Pre-Eclampsia, updating Jennifer's pregnancy

I haven’t had much time to write lately, though I’ve had so many blogworthy items to write about.  I’ve had my boys for the last six weeks and Im devoting all of my extra time to them and caring for Jennifer.  We are at a lull at the moment as its bedtime for Jennifer and I. The boys wanted to stay up to watch TV so I don’t feel like I’m sacrificing time with them.  Your prayers are so appreciative and coveted.  They really do work.  I feel amazingly blessed at the moment.  I feel my life is peaking, but the peak from this vantage point doesn’t seem to have an apex, it just keeps getting higher and higher.  Isn’t that how life is supposed to be?  I don’t mention all of the blessings in my life to gloat.  Instead I try to use my hardships as a testimony to how God can turn a life around.  I’ve heard a lot of dramatic testimonies of people lives before and after Christ.  But since I’ve been a Christian virtually my entire life, I haven’t heard a lot of stories like mine.  A Christian that endures hardships although they seem to be doing mostly everything right.  I think that is why I’m so compelled to be so transparent with my own life.  Its not to make anyone look bad, rather its just to illustrate the sometimes harrowing details can further accentuate God’s glory. 

I was writing in the blog after the kids went to bed while I was in Lynchburg two weeks back.  I was using Shari’s computer since I left mine back home.  I posted the blog and then I shared the link on Facebook.  By the way, if you are reading this and we are not facebook friends, please feel free to add me if you want updates on the blog.  Facebook is a good way to get updates since I don’t write in this blog daily anymore.  So I added the link, but couldn’t find it on my page.  After investigation I discovered that Shari hadn’t logged out of Facebook thus my link got posted on her blog.  The next day we were all enjoying a 4^th of July celebration at Thomas Road Baptist Church.  It was quite an extravaganza.  I really admire my brother in law Jonathan and how he has taken over for his father, the late Jerry Falwell.  He really is a great dad and uncle and does a good job leading that church.  It is estimated that there were 15,000 guests joining in the festivities.  I was waiting in line at one of the slides and I was approached by someone I didn’t know.  She said, “Are you Shari’s brother?  I read your blog last night.”  It was because I left the notice on Shari’s facebook page.  It was just kind of nice surprise.  I never quite know how people are drawn to this blog and why.  I feel compelled to write since Its my ministry now that I have left the Middle East.  I am looking for opportunities to serve anytime and anywhere.  Right now this blog seems like most viable outlet. 

Jennifer’s pregnancy has been somewhat Tenuous lately.  She is in week 36 and normal delivery time ranges from 37 weeks to 42 weeks.  But her blood pressure has been skyrocketing and she has been hospitalized twice in the past week.  Jennifer has been diagnosed with Preeclampsia. This is edited from Wikipedia. 

Pre-eclampsia is a medical condition in which hypertension arises in pregnancy. While blood pressure elevation is the most visible sign of the disease, it involves generalized damage to the maternal endothelium, kidneys, and liver, with the release of vasoconstrictive factors being secondary to the original damage.

Pre-eclampsia may develop from 20 weeks gestation (it is considered early onset before 32 weeks, which is associated with increased morbidity). Its progress differs among patients; most cases are diagnosed pre-term. Pre-eclampsia may also occur up to six weeks post-partum. Apart from Caesarean section or induction of labor (and therefore delivery of the placenta), there is no known cure. It is the most common of the dangerous pregnancy complications; it may affect both the mother and the unborn child.[1]

Although eclampsia is potentially fatal, pre-eclampsia is often asymptomatic, and so its detection depends on signs or investigations. Nonetheless, one symptom is crucially important because it is often misinterpreted. The epigastric pain, which reflects hepatic involvement and is typical of the HELLP syndrome, may easily be confused with heartburn, a very common problem of pregnancy. It can be distinguished from heartburn when it is not burning in quality, does not spread upwards towards the throat, is associated with hepatic tenderness, may radiate through to the back, and is not relieved by giving antacids. It is often very severe, described by sufferers as the worst pain they have ever experienced. Affected women are not uncommonly referred to general surgeons as suffering from an acute abdomen (for example, acute cholecystitis). Pre-eclampsia affects 3% of pregnancies. 

OK, enough with the medical jargon. Jennifer is safe and stable, but we have to be extra careful.   Jennifer has been a real trooper through all of this.  Its quite amazing since she is still working, had my sons in for the past six weeks and we’re trying to sell a house.  But the doctors said enough, and ordered her on bedrest two weeks ago.  If you know Jennifer, you know its hard for her to sit still for any length of time.  So the fact that this has wiped her out, you know how serious it is.  They were tempted to do an emergency induction and possibly a C-section last week but her vitals stabilized.  So instead the hospital sent her home and scheduled the induction for Tuesday if it doesn’t happen naturally before that.  They want the baby to cook for as long as naturally possible and safe for both mother and baby.  I would have liked for the baby to have been delivered while my boys are still here.  (They leave on Saturday).  But we’ll leave that type of decision up to God and the doctors. 

Jennifer and I are thrilled at the prospect of being parents together by next Wednesday hopefully.  (She’s being induced on Mon. Night Tues Morning).  I feel so incredibly blessed that I get to experience being a dad all over again.  I know I’m going to be an older dad, like my friend Scott Salsedo.  But we just need to look to Tony Randall as our inspiration.  I’m really trying to stay fit by exercising most everyday.  I want our children to have a dad that is in the prime of his life.  I think that is going to happen as I feel more fit now, than I did when I was in my 20’s.  Although there are more aches and pains now.  But I believe like God whispered to me months ago, that I’m going to have a long life so I can enjoy my children and my grandchildren.  I feel like my life is coming full circle, just like JOB, only chapter 42, not the first 41 chapters (been there, done that, don’t want to do it again.)  God is faithful.