Category Archives: Prayer

God is here.

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Throughout the Bible, God tells us he’ll never abandon us. He assures us of his love and says he’s as close as our right hand. But sometimes, when going through life‘s hardest challenges, we wonder where he is.

Here in Rochester, as we do our best to take one day at a time, we often pray this:

“Father, please let us see you today. Give us a strong sense of your presence.” Those are good prayers, since sometimes God seems to have gone away.

Or has he?

Yesterday when Nelson was discouraged about not being able to leave the hospital, he and Ann Sophie prayed, asking God to deliver some specific encouragement. “Show us your unfailing love, Lord.“

It didn’t take him very long to show himself. As Ann Sophie was leaving Nelson’s hospital room, one of the nurses said, “I’m praying for you. We need the Lord to make your path straight.”

That’s a direct quote from Proverbs 3:6, and suddenly, there was God, speaking his own words over Ann Sophie.

In the hospital elevator, a young man saw baby Will and said, “Is it your baby that’s sick ?”

Ann Sophie said, “No.”

“That’s good,“ he said. “It’s not my baby, either. It’s me.“

“Is it cancer?“

“Yes, but I hope to get some time.“

Before he walked away he said, “Don’t ever give up. Just keep trusting the Lord.“ And there was God, with another important truth from his word.

A few minutes later, as Ann Sophie was leaving the hospital after dark, she’d forgotten where she’d parked the car and was walking around several blocks. A man looking like he might want to cause trouble approached her. Her inner defenses went up, especially since she had the baby with her.

When the man passed her by, he stopped, turned around, and said, “May God bless you and your little baby. And remember, Jesus loves you.“

Ann Sophie thanked him and saw God again. None of us believe these encounters are anything other than God himself moving in close with love, courage and a special message: “I’m here.”

Also, today he showed his loving kindness big-time by giving Nelson the desire of his heart—to come home!

Of course things aren’t perfect. His legs, feet and left arm are still badly swollen, and chemo-nausea kicked in tonight with some vomiting. Then the catheter into his right lung refused to drain. So it’s back to the clinic tomorrow for further tests and a troubleshooting ultrasound.

 

But tonight, none of that matters, because our Nelson is home.

Jesus told his disciples, “Because you have seen me, you believe….” (John 20:29)

And we thought yesterday was busy…

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Today began shortly after midnight when Nelson woke to visit the bathroom. His comments to Ann Sophie didn’t make sense, and though the apartment was very warm, he was shivering. He asked for one blanket and then two. When she felt him, he was burning up–never a good sign.

He was also struggling to breathe, even after the left lung had been drained yesterday afternoon. Ann Sophie said he was doing rapid panting in a strange way and was unsure of himself. 

Ann Sophie called 911, and within 5 minutes the EMTs were at the apartment door. Baby Will awoke with all the confusion, and in this panicky moment, Ann Sophie knew she couldn’t go with Nelson to the hospital. decided to call an ambulance. The EMTs took over with confidence, and tending to Nelson’s needs. His oxygen level was at 80 and heartbeat dangerously slow. He’d been using Luke’s oxygen at 3.0 with no help, so they put it at 5.0. Nelson willingly went with them.

At the ER, they worked to stabilize him but all the new developments were overwhelming him faster than they could counteract them. After several tests and more blood work, they suspected a blood clot in the lung.

Time went by and when they were unable to determine the main problem, they admitted him to the hospital–for the third time. His swelling, which seemed to be lessening just the day before, seemed much worse. It was in his face, arms, chest, back, legs, feet, all of it. He was still panting, quickly becoming unnerved and anxious by his effort to breathe.

Unwilling to give him anything to ease his stress because it would suppress his heart further, they did more tests. What they found was a full left lung, the one that had been drained just hours beforehand. They removed another two+ liters of fluid to relieve his breathing stress, but that didn’t seem to help. The cancer was producing fluid at a much faster rate than before, and in addition to the lung fluid had begun filling the area around his heart, a matter of grave concern.

