Its been 5 years since we almost lost CJ. I wrote this 4 years ago; on the one-year anniversary …

It was one year ago today that I took CJ to the ER to get checked out after being sick for a week. We thought it would be a quick trip to the hospital. In and out. We’d get him a couple bags of IV fluids and some pain meds for a possible bruised rib from coughing so hard. Once we got to the ER room, CJ was doubled over the side of the bed in pain, squeezing my hands, with tears streaming down his face. I knew in that moment that whatever was going on was more serious than either of us thought. Little did we know, we wouldn’t be leaving for another 26 days and would end up fighting for his life.

The ER doctor soon let us know that he had pneumonia and needed to be admitted. The first week in the hospital his health would slowly keep declining but we didn’t know why. He was on the strongest antibiotics to treat bacterial pneumonia but more xrays and cat scans would reveal his lungs were getting worse and not better. His fevers would not subside, his coughing got worse, and he soon would need constant oxygen support.

On Day 7 he required more care and was upgraded to the Progressive Care Unit. There we tried to regulate his oxygen levels with both a High Flow Oxygen Machine and a BiPAP Oxygen machine with little to zero luck. By morning, April 17th, our 7 year Wedding Anniversary, he was take to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where he was put on a ventilator and into a medically induced coma where he would remain for the next 6 days. His health would continue to decline over the first several days in the ICU. His fevers got higher, he became unrecognizably swollen, his kidneys completely shut down, he was put on dialysis, and the cause of his illness remained a mystery. Many speciality doctors were brought in to help find answers: Infectious Disease, Pulmonologist (lungs), Nephrologist (kidneys), and more.

After 3 Days in the ICU his official diagnosis became “Severely Septic due to Pulmonary Blastomycosis”. Basically meaning, he had a severe fungal infection in both his lungs, so bad that his entire body/organs were beginning to shut down. Blastomycosis is the most dangerous fungus found in Indiana. From my understanding, we are all exposed to it in various ways and to varying levels. When/How/Why it got into CJ’s body the way it did remains a mystery. Once we knew the cause, CJ began to drastically improve. Three days later we woke him up and took out the ventilator.

He would remain in the hospital for another 12 days but each day he continued to improve. Slowly we were able to get him up and moving around with a walker to help gain his strength back. Slowly we were able to reduce the oxygen assistance until he was completely off of it. He began to eat on his own again, move around on his own, and by Day 26 he was released to come HOME! 🙌🏼 Those 26 days were some of the toughest days in both CJ and my life to date.

Those days have also become some of the most precious days of my life. God showed himself to us in new ways during those 26 days. As a HEALER. As a MIRACLE WORKER. A DELIVERER. As a FATHER that loves on His children so well. A Good Good Father.

I want to share with you some of the details that God worked out and the blessings that flowed:

