November 19, 2024 • 40 mins
Join us as we explore this provocative question against the backdrop of our own family's trials and triumphs. From the poignant moment our son Cash was mistakenly added to, then removed from, his middle school baseball team, to the heart-wrenching vigil at the hospital bedside of our beloved grandfather, these stories illuminate the pressures of modern family life and the resilience that binds us together. We share the emotional rollercoaster, the lessons learned, and the unexpected blessings that emerged from these challenges.
As our family faced these tests, we found ourselves juggling the emotional fallout of Cash's disappointment and the logistical nightmare of a medical crisis. Our grandfather's battle with chronic kidney disease brought us to the brink, forcing us to confront hospital procedural missteps and the looming permanence of dialysis. Through it all, we balanced supporting Cash with preparing for the worst, discovering reserves of strength we didn't know we had. By sharing these raw, unvarnished experiences, we aim to shed light on the human journey through adversity and the bonds that sustain us.
Faith and community became our refuge, offering a lifeline of hope and resilience. Witness how a miraculous turnaround in our father's health reaffirmed our belief in divine intervention, inspiring a renewed commitment to trust, prayer, and gratitude. This episode is a testament to the power of thoughtful decision-making, exemplified by Cash's mature choice to leave a sports team for his well-being. We hope these stories of faith, perseverance, and unity in the face of life's storms will provide comfort and encouragement, reminding everyone they aren't alone in their struggles.
God, doubt, and proof walk into a podcast... it goes better than you’d expect!
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
The Signpost Inn PodcastFind peace, clarity, and companionship for your spiritual journey.
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
here's a question for you is marriage overrated?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
why aren't people getting married anymore?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
a new pew research poll found that two and five
young adults think marriage isan outdated tradition marriage
rates are at their lowest rightnow.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Is marriage really even worth it?
More than half of marriages endin divorce.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
If you get married, you have to be stuck with this
person for the rest of your life, right?
That's why you get married.
So that's why it's declining.
Why would you get married ifyou don't, if you want to have
just one partner?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
when you can have multiple Marriage is stupid.
Welcome to the Married AFPodcast, the self-proclaimed
greatest marriage relationshippodcast in the world.
My name is Matthew Powers,alongside my beautiful wife,
monica.
Baby, how you doing.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I don't like that question.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Why.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Ask me in about a month and I'll tell you.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I will, but I'm going to ask you today because life
has been hell the last three orfour weeks, and so we're going
to discuss that just a littlebit today but I'm so tired of
crying I know you cried a lotthe last few days I'll probably
cry a lot now, so that's okay, Idon't even have tissues well,
(01:18):
you know um.
We got some pillows, got ablanket down here I can pass you
.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yes, please, let me wipe my snot on that blanket.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I mean, I think that's a great idea.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Tell you what I'll go get you some tissues real quick
, I'm going to grab you sometissues.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Is there not a box?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
of tissues somewhere for real?
No, there's definitely not Allright, so let's get into it.
So last time we were witheverybody like things were
pretty, pretty, pretty solid.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
things were moving along, strolling along it was
the week before my birthday yes,the week before your birthday.
And it all started with cashthe week of my birthday our son
made the middle school baseballteam.
Yeah, and we were elated, butmy dad went in the hospital Same
day.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Basically the same day.
So let's just let's start withCash.
Okay, cash made some middleschool baseball team Awesome.
We're so pumped, we're soexcited.
It's on a Friday.
It's on a Friday, it's amazing.
Tuesday rolls around.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Let's give dates, because I like noting.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I don't know the exact date.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Oh, I know exact days .
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Anyways, Tuesday rolls around.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
The 25th.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Tuesday, the 25th.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Is when we find out Cash made the team.
That's impossible I mean Friday, the 25th.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
That's the day after your birthday.
Yes, that's when we found out.
Cash made the team Exactly sothat following Tuesday which
would have been what the 29th Iget a text message from our son
At the end of the day Because hedoesn't have a phone.
He's 12 years old, he doesn'thave a phone, he doesn't take it
to school or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
He's one of the rare ones.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
One of the rare, so about 3.30 or so.
Get a text from Cash Just saysDad.
I'm really, really sad.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
That's not a text we get from our children.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Not a text any parent wants to get.
So I get the text.
I see the text.
He begins to kind of explainwhat goes on.
I FaceTime him.
He doesn't answer.
Facetime him again Doesn'tanswer.
Facetime him again doesn'tanswer.
Facetime him a third timedoesn't answer.
I'll text him.
Hey, I need you to call me.
Facetime him again doesn'tanswer.
So I FaceTime his sister.
She answers right away.
Hey, daddy, you know just Elkybeing Elky, say hey, where's
(03:34):
your brother?
She points over to the couch,shows me him on the couch.
I need to talk to him.
He grabs her iPad, won't lookat me, walks into our bedroom,
closes the door and the momenthe sees me he bursts into tears.
Not anything so like okay,buddy, what went on?
What happened?
So in the text message and whathe proceeded to tell me was I
(03:55):
got called into the coach'soffice this morning at school
morning first period firstperiod, eight o'clock in the
morning, a walk-in coach sayshey, what number did you think
you were?
Because at tryouts, At tryouts,At the end of tryouts and we're
not going to get into specificsof it all Cash gets a number,
All the kids get a number.
He is instructed.
If you have questions, talk tocoach.
(04:16):
Whoever about your number hedoes Cash number 20.
What's your name?
Cash number 20.
What's your name?
Cash from Powers.
So 20, 20, 20.
Done 20's on the list Walksinto the coach's office because
he called in there Tuesdaymorning.
Coach says hey, what number didyou think you were?
Cash says 20.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
What number do you think you were?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Cash says 20.
He's told by the coach oh,there must have been some sort
of mistake.
You're 22.
Didn't make it, Sorry Done.
Obviously, a 12-year-old isdevastated.
Now, before people jump toconclusions because I know they
would think that we're not thepeople of let's jump up and down
(04:58):
, let's pitch a fit, because ourson didn't make a team.
We knew from the beginning.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
We even told him hey, if you don't make it, you don't
make it.
There's a lot of talented kidsin that 7th, 8th grade group and
we know because we've coachedthem all.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yes, you don't make it.
You don't make it.
And then you have a decision tomake Do you want to work harder
to make it?
Do you want to tuck tail andrun it?
It's all we care about.
We're excited because you madeit.
You know all the work paid off,but then to be told three days
later, four days later whoops,mistake, mistake, didn't make it
(05:35):
, sorry, yeah, and that's it.
Obviously, son, our son's,devastated.
We're doing everything we canto get to the bottom of it.
Talking to people.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Trying not to burn somebody's house down.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
My thought was I'm driving to school right now.
I'm burning the place down.
Someone's going to pay for this.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
I called the school.
Of course this is at 4 o'clock.
Imagine somebody answered thephone at 4 o'clock at a school
Not going to happen.
So, anyways, we walk throughthat whole process, but and it's
a process is dumb, but I'm alsoa high school coach.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, so you took your parent hat off for a second
, put your coach's hat on forjust a moment and it did not
make sense on how it was done.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
The number situation first off, telling 12 year olds
12 and 13 year olds a number atthe end of practice, like
they're going to remember thatnever, never communicating
anything with the parents.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
All on the way.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
We won't get to the nitty-gritty of it, but no, no
communication whatsoever but ifthere's a mistake as a coach, we
don't want anyone to know wehave made a mistake well, and
that's as we walk through it andevery single person we talk to
our friends, our family, othercoaches, administration.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
At the high school, anyone had the same thought we
did there was a mistake, there'sa mistake, you own it.
And if you realize, whoops,there may have been a mistake,
someone may have misspoke,someone may have misunderstood.
Oh no, hey, other coaches,here's the situation and you
(07:14):
know what we're doing.
Extra kid on the team Doesn'thave to play, necessarily, he
can work.
