Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Alive

It's been about a month since I've posted. And we are still alive. But it's been a rough patch.

Early on in February, Vance had some weird virus...if you were at the kids' birthday party, you might have noticed that Vance spent a good part of the party hiding in the bedroom. That's kind of how the last two months have been...Vance collapsing in bed every free second there is, and me trying to hold everything else together without succumbing into the pity parties I am unfortunately prone to.

That sounds really bad, and I don't mean to make it more dramatic than it is. Much of life looks somewhat normal. Vance still holds babies and functions on a basic level, so it's not like he's an invalid. He even had a week or two that felt pretty normal in the middle there, but I think he worked himself into the ground at that point, and the relapse (if that's what it is) has been worse than the initial virus. His doctor diagnosed him with a different strain of CMV than he had four years ago. It's a relative of mono.

Adding insult to injury, we both got the stomach flu two weeks ago, right after a slew of company. It was the first time we had ever been sick together. It was pretty pathetic--both of us shivering in bed with 104 temperatures. We were so desperate we had to call some friends to come to our contagion-filled house to take the kids for the morning. They came in looking like a HAZMAT team with their masks on :). Thank God for friends, especially when family is a day's drive away. We muddled through, but I think that second virus pretty much stripped Vance of his last reserves.

With all that, Vance was unable to fly to Spain/Italy for his work trip. I was able to get everything together so we could at least spend a week in NC for a little R&R. Vance got a lot more rest in than he does around here--as hard as I try, life with 3 kids ages 5 and under is just not the most peaceful environment! All that rest didn't get him where we had hoped, though, and he's still dragging.

So you can pray with us that this virus would end. Soon. And that we would both fight the discouragement and fears that creep up. Vance's doctor recommended that he see an immunologist to try to get to the bottom of this mysterious thing. So we're going to take that next step. But our real (only!) hope is Jesus, our advocate and healer.

Thanks for praying.

7 comments:

Robert J. Nash said...

Terri-

Thanks for sharing! That sounds really tough. We will be praying for you all mightily!

Love, Katie

SMS said...

Praying with you guys sweet friend. So sorry you all are going through this.

Much much love!!!

Ellen said...

I pray for you every night. We love you, and I wish I could be there to help more... take a kid here or there, clean a bathroom, bring a meal, whatever... =(

Jen said...

It sounds like you and Luke could have a good catharsis! Good thing Vance and I have such amazing, servant-hearted spouses. Hope Vance starts to feel better -- on the bright side, at least you weren't pregnant when he got CMV (sorry, that's the pediatrician in me!).

Terri said...

Jen, I WAS pregnant the last time he had CMV (with Claire)...I had to do the blood test to make sure I had already been exposed to the strain, which I had. Apparently this is a different strain. Lightning never strikes twice?

Thanks for all your prayers and sympathy, friends. :)

Anonymous said...

Oh Terri, that is so hard. I will be praying


Alicia

Becca said...

Ugh, Terri. Our march was about three weeks of the same, and it was ugly. It is amazing how much it affects me to have a sick husband, even though normally I'm doing 85% of the work anyway. Somehow it just brings us down. I will be praying for you guys! I am so glad that you have your hope on the ROCK. Hang in there!