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I am forwarding this note of thanks to all of you on behalf of Gerry Sisk
as
she wishes to thank you from the bottom of her heart for praying for
Taylor.
Please read below and feel free to forward to anyone you may have
asked to
pray for Taylor. God is AWESOME!!!!
To Our Precious Friends,
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
First, I want to thank you, personally,
for your calls, notes, e-mails,
cards, and extensions of God's grace to us
and our family throughout our
granddaughter's recent critical illness. We
may know you well, have loved
you long, or may never meet you this side of
eternity. However, from the
bottom of our hearts, we say thank you for being
the "Aarons and Hurs" who
lifted the arms of a family too weak to continually
lift our own, much as
with Moses in Exodus 17. Through your faithfulness as
intercessory prayer
warriors, you "bore our burden, and so fulfilled the law
of Christ." May
God bless you, one hundred fold, both in this life and in
the life to come,
for your faith in His miraculous character and the truth of
His word.
If I may recap for you a few of the miraculous answers to the
prayers of His
children regarding the health of our twelve year old
granddaughter, Taylor:
In October, our granddaughter's cat scratched
her. After a period of time,
she developed an infection in the lymph nodes
in her neck from the scratch.
She was prescribed Bactrum, which seemed to
take down the swelling in her
neck. She also saw a surgeon who drained the
lymph node, and prescribed a
second round of Bactrum, a sulfa-based
antibiotic, to completely heal the
infection. Over the Thanksgiving
holidays, Taylor seemed to come down with
an intestinal virus which was going
around her school. However, when she
hadn't improved over the weekend, our
son, Scott, insisted she be seen by
her doctor. Scott, Melissa, Taylor, and
Alexis had recently moved to
Madison, GA, an hour away from their
pediatrician. When they got to the
doctor's office in Lawrenceville, they,
too, were alarmed and sent her to
Eggleston for a CT-scan. After dropping
Alexis off with me, Melissa met
Scott and Taylor at Eggleston Children's
Hospital in Atlanta. Upon
administering the test, the hospital w
as
alarmed at her illness and opted to keep her overnight for observation.
On
Wednesday, November 28, they admitted Taylor to be examined by
liver
specialists, infectious disease specialists, blood specialists, etc.
By
Friday, they had seen more than twenty medical specialists, with
the
overriding concern being Taylor's lack of liver function. They arrived
at
the general consensus that Taylor's liver was unable to process the
Bactrum
and was being attacked by the rest of her body as a reaction to the
Bactrum.
Her liver was functioning less and less.
By Saturday,
December 1, Taylor was placed in ICU with a failing liver and
facing an
impending liver transplant. Monday morning, a donated liver was
"passed on"
as unsuitable for Taylor; by Tuesday, they were wishing for that
liver,
saying they would have transplanted the rejected liver if it had been
offered
on Tuesday instead of Monday. On Monday, our son Jamie, an ENT
surgeon in
Laurel, MS, closed his practice down, as he became aware of the
increasingly
ominous test results for Taylor. Because of the liver's
shutdown, now
believed to be caused by an acute allergic reaction to the
bactrum, the
ammonia level in Taylor's blood became dangerously high,
causing her to lie
in a fetal position, crying aloud with almost every
breath, begging to go
home, asking for help, and weeping. Nothing could be
done to sedate her for
fear of negatively impacting the function of her
organs. In other words, all
of the components in her body, potassium, salt,
ammonia, everything, was out
of bala
nce and was even affecting her brain.
By this time, neither
Scott nor Melissa had left her side, other than when I
would insist they let
me stay with her while they walked to the cafeteria.
They showered in her
room, where they each wept separately in the shower in
order to be strong for
Taylor and one another. As Taylor would lie, crying
aloud, and, sometimes,
screaming in apparent pain, though we were assured it
was because of the
toxic buildup in her blood, all we could do was weep and
pray.
Monday, my brother, a pastor in Texas, and my sister arrived to watch,
wait,
and pray, knowing that the doctors believed only a liver transplant
could
extend Taylor's life. At 2 a.m. on Tuesday, Jamie and Nicole and
their
three little ones arrived, not knowing if Taylor were even stable
enough to
have the transplant. Together, we all went to the hospital, with
Scott
unaware that his brother had shut down his practice to come and be by
his
side. When we arrived, I called into the room. Scott answered,
sounding
even more grave, as they met with the liver transplant team, who
made him
aware of the increasing seriousness of Taylor's condition. As
someone came
out of the doors of the ICU, I could hear Taylor's cries. I
called Jamie to
come and listen. I could see the gravity of the situation in
his eyes, as
he realized how seriously her body had begun its shutdown in the
face of the
liver's failure. After two hours, Scott and Melissa walked out.
It was
obvious they had both bee
n weeping. Scott fell into his brother's
arms, as they wept together, and
Melissa was comforted by both my sister and
brother, as we all realized that
only God could do what needed to be done.