All this, all that, we're fullof the full agreement.
Every kid doesn't need to playin school.
Sports the best kids play thatgive you the opportunity to win.
You're not playing.
Work harder to play.
Hey, coaches, we made a mistake.
No one ever knows about this.
(07:35):
I'm taking this secret to thegrave.
No one will ever find out.
We have an extra kid.
Anyone with a functioning brainkind of has that thought of oh
no, we made a mistake, no bigdeal, this sucks, but kid will
never know, parents will neverknow, no one else in the school
will ever know.
Done.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
But how we know.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Obviously Clearly.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Did not settle well with us either.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
No, no, it did not.
You told a 12 old sorry, sorry,bro, didn't make it tough and
that was it.
Now we've, since we've, we'vemet with the coach, we met with
the administration andeverything.
I'm still not satisfied withthe answer.
Ultimately, it was a well well,this is the way we've always
(08:22):
done it, never had a mistake,mistake before.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
There's a first time for everything.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
It is.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Obviously, I'm glad it happened to us.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Our whole purpose and goal for it was okay.
Well, if this did happen to us,it happened, it sucks, it's
awful.
But our purpose now is we'regoing to meet with you and we're
going to make sure thingschange so this can never happen
to another kid again, Becausethis is devastating for a
12-year-old who's just kind offiguring themselves out a little
bit.
They're going through puberty.
(08:49):
They don't quite know what'sgoing on.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
That's tough Emotions are crazy.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
So for us it's like all right, how do we parent this
now?
I don't know what to do withthis and I'm thankful that we're
pretty well grounded.
I'm very thankful we have someamazing people in our lives who
can help us walk through thatand talk with them and get their
perspective.
And we've been working throughthat and the healing has begun.
It's not there yet.
(09:15):
I mean, there are a few days.
Cash, he didn't want to touchthe baseball, he didn't want to
go do his practices or anythinglike that.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
He didn't want to be at school.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Didn't want to go to school, terrified to be at
school, embarrassed as all getout, because everybody knew that
he made the team.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Just completely embarrassed about it and now
he's not on the team.
This doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, who wants to?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
explain that to another 12 year old.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
No, no, kid does, and you know they're emotionally
fragile at the moment.
School screwed up.
Bad things are going to happen.
Bad things are going to happen,and that's one thing we taught
him.
Listen, life's not fair.
Bad things will happen, you'regoing to be disappointed, you're
going to be let down.
Things will happen that are waybeyond your control from ever
happening.
It's how you respond, ratherthan react to them, that matters
(09:54):
.
There'll be a lesson out ofthis, and it's our job as
parents to make sure you getthere, and it's been difficult.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
But then, on top of that, the same day we got the
news of Cash not making the team.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I'll let you kind of start and explain through all of
that.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
My dad is admitted to the hospital.
Like they just went to theemergency room, they didn't know
what was wrong.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Which, unfortunately, has kind of been a trend the
last few years.
He's not been in good health.
We've seen this several timesbefore.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
My mom either.
Nope, it's like they're takingturns.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Initially, when he got admitted to the hospital,
the thought was okay, well, he'sin there, he's going to get
some care, he'll be okay.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Nothing really seems dire it's not his heart.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Not his heart, which is great.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
It's his kidneys.
Okay, we can handle this, wecan do this.
Well, last time he was therewhen he had to go on dialysis.
He has a chronic kidney disease.
So they've said if he goes ondialysis, more than likely if
he's ever put on dialysis againfor any reason, he would not
come off.
It'd be a permanent thing and Iknow people live long lives
(11:10):
with this dialysis.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
It's not.
It's not the end of the world.
No, it's frustrating.
It's a lot you have to, there'sa lot you have to do, but right
, you can.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
You can get through it well, he's in there for a
week yes.
And there's still no results.
His swelling he's just soswollen he can't really move.
Well, after being in there aweek, they wanted to do a heart
(11:35):
cath to see if his heart wasworking well enough to do some
other diuretics to make it.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
And before that.
So that was on.
I think they're supposed to dothat on a Tuesday, that's Sunday
.
Before You're getting ready tocome to church, me and the kids
are at church already.
You're.
You're getting ready to come tochurch november 2nd and you?
you send me a text messagethat's the saturday the third
you send me a text message thatjust says call me asap.
(12:01):
I'm looking, okay.
Well, what's what's going on?
Call you and essentially yougot a phone call with
information saying, hey,nothing's working and there's
really nothing they can do, andthe immediate thought is well,
kidneys have failed, they can'tdo anything.
I need to go see my dad tellhim goodbye.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
And take the kids one last time to see him, and that
happened on that Sunday thathappened on the third yep, so on
that Tuesday, which would bethe fifth, yes, this is all
right.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
They tell us on that Sunday that they want to do this
thing the heart cath to see ifhis heart's working well enough
to get some more diuretics onhim so he can try to get the
fluid off, because it's not inhis bloodstream, it's in the
tissues.
So we're needing to do anothertest.
(13:00):
Well, it's like the wholefamily started coming on that
sunday because that's what wewere told essentially we're told
hey, this is it, he's got a,he's got a couple days, it's
over so the fifth, which iselection day, that's right.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
There's a whole nother level of stress that the
entire country's going through.
Luckily we're not too deep intothat, but that is happening.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
So on the 5th, On the 5th my sister, my mom and
myself all take off work becausethis is the day that they are
going to do this procedure.
His procedure was supposed tobe at 9.30 am and they come and
get him at 2.
Now I know things in the ORhappen Fine.
They'll run late, things go waylonger than they should, things
(13:50):
that are unexpected happen Okay, but they take him back at 2
o'clock, around 2.30.
They come out to tell us Hisnurse gave him some medicine
that he's not supposed to havefor 48 hours, so we can't do
(14:11):
this test today.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Thank God they caught that, because it would have
killed him.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Would it?
We took off work, took timeaway from all the things that we
needed to be doing for them tonot do anything.
Okay, me and my sister talkedto patient services, not as a
complaining, as in a anothersituation, where we don't want
(14:39):
this to happen to somebody else.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
We need to let this be known so things can be looked
at to not mistakes happen.
Everyone makes mistakes.
No one's perfect sucks.
It happened here, bad news, butyou know what?
The end of the day, no one died, it's gonna be okay.
So 48 hours, all right.
This is a tuesday plan to havethe procedure done on thursday
thursday all right're going totake off work on Thursday.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Again, it's about three o'clock on Wednesday.
I'm not to school, in theweight room with the softball
team or getting ready to go tothe field.
My sister calls and says dadjust called mom.
They are taking him down to dothe procedure today.
I said today.
48 hours, that's not even 24.
(15:34):
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,just get to the hospital.
Well, of course, course, takeoff running.
Sorry, guys, I have to go.
My dad Just go.
I love my Head coach.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
She's great, she's great, she's great, she's great.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
She's great.
She's had to put up With thesoftball team For almost two
weeks Without me.
Now, yes, she has, but we we goto the hospital.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
She said, to put up with the softball team for
almost two weeks without me.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yes, she has.
We, um, we go to the hospital,all that is done.
He's massive.
He is bigger than he was onTuesday, like miserable.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
And this happens on Wednesday.
Now, granted, he was supposedto have the surgery on Thursday.
The procedure on Thursday, 48hours hadn't passed.
Okay, you know, doctors aresmarter than we are with this
stuff.
So clearly it's probably goingto be the biggest problem here
is no one was there.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
No.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
They're about to wheel him back into surgery and
nobody's there and nobody knows.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
No one knew.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
No one was notified If he didn't call my mom.
He'd had it, no one would havebeen there.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
He's never not been through a surgery where one of
us have not been back there withhim.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Someone's there which should be.
You should have someone therefor you.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
It's a very stressful moment, no matter the level of
surgery.
So that was on the 6th, the 7thand 8th.
