Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Written by
Dr. Keith Gomez
@
9:00AM
I was happy to arrive in Sacramento at 11:03 Monday morning after flying in from Minneapolis. We had a
wonderful service Sunday night at HopeBaptistChurch
in Minneapolis
for one of our graduates, Pastor John Mele. John was saved and baptized in our
ministry. He was a graduate of the University
of Arizona with a
Bachelors of Architect degree. After he got saved, the Lord began to work on
his heart and called him to preach. John married one of our good girls who I
had pastored all of her life…Jennifer Shiffer. As I sat there Sunday night and watched
the Charter Service and how much John and Jennifer were loving and hugging on
their people, I thought how wonderful it was to invest in the lives of our precious
young people. These two make such a wonderful pastor and pastor’s wife. They
will do a great job there.
I rushed to the hospital
after arriving in Sacramento
to see Josh for the first time since a week ago Saturday when he was extubated.
He can, of course, talk now and he was very excited to see me. We began to have
a great time of fellowship. Carla had spent all Monday morning with Josh and
the therapist. Josh had gotten up by himself and walked three long hallways
with no assistance; albeit wobbly! He did it all by himself. This is somewhat
difficult to do with one eye because of depth perception and lack of balance.
He then went through a series of tasks (calisthenics) where he had to cross his
feet side ways (crossovers). Then he did one-legged squats where he bent one
leg at a time at the knee. He then walked back down those three long hallways
to his room.
When I arrived yesterday
afternoon, we had to deal with the occupational therapist. I was teasing Josh
that we had set up a meeting with his “occupational” therapist to see about
getting a “job” for Josh fixing motorcycles! He looked up at me with that one
big eye and said, “Wouldn’t that be an irony?”
The occupational therapist handed him a piece of paper with a list of
questions; “what is your name, address, phone number, hobbies, and goals for therapy.”
Josh filled it out in detail very quickly and completely without missing a
letter or number. His list of hobbies included hunting and fishing. I told him
he missed one…eating! He laughed. For his goals he said that he wants to return
to life as much as normal so he can do these things---and he drew an arrow to
the hobbies. The therapist also gave him a wooden puzzle that he had to put
together, which had some pieces that did not fit well. He was to figure out how
to solve that puzzle. They’re working on his problem-solving skills.
Because of the reconstructive
surgery on his face, he has some pain in his jaw and his teeth. It is hard for
him to chew and even to yawn due to the pain. So he doesn’t have that big,
robust smile that we used to see. He clenches his teeth together and opens his
mouth up and gives what I’ve been calling a “cheesy grin!” I told him every
time I say something funny, I want to see that cheesy grin. Needless to say, we
had a good time yesterday and I saw many more “cheesy grins!” I hope that you
will understand that our hearts are broken and that life is changed for ever
for Josh. We have been mourning quite a bit and the Bible says that your mourning shall be turned into laughter,
your heaviness into joy. He will trade ashes for beauty. So, we are
experiencing a little of that now.
The next therapist we saw in
the afternoon was the physical therapist. We went back down stairs. Josh had to
walk on his own, take the elevator and remember how to get there and back. To
our amazement he remembered all of this. We went down to the gym where they had
him climb stairs: two steps up and down twice. When he approached the stairs,
he ran into the steps with his foot because of his lack of depth perception
with only one working eye. Other than
that, he did fairly well. Then he had to crawl across a mat that was up at bed
height so they could assess his hand/knee coordination as he crawled. He had a
problem with this because he had to lift his head up which was very difficult
for him due to the broken vertebrae (T2,3,4, 5, 6, and 7) in his back. As I
felt across his back, I was amazed at how out of spinal alignment it is. The
soreness of his neck and the stiffness of his muscles made the task of crawling
really painful. He needs a good spinal adjustment to get these vertebras in
line.
Next he had to meet with his
speech therapist. We went down to her office and she had Josh sit down at a
computer. She told him there was a program on it that would help him with the
skills of listening, understanding and following directions. The computer would
tell him what to do and he had to follow the instructions. Being a Gomez, he
wasn’t going to listen to the computer! He would get ahead of the instructions and
the computer would rebuke him for going too fast and not following
directions! Gomez genetics! He did
complete all the tasks properly and when he finished the program, the computer
had a built-in cheering section for him!
After that was complete, the
therapist asked him if he had an email that he’d like to open. He thought for a
moment and then I told Josh that there was a website that he might want to take
a look at. We logged on the NBBC website. For the first time Josh saw this site
and just stared in amazement that he was on the web. I told him there were
updates, as well as the CaringBridge guest book, and
photos of him and asked him what he’d like to look at first. He wanted to see
the pictures and when he clicked on and enlarged the picture of himself, he was
shocked and he clicked it back off very quickly. I asked him if those pictures
scared him and he said it was scary. I told him that this was reality. (Folks,
you must understand that just yesterday Josh had told his brother and
brother-in-law as he looked at himself in the mirror, that he was really a mess
and who would have him now?) Josh needed to see where he has come from. He
remembers nothing about ICU, nor the blood, scars, surgery, or stitches. I
tried to explain to him that he came from death’s door to where he is now and
how wonderful he is doing. So, we then
clicked onto the CaringBridge site and I showed
him where over 16,000 people have hit this site. He just started shaking. I
showed him all the notes from people all over the world who wanted to let him
know they were praying for him and wanted him to know how much they love him. I
was standing behind him as he sat in the chair and he fell back into my arms
shaking, with his lips quivering and tears rolling out of his eye. He said, “Dad, I am overwhelmed. I just can’t
believe this.”
The therapist then said, “I
knew there was something different about your family. I am a born-again
Christian also and I am so glad that so many people across this nation love
this young man.”
We went back up to his room.
He had to lead us from the basement of the hospital, down the maze of hallways,
up the elevator to the fifth floor and to his room. He did all of this without
making a mistake. Again, you just have to understand what a tremendous
accomplishment this is! Pastor Hedger and his family
came to visit Josh afterwards and we had a good time of fellowship and prayer.
It was a very full day for Josh for the first day of therapy.
This morning they will be
going into the top of his neck into the main artery and “fishing out” the
filter they had put in to prevent blood clotting. They put this mechanism in
down at the groin area and it balloons out. The filter has a little fish hook
at the top like a Christmas ornament, and they will go in from the top and pull
it out. Josh will receive a local anesthesia for this procedure and then he will
begin another busy day of therapy.
Once again, I want to thank
you for all the cards, notes, letters and gifts of money that have been sent.
Thank you all so very much for your love for us at this time. I will be taking
some pictures of Josh to show you his progress and try to get them sent back to
be put on the website…if I can figure out how to do this! I am sure there is a
computer geek around here somewhere who can help me!
Sincerely,
Dr. Keith Gomez