Are you for real?

Friday was another adventurous day for me as I went to see my Neurologist for our weekly hang out time, and for him to tell me things are going well, or not so well. My day started out well because Friday's are my day with my baby girl, we it was a bummer that she had to come with me to the doctor, but it was great that I was able to experience what happened with her as well.
I handed my doctor my CAT scan that I had done earlier that week, and patiently waited to hear the results. Dr. Kumar, walked in the office, and says "well it's gone!", "Say that again please" I said, "It's gone, the spot that was on your brain is now gone." I was in a little shock, "are you for real?"
Dr. Kumar went on to tell me that the spot had cleared up and was completely gone. He also mentioned that he spot with my infectious disease doctor and they planned to take me off my antibiotics that day, and that they would contact my nurse and she would pull my pick-line out of my arm! I was so excited! On my way back to my car, I was explaining to Riley what had just happened, and I know that she couldn't understand, but someday I'll get to tell her that she was there with me at the doctor's office when they told me that not just that my health had been restored, but that God used those doctors to heal me, and that there where so many people praying for me, and she was a witness to God's goodness, and faithfulness, and that prayer is the most powerful tool we have and it literally changes lives. I'm excited to someday tell her that she was there for that. I get excited to share more opportunities with Riley of how God has worked in our family, friends, and in our personal lives, and to see that impact her...that excites me!

I really want to thank everyone for your prayers and support during this time, I believe with all my heart that the only reason I made it through this crazy situation was because the Lord healed me. Thank you for your MANY PRAYERS, and support for Violet, Riley, and myself. We love you.

Pray For Test On Wednesday

Tomorrow I will be having another CAT scan. If all goes well with that and my report comes back good from my Neurologist on Friday, then I will be getting my pick line out of my arm. That would be AWESOME! Each day I'm feeling better, and getting stronger, so hopefully the test results will just confirm how I'm feeling.

Violet and I appreciate your prayers during this time.

Health Updates Keep Getting Better...

Yesterday I went to another doctor appointment. I have to admit that this is really getting old, having weekly, sometimes 2-3x a week I'm at a doctors appointment. But hey, I am feeling better and they are doing a great job, so I'll stop complaining now.
Anyhow my doctor told me yesterday that I'm doing great, and that my staph infection was not the most serious kind of staph infection as originally suspected, which is a good thing. And the antibiotics are working great. There is still a little infection there, but it has cleared up significantly since originally going into the hospital. She told me that if all goes well with my CAT scan next week, and after she speaks with my Neurologists, and all looks like it is still going well meaning that the spot in my brain is still draining and has gotten smaller, then they will take me off my antibiotics sooner than anticipated, if things are still the same, or they have any hesitation at all, then the IV stays in my arm.
I have to say this was really encouraging, even if the IV stays in my arm a little longer, the fact that they are talking about this right now is awesome to me. It's a constant reminder to me that MY GOD is the great HEALER, and I'm thankful at the reminder that HE is constantly watching over me.

Another Health Update

Today I had my Ear Nose and Throat Doctor appointment. He put a camera up my nose...could have been painful, but wasn't. He said that all looks great, especially the right side that had the worst of the infection. However, he also told me that the right side is still pulsating, and that my brain is expose as a result of infection eroding the bone. But said that all looks great besides that.

Before my Doctor left the room, I had to thank him for all he had done. My Neurologist even mentioned to me that if my ENT had not done such a great job in draining my sinuses, then things could have been different than they are now. So I was and am thankful for all he has done. I asked him if he had ever seen anything like this before, and he said it is very rare, but he had, and he had seen people fully recover as a result. He also said that this was very serious, and that because of the fact that we caught it when we did, got the right medical attention, and then proceeded to say, "more than that, someone upstairs in on your side."

Hearing a Doctor acknowledge the fact that even with all the medical attention, this was bigger than he was, really blew me away. I left thankful for my Doctor, and then team of Doctor's that I had in the hospital, but I was and am even more thankful to my GOD, who is BIGGER than all this.

There have been so many people praying for me and my family, people that I don't even know, but I firmly believe, beyond a shadow of a doubt that the only reason I'm still alive is because my GOD heard those prayers, and my GOD has a BIG plan. Every day I wake up, I'm thankful that I get to be a part of it.

Violet and I have a verse that we have clung to for our marriage, Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

Quick Health Update

Every Monday my nurse comes out to our house to take some blood, and to change the dressing on my arm where my pick line is. She mentioned to me that my white blood count is dropping with is good, meaning that the antibiotics are working and fighting the staph infection, however, I did find out that I will always have the staph infection, but at least it's making it go down at the moment.

Yesterday afternoon I went for my weekly CAT scan, and then went to my Neurologist Doctor this morning and he informed me that the spot in my brain is now slowly going down. It is now smaller than it was last week, not by a huge amount, but still has shrunk a little bit.

I firmly believe that the only reason I'm where I'm at is because of my God. He is bigger than all of this, and each report we get we will praise Him for the out come, all glory belongs to Him.

Thank you for your prayers, please continue to pray for me and for my family as we are on this journey to healing.