The doctors are saying we'regoing to start this medication,
so by Friday we should know adialysis situation.
Well, saturday we find out thatthe medicine has worked and a
(17:21):
little bit of his fluid has gone.
It's great.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Hallelujah.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Hallelujah, we go.
Do we go visit on that Sunday?
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Veterans Day, which was Monday, hold on.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Didn't we go that Sunday?
We did not we did not go thatSunday.
No, sunday was Carson'sbirthday, correct?
We had Carson's birthday gothat Sunday.
We did not.
We did not go that Sunday, noSunday was Carson's birthday.
Correct, we had Carson'sbirthday party that Sunday and
then Monday, on Veterans Day.
There's no school, so me and mysister took our kids to see dad
.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Because do him better , let's cheer him up, keep him
in good spirits, let's go dothat.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Well, they get there a little bit before we do so
they're already downstairs atthe cafeteria.
When we walk in, dad's sleepingso we just join them in the
cafeteria.
We might have been gone for 45minutes.
We get back up to the room andI had mentioned to my sister
that it just it was weirdbecause dad's sleeping and we
(18:23):
get back up there and he stillhas not woke up.
I said dad snores really loudwhen he's sleeping.
He's laying in the bed, he'sshaking, like his arms are
twitching, his legs aretwitching.
We tried for 30 minutes to wakehim up, with the kids laughing
(18:48):
and calling for Papa.
Nothing worked.
I screamed out I call my dadDaddy-O.
I screamed out Daddy-O.
His eyes went from real big andthen closed right back.
The kids thought he was beingfunny.
So and that's just what he does.
(19:10):
He's just, he likes to be fun.
They laughed at him.
All four of them laughed at him.
But when he opened his eyes itwas really strange what we saw.
Like there was zero movement.
Me and my sister just looked ateach other.
Still couldn't get him.
So she goes to pull back hiseyelid just to look at his eye.
(19:31):
There's no movement.
Usually somebody tries to pulltheir eyes back and I just
looked at her.
Uh-oh, what's happening.
She goes to get a nurse.
The nurse comes back in andsays well, he was up this
(19:52):
morning he was even sitting upon the side of the bed.
We were whoa, he was sitting upon the side of the bed.
That's odd.
Nurse comes in.
She cannot wake him up.
She does this weird compressionon his chest and it's very
vigorous, and he comes to withhis chest.
His eyes are wide open, they'realmost bulging out of his head.
(20:14):
She instantly pushes a buttonand codes him for a stroke yep
with With all four grandkids inthere.
My sister looks to her husbandand says get the kids out.
Of course the announcement'sgoing all over the hospital.
Now Carson and Corbin are alittle young, they might
(20:39):
remember.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Maybe, but my two had so many questions.
Yeah, they're 10 and 12, sothey're.
They're kind of recognizing theseverity of the situation and
what's going on, and that's whenI get a call from you come get
the kids now.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Dad has coded.
The worst part was my momwasn't there.
She was at work.
So you have to call your momand say, hey, your dad's coded
for a stroke.
Well, they ask him questions.
My sister, she anxiety tookover her and she needed to sit
(21:21):
down like it was.
It was a serious moment for usto watch our dad not know who he
was.
Anything could not form asentence.
It was bad.
So they wheel him out of theroom that he was in.
Ct scans can't have mris oranything like that, because he
has a pacemaker and hispacemaker does not allow that to
(21:44):
happen.
So they bring him back.
Everything was clear.
You're telling me you saw allthat.
That was happening and you'reclearing him from a stroke no
(22:05):
seizures, nothing Interesting.
Well, you're coming at the kids.
Mom arrives.
I think when people hear coded,they think they're absolutely
dead.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yes, they do.
That's the immediate thought isdead.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yes.
So several family membersarrived on two wheels in a sheer
panic that I've lost my brother, which was not the case.
They bring him his food.
He's still in the room's kindof talking but he's not.
(22:43):
So I'm I've.
Every time I've been at thehospital I've had to feed him
because his potassium levelswere so low his hands would
cramp up in his arms and he wasjust, it was just pitiful.
So every time I was there, Iwas, I was feeding him.
So of course this time I wasthere, I was feeding him.
So of course this time I'mfeeding him too.
And he had chicken and, I think, potatoes.
(23:07):
But I mashed them up reallygood to see if he could even eat
them.
And I started wondering youknow what he's not with it, like
I had to let the spoon touchhis lip to know, hey, there's
another bite.
So I changed it to like puddingand the doctor that was with the
(23:29):
stroke team, that was over thestroke team, comes back in while
I'm doing this and I said,listen, I'm worried because he
is not necessarily responding,he is still chewing stuff and
there's nothing in his mouth tochew.
And I've been giving himpudding.
He said interesting.
So the people that were in theroom kind of dispersed for a
(23:49):
second Doctor tries to talk tohim.
When he asked him who he was,he says his brother's name
Instantly coded him again.
When he asked him who he was,he says his brother's name
Instantly coded him again.
They took him straight back andhe never came back to that room
.
He went to NICU.
(24:13):
It was very serious, so we spent.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Monday night there.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
The 11th he was there .
I stayed with him on the 12thand that day it was rough for
him.
They gave him more antibiotics.
They learned that he might havea touch of pneumonia because,
yeah, he's full of fluid, it'scovering his heart.
Now it's filling his lungs.
(24:40):
So it was like after the firstround of antibiotics ran he just
it just helped.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Oh, it helped tremendously.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Some swelling started going down.
Now, listen, he is also notpeeing and pooped in over a week
.
They tell us that his ammonialevels are an issue, and those
ammonia levels are an issue.
And those ammonia levels areoff, which affects the liver,
Because the kidneys and theheart are fighting against each
other when they should beworking together, which is
(25:12):
causing other problems.
So now the liver is the reasonwhy there's too high of numbers.
And then they start saying theyhave to give him some diuretics
.
I'm like well, he's been ondiuretics, well, now it's got to
be a laxative type of diureticso he could actually go to the
bathroom.
Well, they want to take him anddo more CT scans because they
(25:35):
don't think that the ones theydid yesterday are accurate, so
they need they could see more aday later.
Fine, they take him, they doall the stuff.
He comes back in just anincredible mood and he is
(25:55):
sitting up Talking, having aconversation with me, which was
not him for the previous twodays 24 hours before.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
That's unthinkable.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
And this is Wednesday morning, now the 13th, so my
mom couldn't be there becauseshe has all the medical stuff
that she's been going throughwith blood clots and she's had a
whole other lot of new stuffwith her medical stuff so she
(26:37):
has to go and take the test tosee, um, if her blood clot has
moved at all where it could be,because they're just waiting for
it to move and, I guess, prettymuch kill her in a sense really
yeah, um, but they were notnecessarily worried about it was
in her leg, so they did all thetests and blood work.
(26:59):
She has to go every wednesday.
When dad comes back, he'ssitting up.
He's great, and I can't wait totell mom the good news.
They did blood work before theytook him down.
His numbers have improved alittle bit, but they're going to
check him again after heactually takes a poop and
(27:24):
they're expecting those numbersto be better.
Even then, ct scans all comeback negative.
There's no stroke, there's noseizure, there's nothing.
They're thinking that was amedication overload, what made
him swell up.
And ammonia levels, whenthey're high in the bloodstream,
(27:46):
are toxic, which makes yourbody go into different types of
shock, and that's what dad wasexperiencing.
I couldn't wait to tell herthis exciting information.
Well, she calls, we tell herand we're just so over the top
(28:08):
thankful that God has heard allof our prayers, because that
Wednesday morning, before theyeven took dad back for the CT
scan, I had three people text methat said that they prayed over
him at their work.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
With their employees.
Staff meetings, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
And they come back and say that.
Then we tell mom, and mom isjust rejoicing with us, and mom
says well, let me add to that, Ijust got my doctor's report.