His blood pressure was extremely low, and they couldn’t get it up. They began considering a risky surgery to drain fluid from around the heart.

By this time Ann Sophie, who had been up through most of the night, wanted desperately to be with her husband, but who would watch baby Will? I had gone back to Michigan to receive our British relatives, son Hans and his family of eight. They were coming to the USA for the first time in four years to join the rest of us on a family vacation. So there was no extra pair of hands to help in Minnesota.

That’s when the guy who has been our saving grace again and again in these last weeks suddenly appeared saying, “I’ll take care of the baby. You go see Nelson.”

Luke worked his magic once more, and he stayed throughout the day, working hard to win Will’s approval, which was no small struggle. As Ann Sophie sat next to Nelson in the ICU holding his hand, she sent back a message that there were15 people in his room at once, working to save his life. For us, that confirmed he was in the best place he could possibly be. 

Nelson’s blood pressure was dangerously low, breathing was still labored, and their next step would be to intubate him. We prayed against that, a prayer God chose to answer

Throughout this day there have been ups and downs. They thought it was a blood clot in the lungs but then disproved that. Then they made the decision to drain some of the fluid from around his heart. We were overjoyed when the report came
back that the procedure was successful and his labored breathing had finally eased. A shunt was left in, in case future draining is necessary.

We are well aware that Nelson could have died last night. Since he is still very much alive, we’re singing praises to the Lord, who chose once again to let him live.

„The Son gives life to whom he will…“ (John 5:21)

A Dying Man?

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One of the best things about the Mayo Clinic is the constant communication  between doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel. They also communicate faithfully with us. Every patient can set up a portal on their phone that allows them to ask questions, arrange or rearrange appointments, and view test results literally minutes after the tests conclude.

Today’s appointment at the Clinic was the result of a question Ann Sophie had texted to the head oncology doctor. We’ve been concerned about the swelling in Nelson’s left arm/hand, and in both feet/ankles, and thought it was important that a doctor see him and make a judgment.

This afternoon we met with Dr. Oliver and his PA. Because of the frequent back-and-forth between them, both were well aware of the reason for our visit. They were current on everything that had happened to Nelson while he was in the hospital recently and in the days since then.

The three of us asked countless questions, and the bottom line of Nelson’s swollen limbs is that the cancer is causing fluid to build up not just in his lungs but throughout his body. When I asked if it would help to surgically remove the small mass in his neck, the doctor said, “We can’t do that because it’s not just that mass that’s causing trouble. The cancer is all over.”

We knew it had been growing but didn’t know how extensively. Just as we were absorbing that negative news, Dr. Oliver dropped a bomb on us. He said, “When I visited you in the hospital about a week ago, I took one look at you and thought, ‘This young man is dying. He won’t make it to the end of the week’.”

We were speechless. We had had no idea.

Dr. Oliver told us this, we believe, to encourage us, because he also said, “You were a very sick man. And now, a week later, here you are, looking a little better.”

All of us sat still, hearts beating fast, wondering what else he might know that he wasn’t telling us.

Later we talked about whether or not hearing the whole medical truth is good or bad. Would it have been helpful for Dr. Oliver to have come into Nelson’s hospital room telling him he thought he wouldn’t live through the week?

We concluded that it’s best if we don’t know everything the doctors know. They aren’t really in charge anyway.

God is.

As we arrived home this afternoon, we recalled the prayer we’d prayed over Nelson on the day Dr. Olivier judged him to be at the end of his life. Here’s part of our prayer over him that night, personalized just as we prayed it then:

“Let the morning bring Nelson word of your unfailing love, Lord, for he has put his trust in you. Show him the way he should go, because he has entrusted his life to you. Rescue him from this cancer, because he hides himself in you. For your name’s sake, O Lord, preserve his life.”

And God did.

(Psalm 143:8-11)