance test. This included walking continuously for six minutes, with the goal being 1000 ft. The last time he completed the test with about 720 ft., but THIS time he went 1125 ft. and with NO CANE!!!! So the goal next time is going to be 1200 ft. Occupational therapy has been going well too. Nathan is now moving his right arm at the shoulder and forearm. In fact one day last week at therapy he lifted his hand from the table up to almost touch his nose! He can still move his fingers by pulling them “in,” but cannot yet open them. Also, he does not yet have any wrist movement. Speech therapy has continued to slow but steady. Personally I believe he would not have come as far as he has without the hard work of his mother who has been diligent to work with Nathan pretty much every day that he doesn’t already have Speech therapy scheduled. And I would be willing to say that much of the time Nedra is probably getting more results than the actual therapist!
Some other cool things that have transpired recently are that Nathan has been getting more and more involved with whatever is happening around (doing things that he would have normally done before his stroke) like putting dishes away in the dish washer, getting a movie set up and playing for the kids, putting his own contacts in, he walked our long driveway to get the mail (with no cane), he helped so some yard work by dragging our old Christmas tree out back across the yard and of course he went shooting with John! Apparently he can even shoot pretty well with his left hand because he kept all the bullets on the target!
We are so thankful to have all of these great things to share about Nathan’s progress. Nathan’s mom, Nedra has remained here all this time (so she hasn’t been home in 3 ½ months). We are so grateful for friends just down the road who have graciously allowed Nathan’s parents to stay on and off throughout this time so no one has gone too crazy with four small children and four adults in fairly close proximity… and by that I mean Nathan’s parents have a nice quiet space to retreat to. We have truly appreciated all of the help and encouragement these last few months!
And of course I will have to share something that I got out of my quiet time last week. We are reading through the book of Acts in the Word of Life Online Quiet Time which has been super exciting watching the Holy Spirit at work in a mighty way. I don’t remember what day it was, but the passage was Acts 16:1-13. Paul had Timothy get circumcised not because it would do anything for him spiritually, but to help his relationship and ministry with the Jewish people who had practiced this as an important tradition. If Timothy was willing to go through such (hugely painful – yikes!) lengths to show his sensitivity and passion for reaching others with the love of Christ, certainly there is something to learn about being willing to forfeit some liberties here and there so I can do the same… SO convicting!
Also, as the men were working their way towards Asia, the Holy Spirit tried to redirect them. They persisted, but Jesus stepped in and forbid them (at that time). Finally they figured out that God was leading them to a different area toward people who were ready and willing to hear about God’s love and truth. As I see EVERYTHING through a different lenses now, I see that our area of ministry has been redirected (hopefully only for a time like Paul and Timothy) but whatever happens, God is SO FAITHFUL and we are so grateful He has given us the strength and patience to come this far in this journey.
Today was a milestone for Nathan. For a long time he has been waiting for the bone plate to be put in. it has been a little self-conscience in how things look to have it missing, plus the bone plate is a milestone in the recovery process. A milestone Nathan has been very eager to get past. The Dr’s had said they could do the surgery early, but that didn’t work out which has made today come with even greater expectation.
On Thursday the Dr’s went thru everything and did all the preparation, then today (Fri) at 5:30am Nathan showed up and was wheeled to the operating room at 7:30am. Originally we thought they would put Nathan’s own bone plate back in, but the freezer it was kept in was compromised so a number of weeks back they did a CAT scan that took the measurements for the new plastic plate. The same Dr that took the bone plate out and saved his life was the very same Dr who put the new plate back in. On Wed, Dec 13th, the last time we talked with Dr Seminoff, he came into the surgical waiting room to communicate to us that if Nathan survived he would probably be a vegetable or would live on oxygen and a feeding tube and we should keep our expectations very low. Today when he came into the very same waiting room three and a half months later, the report and conversation was upbeat and nothing but good news. He came in to tell us that everything went really well, there was no bad news. As a matter of fact, he said Nathan no longer needed to wear the helmet and in a couple days he could go home. He talked with us about his granddaughter and made small talk. He also mentioned that when Nathan came back to have the stitches out he personally wanted to see him. Now keep in mind, this surgeon is one of the best Neuro-Surgeons around, his time and schedule are very important and Nathan had to wait a long time for him to put the plate back in, and yet he wants to see Nathan again. It is truly a miracle what God has done in the last 3½ months.
In the Word of Life Quiet Time we have been reading thru the book of Acts and it has been amazing to see all the wonderful miracles God did in the early days as He established the church, stories that show the greatness of God. And today I was reminded that God has done a great miracle in the life of our friend Nathan Shoultz.
They had to give Nathan a substantial amount of anesthesia today to put him under, so after the two hour surgery it took a while for him to wake up. It was almost 5 hours before they got him settled in a room and we could see him. Beth served as the interpreter between Nathan and nurses to get him some aspirin (he had a slight head ache…) and something to drink. It was great to see him, he was in very good spirits and thrilled to have a round head.
Pray that all goes well because if so, he will be home quickly.
Tomorrow (Friday) at 7:30am the Dr’s will be putting the bone plate back in.
Today Nathan and Beth went down to see the Dr’s and do all the preparation for tomorrow. They are staying in the motel across the street from the hospital and will be going in at 5:30am for the prep.
Two weeks ago, Nathan moved his right hand for the first time in therapy. That night we were over to spend some time togethere and I was able to shoot a video. Check it out:
Today is Nathan's birthday and I have no doubt it will be a good one. Kyle Gray, one of Nathan's good friends flew to Schroon Lake to spend a little time with him and be here on his birthday. A couple years ago Beth had a bunch of us do something special for Nathan the week of his birthday and Kyle made an awesome video. Today as I was thinking and praying for Nathan and what I could do for him on his birthday, there were a host of thoughts that flooded my memeory.
For most of this week I’ve been working on the Word of Life Online Quiet Time. The Online Quiet Time is something that Nathan and I have worked on together for a very long time. Over the past year and a half we have spent massive amounts of time putting it together. Because the developers and very key volunteers are in Fla, we’ve been in Fla quite a few times together. The time on the road, in the car, on the plane, working 16-18 hour days has forged a relationship that went well beyond just coworkers. There is something special about a common goal, a huge project, obstacle or experience that brings folks together and seals a lifelong friendship. This week I’ve been in Fla working on the QT for the first time without Nathan. Over the past couple weeks as he and I have been together it is obvious the he also misses being able to contribute and the physical handicaps that harness him bring a deep frustration.
One of my favorite features of the Online Quiet Time is the prayer list. It is a prayer list on steroids and truly has made a huge difference in my personal Quiet Time. One of the coolest features is the ability to share requests with others and they can add your request to their list. Which means that when they pray for you, you receive an email and system lets you know. How many times have you been in Sunday School or Small Group, shared something important that was going on in your life and folks would say “we’ll pray for you?” Usually that means they pray for you right then and there, but when they go home… Ever been on blind date and at the very end your date say’s “I’ll call you sometime….?” We know what that means, the phone isn’t going to ring. In the Online Quiet Time you have the power to share your prayer request with the public, friends, accountability partners or keep them private. When you share them and folks add them to their list, the encouragement that comes from seeing others pray for your needs is really and truly inspiring and exemplifies the body of Christ in action. I share all this because there are two requests in the Online Quiet Time:
The first is in my prayer list, I have made it public so everyone can see it and over the months have posted how to pray and praise suggestions, the request is “God, help Nathan back to 100% recovery” and there is about 140 people praying for this request.
The second is a request that Nathan had for himself “That the Lord would grow my ministry and me through it” which is also a public request. Right now there is about 60 people praying for Nathan’s request.
From the very beginning, Nathan tried to make everyone on the Quiet Time a friend (kinda like how Mark Zuckerberg tried to be friends with everyone on Facebook) but after a while too many folks were signing up for him to keep up. With today being Nathan's birthday, there are a couple things evereyone could do for Nathan that would be huge and very meaningful to him:
For those of you that aren’t on the Quiet Time, you can simply join by going to www.QuietTimeDiary.com and in the signup process put Nathan’s email address NathanShoultz@wol.org into the coupon box for a free Platinum trial.
It would be awesome for everyone to “Friend” Nathan.
Then would each of you grab the two requests for Nathan, put them on your prayer list and pray for them every day?
If you would like to send a birthday card you can send it to: Nathan Shoultz 8083 US Rt 9 Pottersville NY 12860
Nathan had his hands in quite a few really awesome and very large projects that were very influencial. He was regularly a part of the Transfer Live project and the last session he recorded was on the Online Quiet Time. The online Quiet Time was also a huge project that Nathan was a very integral part of. Below is the last session Nathan recorded before his stroke. Also, if you would like to try the Online Quiet Time, simply go to www.QuietTimeDiary.com and sign up. When you get to the coupon box enter Nathan's email NathanShoultz@wol.org and you'll get a free 30 days of the Platinum package.
So when I received the call early last week that the surgeon was postponing Nathan’s surgery I have to admit, my heart just sank. I felt sick knowing I had to break the news to Nathan. We were heading home to celebrate our daughter’s fourth birthday with some friends when I got the call. We were celebrating just a little early because surgery was scheduled for the day of Carly’s birthday. I waited until after the party to tell Nathan. I was so proud of him though because after a few minutes of being REALLY bummed about it, he just kind of snapped out of it and moved on. We all have continually told ourselves that God knows best and surely there is some reason why later will be better than sooner. For me personally, this has recently been repeated more in my mind than my heart if that makes any sense. And still God chooses to bless us even in my moments of doubt…
We did receive a call from the surgeon yesterday and they have put a rush on the process of Nathan’s surgery. Nathan has a special CT scan last Friday so they could measure ever so carefully the area for the skull plate. As of Wednesday the surgeon has approved the design of the plate and now he is just waiting for it to be made. They are actually making two in order to have a backup. We will just pray there is never any need for that backup. Right now the surgery date is set for Friday, March 30th, however the surgeon did seem to think it would be sooner!
Well excited to tell you what a fantastic week we’ve (I mean Nathan :) had! Nathan’s fingers and arm have started moving and his walking has improved tremendously! His therapist has even asked us to bring in a straight cane to start working on with him TOMORROW. Just to give you an idea, Casey, Nathan’s physical therapist has had Nathan walking on the treadmill up hill this week! We’ve seen that the added pool therapies have also helped Nathan a great deal. In addition we got a call from student who had been a part of the youth ministry at our home church in Kirkland, Washington. He told us of a benefit concert they are putting on Saturday, April 21st. James is a talented musician so what an encouragement to hear of his thoughtfulness to use his talents and abilities to be a blessing to our family!
Have you ever had a prayer answered, but not how you expected? I continue to be amazed at how God has been working through prayer requests that I (and we) have been praying for over a year! Just in the past few weeks I realized that my prayer for church unity has been so evident as our amazing church body has rallied around my family these past couple of months. What a testimony this has been to those in our community! I don’t know about you, but when I pray for patience, it is almost reluctantly because that one I just know whatever is going to “help” me grow in patience will probably not be fun. I would not say that our situation is fun right now, but I’m so thankful for so many things that have developed as a result of our life right now. One is the depth of my Father’s love and faithfulness that I have experienced these months and also the example of friendship and selflessness of so many on our behalf! Thank you, thank you, thank you.
And just in case anyone was wondering what “Streams in the Desert” had to say for March 1st:
“Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?” (Eccles. 7:13). Often God seems to place His children in positions of profound difficulty, leading them into a wedge from which there is a no escape; contriving a situation which no human judgment would have permitted, had it been previously consulted. The very cloud conducts them thither. You may be thus involved at this very hour. It does seem perplexing and very serious to that degree, but it is perfectly right. The issue will more than justify Him who has brought you hither. It is a platform for the display of His almighty grace and power. He will not only deliver you; but in doing so, He will give you a lesson that you will never forget, and to which, in many a psalm and song, in after days, you will revert. You will never be able to thank God enough for having done just as He has.”
Praise the Lord:
Nathan’s continued healing, fingers, arm beginning to move again!
Strength and walking improving
Nathan will have his surgery sometime THIS month!
For amazing friends and family who continue to help us keep our act together with scheduling, finances (paperwork) and keeping our house and yard in order
How to Pray:
For continued strength and mobility in Nathan’s right side
For communication, Nathan’s speech and reasoning
For Nathan’s parents (Nedra has remained behind with us to help me and Doug has returned home in Alaska until Nathan’s surgery)
We found out on Monday that Nathan’s surgery to replace the bone plate has been postponed. It was supposed to be this Friday and is now scheduled for Friday, March 30th. They have promised to move up the date if at all possible so at this point we are just praying for God’s timing and that if possible that may be sooner rather than later! It was really difficult to get this news, especially for Nathan. It was hard to see him so disappointed, but he is having a really good attitude about it.
The past couple of weeks have gone well. Here at home. We expected that things would be a little more routine once home and with doing out-patient therapy, but each day the therapy times are different and also each week the days of therapy are different. Nathan has physical therapy and occupational therapy usually three times a week and has only had speech about once and twice a week (due to availability). This is a huge disappointment as he was getting six days a week of each at Sunnyview. So now to only have maybe one or two of the speech each week, we are trying to stay positive and work on things ourselves with Nathan. His mom, Nedra has been a huge help with this!
Nathan’s parents took him to therapy today for the first time since we’ve been home. During his pool therapy Nathan practiced walking unassisted (with no therapist or floating device) and tonight as I was making dinner I turned around to my husband walking across the floor from the living room to the kitchen (with no walker) to hand me something to throw away! Talk about a fun surprise! Technically Nathan still needs to have a close eye on him as he is moving about the house, but we can certainly see progress since he has gotten home! Thank you Lord!
I am finding as never before the need and impact of getting in my time with the Lord before anyone wakes up each morning. My attitude about our circumstance is drastically challenged when my spiritual cup is running dry! Of course we all know we should spend time in the Word each day, but it’s just so easy to try to get a little more sleep or clean up a few more things or get caught up in meeting everyone else’s needs. I am so grateful to my God that He is ever faithful and totally patient with me! When I am done stressing out and messing up, He is just waiting quietly for me to come and give my burdens to Him. After getting the call about Nathan’s surgery change yesterday I was so upset and frustrated. It seems that every few days there is something I get caught up in and discouraged about but, then the Lord will bring some kind of encouragement. Sometimes it’s progress for Nathan, sometimes it’s a sweet friend or Scriptures. This morning as read today’s passage in “Streams in the Desert” here is what I read:
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him – Psalm 37:7
Have you prayed and prayed and waited and waited, and still there is no manifestation?
Are you tired of seeing nothing move? Are you just at the point of giving it all up? Perhaps you have not waited in the right way? This would take you out of the right place – the place where He can meet you.
“With patience wait” (Romans 8:25). Patience takes away worry. He said He would come, and His promise is equal to His presence. Patience takes away your weeping. Why feel sad and despondent? He knows your need better than you do, andHis purpose in waiting is to bring more glory out of it all. Patience takes away self-works. The work He desires is that you “believe” (John 6:29), and when you believe, you may then know that all is well. Patience takes away all want. Your desire for the thing you wish is perhaps stronger than your desire for the will of God to be fulfilled in its arrival.
Patience takes away all weakening. Instead of having the delaying time, a time of letting go, know that God is getting a larger supply ready and must get you ready too. Patience takes away all wobbling. “Make me stand upon my standing” (Daniel 8:18, margin). God’s foundations are steady; and when His patience is within, we are steady while we wait. Patience gives worship. A praiseful patience sometimes “longsuffering with joyfulness” (Colossians 1:11) is the best part of it all. “Let (all these phases of) patience have her perfect work” (James 1:4), while you wait, and you will find great enrichment. C.H.P.
Hold steady when the fires burn, When inner lessons come to learn, And from this path there is seems no turn – “Let patience have her perfect work.” L.S.P.
How to pray:
Continued healing for Nathan in his movement and speech/communication, his shoulder has gained some movement, but not his arm or hand yet
Wisdom for surgeons and God’s perfect timing for Nathan’s surgery
That I would be the best wife and mom as possible… patient, kind, encouraging, consistent and somehow able to spend my desperately needed time with my Savior each day…
How to Praise!
Nathan has movement in his shoulder that wasn’t there before!
His walking continues to improve!
Nathan has made it for a short visit to work, to a couple of Snow Camp meetings and twice to church!
Nathan’s story has been shared at Snow Camp this season and many students made decisions to accept Jesus into their hearts as a result!
For the many praying and helping friends who have continued to bless us so! Thank you!
Nathan was scheduled to meet with the Dr's at Albany Medical on Friday, but they cancelled Friday's appt. and saw him yesterday because they had space to squeeze him in. This appointment was with the Neurology Dept. checking up on him since his stroke. The Neurosurgeon who actually did the surgery was out of town so Nathan was able to also saw his assistant. She was totally happy with everything and pretty much asked us when we wanted to do the surgery to put the bone plate back in. He is out of town till Friday and "pretty busy" next week, but she didn't say that was out of the question. It sounded like we will hear from them late this week or early the next on a date. Nathan walked from the parking lot inside of Cracker Barrel and then back to the car today. He did great. We also picked out his chair, it's electric and I think he will be VERY comfy and will do a great job supporting his leg and arm.
Nathan's sister Mindy and her family arrived yesterday and will be in town till Sat. morning. He has 2 therapies Wed morning then again on Thursday with Friday off. His plan is to be at the Snow Camp evening rally on Sat.
