Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Written by
Dr. Keith Gomez
@
10:00PM
Dear Praying Friends,
Words cannot express my gratitude for your concern and prayers for my family at this time. I hate to put bad news upon bad news and would never for the world want to burden you with any more than what you are carrying, but many have requested updates on the website. So, I will do that at this time.
Mrs. Gomez has been extremely ill now for over 1 ½ months with great pain in her abdomen. We have for weeks been in and out of ER trying to find the problem. After seven days in the hospital over Thanksgiving, the doctors concluded there was nothing wrong. This, of course, was not even close. (So much for that elitist group!) We were sent home with no pain medication or anything for her habitual dry cough she had for over 45 days. When I called back to the hospital, the nurses were shocked that nothing was prescribed for her two ailments. Carla cannot sleep at night at all. She awakened me at 4:00 AM one morning with a scared look on her face and said, “You must take me in to the ER now.” I rushed her to a different hospital and they only wanted to run the very same tests that had just been done at the previous hospital less than 9 days earlier. Needless to say, I am not quite as stupid as some who would allow the same tests to be retaken. We ended up going back to the first hospital with a new set of doctors who re-examined the tests that had been run. They indicated to us throughout her stay during Thanksgiving that there was no cancer. Now, upon our return visit, this is all the doctors are talking about. It is strangely amazing how much could change in nine days with a different set of doctors.
On the first visit, she acquired a blood clot in her left lung. Their main concern was that this clot would not move up to her lungs. They gave her heparin and sent her home with coumadin. When I rushed her back the second time in early December, they thought she was bleeding out because of the coumadin. They found out immediately that this was not so, but that there was another problem. They have rechecked her lungs and found that the blood clot did, in fact, move to both lungs. At this point they decided to put a filter in to keep any more clots from going to the lungs. (I guess I must ask if there was a chance of this happening on the first visit, why did they not put the filter in at that time?) Irregardless, she now has Pulmonary Embolisms, which is life-threatening. They immediately put her on heparin to dissolve the clots, hoping that her lungs would open up and that she would not suffocate. This is working at this point quite well for the past 10 or 11 days. She is now strong enough where they will do a laparoscopy on Thursday and take a biopsy of a cyst on her ovary, which has grown from the size of a quarter to the size of a tennis ball. They are tremendously concerned about her pancreas which is enflamed. They feel that the clots were caused by a malignancy. As of this afternoon, the pulmonary doctor reported that all tests and the biopsy on her lungs proved negative. Praise the Lord! However, something is causing her lung problem, and it could possibly be the cyst or the pancreas. We will keep you updated with the results that we find out after the biopsy on Thursday. We ask you to beg God to intervene on her behalf.
We thought Josh was doing better, but this past Sunday he ended up here in the hospital also. Evangelist Dennis Corle and I went for lunch after the morning church service and then went to visit Mrs. Gomez in the hospital. After our visit there, we went home so Dr. Corle could see Josh. I went upstairs and tried to wake Josh. I found him in an insulin coma. He was staring at the ceiling and his body was twitching with convulsions. He was totally unresponsive and had lost his bodily functions. From the training I have received, all indications pointed to the fact that he was within minutes of dying. Dr. Corle called 911. The paramedics put a glucose drip on him, checked his vitals and found that his sugar had dropped under 20. As he received the glucose drip, they were yelling his name. Josh’s response was at first a blank, wide-eyed stare. Then, as they were yelling his name, he said, “What!” He came out of it as if someone had literally flipped a switch! He looked at me with his one good eye and asked, “Dad, what are all these people doing here?” I told him they were paramedics helping him. He said, ‘Where have I been?” I told him, “In a far distant land, but you are back again.” Needless to say, I was very happy to have him back with us! He was transported to ER at the same hospital where Carla is admitted. Because of the medical personnel who know our situation, they were kind enough that they put him across the hall from Carla. Both have private rooms and I am able to run back and forth to each of them. Josh has also been able to visit his mom in her room.
Continue to pray that we will be able to resolve both dilemmas. I am sorry to put this much information on one update, but I wanted to say as much as I could to get you to pray intelligently. I love the Christian brethren and thank you for your prayers and support through this time of school. Just as I preached a few weeks ago on the trials of the faith and even entitled that message, “Faith on Trial,” God is putting me through an advanced course in trials. I want to be counted faithful with passing grades from this course that God has me taking! I will give a brief update as we find out Mrs. Gomez’ prognosis.
Sincerely your friend,
Dr. Keith Gomez
Pastor