Jeremy's Journey

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On January 28, 2007, I found my 19 year old son at the bottom of the stairs. I thought he had fallen down the stairs. I called 911. It took hours before the Dr. came out and told me my son was in a diabetic coma. We did not know he was diabetic. His blood sugar was 752 his PH 6.6 and body temperature was 84 degrees. He coded and had to be brought back to life. He was put on life support and life flighted to Memorial Hermann downtown Houston.
He came down with many hospital diseases, V.R.E., M.R.S.A., A.R.D.S., Hospital pneumonia, staph. He also developed a bed sore that was stage four down to the bone. I told my sister I wanted to bring a Reflexologist on board. She looked in the Houston phone book and found the number for Derwen Holistic Therapies. I called and Patricia Mcpherson told me she taught school and couldn't come, but she had a therapist in the area she would send. I had it approved by the Doctors and Reflexologist, Machelle Mitchell would come to the hospital and work on him nearly every day. We could see him improving.
Finally, on March 2, 2007, he was weaned off life support. On March 3, 2007 his father was feeding him his first meal since 1-28-07 and he aspirated, coded and had to be put back on life support. March 4, 2007 his left lung collapsed, he coded and they had to put a chest tube in. March 6, 2007 his right lung collapsed and they had to put a chest tube in his right lung. March 12, 2007,he coded- his heart stopped for 23 minutes. The Dr. told us our child would probably be brain dead. He went into renal failure and was put on dialysis.
We brought Machelle in to work on him. We could see his catheter bag fill up after she worked on him. He was taken off dialysis after a couple of weeks.
They put a trachea in his throat and stomach peg in for his feeding tube. He was moved to a LTEC Hospital March 30, 2007 then back to Hermann April 17, 2007 because of a fever he developed which was from the stage four bedsore he developed while at Hermann. We went back to the LTEC April 26, 2007.
May 1, 2007 still on life support Jeremy stood for the first time
May 2, 2007 - Jeremy took his first five steps. May 15, 2007 they plugged his trachea and put him on oxygen. He was moved to Tomball Rehab May 19, 2007 where they did a swallow test on him to see if he could eat soft food without aspirating. May 22nd they did the swallow test and he ate his first meal at 6:00 P.M. He was so happy he prayed and thanked GOD for his food. June 24 we did another swallow test to see if he could drink water. He had his first drink of water at 1:30 P.M. June 25 the G.I. Dr. came and took his stomach peg out. We get to go home tube free!!! June 27 after five long months in hospitals we finally get to go home.
Jeremy had to learn to walk & swallow again. He was having trouble seeing. We took him to several eye doctors. They determined his retina was detached. He went through three major eye surgeries, October, 2007, March 2008 and May 2008 when the Dr. implanted a lens in his right eye. He is still blind in his left eye.
Today he is legally blind and has diabetes. He is attending Texas A&M. He lives on his own. He loves the LORD will all his heart. The power of GOD & prayer has helped him through his illness.
I called Machelle, the Reflexologist who came to the hospital, in summer of 2009 to let her know how well he was doing. He was still on life support when she gave him treatments. She asked me if I had ever thought about becoming a Reflexologist, because I use natural supplements instead of drugs. I prayed about it and GOD opened the door for me to go to school at Derwin Holistic Therapies with Patricia Mcpherson as my teacher. I believe GOD puts people in our lives for a reason. I saw the results of the treatments on my son from Machelle, the Reflexologist he placed in my live. I pray GOD will place people in my life I will be able to help through Reflexology.

UPDATE: 2011-2014

Jeremy graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Texas A & M August 12th, 2011.
He is now enrolled in the Masters of Economics Program at Texas A & M!!!
GO JEREMY!!!! GOD IS GREAT!!!!!!
JEREMY GRADUATED MAY 9TH -2014
with a Masters of Science in Economics - concentration in Financial Economics. !!!!!
I can do ALL things through CHRIST who strengthens me.

 Jason's Journey

2016

On April 27th 2016, I once again had a son life flighted to downtown Memorial Hermann. My son, Jason was on his four wheeler a block from his house checking his mail, when we believe a car came around the corner, did not see him and hit him causing him to fly off his four wheeler into the middle of the paved road. His face was covered in blood. He broke his collar bone, ribs, punctured his lung and busted his ear drum. He was on life support for a week because he had swelling in his brain and it was bleeding. They did not know if they were going to have to go in and drill to reduce the swelling. Because of lot of Prayers the swelling went down. When he was taken off life support he knew us, but did not know who he was. He was moved to a Kingwood Rehab May 7th. He kept wanting to get out and go get his girls. He tells us now he did not know he was hurt and though he was in a Hotel. We decided to take him home on May 9th. They told us we would need to monitor him 24/7. I stayed at his house with his wife and girls. Through all of this I continued to give him Reflexology treatments and used essential oils that are to help. We have seen much improvement in what he is remembering. He is still healing and still needs Prayers, but I give thanks and the Glory to God with recovery he has made. The mom with Two Sons who went to Memorial Hermann in a helicopter!!!!!! Please pray for me and my family.