And i's like, oh goodness, whenyou add to that, because it's
been bad it's been bad formonths but on top of all of the
(28:48):
things with dad every trip tothe hospital that I've made
something wrong, wrong, wrong,wrong has happened with my car
yes, I've been nailing the tire,the battery, the transmission
fan, the.
I had a flat tire, the aleveling system.
(29:10):
I don't even know what that iswhich all that stuff?
Speaker 2 (29:13):
I mean none of it's good or exciting or no one wants
to deal with it.
But you add that on top of allthe cash with the baseball and
your mom, and we haven't eventalked about elky and the
basketball team yes, and we'llhave to save that for another
time, but there's just been somany life circumstances.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
But when my mom says let me tell you about my report
I'm expecting okay, whichhospital are you going to be in?
You should be at this onebecause your doctors are the
same.
Well, my blood levels with mykidneys are great and I have
(29:56):
zero blood clots, I said look atGod.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Now he's just showing off and she's been going weekly
.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Weekly for months.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Nothing has ever changed.
It's all been.
Nope, still there Still aproblem, Yep, Not getting any
better and just in an instantthey're gone.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Gone and it's just been.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
And then God continued to show out on that
day.
Because my mom left herappointments to come to the
hospital so I could go home andget some sleep.
Because I said with dad there'sno sleeping in a hospital,
especially when you're not thepatient her appointments to come
to the hospital so I could gohome and get some sleep.
Because I stayed with dad.
There's no sleeping in ahospital, especially when you're
not the patient.
Um, I was gone for what?
Maybe an hour from the hospitalwhen they told they called to
(30:43):
tell me that that he is beingmoved to a regular room today.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
That was on Wednesday .
That was Wednesday, and here wesit on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
This is Sunday and he's, we're recording this one.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
He's still there, but no, he's not still.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
He's still in the hospital, he's still at the
hospital, but he is not even inthat room that he was moved to
out of ICU.
He is on the 10th floor in astrict, strictly rehab.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
He is in real rehabilitation now to just get
all his functions back, to beable to come home, when two
weeks ago from today, it was?
Speaker 1 (31:27):
we don't know.
We're going to see it was comein.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
There's nothing we can not.
Everything Come in.
We don't know.
We're going to see you.
It was come in.
There's nothing we can.
Everything we've done doesn'twork and there's nothing more we
can do.
You need to come say yourgoodbyes.
That was two weeks ago, sotoday we sit here where he's
being rehabilitated to come backhome.
He's walking, Walking With awalker still he's walking, he
can get up and go to thebathroom by himself he's able to
(31:50):
eat feed himself he can feedhimself and it just kind of goes
to show you the power of prayerbecause all the doctors are
like well, you know, I guess itwas probably from this or maybe
this um they don't, they don'tknow don't know it, just it
shows god shows God can stillheal.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
And the reason we found it important to tell all
this is one nobody's immune tohard circumstances.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
No, because I even told you multiple times, I felt
like every time I would call youat a random time during the day
it was only bad news.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
It was constantly bad news.
For the last three weeks it'sbeen nothing but bad news every
day.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
We text all day.
We just want to be with eachother and we can't be with each
other all the time, so we texteach other all the time, even if
it's just a I'm bored, what areyou doing?
But every time I would call you, it would be well, this
happened, or this happened Well.
(32:54):
When I called you that lasttime, it was a what?
This is unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
It's just like okay, finally, finally, there's a
glimmer of hope there.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
But with all the things, with baseball and the
school, and Elkie withbasketball, which is for a
different day, and daily withdad at the hospital and my car.
I said, okay, I swear there hasto be somebody doing these
(33:30):
things to us on purpose.
There has to be camerasfollowing us.
They are pushing us to a limitto see how we are going to act
when this situation happens.
Because I know that there's adifference between how you react
and respond, and we are atypical respond kind of person,
(33:52):
except that time we didn't tellanybody that we wanted to burn
people's houses down.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
That was reaction time.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
We reacted to a situation with our son that I
was.
Mama bear came out.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Yeah, it was, it was go time.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
I was calling people give me this number, you tell me
where they live.
But luckily we did not react.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
We may have had those initial feelings, but we did
not.
No, we did not burn anybody'shouse we just said no, we're
going to respond to this the waythe Lord would want us to
respond.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
But on top of mom coming out with nothing, dad in
rehab just making strides thatwe never expected our son, we
didn't even say the decisionthat he made no, no, I mean, he
made the decision.
We told him we're like theparenting part that we were wow
(34:43):
yeah, we, we gave you know.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
We told him he's like look, we're gonna fight for you
because you're our son.
We're gonna always fight forour kids and try to make
everything right for them.
But ultimately we told him look, we don't know what's going to
happen.
We don't know what's going tobe done, what's going to be said
.
I don't know if they're goingto say, oh well, we're going to
let you on the team or this orwhatever's going to happen.
I said don't expect zone of one.
(35:05):
No, if they want to put me onthe team, one if I didn't make
it, I didn't make it and Iwouldn't want it that way.
But secondly, I don't want tonecessarily play for someone
that I can't trust, and I'mhaving a hard time trusting that
coach right now.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
And my heart exploded .
What?
Speaker 2 (35:25):
a what a mature decision for such a young kid.
And now we've seen him begin toheal and he has the fire to
continue to play.
Because our biggest thing waswe're all told we can't play
sports again at some point intime.
And if he didn't want to play,he didn't want to play, that's
fine.
And we let him know hey, if youdon't want to play baseball, it
doesn't matter to us, we loveyou one way or another.
I just don't want that to bethe cause for him to want to not
(35:49):
do it any longer.
Let that be his own decisionand not someone else's mistake.
And he's made that decision andhe wants to continue to work.
He's like I'll do this again,I'll make it.
Next time I'll.
When I'm ready, I'll make it.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
And I'm gonna wait to high school, but I'm gonna try
but it's, it's been.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
It's been very cool to see and even throughout it
all, when it's been difficultand frustrating and confused and
anger, even asking God likewhat the heck man?
What's your freaking problem?
Like?
What did we do?
Why are you doing this to us?
Just to see now coming out ofthe other side, to be able to
see his faithfulness in this.
(36:29):
All you know, when Jesus says,hey, you may not understand, but
one day you will.
And that was one of thosemoments of, hey, I know you
don't understand this right now,just have some faith.
I've got you through stuffbefore.
Just watch what happens and itjust goes to show God is always
good and he's always faithful.
Yep, and if that's encouragingto anyone, we've kind of laid
(36:54):
out the last three weeks.
I know everyone's situation isdifferent, everyone's
circumstances can change, butit's been hell, everybody goes
through it.
Everyone goes through it in oneway or another.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Everything that people see on social media.
You only see the good stuff.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
It's the highlight reel.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Or if somebody dies.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
you know, oh my God, you know, but this just shows
one we all go through it, buttwo, you will get through it.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
That, no matter how bad this is, this will pass.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
The only way to get through it, though, is putting
God first.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
The only way to get through it healthy and be able
to still find peace through itall.
Because, yeah, it was difficult, but there's still a peace in
us, knowing that, even in themiddle of it all, where day
after day, moment after momentwas bad and negative, there's
still peace in knowing that.
Okay, I'm going to choose totrust you, god, even though I
don't.
(37:49):
Okay, I'm going to choose totrust you, god, even though I
don't get it, I'm going tochoose to trust you, and there
is some peace in being able todo that.
And without that, it's going toonly exponentially be worse.
On you trying to get throughthis all by yourself.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
It's going to be a longer process too.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
It's going to be a much longer painful process
because we're not meant to getthrough these things all by
ourself, yep.
So you will make it, you willget through it, but we got to go
.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Sorry, we've rambled on about.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
But we're catching people up and I think it can
help somebody.
Any final thoughts?
Speaker 1 (38:28):
I love Jesus and you.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
I love Jesus and you.