Nathan has been home for one week now. It has been therapeutic for all of us to be operating from “home” again. Because of the new flooring throughout our house, Nathan is able to walk (with his hemi-walker) pretty much anywhere he feels like on the first level of our home. And because of all the work done to our bathroom Nathan can maneuver very well in there as well! We are still walking along side of him, but he is daily getting stronger and more stable. The past couple of days we have noticed Nathan using a few more words in his vocabulary, which is encouraging (yes, ball still creeps in from time to time as well as “John,” for some reason, not like John has had a big influence on Nathan’s life or anything).
It’s been an adjustment to say the least for the children to have us all back under one roof. It’s hard not having Nathan to step in and handle things the way he usually does when the kids are giving me a hard time. He is always so careful to make sure they are obeying and respecting me. Since we have all been home again, Nathan does participate in “encouraging” the kids to do what they need to or change their attitudes. It’s amazing the influence a dad can have on his children, even without so many words! It is so sweet to see the kids loving on their daddy though and cuddling with him. And believe or not, it’s Grandma who saves the day and spends the quality “wrestling” time with the kids, thank you Grandma! Nathan’s parents are staying with us for now and have been a HUGE blessing, I cannot imagine not having had them here during this time.
A kind of a funny thing that has become more and more apparent is that Nathan has become very particular about some things that never really bothered him before his stroke. For example, insisting that both of his socks are pulled up evenly or making sure the pictures are hanging perfectly straight… even commenting on and trying to “help” me with my driving! Probably the most amusing part is the run around game we go through to figure out what is bothering him, only to find out it was a crooked picture. So thankful we can all laugh together though.
This week we hope to find out some important things that will affect the coming weeks. One is Nathan’s therapy schedule and then he also has two appointments in Albany, (Tuesday and Friday) with the Neuro Surgeon and Neurology. We are hoping and praying they will tell us at one of these appointments when they expect to put Nathan’s bone plate back in and that it’s soon!
As you can imagine, it’s been tough to find time and energy to have quality devotional time this week. Today while Nathan’s parents spent the day out with the children, Nathan rested and I had such a special time with my Lord! I really have struggled this week to make time to focus quietly on what God might want to say to me. So naturally today’s passage in Streams in the Desert just spoke volumes!
“You shall not go in haste” – Isaiah 52:12 I do not believe that we have begun to understand the marvelous power there is in stillness. We are in such a hurry – we must be doing – so that we are in danger of not giving God a chance to work. You may depend upon it; God never says to us, “Stand still,” or “Sit still,” or “Be still,” unless He is going to do something. This is our trouble in regard to our Christian life; we want to do something to be Christians when we need to let Him work in us. Do you know how still you have to be when your likeness is being taken? Now God has one eternal purpose concerning us, and that is that we should be like His Son; and in order that this may be so, we must be passive. We hear so much about activity, maybe we need to know what it is to be quiet. (from Crumbs) Sit still, my daughter! Just sit calmly still! Nor deem these days – these waiting days – as ill! The One who loves thee best, who plans thy way, Hath not forgotten they great need today! And, if He waits, ‘tis sure He waits to prove To thee, His tender child, His heart’s deep love. Sit still, my daughter! Just sit calmly still! Thou longest much to know thy dear Lord’s will! While anxious thoughts would almost steal their way Corrodingly within, because of His delay – Persuade thyself in simple faith to rest That He, who knows and loves, will do the best. Sit still, my daughter! Just sit calmly still! Nor move one step, not even one, until His way hath opened. Then, ah then, how sweet! How glad they heart, and then how swift they feet Thy inner being then, ah then, how strong! And waiting days not counted then too long. Sit still, my daughter! Just sit calmly still! What higher service could’st thou for Him fill? ‘Tis hard! ah yes! But choicest things must cost! For lack of losing all how much is lost! ‘Tis hard, ‘tis true! But then – He giveth grace To count the hardest spot the sweetest place. (J. Danson Smith)
How to pray
That I will be a good and patient caregiver for my husband during this time (I have forgotten and had given a couple of his medications late a few times which is really scary to me!)
Continue praying for Nathan to regain strength and movement in his right arm/hand
For Nathan’s speech to continue to improve
Wisdom in parenting and helping Nathan/kids to interact
How to praise
Things have gone pretty smoothly this week at home. Nathan even went to the Friday night Snow Camp meeting! It wiped him out really good for a couple of days, but he really loved being there!
Praising God each day for the improvements made on our home and our amazing friends who helped in so many ways to make it happen!
Nathan continues to gain strength each day
Thank you to the many, many people who have been praying, commenting and loving on us! You are all such a tremendous blessing and encouragement to us. Just this evening Nathan was having me read comments from his blog to him (during the Superbowl commercials of course, ha ha) Some of you we won’t get to meet this side of heaven, but we sure do love and appreciate you all!
Yesterday was a huge landmark, Nathan arrived home at exactly the same time that 7 weeks ago he was being loaded into an ambulance, headed for the hospital. Yesterday the finishing touches were being completed on their home when he pulled in the driveway. Here is a video to remember where Nathan has come, how God has shown Himself mighty and celebrate his arrival at home.
It was seven weeks ago exactly (seriously, the timing is weird, it was right at 3-3:15 in the afternoon that Nathan was experiencing his stroke and we arrived back home at 3pm today) that Nathan and I left the house together, but in the ambulance. These past weeks have been the toughest I have ever experienced, but interestingly they also have been some of the most intimate moments I have shared with my Savior and experienced depths of friendships that I had not ever know before!
We left Sunnyview about 11:00am, made a couple stops on our way home and made it just in time to greet a few friends who were finishing up work on our house, there were four guys who happened to still be here, but soooo many people who helped make our home a better, safer place for Nathan to come home to. It was sweet for Nathan to get so see the guys, but also I think it was special the guys were able to see Nathan "walk" in to our house after the major labor of love they all had put into it, thank you Lord for that timing. We had a special time getting re-acquainted with our home, eating dinner and hanging out with the kids. The best part is that we are all going to sleep under the same roof and we'll all wake up together in the morning. It will be so sweet when Nathan wakes up being greeted by our children in the morning.
It seems there are no words to express our gratefulness to those who have prayed us through past seven weeks and back here to our home, those who have worked on our home, vehicles, and donated funds. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Although I do believe God is far from being done working in this situation, we are looking forward to heaven one day when we can all see and understand the total impact of this experience.
I am including some more thoughts from "Streams in the Dessert," I hope it will encourage someone out there as it did me!
God is in the midst of her: she will not be moved: God will help her when morning dawns (Psalm 46:5)
"Shall not be moved" - What an inspiring declaration! Can it be possible that we, who are so easily moved by the things of the earth, can arrive at a place where nothing can upset or disturb our calm? Yes, it is possible; and the apostle Paul knew it. When he was on his way to Jerusalem where he foresaw that "bonds and afflictions" awaited him, he could say triumphantly, "But none of these things move me." Everything in Paul's life experience that could be shaken had been shaken, and he no longer counted his life, or any of life's possessions, dear to him. And we, if we will but let God have His way with us, may come to the same place, so that neither the fret and tear of little things of life, nor the great and heavy trials, can have power to move us from the peace that passeth understanding, which is declared to be the portion of those who have learned to rest only on God.
"Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God; and he shall go no more out." To be as immovable as a pillar in the house of our God, is an end for which one would gladly endure all the shakings that may be necessary to bring us there! - Hannah Whitall Smith
When God is in the midst of a kingdom or city He makes it as firm as Mount Zion, that cannot be removed. When He is in the midst of a soul, though calamities throng about it on all hands, and roar like the billows of the sea, yet there is a constant calm within, such a peace as the world can neither give nor take away. What is it but want of lodging God in the soul, and that in His stead the world is in men's hearts, that make them shake like leaves at every blast of danger? - Archbiship Leighton
"They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever."
To help get the home ready for Nathan's return, a host of folks have been working extremely hard and putting in extra hours to make it all possible. Changes are being made to the bathroom, kitchen, laundry room and flooring. Each to make Nathan's current limitations less of a problem and to help him navigate. To all the men who have made this possible a huge thanks for your labors, and for the ladies coming on Monday to clean... you will be badly needed!! To those of you who have donated funds, without you this would not be possible. Here are a few pictures of what it looked like on Saturday:
Today being Saturday, there wasn’t any scheduled therapy, so Nathan slept late then showered and was geared up to see Beth and the kids when they arrived. In fact when she text that she was there he started rolling his wheelchair to the door, so he and his dad meet them at the entrance. It was pretty neat when they returned to the room with Gavin pushing his Dad, of course Owen had to push him down when we left for the day!
I suppose Nathan had a full day of unofficial therapy with a day out on the town. The first stop after we left the hospital was to a furniture store to try and find a chair suitable for him when he gets home. One that he will be able to get in and out of easier than the couch and will support his arm and leg. Once in the store we appeared much like a train, Grandpa had Gavin and Carly in a wagon, Grandma pushing Owen and Zachary in the double stroller and Beth pushing Nathan’s wheelchair. To say there were stares would be an understatement. BUT, back to the therapy, Nathan got up and down from so many chairs we lost count. When we went to lunch, Nathan chose to walk with his cane into the restaurant, it was a long walk but he made it.
One of the funny things I noticed today was at the restaurant. The kids all had ordered chocolate milk to drink. When they came to the table, Nathan pointed to the cups and told each of them no. They knew exactly what he was telling them, not drink it all, take a sip and save some for the meal to come. At different times each of them needed to be reminded and when he stopped them and spoke to them, “no”, each of them had that look on their face: Oh, no Dad is still in charge and he isn’t going to let us get by with anything!!! It was pretty neat to just fade back and watch them function as a family.
There was a stop to grab a Starbucks, then he was more than ready for a rest, so we stopped at the home where we have been staying here in Albany and he rested for 2½ hours.
From there we made our way back to the rehab hospital one last time with just two more nights to go. It was another great family day and they also got several things done to prepare for his return home on Monday!
How to pray
Nathan’s arm will begin to be useful and that his leg will continue to function more and more.
For his speech to improve
For everyone as adjustments are made to outpatient therapy and a new schedule at home
For lives he has touched at Sunnyview
How to praise
Preparations in the home for his return to make things more accessible
Friday morning stated off with therapy, and once he got going it went well and Nathan walked 250 feet with just a straight cane.
11:00am Kerri worked him hard with strength training for his weak leg. She actually had him moving kinda flexing his foot, straightening out his leg, lifting it. That was pretty cool!! Interestingly, she had a little girl the same day Zachary was born—that was pretty cool.
The sessions with Peggy the speech therapist were really good today. She began explaining to us that more than Aphasia, Nathan has more Apraxia. That is where he knows the words, names of things, etc. but the motor part of the brain scrambles it when it comes out. He knows it isn’t right when it comes out and is searching for the correct words. So today she spent a lot of time working on conversational situations and encouraging him to give responses even if they don’t come out correctly. He did really well and I was impressed how much better he was doing with phrases. I do believe yesterday was just an all around difficult day for him due primarily to not feeling well and then still working so hard physically. Personally, I think what seemed perhaps he wasn’t doing so well was what we were seeing as a result of being very tired.
Sara worked with him for an hour on writing. He is continuing to improve so much. He and I have talked about what we can do when he gets home to help further develop this, I think we have some ideas.
By 3:30 he was finished and rested in bed while watching Bones. He is anxious to see Beth and the kids tomorrow and I told him that the kids are staying and coming to get him out of the hospital on Monday, that definitely pleased him! We can expect him to be released on Monday mid-morning which is cool.
Considering this facility sees patients come and go all the time, I was surprised but VERY PLEASED that some of the nurses and therapists seem to be kind of sad he is leaving. Happy that he can but apparently have become attached to him too, I think that is pretty special.
Well that is about it for today... the countdown is on, two more days to go.
Last night (Tue) being a very busy night for Nathan it was good that his first therapy wasn’t until 10:00 a.m. today (Wed) so he slept in until 8:00. However once therapy began is was a day of rigorous workouts, preparing him for his dismissal. In PT he was downsized to a smaller four footed walker that is easier to manipulate on turns and stairs, at one point Thomas introduced him to going both up and down the stairs without holding rails and leading with his weak leg. It was very difficult and tiring for Nathan but he accomplished the task.
He is counting the days until his release; the large calendar display in his room is of great importance to him right now. Several times today he checked the date and counted out the days till his scheduled release on Monday. He was anxious to talk to Beth on the phone tonight, having Mom and Dad here is okay but he truly misses his wife!
It ended up being a quiet evening and he got some much needed rest after his dinner and shower.
As was mentioned in today's post, the Impact team was the scheduled entertainment for the all the folks at Sunnyview Hospital. One of the songs they sang was Never Once by Matt Redman, here is the video.
Today has been a great day!! Tuesday is when the Dr’s usually meet and talk thru each of the patients and the plan for the week. So today when the Dr’s met they set next Monday January 30th, as Nathan’s go home date from the rehab hospital. This is huge news because 6 weeks and 1 day ago was when this started and here we are headed home. The hospital has been great setting up the therapy that will need to be done after he gets home and working to make sure all the details that will need to be done over the coming weeks is underway, this is an awesome step forward.
For the past two weeks of Snow Camp we’ve had concerts on Friday night with the band Sixteen Cities. Nathan was a big part of the process that we as a Snow Camp leadership team went thru on setting up the idea and picking the group. So over the past two weeks, I’ve shown him the videos of the concerts and he was really psyched on attending the sound check for their concert this past Saturday in Schenectady. But being at home on Saturday was such an awesome experience for him, he decided not to go so he could spend more time at home. So to now have a go home date is a huge deal and he is absolutely thrilled.
A little over a week ago, the Word of Life Impact team came down and spent some time with Nathan and encouraged him with a few songs and prayer, it was a very special time. So Beth worked it out for them to come back today from 7pm-8pm to sing to everyone on the floor as the weekly activity. So they brought all the patients that wanted to come into the physical therapy gym and the Impact Team did nine songs with some personal testimonies mixed in. It was really awesome, because they did the song Never Once by Mark Redman, for those of you who’ve read all the blogs, you know that Nathan’s last “Song’s that Rock” blog post just a few weeks before his stroke was about that song and his comments along with the words of the song give a very powerful insight into this whole opportunity God has given Nathan. As the team sang Never Once, Beth and I are wiping away the tears while Nathan is soaking it up. It was a really great time of ministry to everyone involved and it was moving to see folks who have been thru traumatic experiences thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the ministry. The guys concluded by spending time with the patients, talking and praying with them.
One of the nurses mentioned at the end there was a guy who’d been in an accident that resulted in his leg being amputated and could use some encouragement, so we went to his room. He was a little reluctant but agreed to one song. Yet as the guys sang, he was moved and loved it, and he asked for a second song. 14 guys and 2 guitars all crammed into a small hospital room singing Just a Little Talk With Jesus and What Life Would Be Like was pretty awesome and the guy was very moved and appreciative and we concluded by praying for him. So would you take a minute and pray for Will and ask God to use tonight in a very special way in his life?
Tonight as we left there was a huge smile on Nathan’s face and a great sense of satisfaction. It was a fun night and again I am reminded that hospitals are full of people that don’t have hope. Tonight something as simple as a group of guys coming and singing for an hour is huge and means more than anyone will ever know.
Impact Team, you are the bomb!!!
How to pray
Pray the remainder of this week Nathan will make some huge strides
Pray for Beth as she has to go to the dentist tomorrow
Pray for the team of men working on Nathan’s home getting it ready for Nathan to return
How to praise
Praise God for the incredible ministry opportunity today
Praise God that 7 weeks from the stroke, Nathan will be home
Nathan had a packed full day today! The two things that were not the "usual" were getting his new (black) leg brace fine-tuned (this is great because it's more comfortable and will help him walk better and correct other potential issues with his right leg/hip) and also he had his second Psych evaluation. The last one was one week ago and the therapist was impressed that Nathan had continued to show improvement on things like speech, memory, etc. At this point much of Nathan's physical and occupational therapy have been geared towards strength training and also being able to do some of the basic things like getting in and out of the car, shower, etc. Tomorrow (Tuesday) morning we should get word about Nathan's exact discharge date so we are very excited about that. We also have a meeting to help us figure out a lot of the details that will follow Nathan's discharge, like out-patient therapies, etc. We ended our day having dinner with some friends and then a few rounds of Monopoly Deal. Nathan has not lost his sense of humor or need for controlling the game, that is for sure! Not to mention he won two of the three games.
I have accumulated several places where I've been finding encouragement (spiritual food!) these past weeks, including, the Word of Life Online Quiet Time, "Out of the Spin Cycle" by Jen Hatmaker, "Streams in the Dessert" by Mrs. Charles Cowman and also "Calm My Anxious Heart" by Linda Dillow. All of the books were gifts from different people and then the Word of Life Online Quiet Time is something I have been using since my husband talked me into trying it over a year ago (he has had a big part in getting this started so naturally I had to "try" it… LOVE IT!). I have used the WOL Quiet Time journals for years, but just this past year gone online with it. It seems that whatever I choose for the day, the Lord has something wonderful for me/us to grab onto. In light of Nathan's love for music I had to share this one with him yesterday:
"There is no music in a rest, but there is the making of music in it." In our whole life-melody the music is broken off here and there by "rests," and we foolishly think we have come to the end of the tune. God sends a time of forced leisure, sickness, disappointed plans, frustrated efforts, and makes a sudden pause in the choral hymn of our lives; and we lament that our voices must be silent, and our part missing in the music which ever goes up to the ear of the Creator. How does the musician read the "rest"? See him beat the time with unvarying count, and catch up the next note true and steady, as if no breaking place had come between.