2017

The last year was another very emotional year. In April, 2017 my granddaughter and I flew to WI. where  Jeremy was working. He was in the hospital. His kidney function was at 10%. He had been sick and was dehydrated. His function came back to 21% , but the Dr. still decided it was time to get ready for a transplant. He started the process. June 2, Jeremy called me  and said his kidney function was at 7% and they wanted to put him on dialysis. He was at a hospital in La Crosse, WI. close to Fort McCoy where he was working. We decided he needed to come home so he would have support to deal with this. I flew to WI, packed him up with the help of my brother and his wife and a couple from his church family. I got there at 12:30 pm. Saturday and left for the airport at 9:00 am. Sunday.

I was so scared to fly with him because his creatinine level was at 9. The nurse in the Dr. office that he had used while his was in Texas told me with it that high he could die. I later found out from one of the Dr. that she was wrong, high creatinine can make you feel really bad, but it is high potassium that will kill you. His was still in normal range. He was in the hospital in Tomball, Tx for several days. He had to start dialysis, he decided to do the P.D. dialysis. We had to go to classes to learn how to do it. My daughter said she would be able help with it  if he moved in with her. She had an extra room and the closet space for all the many many boxes involved in the process. My granddaughter helped, they would have to hook him up to the machine every night for eight hours making sure everything was sterile.

We started the process for a kidney transplant in Texas, which involved many trips to the medical center downtown Houston. My husband decided he wanted to try to be the live donor. He went through the process of getting tested. On one test he stopped counting the vials of blood after 42. I was with Jeremy in his cubical when they took 26 vials from him. We were so relieved, my husband was a match and his kidneys were functioning very well. I got a call from the transplant coordinator saying the head Surgeon of the transplant center wanted to see Jeremy and my husband, Wednesday, September 20th, 2017. She had no idea why. The Surgeon told Jeremy it would be his decision, but he felt Jeremy would have a better chance of the kidney working if he  did the pancreas transplant at the same time as the kidney transplant with a deceased  donor.  He would be second on the list with his blood type. They said  it could take anywhere from three months to six months for a donor. The Surgeon looked at me and said – you will not have two people to have to take care of after the operation either.  He told Jeremy to go home and think about it. I called him Friday afternoon, Sept. 23rd  and asked him if he had made a decision, he said he was going with the deceased donor and called the coordinator to let her know that afternoon.

I was at work Monday, September 25th when Jeremy called me, about 1:15 pm. and told me, I got the call mom. I asked him what call, he said they have a kidney and pancreas for me. I can not begin to tell you all the emotions I had at that moment. From joy to fear, it was totally overwhelming. So scared what if the operation was not a success and this would be the last day I would see my son alive, to sadness for the family who lost their child, to my son might get his life back. They told us to be there between 4 and 5. We were so new to the process we had not even asked all the question. I was not sure it the operation would be that night or in the morning. The transplant coordinator called and told me it would probably be around 7:00 am. Tuesday morning. They would be removing the organs around 3 am. and would have to fly them to Houston. I spent the night at the hospital  with Jeremy. My husband and daughter came up Tuesday morning. They had an emergency surgery so the transplant did not start until 10 am. After seeing him  on life support for 3 ½ months, ten years ago my fear was him not getting off the ventilator.  My sister and her husband came to wait with us. Finally around 3:15 pm the Surgeon came out and said his surgery was a success and he would be in recovery for a few hours. Around 5 p.m. they told us my husband and I could go see him. He looked good and even spoke to us!! YEAH, he was off  the ventilator!!!! What a relief. My son, Jason told us he was off the next day and would stay with him so we could get some rest. What a night. Jeremy was still in a lot of pain so he had a pain button he could push every ten minutes. Jason keep telling him to punch it twice and double shot it!! I asked the nurse if it would give him a double shot, worried he would get to much. She said no, this is not Starbucks, it will only give him one. He punched it 19 times and only got 8 shots!! Everything was going great, blood sugars were good, kidney function was great. Then Sunday evening, October 1  around 5 p.m. his blood sugar got up to 207 and an hour later he started having a lot of pain. The Dr. on call  came in and told me he might be rejecting his pancreas and they needed to do a ultrasound. I called all my family to say special prayers. The nurse finally gave him something for the pain at 9:30 p.m. Around 12:45 a.m. the Dr. came in and told me everything on the ultrasound looked good, but there might be something it was not picking up so  as a precaution they gave him more steroids and blood thinner. They thought one of the drugs had caused his pain and high blood sugar. The next day everything was back to normal he was not hurting bad and his blood sugars were back to normal. 

Tuesday, Oct 3rd he got to come home. It is so amazing, he woke up one morning a diabetic and that evening he was no longer a diabetic.

He had failing kidneys, now he has one working!! Another miracle from God!!

There have been so many friends and family that have prayed for us along this journey. I know God was in control of this and it was HIS timing when he would get the transplant. 

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT!!