For me, personally, as firm a believer as I am in organ donation, it
was
impossible for me to pray for a liver, knowing that someone else would
have
to die in order for our granddaughter to live. I could pray for
families
who would lose loved ones in the next few days and ask God to give
them the
grace to help others in spite of their loss. However, I poured my
heart out
to God that the concept of someone else dying to give life to one
we love
was too big for me to wrap my mind around, finding peace in Isaiah
53, that
the ultimate sacrifice had been given and by His stripes we are
healed.
For those who do not know our personal testimony, we lost a
daughter shortly
after her birth in 1969, and we understand that God's
sovereignty, whether
His answer be "yes" or "no," is our peace. We
understood that God's grace
would be sufficient, regardless of His answer.
However, we asked for the
miracle of healing in response to those who were
lifting our granddaughter
at the cross of Calvary to Elohim, the God of all
creation.
All day, we waited. No liver came in, though, by this time,
Taylor had gone
to the #1 position for a liver transplant in Georgia. They
only medical
procedure, other than giving her vitamins and minerals to
correct her
electrolytes, that the hospital could do was a plasma pharynges
process,
involving frozen plasma filtered through the body, in an attempt to
help
keep her stable as they waited for the liver.
As night
approached, on Tuesday, December 4, Jamie and Nicole had gone to
Scott and
Melissa. Jamie pulled a chair up beside Taylor's bed, as she lay,
curled
into a fetal position, crying aloud with nearly every breath. Jamie
told
Scott that he and Nicole would not leave Taylor's bedside but they had
gotten
Scott and Melissa a room in a motel nearby in order for them to talk
with one
another, spend some time with Alexis, whom we were keeping, and for
them to
explain to her about Taylor's condition. Reluctantly, but
gratefully, Scott
and Melissa accepted.
As Jamie sat by Taylor's bed, praying for her and
watching, staff came in
for more blood work. By this time, Jamie had been
cleared for information
for Taylor. The ICU staff believed that they had
gotten some "false" levels
on her blood work, though Jamie believed the
plasma was out of Taylor's
system. The liver level was even higher when the
staff returned for more
blood work at 4 a.m.; it was higher than when she had
come into the hospital
at the 8:00 a.m. testing stage. By 9 a.m., when Scott
and Melissa returned,
the doctor in charge of the liver transplant team had
told Jamie that the
only explanation for the improved test results was the
liver - which had
been declared dead - had begun to function, again.
The next day, as I got off of the elevator, at 2 p.m., I was met by
Scott
pushing Taylor in a wheelchair. Does the love of our Father know
no
limits!?! She was, of course, very weak, but her blood work
remains
steadily "normal." She is experiencing difficulty digesting her
food.
Evidently, the liver has to work very hard to break down protein, even
in a
healthy person. They have put her on a very strict diet - no lactose,
no
sugar, and only 35 grams of protein/day. She continues to "upchuck,"
but
they seem to believe it is improving.
Thursday, as my sister and I
sat with this child, who had been screaming and
in a fetal position for
nearly three days, her doctor came into the room,
asking how she felt. She
said, "Good." Then, she said, "I made something
for you." She reached for a
leather beaded bracelet she had strung, handing
it to him, as she said,
"Thank you so much for helping me to feel better."
The doctor began to weep,
unable to speak for a moment, as he struggled to
regain his composure. You
see, he had told Jamie, our younger son, that all
tests indicated Taylor
might not live long enough to have the transplant.
What a God we
serve!
Jamie has said over and over, again, that he witnessed the
first
physical/professional miracle he had ever seen for which there was
no
explanation apart from God. Plasma pharynges does not cause a
liver
declared "dead" to begin functioning. God performed a
physical
resurrection. As Scott and Taylor walked the hospital halls one
week later,
on December 11, waiting to be released, the transplant
coordinator stopped
him to comment on the miracle of Taylor walking in the
halls, one week after
being declared critical. The coordinator explained to
Scott that in the
nineteen years she had been in that position, never before
had she seen a #1
priority candidate for a liver transplant who came off of
the list, apart
from the transplant or death. It is rare to go 48 hrs.
without a liver
becoming available - none did, as they prepared to transplant
Taylor. Jamie
said he cannot emphasize the "random and unrelated" steps of
miraculous and
inexplicable movement as God touched our Taylor's
liver in
His mercy and inexplicable grace, choosing to heal rather than
to
replace.
Taylor has only returned to school this first week of the
new year. Because
they cannot explain her medical turnaround, the doctors
are very reluctant
to pronounce her "healed." Yet, we know that a month ago,
our girl was
standing at the door of eternity.
Our family is changed
forever by the renewed vision of God's love, the
unmerited love of others -
such as you and your precious church -, and by
the humbling sense of His
choice to move in our lives at this time and in
this way. "What can I render
unto the Lord for so great a benefit?" Psalm
116:12.
Please continue
to pray as we move slowly toward the next step.
With awe and amazement at
your love and His grace,
Gerry Sisk
I send you all hugs, love and many blessings!
Thank You for your prayers &
God Bless You All!
Marion
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