A Day for Miracles?!

My apologies for the delay in updating the blog, but I think you’ll find this post worth the wait…

We’re home!!! Mike ended up being transported by air back to Columbia last night. Apparently, I need to lose more pounds than I thought because they said I couldn’t ride with him due to weight issues. It took a little longer to get back than they anticipated because of the weather, so he was admitted only about an hour before I got to the hospital. I ended up getting back to my house and in the bed around 3:00 this morning.

I must need to work on my writing skills more than I thought. I e-mailed my appeal to Blue Cross Blue Shield yesterday around 4:00; the lady called me back and said they don’t make the rules, they just follow them and since it was not medically necessary for Mike to be transported to Columbia, they would not pay for it. My verbal skills must be a little better than my writing (either that or she thought I was completely unstable when talking with her on the phone) because I got a little not-so-nice with the lady and told her that it was necessary and that it wasn’t right on any level to allow me to watch my husband die alone 250 miles away from home when I have two small children that I haven’t seen in ten days. She told me there was another level of appeal and that she would e-mail me the information for that. Well…today I received a voicemail message from that same lady and she said that Blue Cross Blue Shield has decided to pay for the transport. Maybe there is a heart buried within the insurance company somewhere after all.

I realize I’m not supposed to get all excited about this, but it’s very difficult not to. Yesterday around 4:30, Mike started opening his eyes. It was the first time he had opened his eyes since he was admitted to the ICU. I went over to him, and he very clearly knew who I was. He was looking at me instead of “through” me like he would when I would open his eyelids. He could squeeze my hand and move his feet on command. I thought maybe it was a fluke, but he continued to do this (though not always squeezing on command) until they whisked him off to be returned home. I was basically told not to think that this was some sort of sudden healing—the tumor has probably just shifted and relieved pressure from the area of the brain that was controlling those behaviors. But…Mike has been doing the same thing today!!! In fact, when I came in to see him, he had been extubated. In other words, he has been taken off of the ventilator and no longer has a tube down his throat helping him breathe. He does have oxygen hooked up to him, but that just goes through his nose. They are now working on Mike’s nutrition, so he’s not so weak. I talked with the doctor today, and he said if Mike continues to get better, they can start to treat the tumor. If he’s better, they can at least start with the radiation and chemotherapy. The Avastin I wrote about in earlier post is not completely out of the question either, although it may be a bit risky. (Avastin is the drug that has shrunk brain tumors by half in 65% of the patients who have taken it.) We’re going to have to monitor his progress and weigh the risks with taking it. Keep praying!!! Given the condition Mike has been in the last ten days, I think it’s nothing short of a miracle that he is responding like he is now, even if the ICU staff at Duke thinks it’s probably just a shift in the tumor. We serve a God who is greater than any tumor and can make anything happen.