Not without design does God write the music of our lives. Be it ours to learn the tune, and not be dismayed at the "rests." They are not to be slurred over, not to be omitted, not to destroy the melody, not to change the keynote. If we look up, God Himself will beat the time for us. With the eye on Him, we shall strike the next note full and clear. If we sadly say to ourselves, "There is no music in the 'rest,'" let us not forget "there is the making of music in it." The making of music is often a slow and painful process in this life. How patiently God works to teach us! How long He waits for us to learn the lesson! - Ruskin (Streams in the Dessert)
What a fabulous day we had! The kids were all up right at 7:00 am (as usual) excited to get the house ready for Daddy. Nathan's pass was from 8:00am – 8:00pm and you better believe we made every second count! Nathan was ready to leave at 8:00 am sharp with Mom and Dad. They of course made a quick pit stop at Starbucks and then made their way up to Pottersville. It snowed some, early this morning and some friends came by to get the driveway/porch ready and safe for Nathan (Thank you Williams family). Nathan and his parents arrived around 10 or so. After making poor Nathan wait in the entry way for several minutes while we switched out his shoes to dry ones, he triumphantly WALKED through the house (with his cane/walker) and wife in tow, but you should have seen the excitement and satisfaction written all over his face! It was awesome.
Our day was full of visiting, celebrating Owen's 2nd birthday (and a little Christmas), Nathan got to listen to Gavin read some of his homework (he was very impressed at how much Gavin had improved in the last month and a half), somehow Nathan was actually starting to teach Gavin how to play chess, excited that Nathan remembers how to play chess! Nathan and the kids watched some Charlie Brown and the Chipmunks. Somewhere in there was a nap (yep I got to snuggle right up close to my husband in our own bed! Is it okay to say that? :) We were able to share two meals together around the table as a family (the kids were very excited for us all to hold hands when we prayed, too cute).
It was hard to leave, but I am so very proud of Nathan. I will admit I was nervous about how it would go when it was time to leave, but he did SO good! We talked about how this last week would be great for him to "fine tune" things so that once he got home it would all go that much more smoothly. I asked him if he trusted God's timing and that God has his best interest in mind and I got a yes (with partial smile) both times. So Nathan left willingly (thank you Lord!) and with a good attitude to head back to Sunnyview. It was a little odd to finally be home together then have to pack up and drive all the way back to Sunnyview and wheel back into our room. We were rolling down the hall just as the receptionist was speaking over the intercom that it was 8:00pm and visitors would have to leave soon. Nathan even had time to get in a nice hot shower before bed. We are so thankful for many friends who are helping to fix some things in our home, especially the bathroom to be able to better and more safely accommodate Nathan during his recovery. I am excited to have him home and to be able to see him be able to get around with more ease and comfort!
So as we are excited and nervous about this potential last week before moving back home, please keep praying for Nathan's strength and more movement to come from that right side. His leg is continuously getting stronger, but still not much from the arm/hand at this point. Please pray for Nathan to be motivated to work hard all week and finish his time out here strong. Pray for any opportunities to be an encouragement to the staff here. By the way, The Word of Life Impact Team should be coming down on Tuesday night to sing for the patients here from 7-8pm so that will be a neat time!
Thank you to everyone who was praying for our time together today! It truly was one of the best days ever!
Nathan had an extra session of physical therapy yesterday and it was a killer workout with Fallon She had him doing deep knee squats leaning against a ball against the wall. Then along the parallel bars she had him put all his weight on the weak leg and luck his good leg out to the side 15 times. The purpose and goal is to strengthen the quads. It was tough but Nathan hung in there and did a great job!
Later his physical therapy was with Thomas and they walked the entire loop around the wing about 450'.
His speech and occupational therapy focused on correct word usage and learning to write with his left hand and getting what he knows correctly out onto paper.
The huge thing and a surprise to all of us was the removal of his feeding tube. It went well and was quick. Tonight for the first time in 40 days he has NO tubes coming out of his body!!!
We made the big switch yesterday when Nathan's parents made the drive down to Sunnyview and I came home to be with the kids for a few days. Whichever one of us is away from Nathan at the time, we have tried to stay in constant communication (usually texting), updating on fun things that happened throughout each day, progress in Nathan's therapies, etc... I am including my overall update from Nedra (she is so kind to give me pretty detailed descriptions every day!)
Speech was an hour straight (usually it's split up with 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon) Nathan did well, but it seemed a little long for him today. Worked on pronouncing "T" and a lot more on completing sentences. We discovered that Nathan does still know how to spell. Peggy would show him a picture and using the blocks with letters (from scrabble) and he would arrange them to spell the words correctly (I.e. table, bed, etc.) so now they are focusing on reconnecting him with letters. He spent time in both speech and OT writing letters and words.
They have added a new therapy called Recreational therapy where he played Monopoly Deal and he was totally taking charge and if you know Nathan, that is something that has NOT changed!
In PT, he walked, did stairs and parallel bars and got his leg brace.
We hope to know on Tuesday for sure which day Nathan will get to move back home.
The fun news of the day is that this evening as I was cleaning up after dinner, I received a phone call... I expected it to be Nedra as I could see her name on the caller I.D., but it was Nathan on the other end. He had found my name on his mom's phone list and tapped on it to call me. When I answered, he said "Hi!" and I was like "well, hey!" what a surprise, ha ha! I told him what all the kids were doing, Gavin was watching Wild Kratts, Carly was on the computer and Owen was playing in the laundry basket - pretty much the typical places you find my kids, yes even the laundry basket is something they all fight over, go figure. I put the phone on speaker so the kids could hear Nathan and it was SO FUN! He said "hi" to them and then said each of their names. He also said "I Love You" to them, it was so cool to see the smiles on their faces.
Thank you Lord for this fun treat to end our day with!
This evening three of us went down to spend some time with Nathan, my brother Phil, Doug Armbrecht and myself. His therapy had him pretty wore out, but we had a good time. I showed him all the videos from Snow Camp which are really awesome and he was thrilled, everything got a huge thumbs up, you can tell he greatly misses camp. Pastor had been with him for a good amount of time today and brought him some great surprises.
His words and speech are improving a little at a time. The Dr’s right from the start told us with the stroke effecting most of the left side of his brain that speech would be a problem and they were right. It is almost like the stroke wiped away all his words. Each day in speech therapy they work with him on his speech and do a great job. So all of us have been helping him pronounce different things as we talk and helping with the things we figure out he is saying. He is a great learner and works hard at trying to express himself. While the stroke affected his speech, it did not affect his thinking and he can think very clearly and knows what he want say, just can’t put the words together.
His walking has improved and they have now left a cane in the room for him to use in getting around which is very exciting.
But the big news of the day is that the rehab hospital is now starting to talk about a date for him to go home. This weekend he will spend a day at home just to see how it goes and get a feel for what it will take for him to navigate and operate. Tonight when we talked about it, he was very excited and eager. I was messing with him about staying and of course that brought a big thumbs down. But now that we are close to that transition there is some work that will need to be done at home to get the house ready for him to make that transition.
How to pray
Keep praying for his right side, we need to see it respond and see his mind take control again of that area.
Pray for his speech that it would also improve quickly.
How to praise
Praise the Lord for Nathan’s humor.
Praise the Lord for this determination and his pushing himself to learn and keep moving forward.
Praise the Lord for the men stepping up to do the work on the house.
One of the things that Nathan was very involved in and had a huge love for was training youth leaders. Having been involved in Word of Life Local Church Ministries for many years, he had developed a very likable and professional style in his teaching and training. Today an email reminded me of this so I thought I would pass it along to you. Nathan was very involved in TransferLive an awesome online training tool and had recorded a number of sessions along with being involved in some panel discussion on current youth trends. If you would like to check out some of Nathan’s teaching each of the sessions is less than 10 minutes, very professional and will give you a sense of Nathan’s passion.
Today, my wife Cathy and I stopped and picked up Nathan’s youngest son Zachery and headed to Albany to spend the day with Nathan and Beth. We brought the baby so Beth could have some time him, as a mom being away from your 13 week old son for 3 to 4 days at a time is pretty tough. For me, not seeing Nathan for the past 4 days has also been tough. I was down on Wed of last week, because starting Thursday we had to gear up for week 1 of Snow camp with preparation and a leadership meeting, then Friday was game day, so today came with much anticipation.
This morning for occupational therapy, the therapist took Nathan, Beth and one other patient to 5 Guys Burgers and Fries around 10:30am and of course Nathan loved the outing not to mention the great burger and fries (not quite as good as In-N-Out Burger….) and they had just gotten back when we showed up. Beth and Cathy took the remainder of the day to do girl stuff (shopping) while Nathan and I spent the day together. Of course the big thing on the list was for us to talk about Snow Camp.
For those of you who don’t know, Nathan was on the leadership team for Snow Camp and was responsible for all the music, working with Jason Headlee one of the other Assist Directors on all the meetings and overseeing our counseling and camper ministry. So for more than 6 months now we have been planning, preparing and putting together all the details, Nathan was deeply integrated into Snow Camp. Then to understand it at an even deeper level, Nathan has a huge love for camp, back in August he was appointed as one of the directors on the Island and we spent many years working together at West Coast Camp. So to say he was eager to find out how Snow Camp went would be an understatement (thank you Aaron Kingsbury for building the anticipation.)
When the girls left we jumped into how camp went and got into it only as far as Friday night and the unbelievably awesome concert by Sixteen Cities. Of which I showed him pictures and some video I shot on my phone. You could tell he was excited and bummed all at the same time, excited for how cool it was, yet disappointed he couldn’t be there. But before we could go any further, we were interrupted for physical therapy.
In physical therapy, they fitted him for a special leg brace that will help him with his walking. It will protect and help his ankle and aid the knee and hip in the process. The funny part is that half way thru he kept saying “done.” Now keep in mind he has what we call “stuck” words. These are words he has learned that kinda get stuck and he uses them for everything. So half way thru therapy he was saying “done” and pointing to the end of the therapy room. We had just asked him which cane he’d been using, so we thought “done” and his pointing meant there was a cane down there he wanted. So the therapist wheeled him down, but when they got to the end of the room he pointed to the clock (the time was 2:30) and he kept saying “done.” It was pretty clear that he was trying to communicate that session was DONE! But we all had to remind him it wasn’t done and we still had 30 more minutes. For the remainder of the session he did only what he had to do and made it clear he wanted quit. So the final part of therapy was him walking back to his room on his own. Just so you have a mental picture of what that is like…. Nathan uses a four-footed cane on his strong side to lean on and kinda swings his non-working leg around. They follow closely behind with the wheelchair and have a belt around him which they hold onto in case he trips, or something goes wrong.
When we got back to the room, he immediately wanted me to talk about camp!! Then it clicked, he wanted to be done because he didn’t want to do therapy he wanted to talk camp. But we didn’t get 5 minutes in before the speech therapist showed up and escorted us down to the speech room for a ½ hour session of therapy. After speech, he was pretty tired, so I tried to get him to move to the bed and take a nap but he wasn’t having any of that. He made it clear that he was going to stay in the wheelchair and I was going to tell him about camp.
So we talked thru the whole weekend of Snow Camp and I left no detail out, I told him everything. We talked thru every meeting, every person, every song, all the details and was able to show him pictures I captured thru the weekend. The best part of the discussion was the Saturday night meeting. Nathan and Jason had dreamed up a completely out of the box idea for Saturday night and between the two of them they had developed a really sweet idea. The problem is that Nathan was the key central figure. Because the meeting had a huge musical element and the way the meeting was orchestrated, him not being there was a massive problem. The problem was that now me and the young man who leads our camp praise band would need to make it happen. I had explained to Nathan last week, that I was a little upset with him because he had created this meeting and now I had to do it without him and I made sure he understood I was frustrated he was skipping out….
The really cool part was that today I was able to tell him the Saturday night meeting was probably the single best camp meeting I have ever been a part of in my life, it was off the chart. I had all my speaking notes on my iPad so I walked him thru every word and every detail and you should have seen his face as I told him about the meeting. One of my daily prayers has been that at the very least he would be able to be at a Saturday night meeting and I have prayed this prayer with him nearly every time we are together. And today we talked about his being there sometime before camp was over and not only did I get a big thumbs up, but I got a verbal “YES” that was repeated multiple times.
The food here in the hospital is definitely hospital food. While better than a feeding tube and better than baby food, it clearly isn’t something you look forward to. When the girls came back, they brought dinner with them from Chile’s. Nathan and I went thru Chile’s menu online and he wanted a Ribeye steak, medium rare, so that is what he had for dinner, steak, loaded mash potatoes and broccoli. He ate every last bite of the steak, half the potatoes and none of the broccoli.
Then this evening, another couple showed up and we played a couple hands of Monopoly Deal of which Nathan won one easily. And finally just as visiting hours were coming to a close the Word of Life Impact Team showed up. They sang three songs, one of which was Amazing Grace and man!!!! I have to tell you the emotion in the room as everyone sang Amazing Grace was so thick even a knife wouldn’t have cut it. Then some of the guys prayed for Nathan, it was truly a really great time a huge KUDOES to the Impact Team and their ministry. It was a really awesome moment something all of us will never forget. I have a video on my phone I will try to post up at some point.
How to pray
We need to be constantly praying for Nathan’s right side, we need it to respond and for his brain to learn how to make it work.
We need to keep praying for his speech.
How to praise
Nathan’s dogged determination is in place and God’s hand of blessing is very visible, Praise God!!
With it being Sunday Nathan only had half the amount of therapy and the first one didn't start until 11am. This was nice because we were able to fit in breakfast, getting washed up, coffee, QT and watching some of Gavin's Christmas play all before 11am. Even though there was only 30 minutes of physical therapy, Tom the physical therapist made every second count. Nathan walked about 60 feet twice and Tom only helping with balance. The second time Nathan actually walked from the gym to his room, it was AWESOME! There is still a huge risk of turning his ankle or his knee hyper-extending which both could lead to additional issues (and be extremely painful) so please keep praying for strength and mobility to come back quickly so we don't have to worry so much about that. When Nathan practices his walking I always walk in front of him (backwards) to help him focus on looking straight ahead. It was SO cool to see the happiness AND determination on his face while he is walking. I think he was greatly encouraged today.
I also spent time reading to Nathan the blog comments, which are always a huge encouragement and blessing to both of us so please keep those coming, we DO read them.
Interesting quote for today - "God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters." (Dr. Jowett) What is super cool about this quote is number one that it is biblical (2 Corinthians 1:24), and number two, there have been numerous people who have taken their past or current circumstances (and God's comfort to them in their darkest hours) and encouraged us greatly! So many of you have allowed God to use you in a very special way in our lives, Thank you!!
How to pray:
Leg/knee/ankle and shoulder to strengthen and prevent from further injury.
Ear and left side of Nathan's head still very sensitive. They have been giving ear drops for a few days and will try flushing it tomorrow to see if it helps.
Keep praying for the right side to regain sensation and strength
Keep praying for speech communication to improve
How to praise:
Getting stronger every day and constantly impressing the staff here!
The kids and I arrived about 1pm today to pick up Nathan, Grandma and Grandpa for our time out on the town. Originally we had planned to check out a local museum and then go to dinner, but we ended up just doing dinner and then Starbucks for dessert. I guess that was enough for first time out in over a month.
When we arrived at the rehab hospital, Nathan was in his chair ready to go, but still waiting on the nurse to bring the paperwork and medication that would be needed while we were out, he was so anxious to go. He had me check with the nurses to see if the papers were ready, even though they said they would bring them in when they were done. Once she brought them in we were scrambling to get all the kids coats on and have everyone stop in the bathroom before Nathan left without us!! Either the sunlight or the movement seemed to bother Nathan's eyes a bit while we road to the restaurant (one of Nathan and the kids favorites – Cracker Barrel) but it lasted a few minutes and he seemed fine. When we got seated at the restaurant he grabbed the menu right away and found what he wanted. He ordered himself (mostly, I translated a little for the waitress…) The kids and Nathan seemed to have a nice time, Gavin was very excited to sit by Dad. Afterwards we stopped by Starbucks for a dessert drink. Nathan made me leave the car on while I ran inside (that way the heat could be on, lately he is ALWAYS cold, it's so weird as I am normally the coldie!) anyway, I have to admit I was nervous leaving him in the car with it running, but everything was fine when I returned. I did however “accidentally forget" the extra shot Nathan requested in his latte – ooops! Sorry Honey, but I'm the one who has to sleep with one eye open to make sure you aren't roaming the halls at night!
We returned a couple of hours later and let the kids hang out with Daddy a little longer before Doug and Nedra headed back home with them. The kids have all pretty much handled seeing Nathan in the hospital really well. I think the strangest thing for them is not hearing him talk and have him wrestle around the way he likes to with them. Carly is naturally the more dramatic one and she has not been quite as affectionate with Nathan as normal. I tell her all the time, it's okay to hug on Daddy, you won't hurt him… tonight I noticed that twice she approached him on her own and just hugged on him, I thought that was pretty special.
