Jason & Olivia

I was putting together an e-mail this morning to let everyone know how Jason is doing, then thought duh-you’ve got the blog, use it.  The problem with e-mail is that I’m on three different computers – work, home and mobile, with two different address books  so I can’t easily get an e-mail to everyone that I want to from any one PC. 

A brief history of what we’ve been through this week:  Jason had surgery on Monday at Mercy Hospital in Portland to remove a herniated disc in his lower back.  It’s the same disc that ruptured two years ago, and the surgery was performed by the same surgeon.  The only difference was the location.  The previous surgery was at Maine Medical Center, just blocks away.

The herniation was much larger than expected – several weeks passed between the MRI and the surgery – but we were given no indication that anything went wrong.  The surgeon said everything went fine.  In post-op, Jason expressed to Jamie and to his nurse that something didn’t feel right, and complained of severe pain in his stomach, which was hard as a rock.    Without going into the details, I’ll just say here that mistakes were made and we almost lost our boy.  He went into “code blue” roughly four hours after surgery and finally got the attention that he needed. 

A CT scan revealed internal bleeding, and he was rushed into surgery again to repair a “tear” in the aorta that was made during the first surgery.  This seems to have been a success and we’re so very thankful to God that he was not sent home as scheduled, and that competent professionals were there to make the needed repair.   By Tuesday, his blood count had been steadily declining, so a second CT scan was ordered.  We’ve been assured that there is no more internal bleeding.  The problem he’s having now, as I understand it, is that he’s just lost so much blood that his body is not reacting well, although that seems to be turning around.

We don’t know how many people have bombarded Heaven on Jason’s behalf in the last 24 hours, but we are thankful for each and every one, and are very humbled.   I just wanted you to know that your prayers have been heard, and God is listening.

His count continued to drop yesterday (18), so last night he had to have a second blood transfusion – 2 more units of blood, and we finally saw the numbers rise (22) around midnight.  This was encouraging, but expected, as the tests were run only an hour after the transfusion.  They would like to see this number around 30.

So here’s where we are now:  I just received the following text message from Jason at 9:00 am:  ”Praise God!  My blood count not only stabilized, but even came up a little!  The next check is at 4 pm.  Dr. Bloch is encouraged and expects me to be ok – he wants me to let him worry about the numbers and just stay positive!”

How about that?  We know that God alone was the Designer, Architect, Engineer and Builder of each and every cell in Jason’s body, and we’re seeing that He also is in charge of Maintenance.  He is in complete control of this situation.  We don’t know why or what His plan is, but we don’t have to know that part.  We just need to trust Him.  I’ve told Jason that if He wanted to take him home, He would have done so on Monday, so not to worry.  There’s a reason for all of this – probably lots of reasons, and I have an idea that we’ll know the reason soon…if not, then we’ll find out later.

Jason & I watched the Celtics and a bit of the Red Sox whip their opponents last night while he received the new blood (it took several hours).  I don’t know much about basketball but he interpreted for me.  (c: 

Several times he has said that he is very grateful to be alive and has a new outlook on life. 

So what can you do?  Several of you have called or sent e-mails and want to visit, but please be patient.  Jason & Jamie are so thankful and amazed that so many of you care, but he doesn’t want to have any visitors until he “turns the corner” in his words.  As you can imagine he’s not very comfortable, and he just doesn’t want to have company until he feels better.  I hope that you understand. 

He would love to hear from you though.  You can post a comment to this message below and I will read your messages to him each night.  I haven’t read him bedtime stories in a loooong time, so it will be fun.  You can also send him a note, card or whatever to the following address:

Jason Gibbons
c/o Mercy Hospital
Critical Care Unit
144 State Street
Portland, ME 04101 

You can also e-mail me at leo@leogibbons.com and I will get your message to him.

We don’t know how long he’ll be in ICU but I’ll keep you posted here and let you all know when he can see visitors. 

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