Updated Prayer Request

First of all, thank you to all of you who emailed me or posted comments on this blog. Your support and prayers mean the world to me and my family.

My daddy said it right yesterday when he said "One phone call can change your life." Seeing my brother in a sleep-induced coma was difficult. Many tears were shed over him yesterday. The ICU waiting room was humming with people from my hometown and my home church. People I had not seen in years drove an hour or so to come support my family and lend their prayers. At 3pm, I asked the ICU nurse if we could bring those in the waiting room in Doug's room and pray over him. Surprisingly, she agreed to let us. About 11 people surrounded his bed, touched him and prayed outloud over him. God was in that room. We know it and we felt it. We believe he will be restored.

Now for the update. He is on a heart pump which is beating his heart and is giving his own heart some rest. My brother has what the doctors called 'significant heart damage'. They inserted two stints yesterday after he had the second heart attack. The doctor gave us 2 choices: let him chance having another episode and die; or implant a heart defibrillator to kick his heart back to life if he should have any type of heart arrhythmia. As a family, we chose the latter. As the doctor reminded us, he is 47 years old, he is strong and healthy--he has more time to live. With any surgery, there are complications and we accept that. We will go on faith those complications will not come to him.

The next item on the agenda today is to gradually reduce his dependence on the heart pump machine. The doctor will reduce it to 50% today and see if Doug's heart can work on it's own without arresting. If all goes well, they will take him off the heart pump machine completely Saturday, with surgery to follow early next week.

Meantime, I am back to work today believing the best for him today and will return to the hospital this weekend and next week.

I believe your prayers for Doug will allow his heart to work on its own so the surgery can go forward. God is listening.

"I live by faith. Not by sight." I Corinthians 5:7