Once everyone headed home, Nathan and I played a couple of rounds of UNO which I of course won :) but Nathan gave it a really good try. It was totally by chance that I won too, he knew what he was doing. It was the cutest thing whenever he would say "UNO" too, I'm sure he would think I am ridiculous for saying that, but I just loved the way he said it. We started to watch a movie but suddenly Nathan was just wiped out and ready for bed. SO, here I sit after my grande cinnamon dulce latte typing away… hoping I can get to sleep soon… apparently Nathan's latte didn't bother him.
I know we haven't really posted many pictures up to this point, but I have wanted to make sure that Nathan knew they would be up and that he was okay with it. Today Nathan gave me permission to share a couple of pictures from our outing to Cracker Barrel. Thank you again and a million times over for all your prayer support and encouragements that are constantly being sent our way!
This is a verse I read today that I wanted to share. I am not sure what translation it is from. James 1:2-3 "Reckon it nothing but joy…whenever you find yourself hedged by the various trials, be assured that testing of your faith leads to power of endurance." I just love the idea that God "hedges in" His own that He may preserve them, what a neat word picture!
Tonight as I went over with the kids the different specific ways that God has been answering our prayers in healing their daddy, their faces lit up and they were so excited to pray! I know the times will come when we will need to help the kids understand that God doesn't always answer our prayers the way "we" want or hope and that He is still good and loving and worthy of our trust. However, right now it is just the sweetest thing to see the twinkle in my children's eyes when they see how their Heavenly Father is caring for and healing their Daddy!!
Today, Nathan had an eye appointment and had a prism put on his right lens to help with the double vision.
Speech therapy went well, he did a lot of answering with correct words. Peggy would read a sentence and he would fill in the missing word. It seems that the more tired he gets the more difficult it is for him to communicate.
Nathan climbed stairs again today in Physical Therapy and they trained Doug (Nathan's dad) to assist him. During the afternoon session he walked and did the work himself. Bridgette, the Physical Therapist walked along beside him holding the belt and reminding: cane, right, left. He was totally moving (swinging out) his right leg. She did not move or assist his foot at all, it was pretty amazing!!! Monday he will be cast/molded for a personal brace for his right leg.
During Occupational Therapy the past few days, Sarah has used the E-Stimulation device to shock Nathan's muscles to help wake them up. Today he actually moved a couple of his right fingers and wrist on his own! On Monday, Sarah says she will start having Nathan walk down to therapy on his own. Keep in mind he is only a few hundred feet from where he has therapy, but for Nathan to "walk" anywhere is pretty much just a miracle!!! Thank you God!
Nathan did a great job in speech therapy today and worked on several new words. In addition to that, I noticed that, on his own, he said several correct words based on what he wanted to communicate at the time, rather than just using words he’d worked on in therapy. He has also responded well when he wants something if I stop and ask him to say please or thank you.
Early this morning he pointed to the window and said the famous “ball” so I asked him, “Oh, you want the blind open?” He said, “Yes.” Then I told him that I never knew “ball” could have so many meanings!!! He laughed. We did pretty well communicating today, but then there were times we just found ourselves both laughing because of the confusion. Thankfully our sense of humor is still somewhat intact!
One word he has NO problem saying is” BONES” anytime he has any free time (Bones is a series that Nathan and Beth enjoy watching together. Nathan has been watching reruns on Netflix during some of his downtime). “Ouch” is another word he has used a lot today, not because he was always in pain---just that it is a new ‘stuck’ word for him. (What I mean by a ‘stuck’ word is a word he has learned in therapy and uses when he thinks something and tries to talk with us. It’s the only word that comes out. “Ball” has been the one he uses most.) In fact, he wanted his glasses and kept saying “ouch,” then called his iPad “ouch.” So when I made him say the proper words and he could do it that was cool! I decided I’m not going to let him slide on words and make him say the correct word once I figure out what he wants (Must be a ‘mom’ thing. :)
Today Doug or I have been transferring Nathan to and from his wheelchair. We were shown how and practiced getting him in and out of a vehicle. From that he was assisted walking up and down four steps two times followed by walking 150’! He had a killer work out! This all will help with our time out on Saturday. Yes, Nathan has been cleared to have an outing with us all on Saturday (since there are no therapy sessions on Saturday), so we'll be planning to take him somewhere special! He has been thinking about which restaurant he would like to go to the most! The kids are very excited to take Daddy out! BTW, I think he has every intent on being at snow camp; he is very determined to make that happen!
Monday afternoon when Nathan's nurse came on and saw the trach was out she was really happy! She told me she had been praying for him over the weekend! Today when she came on duty I was telling her that he was getting a pass to leave the facility for an outing on Saturday and how surprised I was because I thought it would be 3-4 weeks down the road. She told me that is normally what it would be. Then she pointed across the room to Nathanand said. "But that's a miracle man there in that bed!"
How to Pray
Please pray that the swelling goes down above his left ear and that the pain in his ear is resolved.
Also pray that Nathan will gain back all control and feeling back in his right arm/hands/fingers and leg/foot/toes!
The past two days they have added an extra 30 min. to Nathan's physical therapy. He also had the Stim (electrode thingy) machine that shocks his muscles to help stimulate and wake-up the movement. Nathan has been saying more and more words in speech therapy. Today he worked on a bunch of words and was actually using "bathroom" and "please”. At one point today I was trying to figure out what he wanted (this happens constantly each day) and was going through the list, do you want your glasses? Thumbs down… do you want a drink? Thumbs down… do you want to sit up more? Thumbs down… do you want a blanket? Thumbs Up… Oh!!! Great, phew… :) I was only slightly frustrated when I finally figured out what he wanted and tried to nicely point out that he could say "please" because I had heard him say it in speech therapy. So he started saying please! He actually said it several more times which of course melted my heart and made me feel like a big jerk for getting frustrated. We have gone through this same process several times a day for weeks so today to have Nathan say please and see that it meant so much to me was special!
Beth Shoultz
Tonight was a fun night because it was Guys Night at Nathan’s room. When I showed up, Beth was back home with the kids and Nathan’s mom was headed out which left Nathan’s dad, Mike Calhoun, myself and my brother Phil and the four of us guys had a great time. As my brother Phil and I were driving down tonight I was dealing with some problems with the online Quiet Time, so for the first few minutes we were together in his room, I was still working on the issue. It included me having a really good friend, Brian Pace on the phone who has been a key part of the QT project, so I let Nathan talk with Brian on speaker phone. This turned into a great discussion because Nathan has been a foundational piece to the Online Quiet Time so he was very interested in what was wrong and what we were doing to fix it and really wanted to talk w/ Brian (despite the fact that he really doesn’t talk and you have to do all the talking.) He was very pleased the problem wasn’t our issue and when I explained it was an internet service provider that is responsible for the way browsers connect to the Quiet Time he was both happy it wasn’t our issue, yet frustrated they were messing things up and causing us problems.
After that was all taken care of, it was typical group of guys. Everyone started trashing and picking on me. So I started dishing Mike Calhoun, then I spread the love to Phil Armstrong. At one point we were even messing with Nathan. It was a great night and you could tell that Nathan loved the all guy atmosphere and the fun we had together. I read him all of today’s comments from the blog and it was fun to get his thumbs up and down from the different comments. He was a big thumbs up for all the Starbucks comments and a thumbs down to the Greg Snook’s camp coffee comment. Of course Mike Calhoun had brought Nathan a Starbucks tonight and by the time I had arrived he had already knocked it off (and gone to the bathroom twice….) Mike Calhoun prayed for him before leaving, then I walked him thru the details for the upcoming first weekend of Snow Camp which he very much appreciated. So it was a very fun time together!! Be praying for Nathan’s dad as he sleeps in the room with Nathan and cares for him.
Nathan was upgraded as far as he can with the food today and can eat anything; he just needs to have someone with him just in case he needs any help… especially with the one hand not working. He had an extra 30 min. of physical therapy today and did some stretching, rolling and stood on his own for 2-3 minutes. In his occupational therapy they did the electrodes tool to shock / stimulate his arm and were pleased with the results. Because of how well he is doing, the Dr’s are already thinking thru timelines on when Nathan might be able to go home, we’ll know more in the next week. Of course he would still do outpatient therapy for who knows how long…. And we can do it in Glens Falls if it seems like a better plan, but will not decide that now.
I gave him a cup of black coffee this morning and he was very content with it. The coffee in the cafeteria isn't half bad, but isn’t Starbucks. He did lift his leg a little today and he has been saying yes and no a little more.
Pastor stopped by with Starbucks and BBQ from Mr P’s the local BBQ place in Schroon Lake which was a great encouragement and a wonderful dinner.
Today, Beth and Nathan’s parent’s made the switch with mom and dad taking a break and spending a few days loving on the grandchildren and Beth now taking care of Nathan. Tonight when Cathy and I arrived Nathan was up, alert, and he looked great. For those of you who have been following how things have progressed from the beginning, you know that about 12 hours after the stroke took place, bleeding and swelling of the brain set in and the Dr’s had to remove a large portion of his skull on the left side of his head to allow the brain to swell that direction in order to save his life. For about 3 weeks the swelling was extensive enough that you couldn’t tell that side of his skull had been removed. But over the last week the swelling has been going down, so that now it appears it is almost back to normal. The Dr’s have kept the plate in the freezer and at some point in the future will put it back. So while I say he looks awesome, he does look a little lopsided now but that is a very good thing.
Also today, they removed the trach in his throat which is another huge step forward. Tonight he simply had a cotton ball with a piece of tape holding it in place. The metal tube with the stuff that went around his neck are now gone.
Also the therapist cleared Nathan for regular fluids today which means he does NOT need thickened drinks which taste awful. I have been telling him for a few days now that when he was given the OK, I would bring him a Starbucks. For those of you who don’t know Nathan, he is a coffee addict / connoisseur. So over the last few days, I have been asking him what kind of coffee he would like and have been messing with him over it. Every time we talk about me brining him something from Starbucks, I would say “now you want a green tea right?” Nathan is a coffee guy and I don’t think the term “green tea” is even in his vocabulary, so each time I have made that statement, I’ve gotten this VERY definitive thumbs down (that is a NO.) Then I usually follow that by saying, “now you want a decaf right?” And again a huge thumbs down because he always adds extra shots to his coffee. So today getting the green light on regular fluids was a big deal so to celebrate, I bought him a triple, cinnamon dolce latte, extra hot. You should have seen his eyes when I walked thru the door tonight with that Starbucks cup… Needless to say he absolutely loved it. He drank it slowly, he enjoyed it, and the way he held it you could tell he thought it was the bomb. He even looked at the writing on the side of the cup just to make sure I had gotten the right thing.
As many of you know, one of the things Beth has so much wanted to hear has been Nathan’s voice, because since Monday the 12th of December when the stroke happened he hasn’t spoken. Now keep in mind, right from Tuesday afternoon the 13th, the Dr’s have told us that one of the major things controlled by the left part of the brain is speech. They’ve reminded us many times that speech would be greatly affected and that he would probably have to start from scratch. Then for the last couple days the therapist has been working hard on his speech using all kinds of methods and ideas that have been returning great results, with a few words here and there, words that are ingrained like days and months and for the last two days, the word “ball.” Well today in therapy he learned to say something very special… Not long after Beth arrived this afternoon, Nathan said to her “love you Beth!” So today, God gave Beth a very special present. We don’t know if the therapist taught him this or if he worked it up all on his own, but either way it was a great gift. After I gave him the coffee, Beth had him say it again for Cathy and I to hear it which he did easily, then he went one step further and said “John….”
So tonight was a very good night, we had a wonderful time with Nathan. I asked him if he wanted me to read him is online Quiet Time and he gave a thumbs up and a nod of his head, that seemed to communicate “of course.” Nathan reads his Quiet Time in the English Standard Version, and yesterday when I read it to him, the daily Proverb didn’t read that well, so tonight I tried to change the translation in the Quiet Time and he made it really clear he wasn’t interested in me changing it and he wanted it in the ESV. But when it came to the daily proverb, I didn’t give him a choice and we read it in different translation. This is something he and have done together a lot over the last four weeks and maybe in the next few days I’ll give you a little history on why and where it comes from.
Around 9:30pm tonight the nurse told Cathy and I we had to leave so I prayed with Nathan which again is something we have done together since this started. When I pray for him, it is interesting because now that he is out from under the all the sedation, every time I say “let’s pray” he closes his eyes and bows his head. And on my end, ever since day one I have always cried when we pray together and when we’re done, I wipe my eyes and he shoots me a big smile.
How to pray
Keep praying for Nathan’s whole right side. From his mouth, his arm and his leg, ask God to empower it and make it work.
Keep praying for his speech and that it will come back quickly.
How to praise
Praise the Lord that not only was Beth able to hear Nathan’s voice but she was able to hear him communicate his love.
Praise the Lord the trach is out and that he can now drink normal fluids.
Yesterday and Today (Sat & Sun) have been good days for Nathan and we have seen small steady growth and changes in the right direction. The folks here at the rehab hospital are great and do an amazing job. There are three kinds of therapy that Nathan goes thru each day:
Physical therapy – Deals with the body, walking exercises, etc
Speech therapy – Deals with talking, eating, etc
Occupational therapy – Deals with the day to day living kind of things, dressing, brushing teeth, etc
Generally he will have at least an hour of each, spread out thru the day, (so he can rest in between) though there are days they will break them into ½ hour blocks. Right now physical and speech therapy are the ones we are seeing the biggest results in.
On Saturday, Nathan’s mom and dad brought the kids down to spend some time with Nathan which went well. They were able to get a few hours with him, that included time sitting in his lap, and Nathan being able to watch them play and he was very pleased to see them. When they left, they each gave him hugs and kisses, especially Owen. Owen is the little love bug and when he saw Gavin and Carly giving dad good bye kisses he wanted to make sure we all knew he did not want to be left out. When he hugged dad it was the biggest, little kid hug you have ever seen, definitely cool!!!
Sat afternoon, I was able to take Nathan on a walk (in a wheelchair it really isn’t a walk, but I don’t know what else to call it) so I wheeled him around the block (the area he is in is a large group of rooms all laid out in a big circle like a block) and down the long hall of the hospital.
He is now eating regular food and very much likes it, but the drinks they give him right now all have thickeners in them. But drinks with thickeners taste awful, so while he loves eating regular meals, the drinks are a big downer….. Today mom was able to sneak him a couple regular (non-thickener) juices and he loved it. But the nurse caught the 2nd one and took it away, but she made the mistake of leaving it on the sink so when she walked out of the room, Nathan wheeled the chair over and finished it quick.
Tonight, I brought Nathan a couple gun magazines and when I showed them to him, he kept pointing to his night stand wanting something, so I had to go thru the process of figuring it out. I brought him his iPad, but he thumbed that down (thumbs down means no), I brought his iPod and that was a thumbs down, so I went thru all the stuff on the night stand and finally landed on his glasses and that ended up being the BIG thumbs up. He put them on then handed me the magazines, wanting me to go thru them with him. So I let him pick one and we went thru it together. I had already read them cover to cover and was able to give him the cliffs notes on all the articles, and showed him all the pictures and give him my own commentary on each. He has a couple favorite authors, so on their articles, I stopped and spent a little extra time. Then I read him his QT, and when we finished that he wanted me to read more, so read him todays Proverb.
Mom and dad have been doing a great job taking care of Nathan thru the weekend, then Monday, mom and dad will be switching and Beth will get a few days with Nathan.
Because the stroke was on the left side of his brain, speech is a big part of what was affected. Right from the very beginning we have been told by all the Dr’s that speech would be something that would be a problem. So every day the speech therapist has been working on his speech. They sing songs together, they count, say the days of the week, the months, and she picks things that are very familiar and uses them to encourage talking and to help bring words back. He has said different words, numbers etc and the signing of songs and the cadence helps. At the same, time his ability to say what he is thinking isn’t happening yet. It’s funny because when we talk with him, he talks back to us, when he does all that comes out is the word “ball,” yet he thinks we should understand what he is saying and gets frustrated when we don’t understand him. While this is elementary, we are so far down the road from just 2 weeks ago when we were still dealing with sedation and pain drugs and not being able to communicate at all, so these are good days!!!
How to pray
Pray that Nathan’s right side will begin to respond. While we have seen small movement, there hasn’t been any significant movement so ask God to work deeply on his right side.
Pray for Nathan’s speech to improve dramatically.
How to praise
Praise the God for Nathan’s life.
Praise God for the great miracle we have seen. Nathan had a massive stoke that affected a majority of his left brain and here we are less than 4 weeks later and he is doing awesome!!
I’m praying for Nathan to be restored fully in health and abilities and for him to have such a deeper understanding of the things listed in Ephesians 3:14-21. I look forward to hearing his voice again and being able to listen as he teaches from God’s Word and shares with all of us the treasures that God is instilling in him through this experience! Many people have asked us over the years why we do what we do… reading between the lines they want to know why in the world we would choose to make so little compared to the amount of effort and hours spent working with and for others. Nathan is passionate about investing in people, speaking, teaching and leading others. I cannot pretend to know or understand God’s plans are for us or Nathan, but I know he has been gifted in many ways and his heart has always been to serve his Creator in any way possible. I am choosing (until I see otherwise) to be believe that God will heal my husband in everyway, and equip him and us to even better serve Him!
This morning at therapy Peggy brought Nathan sausage, eggs and french toast for breakfast, he was thrilled! He has been upgraded to solid food, praise the Lord! I don't think I could watch him make himself eat another pureed meal, poor guy!!!
