Hello All—
Here’s the sleep update. Kari slept Sunday night, none Monday night, the whole night Tuesday, and only about 2 hours Wednesday night. Right now she is dozing off but waking up every few minutes because of spasms. We had a very good day, though. Kari was confused a lot less today. We did a couple of new things in PT (a sliding board transfer and stretching on the mat) and after OT we went over to Swedish Hospital to visit her old nurses. Melissa and Kristy were both there and were very excited to see her and amazed at how good she looked—almost back to normal and not even wearing oxygen during the day now. Kristy was the very first Nurse that Kari had and was there when Kari went into Surgery back in July. Kari was not 100% clear mentally today, but she was a lot better and told Kristy that it was “good to come back to visit to see how far you’ve come.” After our visit we went around the corner to a little ice cream shop that has the best ice cream I’ve ever had. It was our first time out by ourselves to a restaurant or store and was a lot of fun. Kari even drank the espresso that they had there. It was nice to be outside too. After we got back, ate dinner and got her back into bed her confusion and anxiety started to increase again. By about 8pm she had a hard time remembering anything we did today without excessive prompting and was getting very mixed up between what she was watching on TV and what she was doing. As I’m writing this she has been waking up and trying to tell me something but not making any sense and panicking a lot. It does finally seem like we’re making some progress, though, but it looks like night time will be hard for a while yet. It is so frustrating how she can be nice and relaxed for hours and then all of the sudden going into extreme panic—shaking, screaming, begging for help, and not knowing what’s going on or making sense when she speaks. We still haven’t seen what even two nights in a row of sleep can do for her. A sleep specialist is supposedly coming tomorrow afternoon, so we’ll see what he has to say. Looking forward to being at church on Sunday and Lester Oaks on Saturday and seeing people in Cali. I hope your fasting is going well if you are participating.
Aaron.
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14 comments:
Are they doing any therapy for panic attacks? Hypnotism and cognitive therapy are both known to be helpful for panic. Maybe they would be helpful for Kari during this time.
Dear Kari + Aaron,
Hopefully, just a brief note here. In my case, it has been necessary for much more than a decade to track my sleep and keep logs as such. In your post, Aaron, it said...
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By about 8pm she had a hard time remembering anything we did today
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Still, at the same time, at the beginning of the post, refering to sleep, you said...
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only about 2 hours Wednesday night.
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If she only had 2hrs sleep coming into the day Thursday, and especially all the activity on the road Thursday, the hospital, being outside, ice cream, expresso. That sounds like a long day for anyone on two hours of sleep. 8pm I would be drifting a bit myself.
As always, the prayers continue...
Love/Peace/Strength,
Charlie +
This verse kept coming to mind. Maybe because Kari's a singer. :)
Zeph 3:17
17 The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."
I'm so glad there has been progress and you guys got some alone time together.
Still praying!
Love in Him,
Alicia
So do the doctors think the progress might be due to a cutback on all the medication? Great news about your ice cream outing! What flavor did you get? Anything with Reeses Peanut Butter Cups? We hope there will be more of these outings in your future. Love you guys!
Dear ones,
I don't comment much but you are constantly in our hearts--of course. I think of that song 'I don't know about tomorrow--but I know who holds my hand'. How humbly grateful we are for that. Love Jinny and Chick
Dear Kari + Aaron,
Gettin' towards the end of the day for me, and I was reading Nehemiah 9, and towards the beginning is a long prayer. One of the things it mentions is how during the day, in the wilderness, Moses and the Israelites were led by a "pillar of cloud" and at night, by a pillar of fire.
I kind of felt struck by that tonight. Certainly I know that, but the contrast hit me. Our minds are led during the daylight hours by what is around us. Worldly things. But, even in sleep, our minds, though most of us sleep in a dark room, just to be able to sleep, we have to surrender completely, and then we can see that "pillar of fire".
Love/Peace/Strength,
Charlie +
I'm anxious for an update.
Today this verse came to mind as I was praying for you:
"Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble and always be prayerful." Rom. 12:12
Praying for the joy, peace, strength, healing and provision only God can give.
Love in Him,
Alicia
Dear Kari + Aaron, and all in prayer,
The bible does say that fasting is a personal thing. In the past week we have had a relatively organized fast by many people.
Again, as I recall, Aaron is not even in Colorado right now, I am kind of interested in what any of us who fasted "learned" during the fast. Not so much what our "chosen fast was", but we learned for ourselves.