I love Jesus and you too Inthat order.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
Yes, in that order.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
God, we love you so much and we are thankful.
We're thankful for your love,we're thankful for your just
faithfulness.
Through it all, even in thestorm of the last few weeks, you
are still there, you're stillgood, and we're just thankful
for that.
And we pray that this can reachthe people that need to hear
that, because there's struggleseverywhere.
People are going through stuffthat some no one even knows
(38:57):
about, but you do, and just praythat this can be a little
glimmer of hope for other peopleto be able to experience what
we've been able to experiencethrough this difficult time that
you're still good, you're stillin control and that you always
remain faithful and we are sothankful for that.
And when those people are ableto experience that, god, we pray
you get all the glory for it,because it's all because of you.
(39:18):
We love you.
We thank you In Jesus' name,amen.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Amen Play ball.
here's a question for you is marriage overrated?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
why aren't people getting married anymore?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
a new pew research poll found that two and five
young adults think marriage isan outdated tradition marriage
rates are at their lowest rightnow.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Is marriage really even worth it?
More than half of marriages endin divorce.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
If you get married, you have to be stuck with this
person for the rest of your life, right?
That's why you get married.
So that's why it's declining.
Why would you get married ifyou don't, if you want to have
just one partner?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
when you can have multiple Marriage is stupid.
Welcome to the Married AFPodcast, the self-proclaimed
greatest marriage relationshippodcast in the world.
My name is Matthew Powers,alongside my beautiful wife,
monica.
Baby, how you doing.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I don't like that question.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Why.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Ask me in about a month and I'll tell you.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I will, but I'm going to ask you today because life
has been hell the last three orfour weeks, and so we're going
to discuss that just a littlebit today but I'm so tired of
crying I know you cried a lotthe last few days I'll probably
cry a lot now, so that's okay, Idon't even have tissues well,
(01:18):
you know um.
We got some pillows, got ablanket down here I can pass you
.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yes, please, let me wipe my snot on that blanket.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I mean, I think that's a great idea.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Tell you what I'll go get you some tissues real quick
, I'm going to grab you sometissues.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Is there not a box?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
of tissues somewhere for real?
No, there's definitely not Allright, so let's get into it.
So last time we were witheverybody like things were
pretty, pretty, pretty solid.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
things were moving along, strolling along it was
the week before my birthday yes,the week before your birthday.
And it all started with cashthe week of my birthday our son
made the middle school baseballteam.
Yeah, and we were elated, butmy dad went in the hospital Same
day.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Basically the same day.
So let's just let's start withCash.
Okay, cash made some middleschool baseball team Awesome.
We're so pumped, we're soexcited.
It's on a Friday.
It's on a Friday, it's amazing.
Tuesday rolls around.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Let's give dates, because I like noting.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I don't know the exact date.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Oh, I know exact days .
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Anyways, Tuesday rolls around.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
The 25th.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Tuesday, the 25th.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Is when we find out Cash made the team.
That's impossible I mean Friday, the 25th.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
That's the day after your birthday.
Yes, that's when we found out.
Cash made the team Exactly sothat following Tuesday which
would have been what the 29th Iget a text message from our son
At the end of the day Because hedoesn't have a phone.
He's 12 years old, he doesn'thave a phone, he doesn't take it
to school or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
He's one of the rare ones.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
One of the rare, so about 3.30 or so.
Get a text from Cash Just saysDad.
I'm really, really sad.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
That's not a text we get from our children.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Not a text any parent wants to get.
So I get the text.
I see the text.
He begins to kind of explainwhat goes on.
I FaceTime him.
He doesn't answer.
Facetime him again Doesn'tanswer.
Facetime him again doesn'tanswer.
Facetime him a third timedoesn't answer.
I'll text him.
Hey, I need you to call me.
Facetime him again doesn'tanswer.
So I FaceTime his sister.
She answers right away.
Hey, daddy, you know just Elkybeing Elky, say hey, where's
(03:34):
your brother?
She points over to the couch,shows me him on the couch.
I need to talk to him.
He grabs her iPad, won't lookat me, walks into our bedroom,
closes the door and the momenthe sees me he bursts into tears.
Not anything so like okay,buddy, what went on?
What happened?
So in the text message and whathe proceeded to tell me was I
(03:55):
got called into the coach'soffice this morning at school
morning first period firstperiod, eight o'clock in the
morning, a walk-in coach sayshey, what number did you think
you were?
Because at tryouts, At tryouts,At the end of tryouts and we're
not going to get into specificsof it all Cash gets a number,
All the kids get a number.
He is instructed.
If you have questions, talk tocoach.
(04:16):
Whoever about your number hedoes Cash number 20.
What's your name?
Cash number 20.
What's your name?
Cash from Powers.
So 20, 20, 20.
Done 20's on the list Walksinto the coach's office because
he called in there Tuesdaymorning.
Coach says hey, what number didyou think you were?
Cash says 20.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
What number do you think you were?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Cash says 20.
He's told by the coach oh,there must have been some sort
of mistake.
You're 22.
Didn't make it, Sorry Done.
Obviously, a 12-year-old isdevastated.
Now, before people jump toconclusions because I know they
would think that we're not thepeople of let's jump up and down
(04:58):
, let's pitch a fit, because ourson didn't make a team.
We knew from the beginning.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
We even told him hey, if you don't make it, you don't
make it.
There's a lot of talented kidsin that 7th, 8th grade group and
we know because we've coachedthem all.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yes, you don't make it.
You don't make it.
And then you have a decision tomake Do you want to work harder
to make it?
Do you want to tuck tail andrun it?
It's all we care about.
We're excited because you madeit.
You know all the work paid off,but then to be told three days
later, four days later whoops,mistake, mistake, didn't make it
(05:35):
, sorry, yeah, and that's it.
Obviously, son, our son's,devastated.
We're doing everything we canto get to the bottom of it.
Talking to people.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Trying not to burn somebody's house down.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
My thought was I'm driving to school right now.
I'm burning the place down.
Someone's going to pay for this.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
I called the school.
Of course this is at 4 o'clock.
Imagine somebody answered thephone at 4 o'clock at a school
Not going to happen.
So, anyways, we walk throughthat whole process, but and it's
a process is dumb, but I'm alsoa high school coach.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, so you took your parent hat off for a second
, put your coach's hat on forjust a moment and it did not
make sense on how it was done.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
The number situation first off, telling 12 year olds
12 and 13 year olds a number atthe end of practice, like
they're going to remember thatnever, never communicating
anything with the parents.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
All on the way.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
We won't get to the nitty-gritty of it, but no, no
communication whatsoever but ifthere's a mistake as a coach, we
don't want anyone to know wehave made a mistake well, and
that's as we walk through it andevery single person we talk to
our friends, our family, othercoaches, administration.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
At the high school, anyone had the same thought we
did there was a mistake, there'sa mistake, you own it.
And if you realize, whoops,there may have been a mistake,
someone may have misspoke,someone may have misunderstood.
Oh no, hey, other coaches,here's the situation and you
(07:14):
know what we're doing.
Extra kid on the team Doesn'thave to play, necessarily, he
can work.
All this, all that, we're fullof the full agreement.
Every kid doesn't need to playin school.
Sports the best kids play thatgive you the opportunity to win.
You're not playing.
Work harder to play.
Hey, coaches, we made a mistake.
No one ever knows about this.
(07:35):
I'm taking this secret to thegrave.
No one will ever find out.
We have an extra kid.
Anyone with a functioning brainkind of has that thought of oh
no, we made a mistake, no bigdeal, this sucks, but kid will
never know, parents will neverknow, no one else in the school
will ever know.
Done.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
But how we know.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Obviously Clearly.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Did not settle well with us either.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
No, no, it did not.
You told a 12 old sorry, sorry,bro, didn't make it tough and
that was it.
Now we've, since we've, we'vemet with the coach, we met with
the administration andeverything.