Then at occupational therapy with Sarah (P.S. Sarah rock, she is just a little thing and Nathan responds well to her) Nathan got dressed and brushed his teeth by himself, then worked on strengthening and stretched his right arm. She talked about using an electrode thing on his right arm to help wake it up. Then physical therapy with Fallon. Fallon is also pretty hardcore. She is real nice, but totally worked Nathan hard and assisted him in walking 170 feet two times!!
Then this afternoon, more speech therapy with Peggy. They did lots of singing, worked on words and naming objects. Nathan sang "Jesus Loves Me" with me :)
We watched some Bones episodes and a movie. We also had dinner together. I haven’t been eating in front of him when he had to have the pureed food. So tonight it was fun to sit and eat together… gave him a peanut butter cup for dessert and shared a few bites of my cheese sticks and he seemed pretty excited! Today he has only napped for maybe 1 1/2 hours which is really good considering how pooped he was. He should sleep well tonight. Also, he has had the plug in his trach, for 12 hours right now and it is supposed to stay in for 12 more. It possibly could come out tomorrow if all goes well, so cool!!!
How to pray
That Nathan will get back sensation in his right side, his should has/can come out of joint when practicing walking, the bad leg could hyper extend.
Pray Nathan will feel comfortable practicing talking, he gets frustrated when things don't come out right.
How to praise
Nathan is doing awesome with the therapy
Praise the Lord we are close to the trach coming out
Just a couple of months ago Nathan and I sat together at Mr. P’s BBQ (our first date night since having baby Zachary… although we let him tag along too). As we talked about future plans and things, Nathan shared a lot with me about his excitement and plans for Snow Camp this winter and life on the Island this summer! For anyone who really knows Nathan, camp is another item that would rank high on the list of favorites (John mentioned music being one of Nathan’s favorite things in an earlier post). Years ago when we first got married and began working with Word of Life, we both wrote up biblical principles for various things like our life and ministry, marriage, raising children (biblical principles being what God’s Word says about a particular subject, we would write it out in a clear and concise way just to help clarify for us what God had to say on those areas of our lives…) Since then we have moved several times and Nathan’s position with Word of Life has also changed several times. As we were anticipating all of the exciting changes to come, we realized we probably needed to update our principles. Since one of our longtime favorite verses has been Ephesians 3:20 “Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, He is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope,” we started looking around this whole passage. It didn’t take long before we settled on Ephesians 3:14-21!
Paul prays, “When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will give you mighty inner strength through His Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in Him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now glory be to God! By His mighty power at work within us, He is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. May He be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.”
So as we discussed what our hopes and goals would be for those we looked forward to influencing through Snow Camp and summer camp on the Island and in any other way God allows, this passage covered so much of our desire! Paul prays for:
inner man to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit
for Christ to dwell in your hearts by faith
to be rooted & grounded down in their core
for others to comprehend width, length, height & depth of God’s love
to be filled with the fullness of God
that God does exceedingly, abundantly above what we would even dare to ask for or think of
I believe Nathan had another great day! He had two separate sessions with the speech therapist, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Even from morning to afternoon he improved on his speech! In the morning Peggy had Nathan doing some counting with his fingers and mouthing. He also mouthed a couple songs. By the end of the first session he was working on singing "Happy Birthday" and "Jingle Bells." This afternoon was just another 30 minutes but by the end of the session; Nathan was working on saying "The Lord's Prayer" and "The Pledge of Allegiance!" It wasn't always clear what he was saying, but you could see his lips moving in the right way. His therapist said it several times this way, that he "found his voice." I kind of liked how she put that. When I told Nathan that today is Owen's second birthday, he seemed to work even harder at the "Happy Birthday." He gave the face he makes when his heart is hurting for one of his kids, but I told him we weren't planning to celebrate today and soon we would have a party and could probably include several of us (Nedra, myself and Carly all have birthdays in Jan. & Feb.). Peggy his therapist was thrilled to say the least.
Nathan also had occupational therapy and physical therapy today. He walked assisted three times 15 ft. and one time 20 ft.! He also worked on some balance and aiming by tossing things into a basket. I really appreciated that each of the therapists included me into the sessions. Now that he is getting his voice back I think that is going to help tremendously
It has been bitter sweet to be home with my kiddos the past couple of days. I can’t imagine being without them, but just the same, it doesn’t feel right being home without Nathan. It’s typical for him to stop home once or twice throughout the day as we live just moments from where he works. Sometimes he will have forgotten something he needed or he would come home for lunch. On occasion he would come home to save me from some sort of computer disaster (I am a graphic artist, but he controls all the super techy side of things!) Even though it’s been several weeks since Nathan’s stroke, I still feel like he should come walking through the door at any moment and the kids will all go running through the house yelling “Daddy’s home!!!” I have to wonder sometimes, how do I carry on like normal here at the house, when my sweet husband is sitting in a rehab facility… he can’t walk, talk or hardly express himself? I know how much he loves our children and is always concerned for their very best. Nathan is totally the “fun” one, and the one who wrestles and enjoys all the spur of the moment stuff so I am definitely feeling inadequate here to say the least! I’m incredibly grateful for all of the prayer support and friends who have been helping my family continuously! I just can’t imagine going through something like this without you all! Also, thank you God for my family! Doug and Nedra, Mindy and Wes have helped so much with our children and Nathan (wouldn’t expect anything less, they obviously love Nathan and us so much!!) but it is tremendously comforting to know we will be able to pretty much always have one of us with the kids AND with Nathan in the days to come, so great!
It's 9’ish and the lights are all out and I’m already getting sleepy! Thought I should try to give you a recap while my eyelids are still working :)
When I got here at about 3:15, Nathan had just gotten out of his last therapy (OT) for the day. Sara was his therapist and she seems awesome! I asked Nathan later if he liked her and I got a thumbs up, funny thing is, she is small yet handled Nathan just fine! I even saw her get Nathan from his chair to his bed all by herself! This is cool too because they don't seem to need the lift to move him anymore, he is able to help enough on his own now. They had his trach plugged for 12 hours and he did really well, I think originally he was only supposed to have it plugged for about 8 hours :)
He did great during all of his therapy sessions, they worked him hard, but working him hard is what he spelled that out for them. He also used his voice and said "yes"!!!! I wish I could have heard him, I simply cannot wait to hear his voice again, I miss it so very much!! They did have him walk (assisted) some more too, it was a really good day. He is so wiped after therapy and sleep is so important to his recovery. With therapy and sleep there isn’t much time lift… After dinner, I read yesterday’s posts and comments to him and we watched an episode of Bones together and then he got sleepy so I tucked him in and made myself a bed to get settled in. He looks good! I'm so glad to be here with him!!
Before moving to the rehab hospital little over a week ago, I wrote some thoughts on lessons learned in the ICU.
The last couple days there were a ton of folks in the ICU area. As a matter of fact, one morning every seat was full and folks were standing. Over the past two weeks, we have had one area that we consider ours. Each morning we set up in the same place, know where all the electrical outlets are located, and have our little pattern that we follow. It's like church on Sunday: we all sit in the same place until someone else comes along and sits in our row....... :) This morning, by the time we got here, everything was taken and we had to set up camp in the private room they have for bad news discussions. As I watch all the people and watch how they deal with their situations I have learned a couple important lessons:
1) It is very evident the wonderful community we have in our area that actually encompasses several great churches and Word of Life is a huge blessing. Pastor Peterson and other key folks have been awesome. Folks in our area have jumped in and been a huge blessing to Nathan and Beth, doing everything under the sun to meet their needs. Finding folks to watch the kids, make meals, supply funds to help with immediate needs, help take care of Nathan's family, and serve in whatever capacity they can is more comforting than you can imagine. As we sit in the hospital day in and day out, we do so knowing that things back home are being taken care of. But as we watch the other folks come through, most don't have that kind of support system as they deal with life and death matters. The body of Christ is not perfect, but in times like these the church family here in our area shines. To take this one step further, the churches here in the Albany area and churches around the country have also stepped up and supplied help. One church brings snacks every few days to the hospital, another took care of housing Nathan's mom and dad, and others helped them get here all the way from Alaska.
2) The other thing I have learned being here is the special peace that God provides in these situations. As we trust God for His best, He provides a daily measure of grace that sets us apart from everyone else. We see folks struggling, not knowing what to do. Some who have a lot of family and friends yet still feel alone. Folks on the phone pouring their broken heart out to someone on the other end of the line. My father died when I was 15 and I can tell you it hurts really bad when you lose someone you love dearly. At the same time, despite the pain there is a relationship we can lean on, a Father we can trust, and order to the universe that we know God controls. And while we don't know or understand the "why", we can trust our heavenly Father. Every day as we watch groups of folks here at the hospital and see them go through their pain, there is a clear difference for those who have a relationship with the ruler of the universe. Back a number of years ago I attended the funeral of a man who did not know the Lord, and it was one of the most depressing, anguishing things I have experienced. As I zoned in on these two things, it became very evident to me that everyone needs to be a member of a great church, one that is supportive and loves to reach out and help. Keep in mind, every church has its hang ups, and there is always something that will frustrate us. But when it counts, does your church actively care?
Also keep in mind that for those of us know Jesus Christ as our Savior, we have hope. Even in the midst of pain and loss, we know who holds the future. Beyond the hurt, we have a hope and peace the world around us doesn't have. Our hope has fostered all kinds of conversations here at the hospital and has given us the opportunity to pray with folks, point them to Christ, and try to get them connected with some of the great churches here in the Albany area.
Each day there is improvement with little steps being made. Today in therapy not only was Nathan able to continue eating and feeding himself, he was able to write his name. Stroke victims usually have a problem with double vision, so they are now starting therapy on his eyes to begin decreasing this double vision. Today they also tried a computer communication tool to help him communicate and to aid him in using his own voice.
Physical therapy and getting him walking is now a big piece. Today they again had him walking and exercising in the parallel bars, keep in mind all of this is with assistance. They also worked on balance and did some work on his right side arm and shoulder (the weak side.)
The therapy is spread out thru the day, because it wears him out. So he usually sleeps between the sessions with sleep being a huge help and necessity to his recovery.
Then today they changed his trach with a new one that is much smaller and easier to care for.
How to praise
Praise the Lord the therapy is producing great results
Praise the Lord Nathan is responding well to the process
How to pray
Pray he will get plenty of rest
Ask God to bless the process and that it will work well
Have you been in a situation where you feel like the great stuff happens when you aren’t around? Or the game of the season is playing while you are flying and you can’t hear or see it? I can’t tell you how many times I have been in the air during a big game and the pilot would announce the final score and ½ the plane would moan and the other ½ would cheer. But not being able to actually watch the game is killer.
Today Beth was back here in Schroon Lake getting some good quality time with the kids and missed a lot of the action. During speech therapy, Nathan was able to eat some ice cream, a graham cracker and drink, but even better than that, he was able to actually feed himself for portions of it. If his eating continues to improve, they will remove the feeding tube. Then to take it even further, he was able to go for an assisted walk down his hallway. Because his right side doesn’t work, an assisted walk has folks helping quite a bit with the process.
One of the next steps is to replace his trach with a different kind that will allow the therapist to begin working with him on his speech and begin the process of removing the trach permanently.
Many folks have asked alot of questions about the trach... When a patient is intubated, they have all kinds of tubes that go thru their nose and mouth which Nathan had since the day after his stroke. The problem with all that stuff being in your throat is that it messes with all the soft tissue and after a certain amount of time damage is done. Plus there are advantages to a trach, making things easier medically, and it is much easier to wean off of a ventilator. A huge plus is that with Nathan’s chest cold and infection, it made that whole process much easier to heal. The trach is a temporary solution and eventually will go away and should leave a small scar as the only evidence, so we’ll soon see this go away.
How to praise
Nathan is responding well to the rehab process
Praise the Lord all the Dr’s were wrong that first week he had his stroke
How to pray
Pray that Nathan will continue to respond well to the therapy
Pray for the staff at the rehab center and ask God to empower them beyond measure
With today being a Sunday the rehab hospital subscribes to the philosophy of a day of rest, and there weren’t any therapy sessions. Also the kids came down and were able to spend some time with Nathan for the first time since the stroke happened 3 weeks ago. One by one they were able to see him and spend some time with him. Keep in mind, Nathan cannot talk and while there are times he clearly understands and clearly knows what you are talking about, there are also times you aren’t sure if he understands anything you’re saying. So while he couldn’t talk to them the kids needed some time with their dad and it was good they were able to get that today. Tonight they will be staying down in Albany with Beth, Grandpa and Grandma, tomorrow Beth will bring them back to Pottersville and spend a day or two at home with them.
Tonight our time with him was short, but I would say that he looked the best I have seen him in three weeks. He was sitting up in the bed, he had a t-shirt and sweats on and when we walked in he had some papers and a binder on his lap that he was looking thru. Nathan was on the leadership team with me for Snow Camp and one of the guys on our team, was able to get some camouflage hats that had the Snow Camp logo embroidered on the front and our names on the side. So tonight we took him his Snow Camp hat and it was cool to see him man up on it. Now just so you ladies understand what I mean by that… When a man gets a new hat, the first thing they do is bend the bill a special way, they look at it, then they check it for size, before they put it on, it is one of those man characteristics that comes built in every man. When we handed him the hat, he looked at it, bent the bill, checked the size, looked at it again, then put it on. So while he might be missing a few things because of the stroke, the man DNA still flows in his veins. We also talked about Snow Camp for a while and brought him up to speed on how things are going. Camp is a huge part of who Nathan is and both Snow Camp this winter, and the Island this coming summer were something he was very excited about. There are three things I pray for every day when I pray for Nathan and one of them is that he will recover enough that he can come and be a part of the Sat night service at Snow Camp. The Sat night service was his baby and he had invested a huge amount of time into planning it.
Nathan tires quickly so towards the end of our time together he was starting to doze off. It was great to see him and to see him looking the best yet.
How to praise
Praise the Lord Nathan was able to see his kids
Praise the Lord that he looked great today
How to pray
Pray his lungs continues to improve and get better
Pray he will do well with the hours of therapy he will go thru each day
Pray the therapy will connect and he can learn and respond quickly and well
When I walked into Nathan’s new room at the rehab hospital today, he was in a Nike t-shirt and a pair of shorts. It was really great to see him looking comfortable and getting some much needed sleep. We didn’t have much interaction because he was very tired. They have put a fan in his room which Beth said he really liked. Then later this afternoon, they added a chair to the room, so he can move between the bed and the chair.
Today he had occupational, speech and physical therapy sessions. Each is at least an hour long and today they were beginning to get a feel for where he is and how they need to progress.
Today something else really cool happened. The National Network of Youth Ministry (NNYM) picked up on the Nathan update in their “NNYM Daily” where one of our WOL staff had passed yesterday’s update along via twitter. Tomorrow (Sunday the 1st) the kids will be coming down to see Nathan for the first time since his stroke. Being in the ICU seeing the kids and them seeing Nathan wasn’t an option, plus with all the tubes, wires and the ugliness of the process we thought it best the kids not see him. Tonight Cathy and I have been watching the kids and it was great to sit on the couch and go thru the “go to bed” routine with them. Cathy helped them with their daily Quiet Time, then I read each of them a page they would select from a children’s devotion book. Then they each prayed and it was great to hear them pray for their dad, especially Gavin as he asked for “dad to get better.”
How to pray
Pray for strength as Nathan starts therapy
Pray things will go well as Nathan sees the kids
Ask God to give Nathan strength as he starts thru the different therapy process
How to praise
Praise the Lord we are now in the rehab phase
Praise the Lord the kids and Nathan can spend some time together
Today was a very good day in that Nathan has now transitioned to the rehab hospital. The facility is very well known and very well spoken of. They let Beth ride in the ambulance with Nathan, then everyone got settled in.
Nathan is in a room by himself which is a great blessing. There is a chair that lays flat into a bed which is also a great plus. There isn't a waiting room per se like there was in Albany, but with Nathan by himself there is a little extra space in his room.
Beth is trying to get the kids down on Sunday to spend the day and the night. If all the details work out this will be the first time the kids will have seen Nathan. A few nights ago, Gavin was upset that he hadn't seen his dad and hopefully they will get some great time with him on Sunday.
The new hospital has given Beth some great resources as it relates to communicating which she is starting to work thru. From what we understand, they will be very aggressive and push Nathan which we are very excited about, we also expect it to wear him out. So with his therapy and rest, we expect visitation time with him to be limited, we'll know more toward the middle of next week.
All of the staff back at Albany Medical Center were awesome and had become friends. They were mega impressed at the turn around, "amazed" would be a great way to put it, ad in one sense were sad to see him go.
Your prayers are needed now more than ever because we are starting the hard work phase and asking God to bring Nathan back completely and we would like to see him back involved in the things he so dearly loved doing.
Just another awesome answer to prayer, not only is Nathan going to be move to rehab tomorrow, as I mentioned in the last update, he has now been moved out of the ICU and is going to be in a regular room tonight.
Nathan's mom had a very interesting statement: "We have and elite box seat to watch God."
Today was a very interesting and different day. Besides Christmas Day, it is the only day I haven’t been with Nathan and Beth also left today to spend some time at home with the kids, but Nathan’s mom and dad faithfully held down the fort. Nathan’s mom and I were talking today and it both concluded that every time we think the worst or start to get discouraged, God gives us something special and today was a very special day.