• God gave us the right doctors! God-loving and God-fearing Doctors! One, our family doctor, who has been in our lives for a long time, Justin Whitt. He has cared for our entire family for years, delivered 2/3 of our babies, has helped CJ with his diabetes and has been much more than a doctor to us; he and his family are some of our dearest friends whom we love beyond words. And CJ’s lung doctor, Dr Morrical, who is AMAZINGLY smart, genuine, humble, and a caring man of God. Both men prayed over CJ and read him scriptures throughout his stay in the hospital. He also had MANY other doctors take such good care of him through his sickness: the ER Dr, Infectious Disease Dr, Nephrologist “kidney” Dr, and our other Drs at Family Medicine Residency Center.
• The NURSES!!!! Seriously … the NURSES!! They become your friends, your family, your people! I have tears in my eyes thinking about the way they take care of people; the way they took care of CJ, me, and our whole family. They don’t just take care of the patient’s medical needs, they took care of our hospitality needs, food needs, emotional needs, spiritual needs, and more. They.Do.So.Much! Special shout outs to Julie & Liz in the Progressive Care, and Jordan & “Steve” in ICU. (I think you’re name is Steve. I’ve been racking my brain for days trying to remember. You were amazing to my husband) A simple ‘THANK YOU’ just can’t do it justice.
• CJ was at his new job less than a year when he got sick. His insurance was active but he wasn’t eligible for FMLA yet. We were nervous if he would have a job to go back to after his 4 week hospital stay and longer recovery at home. God blessed him with an AWESOME place of employment (American Marketing & Publishing) that helped work out all of the details. They were caring, patient, and welcomed him back with open arms after being out for 2 months. MutualBank, my place of employment, was also amazing to me and my family. I got to give my husband and his healing 4+ weeks of my complete attention. My coworkers provided meals, flowers, care baskets, and lots more.
• Medical expenses! WHOOOEEEEE … GOD can work out some serious medical expenses! 26 days in the hospital costs a LOT of money. A LOT. I almost choke when I think about the $$. Praise the LORD for some good insurance. And honestly, I think, just erasing some things. Just to name a couple, outpatient dialysis and anti-fungal medicine are very expensive. Both require extra effort and paperwork to get approved by the insurance. BOTH got approved within a day! A DAY! Just to give you a taste, CJ’s anti-fungal medicine would cost us $3800 a month (x15months) without insurance approval. No.stinkin.joke.
• Our PRAYING church, Destiny Christian Center. ❤️ After they wheeled CJ away to the ICU and took Mallory and I to a private waiting room, I didn’t know what to do first. You almost have so much to do that you don’t know where to start. God gave me clear focus for a moment, and I picked up my phone and called my Bishop. I just remember him saying “I’ll be right there”; and he was. Him and many of our church family came to pray over CJ’s room, his doctors, and lay hands on him a COUNTLESS number of times. Sister Linda Smith was there every.single.day to pray and love on our entire family. Y’all church family is soooo important. Like, critically important. They prayed him through it! 🙏🏼🙌🏼❤️
• COFFEE!! I swear some of the sweetest moments involved all the coffee brought to me. Coffee deliveries and coffee gift cards. It was a blessing. ☕️☕️
• Our house was professionally cleaned 2x! We had warm meals delivered daily for weeks! Grocery bags of food were delivered every couple days! Restaurant gift cards were given. Encouraging cards, notes, texts, and calls were passed along. A week of daycare was paid in full by friends. Cash to help with whatever we needed was given. Our grass was cut multiple times…. People were sooo generous to us! Truly God’s hands and feet.
• My sister was able to clear her busy college schedule to stay with us a full week. She helped take care of our kids … got them ready each morning, packed their lunches, dropped them off at school, picked them up, bathed them, feed them, read to them, prayed with them, played with them, comforted them … she was a full-time parent that week. She cared for me soooo well too. I’m not sure how I would have gotten through that week without her. I have so many sweet memories with her that hard week in the ICU. We would take late night hospital walks, sleep together in a tiny twin bed like we did when we were 5&8 😜, prayed over CJ together, she would read me scripture when I would get overwhelmed, she would rub my back until I fell asleep, she took over my phone when I couldn’t keep up with responding to everyone, and MUCH MUCH more. God has blessed me with the best sister.
• My Parents! ❤️ The insane list of things they did for us over those months would overflow for a long time. For real, they are amazing. My Dad was in the hospital almost every day during the ICU week. He took care of things around our house, did grocery shopping, ran errands, sat with CJ when I needed to shower, held my hand, and on and on. My mom flew back early from her vacation in Florida (a vacation she never gets) to help take care of the boys, cook food, and be with me at the hospital during the day. My step mom took off a week from work to help me with the boys and the house. Their sacrifices during that time were such a blessing.
• I got a LOT one-on-one time with my husband during that 4 weeks. Time we don’t normally get with each other. We talked, laughed, prayed, napped, and cuddled. I was able to take care of him during the most physically weak time of his life and I’m so blessed I was able to be there.
• And the BEST:
• God healed CJ; 100% HE did it! After DAYS of not knowing what was really going on and him getting sicker and sicker, and after many inconclusive tests; God revealed what was making CJ so sick. He healed his organs on the fast track. Doctors weren’t sure if his kidneys would ever make a full recovery or if he would have to stay on dialysis for months or years. His kidneys were back, fully working, on their own, with no more dialysis 3 WEEKS after getting released from the hospital. They thought he would have to be on anti-fungal medicine for 1 1/2+ years to clear everything out of both lungs. After a year, his right lung is clear and his left lung is almost there; just another 3 months of this medicine. During his worst moments, he could barely sit or stand without getting winded because his lungs were so weak. 6 months after getting released from the hospital, he was running up and down the court with his best friends playing basketball 3x a week again. We were told that he may have to go to an inpatient rehabilitation center to learn how to walk again and regain his strength. He did not spend one day in a rehab center. GOD healed my husband! 100% HE DID IT!

There are so many more details that God worked out that week! Little things and big things … I’m so thankful for each one of them.

Life is such a blessing! My husband is such a blessing! I’m so very thankful to be writing this a year later and to soon be celebrating our 8 Year Wedding Anniversary with CJ.

And God gets ALL the Praise for it! 🙌🏼❤️

I wrote this post on Facebook the day after he was put on a ventilator ..

Sunday morning CJ took a turn for the worse with his pneumonia. His body was struggling too hard to breath; even with the help of several respiratory machines. His body was so busy working to keep up the right oxygen rate that it wasn’t working on healing the infection in his lungs like we need it to. So yesterday he was moved to the ICU and put on a ventilator and sedated; the doctors were also able to clean out some of that lung. It was certainly not easy to see, but it was necessary to give his body rest in order to heal.

The outpouring of love, support, and generousity we have received these last 24 hours is beyond amazing. It has touched our hearts in new ways. Thanks for being Jesus’ hands and feet to us during this time.

Above everything else, and all of the medical care he is receiving, JESUS IS OUR HEALER. And God’s glory and goodness is going to shine so bright with this situation. He is changing things.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

“And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose”. Romans 8:28 (One of his doctors prayed this over him a couple days ago; it gave him peace)

“The Lord will fight for you. You only need to be still” Exodus 14:14

“When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears, and rescues them from all their troubles” Psalm 34:17

“I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me” Phil 4:13

“You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance” Psalm 32: 7-8

“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.” 1 Peter 2:24

“Praise the Lord, my soul;
    all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the Lord, my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits—
³ who forgives all your sins
    and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit
    and crowns you with love and compassion,
⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Psalm 103: 1-5