I'm still not satisfied withthe answer.
Ultimately, it was a well well,this is the way we've always
(08:22):
done it, never had a mistake,mistake before.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
There's a first time for everything.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
It is.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Obviously, I'm glad it happened to us.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Our whole purpose and goal for it was okay.
Well, if this did happen to us,it happened, it sucks, it's
awful.
But our purpose now is we'regoing to meet with you and we're
going to make sure thingschange so this can never happen
to another kid again, Becausethis is devastating for a
12-year-old who's just kind offiguring themselves out a little
bit.
They're going through puberty.
(08:49):
They don't quite know what'sgoing on.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
That's tough Emotions are crazy.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
So for us it's like all right, how do we parent this
now?
I don't know what to do withthis and I'm thankful that we're
pretty well grounded.
I'm very thankful we have someamazing people in our lives who
can help us walk through thatand talk with them and get their
perspective.
And we've been working throughthat and the healing has begun.
It's not there yet.
(09:15):
I mean, there are a few days.
Cash, he didn't want to touchthe baseball, he didn't want to
go do his practices or anythinglike that.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
He didn't want to be at school.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Didn't want to go to school, terrified to be at
school, embarrassed as all getout, because everybody knew that
he made the team.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Just completely embarrassed about it and now
he's not on the team.
This doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, who wants to?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
explain that to another 12 year old.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
No, no, kid does, and you know they're emotionally
fragile at the moment.
School screwed up.
Bad things are going to happen.
Bad things are going to happen,and that's one thing we taught
him.
Listen, life's not fair.
Bad things will happen, you'regoing to be disappointed, you're
going to be let down.
Things will happen that are waybeyond your control from ever
happening.
It's how you respond, ratherthan react to them, that matters
(09:54):
.
There'll be a lesson out ofthis, and it's our job as
parents to make sure you getthere, and it's been difficult.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
But then, on top of that, the same day we got the
news of Cash not making the team.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I'll let you kind of start and explain through all of
that.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
My dad is admitted to the hospital.
Like they just went to theemergency room, they didn't know
what was wrong.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Which, unfortunately, has kind of been a trend the
last few years.
He's not been in good health.
We've seen this several timesbefore.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
My mom either.
Nope, it's like they're takingturns.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Initially, when he got admitted to the hospital,
the thought was okay, well, he'sin there, he's going to get
some care, he'll be okay.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Nothing really seems dire it's not his heart.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Not his heart, which is great.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
It's his kidneys.
Okay, we can handle this, wecan do this.
Well, last time he was therewhen he had to go on dialysis.
He has a chronic kidney disease.
So they've said if he goes ondialysis, more than likely if
he's ever put on dialysis againfor any reason, he would not
come off.
It'd be a permanent thing and Iknow people live long lives
(11:10):
with this dialysis.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
It's not.
It's not the end of the world.
No, it's frustrating.
It's a lot you have to, there'sa lot you have to do, but right
, you can.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
You can get through it well, he's in there for a
week yes.
And there's still no results.
His swelling he's just soswollen he can't really move.
Well, after being in there aweek, they wanted to do a heart
(11:35):
cath to see if his heart wasworking well enough to do some
other diuretics to make it.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
And before that.
So that was on.
I think they're supposed to dothat on a Tuesday, that's Sunday
.
Before You're getting ready tocome to church, me and the kids
are at church already.
You're.
You're getting ready to come tochurch november 2nd and you?
you send me a text messagethat's the saturday the third
you send me a text message thatjust says call me asap.
(12:01):
I'm looking, okay.
Well, what's what's going on?
Call you and essentially yougot a phone call with
information saying, hey,nothing's working and there's
really nothing they can do, andthe immediate thought is well,
kidneys have failed, they can'tdo anything.
I need to go see my dad tellhim goodbye.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
And take the kids one last time to see him, and that
happened on that Sunday thathappened on the third yep, so on
that Tuesday, which would bethe fifth, yes, this is all
right.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
They tell us on that Sunday that they want to do this
thing the heart cath to see ifhis heart's working well enough
to get some more diuretics onhim so he can try to get the
fluid off, because it's not inhis bloodstream, it's in the
tissues.
So we're needing to do anothertest.
(13:00):
Well, it's like the wholefamily started coming on that
sunday because that's what wewere told essentially we're told
hey, this is it, he's got a,he's got a couple days, it's
over so the fifth, which iselection day, that's right.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
There's a whole nother level of stress that the
entire country's going through.
Luckily we're not too deep intothat, but that is happening.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
So on the 5th, On the 5th my sister, my mom and
myself all take off work becausethis is the day that they are
going to do this procedure.
His procedure was supposed tobe at 9.30 am and they come and
get him at 2.
Now I know things in the ORhappen Fine.
They'll run late, things go waylonger than they should, things
(13:50):
that are unexpected happen Okay, but they take him back at 2
o'clock, around 2.30.
They come out to tell us Hisnurse gave him some medicine
that he's not supposed to havefor 48 hours, so we can't do
(14:11):
this test today.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Thank God they caught that, because it would have
killed him.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Would it?
We took off work, took timeaway from all the things that we
needed to be doing for them tonot do anything.
Okay, me and my sister talkedto patient services, not as a
complaining, as in a anothersituation, where we don't want
(14:39):
this to happen to somebody else.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
We need to let this be known so things can be looked
at to not mistakes happen.
Everyone makes mistakes.
No one's perfect sucks.
It happened here, bad news, butyou know what?
The end of the day, no one died, it's gonna be okay.
So 48 hours, all right.
This is a tuesday plan to havethe procedure done on thursday
thursday all right're going totake off work on Thursday.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Again, it's about three o'clock on Wednesday.
I'm not to school, in theweight room with the softball
team or getting ready to go tothe field.
My sister calls and says dadjust called mom.
They are taking him down to dothe procedure today.
I said today.
48 hours, that's not even 24.
(15:34):
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,just get to the hospital.
Well, of course, course, takeoff running.
Sorry, guys, I have to go.
My dad Just go.
I love my Head coach.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
She's great, she's great, she's great, she's great.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
She's great.
She's had to put up With thesoftball team For almost two
weeks Without me.
Now, yes, she has, but we we goto the hospital.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
She said, to put up with the softball team for
almost two weeks without me.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yes, she has.
We, um, we go to the hospital,all that is done.
He's massive.
He is bigger than he was onTuesday, like miserable.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
And this happens on Wednesday.
Now, granted, he was supposedto have the surgery on Thursday.
The procedure on Thursday, 48hours hadn't passed.
Okay, you know, doctors aresmarter than we are with this
stuff.
So clearly it's probably goingto be the biggest problem here
is no one was there.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
No.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
They're about to wheel him back into surgery and
nobody's there and nobody knows.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
No one knew.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
No one was notified If he didn't call my mom.
He'd had it, no one would havebeen there.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
He's never not been through a surgery where one of
us have not been back there withhim.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Someone's there which should be.
You should have someone therefor you.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
It's a very stressful moment, no matter the level of
surgery.
So that was on the 6th, the 7thand 8th.
The doctors are saying we'regoing to start this medication,
so by Friday we should know adialysis situation.
Well, saturday we find out thatthe medicine has worked and a
(17:21):
little bit of his fluid has gone.
It's great.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Hallelujah.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Hallelujah, we go.
Do we go visit on that Sunday?
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Veterans Day, which was Monday, hold on.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Didn't we go that Sunday?
We did not we did not go thatSunday.
No, sunday was Carson'sbirthday, correct?
We had Carson's birthday gothat Sunday.
We did not.
We did not go that Sunday, noSunday was Carson's birthday.
Correct, we had Carson'sbirthday party that Sunday and
then Monday, on Veterans Day.
There's no school, so me and mysister took our kids to see dad
.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Because do him better , let's cheer him up, keep him
in good spirits, let's go dothat.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Well, they get there a little bit before we do so
they're already downstairs atthe cafeteria.