Today, Nathan was able to take three bites of apple sauce which was a huge accomplishment and very exciting. Tomorrow they will have him eat more and will follow it with a test to make sure it is ending up in the right place. Also today for the first day the staff tried to get him to talk and even sing. They sang Happy Birthday to him but he didn’t seem real interested and didn’t participate. But from that, the nurse and our pastor, who was there visiting, ended up talking about music. Pastor is very musical, so he opened up a piano app he has on his iPad and played a few things on the app for Nathan. Now that got his attention!!!! So pastor handed him the iPad and let him fool around with it. You could tell from his messing around, that he was familiar with the piano. He played up and down the scale and it was obvious there was some memory of music. Pastor played Mary Had a Little Lamb, and then handed it back to Nathan who then roughly played it out. It was a great moment but towards the end he was tired and set the iPad aside.
The very best news is that tomorrow before lunch they will be moving Nathan to the rehab facility and just when it can’t get better, the best news would be that God worked out getting us to the facility we wanted and He did it without any help from us. Funny how God can do that stuff without us…….. For the last two days we’ve been working to make this process go smoothly and working to get the facility there in Albany. We even booked an appointment to go see the folks and see if we could work it out, only to find out today God took care of it.
Nathan has been tired the last couple days, and we think he has been reclusive and maybe even a little depressed. So let’s ask God to give him strength and encourage his heart.
How to praise
God has answered our prayer for the rehab facility, He did it faster, easier and better than we dreamed or imagined
Praise the Lord Nathan was able to eat
How to pray
Pray the eating test goes well tomorrow
His lungs are headed the right direction but keep praying they will heal completely
Ask God to encourage Nathan’s heart as only God can do
Ask God to allow the rehab process to make great headway
Things today with Nathan were very similar to yesterday in that we made a little progress. This morning they did a CT scan just to see how things looked. Now with the drain out, they want to monitor him and make sure everything is working like it should. If his body can’t handle the fluid buildup, there are other options available they can implement. For the next day or two they will continue to check and see how it goes.
Nathan very much appreciates being prayed with and he smiles every time we come into his room. He tires easily and sleeps often. On top of that, the nurses have regular times they ask us to leave so they can move him, change his bed, and take care of stuff he is wired to. Then the Dr’s also come thru several times a day to check things, therapy and neurological testing. So with the limited opportunity and his self-respect, we have been reserving the time with him to only a handful of people.
There is a white board in his room that has all kinds of responses to questions on it and one simply just checks next to them. So last night and again today, Beth and Nathan’s mom went thru it with him, and one of the things he checked was that he was hungry. He also mentioned he felt worse, so we tried to explain to him that he was actually better, but then again he could be trying to communicate “for better or worse….” we’re not sure. There is so much we take for granted in our communication as we go thru our day to day lives. It has struck me, my wife and I miscommunicate enough now and we can talk, see, touch, etc, I can’t imagine trying to communicate with 30% of my brain damaged by a stroke.
The next step is for Nathan to move to a rehab facility and an appointment was made today to see it on Friday. Everyone we’ve talked with says the place is VERY good and from what we can tell, they are very professional at what they do. So we are eager for this next step to get under way. One of the girls that has been watching Nathan’s children videoed them singing Nathan his favorite Christmas song and he was able to watch it today, he also watched some TV, then we thumbed thru a couple hunting magazines together. We have also been keeping him up to date with everyone’s emails, Facebook posts and blog comments and we read him his QT each day from the Online Quiet Time.
How to praise
Thank the Lord he is off the drain
Thank the Lord for the great hospital staff
How to pray
Pray his body can deal with brain fluids on its own
Pray the process of moving to rehab will go well
Pray for the kids as they are also in a very unique position
We serve a God that is great, holy and just and as I have been thinking about the great things God has done in bringing Nathan back, I have also been thinking about the other option. What if God had chosen to take Nathan home? As we sit here in the ICU waiting room and see folks lose their loved ones, this question keeps haunting me. Each time I’ve come back to the same fact that even if God would’ve taken Nathan, He would still be great, holy and just. If I can place my faith and trust in God’s hands for my eternal salvation, then I need to place my faith and trust in the fact that God’s plan for Nathan’s life is the very best and while I don’t understand and it hurts to see a friend go thru this experience, God’s will and way are better than whatever I think or deem best.
Today has been a great day!! Very early this morning the Dr’s tested his bad side and when they asked him to move his hand and foot he was able to move them slightly. When we first arrived in the emergency room on Monday the 12th, the nurse handed Nathan’s wedding band to Beth and she has worn it ever since. Today she was showing it to him and he made it very clear that he wanted it, so Beth put it on him and he was very pleased. He has been very tired today, so he has slept alot and we haven’t had a lot of communication. Nathan’s beard has been coming back and it looks good on him, his beard and head both look the same and Beth likes it a lot!!
This morning first thing, the Dr’s removed the drain from his head which surprised us because we were expecting it later today or tomorrow, but we’re very pleased, so he looks a lot better! They will be evaluating him over the next day or two to see how his body deals with the drainage on its own. If his body can’t deal w/ the drainage, they have a procedure they will do to solve this. Obviously we don’t want to deal with that, so please ask the Lord to take care of this.
They also moved Nathan from the bed to a chair this morning and he has been in the chair all day. Just this small change has been great and you can tell he likes it and that it’s more comfortable for him.
How to praise
Praise the Lord the drain was removed quickly and early, this is clearly an answer to prayer we asked everyone to pray for
Praise the Lord that Nathan was able to move his right side in a very small way
Praise the Lord he was able to be in a chair all day today
How to pray
Ask God to help Nathan’s body to naturally deal with the drainage in his brain
Pray the next step to rehab will go well and God will help pull all the details together
God has used our time here to touch several lives, ask God to nurture those seeds
Pray for Nathan’s 3 children Gavin, Carly and Owen who’ve had limited time with mom and non with dad
For those of you using the online Quiet Time Diary, I will post these requests under the request I have for Nathan on my prayer list. It is a public request so you can easily add it to your list from the Community.
Today we spent much of the day with Nathan, he is day by day making little improvements. At times he is very alert and other times he is sleeping or drifting between the two. He was much calmer today and we had some good conversation. Actually it isn't really conversation because we do all the talking and he does the listening. I had a Christmas present for him today, so that was first on the agenda. I showed it to him and asked if he wanted to open it...... From his response I could tell that was a dumb question, so with his good hand, he tore it open with ease. Nathan loves Christmas and this was a fun thing to do together this morning. We talked about the Christmas Eve service at our church, and I explained how his kids helped hand stuff out, they sung the carols well, and how they wanted to hold the candles at the end of the service. (Small children holding a candle is an adventure.) When we took them home, I read them some Christmas stories while we waited for Beth and the family to arrive from the hospital. Nathan loves hearing about the kids and is very attentive when we talk about them.
I read him his QT for both yesterday and today from the online QT, followed by the Proverb of the day and the chapter from the 21 day challenge in the book of John. I don't think he stayed awake for all of it, but you can tell he loves hearing the scripture read. Last night our pastor spent several hours with him reading from the psalms. Pastor asked what chapters he liked, so he held up 1 finger, then a second single finger, then 2, then 3. So pastor read all the chapters with those combinations of numbers. Today after he woke up, I read him the Christmas story from Luke 2.
Many of you have asked how Beth is doing. Beth is a trooper, she is holding up very well and day in and day out she is making it happen. She deals with the hospital staff well, petitions for Nathan and is always looking out for what he needs. She never complains and actually has a great perspective and communicates to Nathan the things God is doing because of this. Several times over the last few days, we’ve had opportunity to share w/ the nurses and Beth insures Nathan knows it. She has decorated the room full of pictures of the kids and family and has music playing from his iPod all the time. All thru the day she kisses and hugs him and it is really cool to see Nathan pucker up and kiss her back. The funny part is that only ½ his mouth really does the puckering so the other ½ just follows suit. But let me tell you… he jumps right out there to kiss her every opportunity he gets. It is also awesome to see Nathan watch her, when she is in the room his eyes follow her and you can visibly see he is pleased to see her. Today she did exercises with both his arms and as she was working his arms, his eyes stayed focused on her face.
Right now we are waiting on two things to work themselves out, the drain from his head and his lungs healing. His lungs still have a lot of liquid in them and we need that to heal up and the drain needs to come out before we can move him to rehab and start that phase of the process. Be praying, there is a great rehab facility right here in Albany we would like to see him transition into.
How to pray
Ask God to heal his lungs quickly
Pray the drain can be pulled out soon without any further issues
Ask God for a good and quick transition to the rehab facility we prefer
Pray for Beth because while she cares for Nathan she is also caring for an 8 week old baby
Each day, there have been small improvements and each is a big victory. In each of the rooms there is a nice chair that lays back with a foot rest and is intended for a family member that wants to stay overnight in the room with you. Yesterday morning (Sat, Christmas Eve) the nurses moved Nathan from the bed and had him sitting in a chair, by afternoon they moved him back to the bed, it was great to see the change!! Nathan hates all the monitor wires and works hard to get them off. The hospital staff are testing his responses each hour, asking him to move his hurt side and show certain fingers or do specific things. While it is a pain thru the night, they follow this pattern to keep track of his progress.
Today, (Christmas Day) they asked him to move both his weak foot and arm and he was able to get them both to respond slightly. So now we are beginning to see even the weak side starting to respond. He is completely off all supplied oxygen and breathing on his own. Currently the only thing keeping Nathan in the ICU is the drain from his brain surgery. As soon as the Dr’s can get that removed, Nathan can make the next step and transition to the rehab facility. There is still liquid in his lungs and he is coughing up a lot of mucus.
How to pray
Continue to pray for Nathan’s lungs, they need healing
Pray the drain can be removed soon with no further complications or needed changes
It has been great to see all the Facebook and blog comments for Nathan, the number of people praying is absolutely stunning, from all around the world comments are coming in. Wednesday I had a dentist appointment, one that because I didn’t cancel it far enough out I would have to pay the bill if I didn’t go. So as I was sitting in the chair, the hygienist and I are talking and thru the conversation it comes up that I have been at the hospital for the last ten days. Thru the course of the conversation I communicate to her about Nathan and what he is going thru. Keep in mind, I am just meeting this lady for the first time in my life. She then tells me that her church there in town mentioned Nathan on Sunday and she has been praying for Nathan every day. What are the odds of going to the dentist, sitting down to find out the hygienist cleaning your teeth, is also praying for Nathan? We serve a big God and it is awesome to see the body of Christ coming together on Nathan’s behalf.
Since all this took place, Nathan obviously hasn’t shaved and for those of you who know Nathan, he is VERY capable of growing a beard of which Beth has been very excited. So each day Beth has been rubbing his face and excited to touch it and see it grow. The other day, one of the hospital staff mentioned there is a person that comes around and shaves the patients, so Beth has been communicating to them she didn’t want his face shaved. Well this morning when we went in, we found out the person who does the shaving never got the message… He was laying there with a very clean shaven face and the person who does it, does a very good job, because it was very well done!!
Today we have learned there have been some issues with the drain from his brain surgery. The Dr’s have been working toward getting it out, but it appears it is still needed, so the plan has changed slightly and they will continue watching it thru the weekend. Today they also shut down the ventilator and Nathan is now breathing completely on his own. This is a good step forward, but we need to see his lungs improve and the infection and pneumonia go away. Nathan very much desires to see all the tubes out and gone and is clearly telling all of us he doesn’t like it.
How to pray
Continue to pray for Nathan’s lungs and ask God to eliminate the infection, pneumonia and liquid.
Continue praying for his throat and the discomfort.
Pray for the hospital staff, they are doing a good job and need our continued prayer.
When you spend 8 days in a Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit, you begin to pick up on the trends. Folks like us fill up the waiting room, then disappear when their loved one gets moved to a normal room or passes away. At least every other day (sometimes every day), we experience folks going through the grief of losing a friend or family member and see them walk the road of pain and anguish. Today a group of folks were here because they had a brother (older retired man) who, while out riding his bike, was hit by a car. They had to take him off the machine keeping him alive. Ellen Garland was here helping to watch Zachery so Beth could be with Nathan as much as possible, and in passing they commented about the baby. So Ellen stopped and asked their story and why they were here. Through the course of the conversation Ellen was able to walk them through the gospel three times. Never in their life had they heard that all they needed to do was place their faith and trust in Christ in order to be sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, they could spend eternity in heaven.
I have learned that if you want to encourage someone and want to instantly have a ministry where what you say matters and where you can help folk begging for help, this is the place. This particular floor has 3 different Intensive Care Unit's (ICU's) and 3 waiting areas. There are times the whole floor is full of people and times folks sitting alone with tears running down their face, or on the phone sobbing trying to tell whoever is on the other end that they had to pull the plug on someone they loved. The stories here are traumatic and it struck me that we need to bring our youth here. Two by two they need to sit in the waiting rooms of this building and all they need to do is listen to the stories and pray with total strangers looking for any kind of light during a day that is very dark. Let me encourage you, if you want to minister to someone or you are looking for a way to make a difference, stop by your local hospital, go to the ICU waiting room, and simply ask whoever is there to tell you their story. (Let me be clear: this ministry is not open air evangelism. It's sitting, watching, and listening until the door opens for asking, comforting, praying, and talking.) Then take them to the throne room of heaven and ask the great physician and great comforter to hold them in His arms.
Yesterday (Thur) and today (Fri) have been very good days!!!! We are daily seeing improvements; they are exciting and continue to breathe comfort into our hearts. After all the bad stuff you go thru, spending days and days going thru the darkness, these last two days have been awesome. Yesterday (Thur) Nathan’s kids came down and were able to be here at the hospital for a little while. They weren’t able to see Nathan, but were able to see where we’ve camped out for the last 11 days. The goal was for the kids and Beth to have some time together and for Grandma and Grandpa, along with Aunt Mindy and Uncle Wes to be able to love on them. The Ronald McDonald House is a kid heaven with so much to do and all kinds of toys to play with, so they are hanging out there and staying with mommy in her room.
This morning Beth and I had some great time with Nathan. He looks great, awake, attentive and while he can’t talk and he can only half smile, (one side doesn’t work) it is awesome to see him alert and with you. This morning when Beth kissed him, be puckered up and kissed her back, he also pushed her until she gave him another hug. Talking to him is great because you can tell he is listening and you can see him smile at certain things you say. We put his glasses on so he can see and today he was working at putting them on and off for himself. At the Word of Life Staff Christmas party last Tuesday, a picture was taken of the 3 older kids (Gavin, Carly, Owen) and this morning Beth showed him the picture and he started crying. It is very obvious that Nathan is with us, and while he cannot speak, you can see in his eyes and in his smile that he is thinking. But because he cannot talk it is very tough for him to communicate with us and even tougher for us to understand when we sense he wants to tell us something. Just a funny story as it relates to this…. When we took Nathan to the hospital on Monday the 12th, after the emergency room, they moved us up to the ICU. Around 11pm that night, with his good hand, Nathan was opening his eye lids, first one eye, then the other. Of course we thought he wanted to see us and is opening his eyelids. In the middle of the night, Beth and I realize he still has his contacts in, so we get the nurse and a flashlight and look at the contacts and his eyes and all appears to be well, so we decide to pull them in the morning. About 5am, Beth and I untie his arm from the bed so we can move him back into a better position and the instant his hand was free, he reaches up and with his good hand and opens first one eye lid then the other, then back to the first, etc. We knew instantly he wanted those contacts out, so we started scrambling to find saline and containers, and pulled them out. So 5 or 6 hours before he wasn’t trying to look at us, he was trying to tell us to take the contacts out and we felt dumb for not figuring that out the first time. So communication is tough but he tries to tell us what he is thinking and we try to figure it out.
Nathan’s sister Mindy stayed with him last night because she had to return home today. It was a blessing for her to be able to see her brother making great strides and to have him hug her before she left. The Dr’s did a CT scan this morning to see how things in his head are doing, and all appears to be fine, blood is flowing well and they are pleased. There is still a drain from the brain surgery and the CT scan confirmed they can take it out so we hope to see that done soon. Nathan’s throat is sore from all the stuff that was in his nose and throat for the first 8 days, and now that it is out we need to see his throat heal. He had a chest cold before the stroke, then with the lung infection and pneumonia, he has a fair amount of liquid in his lungs that has be suctioned several times a day (which is no little ordeal….) and coughing is something that hurts. So we need to see his lungs heal quickly. God is blessing and He deserves all the praise and glory for where Nathan is today.
How to pray
Pray for Nathan’s sister Mindy as she travels
Pray for Nathan’s throat, it is sore and needs healing
Pray for Nathan’s lungs, we need them to heal quickly
Today’s nurse is Lisa, so pray for wisdom as she cares for Nathan
Nathan is doing great, he has been able to wink at the staff, his eyes are also tracking and following both people and on command. He is able to extend and bend his working leg on command. There are two things left to work on:
The breathing tube is the only acute issue still outstanding. They’ve had the oxygen tube off both yesterday and today for a little while and the goal is to wean him off it
The drain tube from his brain surgery is also in a progression to go away. They have taken steps each day to remove that the next day or so.
The skull plate they have removed will be put back into place in the next 3-6 months. The next big step is rehab, so as soon as Nathan is off the breathing machine that will be taking place.