You May Not Finish this Blog post.....part 2

That next day, Sunday morning, was a good day. My house doctor, came in to check on me, and said that I was looking good. He said that he needed to confirm with the neurologist, but as he looked at the new CT, there was no abscess in the brain. And that it was not a fungal infection, but rather a staph infection and all should be treatable with antibiotics.

I can’t tell you how excited I was and relieved I was to hear those words. Realizing that if I had waited any longer I could have slipped into coma, and things progressed even worse from there, the thought was so overwhelming.

Monday morning, the doctor’s came in and began the process to discharge me, and that night I found myself in my own bed, resting with a new look on life, with a new since of urgency, and a new since of what is really important.

Never before have I had anything crazy like this happen, Violet through out this entire ordeal was such a stronghold for me, being so positive, and reminding me that God has so much more for me to do.

Through this entire situation as I reflect on it, I never questioned my faith, I never became angry with God, but I found myself scared. I always thought that when that time came, I’d have a peace that surpasses everything, but truth is, I was scared. And then I thought of my family, and how I hadn’t prepared to leave them in a good position if I where to pass. I always said I have time to this or to do that, but truth is, I don’t, and you don’t. We are never promised time, we are never promised that will live to grow old with our spouse, or to see our children grow up and experience life, get married and have their own children. We are not guaranteed anything, except that will someday all pass away.

A few days before this entire situation raised it’s crazy head, I was reading, “Crazy Love”, by Francis Chan. And the chapter that I was reading was called, “you may not finish this chapter”, a relatively strange title of a chapter I thought, but as I read it, I was challenged, but still not ready for what would be ahead of me.

In the chapter Francis quotes Fredrick Buechner saying, “Intellectually we all know we are going to die, but we really do not know it in the sense that the knowledge becomes a part of us. We do not really know it in the sense of living as through it were true. On the contrary, we tend to live as through our lives will go on forever.”

That is exactly how I now feel. I can truly say that after this experience, I have been forced to examine my life in a way I have never had to before. A real reality check. I do know that some day I will die, when that is I do not know. But this I do know, the Lord has brought me through this situation, and continues to as I am currently still recovering, but the knowledge that I will someday die is now more real than ever, and that had forced me to live as if it were true, which in turn has moved me to a place in my faith that I have never been before, and I’m so excited to see where God takes us on our journey with Him. Things that He asked us to do before now don’t seem so scary.

I do know this, I want to live my life adoring my wife, loving my children, and knowing that whatever God has asked me to do, I did, and fear didn’t keep me from obeying Him. That to me is a life of no regrets, that’s having a sense of urgency, and that’s living knowing my time is short no matter where I’m at on my journey with Christ.

Please continue to pray for my healing. I have an IV in my arm every 8 hours on the hour, and have doctor appointments weekly, I have a road ahead of me, but the Lord has brought me this far, and I can’t thank you enough for all your prayers and support. They have been so encouraging to myself and my family.

You May Not Finish this Blog post.....part 1

The last few weeks of my life have been needless to say, a little crazy. Exactly 2 weeks ago today I had been having headaches for about a week and they continued to grow stronger, to the point I was vomiting and hardly able to walk. After leaving work to try and rest, and recuperate, I found myself in the ER at Banner Estrella Hospital. And before I knew it I was having a CAT scan and MRI done of my head. After being put in a room, a doctor came in and spoke to Violet and I, telling us that they found an abscess on my brain and they needed to transfer me to Banner Good Samaritan Hospital where they have Neurological Doctors on hand. Next thing I know Vi and I are in an ambulance headed to the other hospital and immediately put into ICU. It was there in ICU that my life would be changed forever. The doctor on call was waiting to address the situation, and to speak with Violet and I. “Mr. Conner, you need to know that there in an abscess in your brain, and it appears to be a fungal infection which is very serious.” “How serious are we talking?” “This is life threatening Mr. Conner, very serious.” “Well what are my odds, how serious?” “We are not going to talk about those right now, because they are not good.”

Now I’m not sure if you have ever had those words thrown your way, but this was all new to me. I was in shock. I was scared. That night I could hardly sleep, I’d wake up and hear my wife crying as she sat in the chair next to my bed and prayed all night long, and all I could think about was my amazing wife of 7 ½ years of being married, and how I always saw us living to be an old couple together, and also about our 8 weeks old daughter, I imagined how many first’s I’d potentially be missing, first steps, first words, day of school, even down to walking her down the isles someday. Now it may sound like I’d given up, but I hadn’t, I was just reflecting on what was thrown my way by the doctors. Pretty heavy stuff to run your mind over in such a short amount of time.

The next day my neurologist came in and told me that he was planning on talking to me about what kind of procedure we would be doing for my brain surgery, but instead after seeing my sinuses where so impacted he wanted to bring in a Ear Nose and Throat Doctor, and also an Infectious Disease Doctor, and see if we can fix the situation before making it worse. The next day I found myself going into surgery. For over 2 hours they cleaned out my sinuses and did confirm that the infection had eroded my bone and gone into my brain. However, they where optimistic that the abscess may drain and with the help of all the antibiotics would be gone. The next day in ICU is a complete blur, I don’t remember much, but that evening the doctor’s moved me out of ICU and into a normal room! One step closer to going home! This to me was a good sign, I can’t be as bad, I must be getting better right?!!