Love/Peace/Strength,
Charlie +
Dear Kari + Aaron, and all in prayer,
My efforts this week in fasting pretty much gave me a focus of patience, first, the faith and hope beyond that. Due to my illness, I was not able to deny food, so I went another route. I was encouraged still by the route I took to continue and expand the care of my body by good rest and good, but simple, food. The symptoms of my illness have been improving due to "deep sleep". Though for months, yes, I have been sleeping, but there still has been a certain "awareness factor" during the sleep, but that is a symptom of my illness. I give great thanksgiving the sleep has returned to a deep level of sleep.
Love/Peace/Strength,
Charlie +
Good morning everyone. In answer to Charlie's question(I love all your posts Charlie!): In my times of fasting and praying in the mornings I felt like...
1. I was able to give concentrated time to the full list of specific prayer requests and felt very expectant that God would hear and respond.
2. I felt compelled to send Kari & Aaron some worship music for their room.
3. At times, I felt lead to post different scriptures for their encouragement, which I did.
4. I kept thinking that when Kari gets anxious the person with her should pray with her, quote a worry-type scripture (Phil 4:6&7 or parts of Luke 12:22-34) and maybe continue to ask questions about her fears. This might give her the tools/a new pattern mentally to start doing that herself at the onset next time.
5. And no matter what results we can see right now, we know that God does listen to the prayers of his people and that we have gone to him in submission and trust and that his plans for this situation are for good.
Blessings & love in Him,
Alicia
From the group at Brookside who fasted, here are several results from the fast. As is normal, there are some things that directly relate to the "purpose" of the fast and some which don't seem to...God seems to be a multitasker. There are more, but some are personal things that are directly for Kari:
-Prayer focus for a specific order of healing for Kari : first a mental state of clarity which will result in needed physical rest; second a revived/healed spirit that can embrace and receive Jesus' healing and future for her; finally a physical healing of her body
-God brought Is. 58, specifically v. 6 and 13-14 to focus: the true fast of God which is untying the yoke, giving freedon, and also breaking the yoke (v. 6) resulting in true rest and inheritance(v. 13-14)
-As encouragement from the Lord many of us who have fasted have had opportunities recently to pray and see the hand of God move in healing in smaller ways. God has given the mustard seed of His gift of healing to us. As I heard recently: "impartation is free, development is costly" - 2. Tim 1:6-7. Rather than being frustrated about the lack of results/anointing, we receive the "talent" God has given and use it rather than burying it in the ground, trusting the Lord to increase it and cause it to grow from the size of a mustard seed to a gigantic plant! We will continue to believe God and press in and pray for Kari's healing.
-Jesus cancelled the handwriting of requirements/obligations against Kari and nailed them to the cross (Col. 2:14); this takes away any legal authority the enemy has to accuse or torment her (Col. 2:15)
-I went to a healing service on Saturday night and requested prayer for Kari. The minister prayed that Kari would ask the Lord "What do you want me to do when I get up?"
Blessings to all and mostly all praise and honor to Jesus by whose stripes we are healed!
Nathan Noble on behalf of Brookside
Dear Kari + Aaron, Alicia, and all in prayer,
From Alicia's recent post...
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4. I kept thinking that when Kari gets anxious the person with her should pray with her, quote a worry-type scripture (Phil 4:6&7 or parts of Luke 12:22-34) and maybe continue to ask questions about her fears. This might give her the tools/a new pattern mentally to start doing that herself at the onset next time.
5. And no matter what results we can see right now, we know that God does listen to the prayers of his people and that we have gone to him in submission and trust and that his plans for this situation are for good.
Blessings & love in Him,
Alicia
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I like the idea of having scripture available when Kari is anxious, especially overnight. I have read the entire Old Testament. I don't look at it often now, mainly focus on the New Testament. Actually, for a "non-minister", I don't think that is too unusual.
Still, I know that Kari was doing a Thesis either on Isaiah, or part of it. Good size book. Again, all of us working together, if one who knows that book could dig out some passages to add to what has already been sent, that may be a good addition. Again, I am just not qualified.
Love/Peace/Strength,
Charlie +
The other thing I was going to do was put some verses on construction paper to hang in her room for that very reason. Hopefully I can work on it this weekend. I will look up some stuff in Isaiah. Great idea! Thanks!
:) Alicia
Dear Kari + Aaron, Alicia, and those in prayer,
Alicia, I noticed in the post from "anonymous / Nathan Noble" he had identified a few verses in Isaiah. I haven't looked into them as yet, but chances are they could be part of what your are doing.
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Alicia said...
The other thing I was going to do was put some verses on construction paper to hang in her room for that very reason. Hopefully I can work on it this weekend. I will look up some stuff in Isaiah. Great idea! Thanks!
:) Alicia
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Love/Peace/Strength,
Charlie +
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