Nathan’s kids have just arrived here at the hospital and they are very eager to be with the family. They are all in grandpa’s lap and being spoiled by grandma. They will be at the Ronald McDonald house to stay and play and get some good family time.
Since Nathan's stroke, we have begun to hear story after story of how God has used Nathan's life and situation to effect change in the lives of others. If you have been following the blog, you know that Nathan had a prayer request on his Online Quiet Time that said "That the Lord would grow my ministry and me thru it."
The purpose of this post is to serve as a place for folks to come and post up stories and tell how God has used Nathan's life and circumstance to change their life or the life of someone else. Just like Nathan did on so many Friday night Say So meetings at camp when he explained how the say so meeting would work, here are the parameters. Put the expressions of your care, prayers and love on the other posts. On this post we want to share just the stories where God has used Nathan’s life and circumstances to effect change in your life or the life of someone else. Simply click the "Comment" text above right under the title and tell us your story.
Just wanted to take a minute and say thank you to everyone for the kind and encouraging comments that have been left on the blog. I have been so busy with the posts, I haven’t had time to publish the comments and tonight I finally went thru them, they were great! Let me encourage each of you to take a minute and just read thru the comments under each post, many of the comments are worth your time.
Each night, before we head back to the Ronald McDonald House for a few hours of sleep, I take a few minutes to say good night to Nathan. Most nights Beth and I do it together, tonight I was by myself. For the last 8 days, it has been a pretty tough exercise because he lays there and the outlook is bleak. I hold his hand or arm and we beg God for a miracle, but tonight was so different. Despite the fact that the nurse had given Nathan a mild sedative to help him settle and sleep better he opened his eyes part way and listened. I told him that I had taken care of their white car and the mechanic had fixed the gas tank and put two new snow tires on the front end. I also confessed that I didn’t know there were already two good tires in his basement that he had already bought, but I told him we would put them on in the spring when we take the snow tires off. I told him that Travis the mechanic over at the Word of Life maintenance shop had his blue van and was doing such an incredible job getting it fixed. I walked him thru all the details of how Travis had found a bunch of stuff I didn’t know about and I am sure he (Nathan) didn’t know about and was making sure it was all working. As I walked thru all the things Travis was fixing, Nathan’s face and mouth communicated back to me. I told him that tomorrow my wife Cathy was going to pick the van up and bring all his kids down. How they would spend the next few days here and were going to get some time with Grandma, Grandpa, Mindy, Wes and Beth and how they would love playing at the Ronald McDonald House. I shared how folks had sent money to help and mentioned some of the names and he was visibly moved. I communicated that I loved him and was concerned for him. I prayed out loud with him and I prayed my selfish prayer again tonight. I asked God to fix him so we could go shooting together and reminded God that we love working on the new online quiet time. I also asked God to do what was necessary so he could lead the Saturday night meeting at Snow Camp some time this winter. I also asked God to answer Nathan’s prayer of growing his ministry and him thru the process. I told God that while I was hurting thru the process, I wanted Him to receive all the glory for what was taking place because of what He had chosen to do with Nathan’s body and life. I asked God to give Katie the nurse wisdom and discernment as she cared for him tonight.
Thru the conversation and the some of the prayer, Nathan laid there and looked at me, his eyes half open and unblinking. Every so often, especially when I talked about his kids, his wife the cars and money, he would move his mouth in a certain way that clearly communicated he was pleased and you could see the change in his eyes. He would also move his good hand and grip the bed a little tighter. Thru the process, every minute or so, a tear would drip out of my eyes and I sensed he was surprised by it. Tonight was a great night together!!
All of us are exhausted and I really should be sleeping but my heart is joyful and expectant. Nathan is responding and after many days of dark, tonight was bright and I feel like I need to tell the world. Many of you who desire so badly to be here, appreciate knowing and feeling what we are seeing and experiencing. I have said over and over again, that being here is so much harder than where you are and not being here.
I haven’t posted any pictures of Nathan because I don’t think he would want the world to see what he looks like, but the day will come I’ll post some out. Take the time to read the post “Did God Ruin Nathan’s Life” and follow that by reading Nathan’s post “Did Jesus Ruin Mary’s Life.”
Today Nathan has had a very good day (as good as you can have in the hospital having just had a stroke….) The process of cutting back on the oxygen and sedation have been going great. In the last 24 hours, the sedation has been cut by 75% and oxygen has been cut by 50%. At one point today Nathan was completely off the ventilator but eventually the nurse put him back on so he could rest more comfortably. Everyone has been able to talk with him and he has hugged most everyone. The Dr was able to get him to squeeze and release on command. Believe it or not, release is more important that the squeeze because squeezing is an involuntary action but release is not. We had his glasses on today so he could see everyone. Keep in mind, with the sedation substantially reduced, he is very uncomfortable and isn’t real pleased with all the “stuff” and the experience.
The next big step involves the drain remaining from the brain surgery, which should come out soon. So they are step by step headed that direction. Today they came by and did an ultrasound just to make sure there weren’t any blood clots forming in his legs, so we are very pleased at the thoroughness of the staff.
I have mentioned several times now that we have several stages to work thru. Stage 2 is us finding out if he would come out from under all the sedation and if so, could he breath on his own and would he wake up and respond to us. I can tell you that we clearly have our answer; he is definitely awake, definitely responds and can operate on his own. So much so we have to keep him from pulling all the wires and tubes off. So now we start into stage 3 which is assessing the damage of the stroke.
One thing we learned from the Dr here was that when a stroke happens, the effected portion of the brain is starved of blood and consequently it dies. So now in this stage, we need to go thru the process of finding out what isn’t working. Right now we know he can’t talk and we know the right side of his body isn’t working. So in the days to come, we’ll be exploring what is broken or not working correctly and that will become the plan for the 4th step which will be rehabilitation.
How to pray
Pray for the Dr’s as they help us figure out what isn’t working right
Pray for Nathan’s patience and cooperation
Pray for his speech, we need to get that back quickly
Yesterday and today have been great days, we have seen good progress and after 8 days of bad news, waiting, praying and trusting God, we can now see the sun beginning to start over the horizon. Yesterday they reduced the sedative significantly, so late evening he was moving and opening his eyes. He can move around, squeeze your hand, etc. So Beth put his good arm around her and he hugged her which was a huge shot that Beth needed badly. He has also hugged both his sister and dad. Nathan’s sister Mindy stayed with him thru the night and this morning said that he was working hard to get all the stuff off. He has started pulling himself over to his hand, which is tied to the side of the bed, so he can pull all the tubes out. So if you see in my next update that Nathan’s out of the hospital, you will know he pulled everything out and drug himself out the door with his good hand and leg.
I have mentioned several times now that we needed to get to the point where we could see if he could survive on his own, by breathing independently of the machine and if he would actually wake up and he has clearly woken up and very much doesn’t like all the fuss. The oxygen levels are down and we hope to get a report from the Dr’s today on what they think about him breathing on his own.
Up to this point the most I have interacted with the Ronald McDonald House is the little donation box that sits in front of the register at McDonalds where I would drop the left over pennies I didn’t want to put in my pocket. But Tuesday night, when we arrived in Albany to be with Nathan as he went through surgery to save his life, I learned more about the houses funded by those little boxes. The staff here at the Albany Medical Center were absolutely awesome. They jumped in to take care of whatever we needed, and one of the things we needed badly was a place to stay. They made a phone call and were able to get us two rooms at the Ronald McDonald House about 3 blocks from the hospital.
These folks are high class and committed to a cause that until now had little meaning to me. The rooms are very well done and comfortable–very much like home–and everything is setup to meet needs and impress kids. The home we are in is a large 3-story Victorian home. It has a huge kitchen full of food and necessities. This morning there were several wonderful ladies who volunteered to cook breakfast, and their spirits and pancakes encouraged and strengthened us as we started the day.
There are rooms full of toys, games and books. They have a special room that has skee ball, a jukebox, and every type of video game system and every game imaginable. There is huge laundry room with brand new, dual washers and dryers and tons of laundry soap. A video room full of books and videos.
Just a little info about Ronald McDonald House Charities:
Worth magazine named Ronald McDonald House Charity one of “America’s 100 Best Charities” in 2001 and 2002.
There are 409 houses, Family Rooms & Care Mobiles around the world that save suffering families more than $267 million each year.
In time of need these folks were there. I can promise you that from this point forward, when I stand in front of the register at McDonalds, I will give much more than my loose change. Cathy and I were talking that we should bring down our youth group as a Christian Service and volunteer to work, clean and help in any way we can.
Let me encourage you to support these folks financially or even physically, if you can. Their mission and their outworking of that mission are truly impressive.
Exactly one year ago today, Nathan put out a post titled "Did Jesus Ruin Mary's Life?" Because it is Christmas again, and what he wrote then applies to where we are today, I thought it would be appropriate for us to look at what Nathan said. Last year, I remember us talking about the post, and I told him it was one of the best posts he had ever written. I had never considered the thought that Jesus "ruined Mary's life." Nathan's perspective and thoughts were surprising, insightful, and timely. As I read the post again today, here were a few statements that stood out in light of what is going on in Nathan's life:
"Her life got really hard"
"It was not a good time to be a pregnant teenager with no husband"
"She set out on a road that from many earthly perspectives was full of pain, suffering and heartache"
"That's all an earthly perspective. And it's totally wrong."
"She was focused on the Glory of God."
"She saw that God had chosen normal, ol' her to bring glory to Himself."
"So now I'm thinking about me. Sometimes my life gets turned upside down too. Not as much as Mary's, but sometimes I wonder what in the world God is doing."
There are several other great thoughts that Nathan put in that blog post. You really need to check it out. As you read through it, don't just think about Nathan–think about you and me and let's be praying that God would ruin our lives in such a way we could touch the world. Cllick here for the post: http://nathanshoultz.wol.org/blog/shoultz/jesus_mary
I encourage you to take the time to go back through all of Nathan's blog posts. For those of you who don't know him, you will get a great picture and sense of who he is and of his love for ministry, music, and people.
Over the course of the last 8 days, there has been countless Facebook, email and text messages, expressing love, care and concern for Nathan. So many in fact, we haven’t been able to even consider responding to them all. Of all the responses we received here are two that really struck me in a very special way, and believe it or not, brought tears. I wanted to share them because they communicated thoughts that are important to all of us as we beg God for a miracle in Nathan’s life. This Facebook message vividly showed what praying without ceasing ought to look like.
I feel sort of like I'm "Blowing up the throne room's phone, and overloading the inbox.” But the mental image of our prayers being like incense to God...that our prayers, our spoken words are wafting around like scented smoke before the LORD, is what keeps me praying them. "Please, heal him." and "You need Nathan here!" might be repetitive to my ear, but they are sweet to God's ear.
This was a great reminder that even though I have talked to God thousands of times in the last 8 days, I am not able to overwhelm God’s inbox and my prayers are sweet to God’s ear.
Here is part of an email from a good friend that was very moving:
Since I first heard of the situation, I have felt a burden to begin not only praying but fasting for Nathan during this time. I had originally fought this burden for fasting in light of the holiday season, because of my busy schedule and everything I have going on in my life right now. I personally hate to fast because it totally changes your life (during extended fasts) . . . and I have resisted doing it because of selfish reasons. This morning during prayer and meditation, I couldn’t help but feeling how selfish I had been by not following through with this burden. I was feeling selfish and only thinking of myself but began to think of Nathan and his family during this time and all the challenges they are having to deal with.
I was reminded that fasting is a biblical way of supercharging both us and our prayers. Fasting is a lost scriptural discipline and spiritual resource of power that we don’t practice and teach enough anymore and Nathan is blessed to have a friend fasting on his behalf.
As we have been here at the hospital you don’t know how encouraging it is to get your messages. These two messages really illustrated you are holding Nathan up before the Lord. In Exodus 17:9-12 Aaron and Hur held up Moses arms as Joshua and the army fought the battle and here in Albany we have felt each of you holding us up before the Lord as we have struggled thru this battle Nathan has been fighting. We thank God for each of you, and the part you have played in holding up our arms.
Today we have begun to see signs of hope. The oxygen levels have been reduced twice, putting Nathan into a position where he is now breathing partially on his own and the medication that keeps him sedated, has been cut in half. Nathan actually opened his eyes today a couple times and he looked at Beth and squeezed her hand. We aren’t sure if it was purposeful or not, but it was a huge encouragement after 8 long and very hard day.
How to pray
God help Nathan’s lungs, they need your healing hand on the infection and your help eliminating the liquid.
Lord help Natasha again tonight as she meets Nathan’s needs.
Help Nathan’s kids feel loved and cared for as both mom and dad have been at the hospital for over a week.
For those of you using the Online Quiet Time, I have posted these requests into the prayer request for you.
This morning things have been moving along well. They have Nathan in for a CT scan to find out if they can remove the drain that was put in after his surgery on Tuesday. If things look good the drain will come out today.
They took an xray this morning to see how his lungs were doing and to get a feel for the pneumonia and that appears to be OK. The antibiotics for the lung infection will run for 8 days and we are now in day 2. The Dr opened his eyelids this morning to see how his eyes looked and they tracked well and it appeared that he was able to look around. But without glasses, Nathan is as blind as a bat… but the Dr was pleased.
When Nathan was under the cooling blanket for his fever, they had given him a drug that would completely paralyze him to remove the shivering and since the cooling blanket is no longer needed, they have stopped it. This now puts us in a place where we can begin to see how he is going to do as the sedatives and oxygen are decreased over the next couple days.
Nathan loves music so we have taken his iPod with a speaker dock in so we can have music playing in his room. Today’s nurse is Natalya so be praying for her as she cares for Nathan. Also be praying because she and Beth have had some good conversation and we hope to see that conversation expand to Nathan’s faith.
As many of you know, Nathan has played a crucial role in the design, implementation and success of the new Word of Life Online Quiet Time. When we released the QT publicly, back in May, it took off. In the first 8 months we shot past our 3-year goals, and much of that success is due to Nathan's love, dedication and work on the Quiet Time. As I was looking through his prayer requests on the QT, I came across one that really struck me, here is a picture of Nathans request:
Over the past six days we have seen Nathan’s impact and the testimony of his life reaching and touching the lives of others. Both through emails and Facebook, we have received several stories of folks who, because of what is happening with Nathan, have come to the realization they need to get their life back on track. We received a Facebook message of the gospel being shared with some dear people because of Nathan’s circumstances. Here is a comment that was emailed to me a couple days ago:
“I have also heard a story already of how God has used this in one lady's life to help her refocus her relationship on the Lord (Glory to God!).“
God sometimes answers our prayers in ways that are wildly different than anything we could have dreamed. I am sure that when Nathan put this on his prayer list, he could not have imagined God would use a stroke and suffering in his life to answer his prayer. The apostle Paul said in Rom 9:3 that he would be willing to take the punishment for his countrymen. Nathan was asking God to grow his ministry, his impact, his influence, asking God to impact more people and thru that process he wanted God to grow him in the process.
For those of you on the Word of Life Online QT: Nathan’s prayer request is public, and I challenge you to jump out and add it to your daily prayer list. And when we pray that request, let's pray not only for Nathan, but let's also ask God to grow our ministry and us in the process.
Today has been a very good day. We met with the Dr's first things this morning and they confirmed that he has a MRSA (Staph) infection in his lungs, so the cause of the temperature battle we have been fighting has been solved. So they changed the antibiotics to the exact solution to deal with it.
After lunch, they took him down and moved the feeding tube directly into his stomach and moved all the ventialaiton tubes right to his neck via the tracheotomy. Both of these are great things becuase they set him up to respond to us.
How to pray
Pray for Natasha the night shift nurse
Pray the infection in his lungs will be nailed quickly
Pray he will respond quickly
Most of us are tired, so pray God will give us strength
The next couple days are very crucial and will help us know exactly where Nathan is.
The Dr's were just here to give us an update. Because Albany Medical Center is a teaching hospital, the Dr's show up with an entourage. The temperature is coming down and we are seeing that begin to improve. They have been able to identify the infection is in his lungs. The infection is a MRSA (Staph) infection which is something they see often. So they've changed the antibiotic to go after that specific problem. They feel pretty confident they can get it resolved over the next couple days.
Today the Dr's are also going to be moving all the breathing and feeding tubes. Currently all of that is going thru his nose and mouth which has its own set of issues. So later today, they will do a tracheotomy and move all the breathing apparatus to his neck. They will also be moving the feeding tube so it will go directly to his stomach. Making these moves will be healthier and allow for much better hygiene, it will also allow Nathan to respond to us as we start down that road. Also, the throat and nose can only take all that stuff so long before it becomes a problem. Not to mention that Nathan hates that stuff being in his face with a passion and they've had to restrain his good hand to keep him from ripping it out.
How to pray:
Be praying for the Dr's as they take care of the breathing and feeding items
Pray Nathan will respond well to the antibiotics.
Lauren and Greg are today's nurses and Nathan is the only one they are caring for today
How does a strong, young, 31-year-old man have a massive stroke? This is question many of us have been asking ourselves. On Monday just three hours before the stroke Nathan had been working out with a bunch of guys from Word of Life.
When Nathan arrived here in Albany by helicopter, the doctors immediately ordered a CT scan of his head. In that CT scan, not only could they see the blockage that caused the stroke, but they could also see a blockage in the left Carotid artery. The Carotid arteries are the main arteries that come off the heart and feed the brain--the arteries you feel when checking someone’s pulse in their neck.