When we walk in, dad's sleepingso we just join them in the
cafeteria.
We might have been gone for 45minutes.
We get back up to the room andI had mentioned to my sister
that it just it was weirdbecause dad's sleeping and we
(18:23):
get back up there and he stillhas not woke up.
I said dad snores really loudwhen he's sleeping.
He's laying in the bed, he'sshaking, like his arms are
twitching, his legs aretwitching.
We tried for 30 minutes to wakehim up, with the kids laughing
(18:48):
and calling for Papa.
Nothing worked.
I screamed out I call my dadDaddy-O.
I screamed out Daddy-O.
His eyes went from real big andthen closed right back.
The kids thought he was beingfunny.
So and that's just what he does.
(19:10):
He's just, he likes to be fun.
They laughed at him.
All four of them laughed at him.
But when he opened his eyes itwas really strange what we saw.
Like there was zero movement.
Me and my sister just looked ateach other.
Still couldn't get him.
So she goes to pull back hiseyelid just to look at his eye.
(19:31):
There's no movement.
Usually somebody tries to pulltheir eyes back and I just
looked at her.
Uh-oh, what's happening.
She goes to get a nurse.
The nurse comes back in andsays well, he was up this
(19:52):
morning he was even sitting upon the side of the bed.
We were whoa, he was sitting upon the side of the bed.
That's odd.
Nurse comes in.
She cannot wake him up.
She does this weird compressionon his chest and it's very
vigorous, and he comes to withhis chest.
His eyes are wide open, they'realmost bulging out of his head.
(20:14):
She instantly pushes a buttonand codes him for a stroke yep
with With all four grandkids inthere.
My sister looks to her husbandand says get the kids out.
Of course the announcement'sgoing all over the hospital.
Now Carson and Corbin are alittle young, they might
(20:39):
remember.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Maybe, but my two had so many questions.
Yeah, they're 10 and 12, sothey're.
They're kind of recognizing theseverity of the situation and
what's going on, and that's whenI get a call from you come get
the kids now.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Dad has coded.
The worst part was my momwasn't there.
She was at work.
So you have to call your momand say, hey, your dad's coded
for a stroke.
Well, they ask him questions.
My sister, she anxiety tookover her and she needed to sit
(21:21):
down like it was.
It was a serious moment for usto watch our dad not know who he
was.
Anything could not form asentence.
It was bad.
So they wheel him out of theroom that he was in.
Ct scans can't have mris oranything like that, because he
has a pacemaker and hispacemaker does not allow that to
(21:44):
happen.
So they bring him back.
Everything was clear.
You're telling me you saw allthat.
That was happening and you'reclearing him from a stroke no
(22:05):
seizures, nothing Interesting.
Well, you're coming at the kids.
Mom arrives.
I think when people hear coded,they think they're absolutely
dead.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yes, they do.
That's the immediate thought isdead.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yes.
So several family membersarrived on two wheels in a sheer
panic that I've lost my brother, which was not the case.
They bring him his food.
He's still in the room's kindof talking but he's not.
(22:43):
So I'm I've.
Every time I've been at thehospital I've had to feed him
because his potassium levelswere so low his hands would
cramp up in his arms and he wasjust, it was just pitiful.
So every time I was there, Iwas, I was feeding him.
So of course this time I wasthere, I was feeding him.
So of course this time I'mfeeding him too.
And he had chicken and, I think, potatoes.
(23:07):
But I mashed them up reallygood to see if he could even eat
them.
And I started wondering youknow what he's not with it, like
I had to let the spoon touchhis lip to know, hey, there's
another bite.
So I changed it to like puddingand the doctor that was with the
(23:29):
stroke team, that was over thestroke team, comes back in while
I'm doing this and I said,listen, I'm worried because he
is not necessarily responding,he is still chewing stuff and
there's nothing in his mouth tochew.
And I've been giving himpudding.
He said interesting.
So the people that were in theroom kind of dispersed for a
(23:49):
second Doctor tries to talk tohim.
When he asked him who he was,he says his brother's name
Instantly coded him again.
When he asked him who he was,he says his brother's name
Instantly coded him again.
They took him straight back andhe never came back to that room
.
He went to NICU.
(24:13):
It was very serious, so we spent.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Monday night there.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
The 11th he was there .
I stayed with him on the 12thand that day it was rough for
him.
They gave him more antibiotics.
They learned that he might havea touch of pneumonia because,
yeah, he's full of fluid, it'scovering his heart.
Now it's filling his lungs.
(24:40):
So it was like after the firstround of antibiotics ran he just
it just helped.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Oh, it helped tremendously.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Some swelling started going down.
Now, listen, he is also notpeeing and pooped in over a week
.
They tell us that his ammonialevels are an issue, and those
ammonia levels are an issue.
And those ammonia levels areoff, which affects the liver,
Because the kidneys and theheart are fighting against each
other when they should beworking together, which is
(25:12):
causing other problems.
So now the liver is the reasonwhy there's too high of numbers.
And then they start saying theyhave to give him some diuretics
.
I'm like well, he's been ondiuretics, well, now it's got to
be a laxative type of diureticso he could actually go to the
bathroom.
Well, they want to take him anddo more CT scans because they
(25:35):
don't think that the ones theydid yesterday are accurate, so
they need they could see more aday later.
Fine, they take him, they doall the stuff.
He comes back in just anincredible mood and he is
(25:55):
sitting up Talking, having aconversation with me, which was
not him for the previous twodays 24 hours before.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
That's unthinkable.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
And this is Wednesday morning, now the 13th, so my
mom couldn't be there becauseshe has all the medical stuff
that she's been going throughwith blood clots and she's had a
whole other lot of new stuffwith her medical stuff so she
(26:37):
has to go and take the test tosee, um, if her blood clot has
moved at all where it could be,because they're just waiting for
it to move and, I guess, prettymuch kill her in a sense really
yeah, um, but they were notnecessarily worried about it was
in her leg, so they did all thetests and blood work.
(26:59):
She has to go every wednesday.
When dad comes back, he'ssitting up.
He's great, and I can't wait totell mom the good news.
They did blood work before theytook him down.
His numbers have improved alittle bit, but they're going to
check him again after heactually takes a poop and
(27:24):
they're expecting those numbersto be better.
Even then, ct scans all comeback negative.
There's no stroke, there's noseizure, there's nothing.
They're thinking that was amedication overload, what made
him swell up.
And ammonia levels, whenthey're high in the bloodstream,
(27:46):
are toxic, which makes yourbody go into different types of
shock, and that's what dad wasexperiencing.
I couldn't wait to tell herthis exciting information.
Well, she calls, we tell herand we're just so over the top
(28:08):
thankful that God has heard allof our prayers, because that
Wednesday morning, before theyeven took dad back for the CT
scan, I had three people text methat said that they prayed over
him at their work.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
With their employees.
Staff meetings, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
And they come back and say that.
Then we tell mom, and mom isjust rejoicing with us, and mom
says well, let me add to that, Ijust got my doctor's report.
And i's like, oh goodness, whenyou add to that, because it's
been bad it's been bad formonths but on top of all of the
(28:48):
things with dad every trip tothe hospital that I've made
something wrong, wrong, wrong,wrong has happened with my car
yes, I've been nailing the tire,the battery, the transmission
fan, the.
I had a flat tire, the aleveling system.
(29:10):
I don't even know what that iswhich all that stuff?
Speaker 2 (29:13):
I mean none of it's good or exciting or no one wants
to deal with it.
But you add that on top of allthe cash with the baseball and
your mom, and we haven't eventalked about elky and the
basketball team yes, and we'llhave to save that for another
time, but there's just been somany life circumstances.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
But when my mom says let me tell you about my report
I'm expecting okay, whichhospital are you going to be in?
You should be at this onebecause your doctors are the
same.
Well, my blood levels with mykidneys are great and I have
(29:56):
zero blood clots, I said look atGod.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Now he's just showing off and she's been going weekly
.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Weekly for months.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Nothing has ever changed.
It's all been.
Nope, still there Still aproblem, Yep, Not getting any
better and just in an instantthey're gone.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Gone and it's just been.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
And then God continued to show out on that
day.
Because my mom left herappointments to come to the
hospital so I could go home andget some sleep.
Because I said with dad there'sno sleeping in a hospital,
especially when you're not thepatient her appointments to come
to the hospital so I could gohome and get some sleep.
Because I stayed with dad.
There's no sleeping in ahospital, especially when you're
not the patient.
Um, I was gone for what?
Maybe an hour from the hospitalwhen they told they called to
(30:43):
tell me that that he is beingmoved to a regular room today.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
That was on Wednesday .
That was Wednesday, and here wesit on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
This is Sunday and he's, we're recording this one.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
He's still there, but no, he's not still.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
He's still in the hospital, he's still at the
hospital, but he is not even inthat room that he was moved to
out of ICU.
He is on the 10th floor in astrict, strictly rehab.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
He is in real rehabilitation now to just get
all his functions back, to beable to come home, when two
weeks ago from today, it was?
Speaker 1 (31:27):
we don't know.
We're going to see it was comein.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
There's nothing we can not.
Everything Come in.
We don't know.
We're going to see you.
It was come in.
There's nothing we can.
Everything we've done doesn'twork and there's nothing more we
can do.
You need to come say yourgoodbyes.
That was two weeks ago, sotoday we sit here where he's
being rehabilitated to come backhome.
He's walking, Walking With awalker still he's walking, he
can get up and go to thebathroom by himself he's able to
(31:50):
eat feed himself he can feedhimself and it just kind of goes
to show you the power of prayerbecause all the doctors are
like well, you know, I guess itwas probably from this or maybe
this um they don't, they don'tknow don't know it, just it
shows god shows God can stillheal.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
And the reason we found it important to tell all
this is one nobody's immune tohard circumstances.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
No, because I even told you multiple times, I felt
like every time I would call youat a random time during the day
it was only bad news.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
It was constantly bad news.
For the last three weeks it'sbeen nothing but bad news every
day.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
We text all day.
We just want to be with eachother and we can't be with each
other all the time, so we texteach other all the time, even if
it's just a I'm bored, what areyou doing?
But every time I would call you, it would be well, this
happened, or this happened Well.
(32:54):
When I called you that lasttime, it was a what?
This is unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
It's just like okay, finally, finally, there's a
glimmer of hope there.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
But with all the things, with baseball and the
school, and Elkie withbasketball, which is for a
different day, and daily withdad at the hospital and my car.
I said, okay, I swear there hasto be somebody doing these
(33:30):
things to us on purpose.
There has to be camerasfollowing us.
They are pushing us to a limitto see how we are going to act
when this situation happens.
Because I know that there's adifference between how you react
and respond, and we are atypical respond kind of person,
(33:52):
except that time we didn't tellanybody that we wanted to burn
people's houses down.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
That was reaction time.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
We reacted to a situation with our son that I
was.
Mama bear came out.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Yeah, it was, it was go time.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
I was calling people give me this number, you tell me
where they live.
But luckily we did not react.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
We may have had those initial feelings, but we did
not.
No, we did not burn anybody'shouse we just said no, we're
going to respond to this the waythe Lord would want us to
respond.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
But on top of mom coming out with nothing, dad in
rehab just making strides thatwe never expected our son, we
didn't even say the decisionthat he made no, no, I mean, he
made the decision.
We told him we're like theparenting part that we were wow
(34:43):
yeah, we, we gave you know.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
We told him he's like look, we're gonna fight for you
because you're our son.
We're gonna always fight forour kids and try to make
everything right for them.
But ultimately we told him look, we don't know what's going to
happen.
We don't know what's going tobe done, what's going to be said
.
I don't know if they're goingto say, oh well, we're going to
let you on the team or this orwhatever's going to happen.
I said don't expect zone of one.
(35:05):
No, if they want to put me onthe team, one if I didn't make
it, I didn't make it and Iwouldn't want it that way.
But secondly, I don't want tonecessarily play for someone
that I can't trust, and I'mhaving a hard time trusting that
coach right now.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
And my heart exploded .
What?
Speaker 2 (35:25):
a what a mature decision for such a young kid.
And now we've seen him begin toheal and he has the fire to
continue to play.
Because our biggest thing waswe're all told we can't play
sports again at some point intime.
And if he didn't want to play,he didn't want to play, that's
fine.
And we let him know hey, if youdon't want to play baseball, it
doesn't matter to us, we loveyou one way or another.
I just don't want that to bethe cause for him to want to not
(35:49):
do it any longer.
Let that be his own decisionand not someone else's mistake.
And he's made that decision andhe wants to continue to work.
He's like I'll do this again,I'll make it.
Next time I'll.
When I'm ready, I'll make it.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
And I'm gonna wait to high school, but I'm gonna try
but it's, it's been.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
It's been very cool to see and even throughout it
all, when it's been difficultand frustrating and confused and
anger, even asking God likewhat the heck man?
What's your freaking problem?
Like?
What did we do?
Why are you doing this to us?
Just to see now coming out ofthe other side, to be able to
see his faithfulness in this.
(36:29):
All you know, when Jesus says,hey, you may not understand, but
one day you will.
And that was one of thosemoments of, hey, I know you
don't understand this right now,just have some faith.
I've got you through stuffbefore.
Just watch what happens and itjust goes to show God is always
good and he's always faithful.
Yep, and if that's encouragingto anyone, we've kind of laid
(36:54):
out the last three weeks.
I know everyone's situation isdifferent, everyone's
circumstances can change, butit's been hell, everybody goes
through it.
Everyone goes through it in oneway or another.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Everything that people see on social media.
You only see the good stuff.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
It's the highlight reel.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Or if somebody dies.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
you know, oh my God, you know, but this just shows
one we all go through it, buttwo, you will get through it.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
That, no matter how bad this is, this will pass.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
The only way to get through it, though, is putting
God first.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
The only way to get through it healthy and be able
to still find peace through itall.
Because, yeah, it was difficult, but there's still a peace in
us, knowing that, even in themiddle of it all, where day
after day, moment after momentwas bad and negative, there's
still peace in knowing that.
Okay, I'm going to choose totrust you, god, even though I
don't.
(37:49):
Okay, I'm going to choose totrust you, god, even though I
don't get it, I'm going tochoose to trust you, and there
is some peace in being able todo that.
And without that, it's going toonly exponentially be worse.
On you trying to get throughthis all by yourself.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
It's going to be a longer process too.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
It's going to be a much longer painful process
because we're not meant to getthrough these things all by
ourself, yep.
So you will make it, you willget through it, but we got to go
.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Sorry, we've rambled on about.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
But we're catching people up and I think it can
help somebody.
Any final thoughts?
Speaker 1 (38:28):
I love Jesus and you.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
I love Jesus and you.
I love Jesus and you too Inthat order.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
Yes, in that order.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
God, we love you so much and we are thankful.
We're thankful for your love,we're thankful for your just
faithfulness.
Through it all, even in thestorm of the last few weeks, you
are still there, you're stillgood, and we're just thankful
for that.
And we pray that this can reachthe people that need to hear
that, because there's struggleseverywhere.
People are going through stuffthat some no one even knows
(38:57):
about, but you do, and just praythat this can be a little
glimmer of hope for other peopleto be able to experience what
we've been able to experiencethrough this difficult time that
you're still good, you're stillin control and that you always
remain faithful and we are sothankful for that.
And when those people are ableto experience that, god, we pray
you get all the glory for it,because it's all because of you.
(39:18):
We love you.
We thank you In Jesus' name,amen.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Amen Play ball.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
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The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.