Nathan’s left Carotid artery had a tear in the inside lining, allowing blood to get under the lining, creating a pocket that extended into the Carotid artery. The blood that was captured in the pocket then began to coagulate. This coagulated blood then broke free and clogged the artery feeding the left side of his brain, causing the stroke.
But how did the inner lining of the artery tear? While the Dr’s have seen it before, it's not a common problem, and there's no routine answer. But the doctors are pursuing it further and have begun to do some research. We should know more in the weeks to come.
Today has been an improvement. I mentioned this morning the issue we were facing concerning the temperature Nathan was running and the changing of meds to resolve the shivering.
This afternoon, we believe Nathan's temperature has subsided, because the cooling blanket has slowed down. ... > Read More
This morning we've had a few changes. As I mentioned the last couple days, Nathan has had a fever that the Dr feels is coming from an infection. So yesterday they put a cooling blanket on him to keep his body temp at 98.6 degrees. But his body thinks it is cold so he has been ... > Read More
The best way to send cards and gifts is to send them to their house. The hospital uses his proper name (Douglas Shoultz) so when folks send things to Nathan, they don’t have a clue and things may not get to him.
Send all cards and gifts to:Nathan Shoultz8083 US Rt 9Pottersville NY ... > Read More
Today there hasn't been much change. Nathan is still running a temperature which is the main area of concern. As I have mentioned, we are at the stage where we need to find out if Nathan can survive on his own and is there any brain activity which we’ll find out when the Dr's take ... > Read More
When hard times come, we all respond a little differently. I have a “make it happen” personality, so I tend to do everything I can then ask God for help. It didn’t take long on day 1 of this situation with Nathan and Beth, to realize there wasn’t anything I could ... > Read More
I have to make a very transparent confession… I made a huge oversight, one of those “I should have known better” kind of deals and it took a close friend to point it out to me.
When all this took place, the very first thing I should have done was put a prayer request into ... > Read More
Nathan did well thru the night. They have a cooling blanket on him to help keep his temperature down which creates it's own set of challanges. He now shivers uncontollably which necessitates some medication to control the shivering. The outpouring of kindness and concern has been ... > Read More
This last post for today will cover a couple different things.
How to pray:
Pray for Nathan's temperature - Right now he is running a termperature and the Dr's can't take the next steps until we get it down to normal and can keep it there.
Pray for Nathan's blood pressure - Ask God to keep it down ... > Read More
As I have been going through this process with Nathan, God has been teaching me all kinds of things that have stretched me in new ways. I don’t enjoy writing, but have realized the need to write – partly as an emotional release for what we are struggling thru. At 2:45 a.m. (our first ... > Read More
The last 24 hours have been very stable and very little has changed. Nathan’s mom and dad arrived yesterday (Thur) at 10:15am so I picked them up from the Airport. They came in from Alaska so they had been in the air for over 36 hours, so I brought them up to speed on how Nathan ... > Read More
Tonight when I stopped in and said goodnight to Nathan he looked pretty good. Things are healing, but it is very slow and the more we want it to move fast, the slower it seems to go. He has been running a slight fever and they have been working to keep that down. I have been using ... > Read More
If we were to pick the top 10 things Nathan loved, music would probably be near the top. We are in the Intensive Care room playing music to him on his iPad. He has several Christmas playlists setup that he was already listening to. A couple of weeks ago he found a new Christmas ... > Read More
As I mentioned in my previous update, the doctors took a blood culture but it will be a couple of days before we receive the results. The doctors tested Nathan by pinching his right side (the non-working side); he responded by moving his left side (both arm and leg). He still has a little fever from the surgery. Blood pressure is a concern. They want it high enough to keep enough blood flow to the brain, but not too much, so that it does not cause further damage. They also took an x-ray of his lungs; there are no major concerns here, but they will continue to monitor them. > Read More
Nathan's brother Wes, spent the night with Nathan. The nights are calm and quiet. Nathan was running a fever so they took a blood culture and sent it off for testing to make sure things were okay. We haven’t heard back on the blood culture yet. We just want you to know that we really appreciate all your prayer and support. I will continue to keep sending updates as we receive them. > Read More
Nathan had a good night and the CT scan this morning showed that the surgery stabilized the swelling. We just met with the Doctor and he says that the primary artery feeding the left side of the brain was the cause of the stroke and they now feel that is also stabilized as well.
The next few days are critical for the Doctors to be able to clinically evaluate him, see how things will progress and make decisions. They say that a large section of the left side of his brain is damaged and that the recovery process will be long.
Because of the limited number of people that can be here and the limited access to Nathan, now is not a good time to come. Keep praying and I will give another update later today.
Nathan has been moved from Glens Falls to the hospital in Albany. The swelling and now bleeding from the stroke has been causing the situation to decline necessitating the move. He was flown by helicopter and was under care by some great physicians before we ever arrived. Because of where the ... > Read More
12/13/11 9:34 AM
Last night, December 12, Nathan suffered a stoke. We praise God that we were able to get medical attention almost immediately after it happened, but there are still many concerns. Please pray for Nathan and his family during this time and we will send updates when we can. Our God ... > Read More
We’ve all heard the moniker: people hate change. In fact we may have said it or even used it to justify doing or not doing any particular thing. But as I work with students I notice they seem to really embrace change… on all sorts of levels. Change in music, change in ... > Read More
My theme song right now has to be this worship tune by Matt Redman. In my personal life, in my ministry, in my family, I feel like this song speaks exactly to my life. The truth it proclaims is overwhelmingly encouraging. "Never once did we ever walk alone.... never once did you leave ... > Read More
Krispy Kreme. Just the mention of the name makes my mouth water. There’s nothing like a hot, fresh, gooey doughnut. I’m traveling right now, so last night I got the chance to have a couple. There’s nothing like them! This morning when I awoke, before my feet even hit the ground, ... > Read More
Everyone’s heard the phrase “Jack of all trades and master of none.” Almost always it’s in a derogatory sense. As in…. “Everyone needs to stop being good at lots of things because that’s bad and everyone needs to start being a master of one thing ... > Read More
Part of being in youth ministry is connecting with youth. Those of us who are getting on in years (i'm a whopping 31 now... ancient in the eyes of most students) have to spend a little extra effort in connecting. But some try a little too hard. Conventional wisdom might say that ... > Read More
Lord, how great is our dilemma! In Thy Presence silence best becomes us, but love inflames our hearts and constrains us to speak. Were we to hold our peace the stones would cry out; yet if we speak, what shall we say? Teach us to know that we cannot know, for the things of God knoweth no man, but ... > Read More
Here's a Transfer Live presetation of the Bridging the Gap in Pastor/Youth Pastor Relationships presentation. Check out this and tons of other great videos on our Vimeo Transfer Live Channel.
Bridging the Gap in Senior Pastor/Youth Pastor Relationships by Nathan Shoultz from Word of ... > Read More
I’ve been reading the book Made To Stick by the Heath brothers. Great book so far and it’s helping me think more about how I communicate an idea. It was written with the intent that it would be applied in the business world, but as a speaker and communicator of the Word, it has even ... > Read More
When I'm at a church training a new youth leadership team, I always talk about the power of an hour. Now, I'm not talking to the pastors or the youth pastors so much. I'm talking to the volunteer staff that show up week in and week out. The guys and girls that work a regular job ... > Read More
In the last post, we talked a bit about how a disconnect between the youth pastor and his senior pastor can often happen. We spoke about how exactly the youth pastor ought to try and go about remedying that situation from his end. On the other side of the coin though is the senior ... > Read More
If you’re a youth pastor, chances are you have experienced or are experiencing a bit of a disconnect with your senior pastor. It’s a common issue. Even if you a volunteer leading your youth team, sometimes the disconnect can happen. When I hear about it from youth ... > Read More
I have a few talents.... sure, but the one I've been perfecting since birth is: Irritation! Just ask my brother, sister, parents, wife. They'll tell you I can be irritating with the best of them. I'm guessing at times, you can too. Most of the time the motivation for our irritating behavior is ... > Read More
Ok, this song is relatively new. I discovered it on Chris Tomlin's Christmas album last year. But even though it's new I'm pretty sure it's my favorite Christmas song!! This song is pure, simple and captures the coming of Christ in a gripping way. The picture blows me away. ... > Read More
Today in my Quiet Time, I was reading Luke 1:39-56. Like never before something struck me today: Jesus ruined Mary’s life… from an earthly perspective. Think about it. The day Mary found out she was carrying Jesus, her life got REALLY hard. What with the Pharisees, ... > Read More
A few years ago, when I was a youth pastor, we were running a typical night of youth group and at one point split up into groups for prayer. When we did, a young girl who had recently started coming was in my group. We were sitting in such a way that I noticed something on the girls ... > Read More
Here's part one in a 3 part series on youth culture i was recently blessed to be part of. Check it out
Panel: Youth Culture Trends Part 1 from Word of Life on ... > Read More
Seems like these days a lot of family and friends are going through some difficult stuff. It's easy to get defeated and discouraged if we don't keep our eyes on Christ. This is one of those songs I love to listen to when I'm feeling that way. It reminds me my mission in life: preaching ... > Read More
Last week we started a brand new thing here at Word of Life called Transfer Live. It's going to become a large library of short, pointed training on various youth ministry aspects. This was my contribution last week on Building a Team.
For my posts on Building a Team, go here.
To ... > Read More
Local Church Ministries is running a pilot test today for live streaming some training we are filming. The filming is a part of a project called Transfer Live where we will create a library of high quality training in bite size chunks for youth leadership treams across the country. As ... > Read More
Cyberbullying Part 2 (see part 1)
(a part of the Blog Focus Week on Bullying)
A few days ago, we spent a few minutes defining what cyberbullying is and why it's so serious. Today we want to look at some action we can take. Like McGruff always says, "Take a Bite out of Crime!" ... > Read More
Cyberbullying Part 1
(a part of the Blog Focus Week on Bullying)
When I was assigned this topic for our monthly blog focus week, I had no idea how much I’d learn. I know cyberbullying is an issue and I know every primetime crime drama has done an episode on it, but whether ... > Read More
How to Keep Great Leaders Around for a Long Time
[Part 1]
[Part 2]
[Part 3]
Part 4
In part one of this series, we looked at the characteristics of a good youth staff leader. In part two, we talked about where to find just such leaders. In part three, we ... > Read More
Tips for Recruiting Youth Staff
[Part 1]
[Part 2]
Part 3
[Part 4]
So far in this series we have looked at the makeup of a good youth leader and where in our churches we might find some of these people. But just because we know who they are doesn’t mean ... > Read More
Looking for Leaders
[Part 1]
Part 2
[Part 3]
[Part 4]
A couple of days ago we discussed the makeup of a quality youth staff leader. But even though you understand that, you might be asking yourself, “Where Do I Find Them?” Here’s a couple hints ... > Read More
What Makes a Good Youth Leader?
Part 1
[Part 2]
[Part 3]
[Part 4]
As I’ve been assembling my Fantasy Football team for the fall, my mind has been on the draft. What players will make up my team? Will I get the perfect team? ... > Read More
This post is part of the VISION week of Blog Posting at Word of Life. Check out Mike Calhoun's Post.
There have been some classic rivalries in history: David v. Goliath, North v. South, USA v. Russia (hockey), and Youth Pastors v. Deacon/Elder Board. I’m probably drawing ... > Read More
Recently I traveled to Hawaii as a speaker for a camp there. To my wonder and amazement I found out that all the rumors about people in Hawaii loving SPAM are absolutely true. Weird. Of course, I’m not referring to malicious email in your inbox. I’m referring to ... > Read More
I love leading praise and worship. I'm not the world's greatest musician by any stretch of the imagination, but I started playing piano when I was 4. Somewhere in the teens I picked up a few other instruments including guitar. I've had lots of opportunity to use my musical ... > Read More
Today's song is one of the most meaningful songs I've ever listened to. There's a few versions out there, but this one is my favorite. It's by a pretty rare band called Shaded Red.
Isn't it amazing that God loves us.... no matter what. Sure, there's consequences to my ... > Read More
Every youth pastor’s least favorite words: “Welcome back from camp hope you had a nice vacation.” I’ve heard it a few times. Those of us who have been know that camp is the furthest thing from a vacation EVER! Bunk beds in musty cabins (if you’re ... > Read More
I'm Back!
You probably didn't notice I was gone :) The last two weeks have been an incredible opportunity for my family and I to return to the Northwest and re-connect with many friends, supporters and churches. Due to being on the road, I was not able to keep up my regularly scheduled ... > Read More
I have a good friend in youth ministry who would say, "Why take students to another country to tell people about Christ when those same students don't even tell people about Christ in their own school." I know another person who would say, "Why take students on a mission trip if we can only ... > Read More
This week's song that rocks my world is CheerUp Charlie's "We Cry Out" I love this song because it minces no words. It is a rich and challenging song that reminds us we live by faith and are made clean by the blood of Christ. The tune is addictive and the band plays it very ... > Read More
Where Was God When - Blog Tour
This Post is a Part of the Where Was God When Blog Tour
Mike Calhoun and Ric Garland have put together an essential book for your ministry: Where Was God When. This book is developed from messages they spoke concerning tough times in life. When stuff goes wrong, ... > Read More
Check Your Image
Everyone knows that when it comes to image, Apple always beats PC. I mean, who wants to be this guy
when you can be this guy:
Of course, if we were having a serious discussion of the merits of each computer system, you might provide real world facts about why you prefer one ... > Read More
This morning's post was meant to be "Does Your Mac Make You a Better Youth Pastor." But you'll have to wait til Thursday for that post. I just did my Quiet Time (see my previous post for explanation) and was blown away with something from a very familiar passage. The portion of ... > Read More
Songs That Rock My World: The Lust of the Flesh, the Eyes, and the Pride of Life
I’ve been trying several different philosophies on which days to post, what times, etc. At least for the next few weeks, I think I’d like to feature on Mondays “Songs that Rock My ... > Read More
You probably know the musketeer rally cry. "All for one and one for all." The sense of unity, solidarity, and power in that statement sends chills up my spine. Many of us imagined that was what it would be like when entering the ministry. We figured we were joining the ranks of a ... > Read More
We've all seen a movie where a classic teen saga unfolds. A 16 year old girl is involved in stuff her parents don't approve of, so she's sneaking around about it. But she just can't help writing every juicy detail down in her diary. One day mom is putting away laundry and finds ... > Read More
Summer and youth ministry seem like they'd go hand in hand. However, it's like when I go on vacation and think, "With all this free time I'll spend 4 hours a day in quiet time?!" But then, when the schedule goes out the window, I find I don't actually do as much as I would on a normal day. ... > Read More
I hope you were able to take the day off yesterday and eat some really unhealthy meat cooked outside! I know I did. We roasted some brats over an open fire (and no, I'm not talking of the kind of brats from my previous post.) I also got to attend Word of Life's Memorial Day Rally at ... > Read More
You thought I was talking about traditional Memorial Day treat.... the
brat·wurst
–noun a sausage made of pork, spices, and herbs, sometimes without a casing, usually served sautéed or broiled.
NOPE
I was talking about a...
brat
–noun a child, esp. an annoying, spoiled, ... > Read More
The unquenchable thirst for knowledge.
OK, so not really. Of course Jesus is my best friend and then my wife. But next is Wikipedia! You're laughing, I can hear you. That's ok, my wife makes fun of me for it too. You see, sometimes we sit down at our house in the evening to ... > Read More
Recently I had a great opportunity to visit with Harry Bollback over a cup of coffee. Several other guys were there and we were all listening as he was sharing stories in typical "Uncle Harry" fashion. At one point, he reminded us of the fact that though the MESSAGE of the Gospel never ... > Read More
Does this sound familiar? You've worked hard all week. You've arranged to have your youth room decked out to match your message that night. You worked with the worship band for hours getting ready. You spent time sending emails, texts, facebooks, and phone calls to make sure everyone is ... > Read More
Ok, let's face it, as youth pastors we face a few stereo types. Among other things people think every youth pastor has to....
Have a goatee
Carry an iPhone
Enjoy practical jokes
Change churches every 2 years
Be as organized as a tornado
I hate stereotypes, but I really can use some help in ... > Read More
The Reason Review is So Important
Remember this scene from Jaws 1?
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSo5fNkNKlw)
Of all the things that old guy had going on, I think it's hilarious that the police chief chose to comment on his hat! Well anyway, I can hear you thinking right now, "What in ... > Read More
I don't have an iPhone, but if ATT serviced my area, I probably would. I've been using an iTouch recently and believe me, it makes it very hard for me to go back to using my old Windows Mobile Phone every day. I can't wait to get rid of that phone. As soon as my "New Every Two" comes up, you ... > Read More
How to start a blog? Seems like there’d be a plethora of info out there on the web for this right? That’s what I thought… until I started looking. In fact there is a wealth of information, but you have to dig through so much useless stuff its discouraging. I found that most ... > Read More
Do you Tweet? Some of you do, some of you don’t…. some of you only when you’re in the airport! Anyway, this email isn’t really to sell you on the idea or not. However, I did want to make you aware of something regarding Twitter and our Quiet Time.
Are you aware that you ... > Read More
Web Log? Blog? When I first heard the idea, I thought it was stupid. How is that any different than just creating a web page? I thought the idea would never catch on. Boy was I wrong. Little did I know I was about to move to NY and get an education!
After spending 6 years in Seattle as a Word of ... > Read More
