Operation Breath of Life update 10/19/09

The latest OBL update from my dad himself :) :

I personally wanted to write and give our most recent update. God continues to show up daily in our journey.

This past weekend was wonderful as there were no hospital appointments, tests, consultations, just some slow down time and I had 2 great days of exercising. The exercise goal for each of those days was to walk a total of 30 minutes each day (which means it could be done all at one 30 minute period or broken up into segments that equaled 30 minutes). I chose to do it the consecutive 30 minute route and can't get over just how good it feels to be able to exercise again without gasping for oxygen and to do it without the use of supplemental oxygen. Prior to transplant, I was using oxygen to exercise since August 2008. Praise God.

Another highlight of our weekend was Debbie and I watching our 10:15am on line service live from Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale as Pastor Clay led the praise and worship time and to sit under the awesome teaching of Pastor Bob. As the songs were sung and as Pastor Bob made certain points in his bible study time, I was overcome with tears of joy.

Healthwise, the entire staff at the Mayo Clinic continues to be amazed at the progress I am making in such a short period of time. God is truly answering the prayers being lifted up on our behalf. We are so blessed to have so many people {many of whom we don`t even know} praying for us and expressing their love for us in so many ways. As we met with 2 of our lung transplant coordinators earlier today, one of them expressed caution to us of the potential infections and rejection that have yet to take place. His comments did not phase me one bit as again God has just given me a tremendous peace throughout this journey, especially an extra dose since our October 2, 11:30am call from the Mayo Clinic to come up for transplant. God has been so good. Each of you need to know your prayers are coming through loud and clear and are being answered by our God we serve.

In closing, please continue to pray for the donor family and their loss, for my continued miraculous recovery and for strength for Debbie as she cares for me.

Love in Christ,
Rick and Debbie

And now you get my tidbits to add in here. It has been amazing to talk to my dad over the past few weeks and hear simply in his voice the difference. I can now have a conversation with him for more than 5 minutes without hearing, "Hang on Christy" and I would sit and have to listen to him cough:( He said he watched the whole Miami Dolphins game last Monday night and when we talked about the game Tuesday morning, I said to him, "Do you think you're young again now that you have these new lungs and can just stay up to all hours of the night?" He laughed but said he got right to bed after the game and was excited to be able to stay up and enjoy the game. Don't worry, he's still getting his rest though.

Onto a prayer request from me now though and you'll see how this all ties in. Thursday night while talking to my dad on the phone, I got a text from my husband, Eric, saying he would be late coming home from work. I would not normally think much of this except that on Thursday night he was sitting in the tower on base sitting SOF (Supervisor of Flying) and usually that job didn't require you to stay late. He was supposed to be home around 10 and I got the text about 930. So I waited an hour or so and replied asking if he had an update on the time he'd be home. He said he'd be late and that he'd update me when he could. I knew there wasn't much weather around and something still wasn't sitting well with me. I texted him back and said "Is everyone or everything okay?" All I got back was "I can't answer that right now". My heart began to race and by the time he got home at 230 am (I waited up b/c what else was I going to do) it had been on the news that 2 F-16s (both pilots from the squadron my husband is in here in SC) had collided during a training mission not far off the coast of South Carolina. One pilot had landed his jet back in Charleston and the other, Captain Giglio was missing. I have never felt emotions that I felt that night, but I found myself saying to other pilots wives the next day, we have to believe in miracles, just look at what God did for my dad. To make what I could turn into a somewhat lengthy story, I will try to keep short. This all began Thursday night around 830 and by Saturday night, they called off the rescue and said the chances of Capt Giglio having been able to eject from the jet was slim to none. Reference the link below for the news story.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,568340,00.html

Due to everything going on with my dad the past month or so, I had not gotten a chance to meet Capt Giglio's wife as they had only been here for a few months. Captain Giglio left behind a 14 month old daughter Grace and his high school sweetheart (graduated in 1995) turned wife in 2000 expecting their second child in February. The wives in our squadron have done our best to support his wife, Leigh and one of those ways is having a 77th Fighter Squadron wife at her house with her and her family. My shift was this morning. Let me remind you that I had never met Leigh formally. She joined MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) 2 weeks ago and I was involved with it last year. At the beginning of the year, something had to give for my family and that was what I had to give up, but my fellows MOPS gals promised to pray for my dad and keep him on their prayer list even though I wasn't there. They stayed updated and were thrilled when they heard the news of my dad getting a transplant. This all brings me to today. Sorry somehow I know this has all gotten wordy. This morning as I drove to the house leaving my husband at home, I had many different emotions. I had just been able to kiss my husband goodbye and what in the world could I say to this wife who had just lost her husband? I was scared that I would say the wrong thing and she would just break down. I'm a social person, but it was an extremely uncomfortable position for me to be in. I walked to the door and knocked quietly not knowing if Grace was sleeping. Leigh opened the door, I introduced myself saying, "Hi, I'm Christy Music, we are in the 77th, my husband is Eric" (or something like that, it was somewhat of a blur). But before I had stepped foot past the front door and after saying who I was, the first thing out of her mouth was not "good morning" or "hi, nice to meet you", it was immediately "Oh, Christy, how is your dad?" WHAT?
Even as I write that and remember the words coming out of her mouth I get chills and it brings tears to my eyes. Someone who 3 days earlier had lost her husband and had only been told 36 hours prior that they were ending the search and rescue that it would now be in recovery mode was asking me how my dad was? Someone who had yet to meet me. Someone who has a 14 month old and a baby boy growing in her belly that won't even get to know his father was asking me how my dad was. I was blown away and stood there for a few seconds not able to say a word but finally was able to get out the words "He's doing great, thank you for asking". We talked for a few more minutes about my dad with Leigh letting me know she and Nick had been praying for and she will continue to pray for my dad before moving into the kitchen where we began the rest of the day. Let's not talk about how I felt when I cooked eggs for her and asked her if she wanted me to put milk in them so they would be fluffy. She came over and put her arm around me and said, oh thank you, Nick always used to ask if I wanted my eggs fluffy. You can DEFINITELY see a woman very sure of her faith and she knows where her husband went. It was amazing to spend the morning with her even though she was in and out trying to get dressed to go shopping for clothes for the memorial service and on the phone with various offices. I couldn't let go of her first statement to me and couldn't wait to be able to call my dad and share the news with him. All this after calling him over the weekend after the F-16 accident to share with him that another one of our friends in the F-16 community that were stationed with us in UT, they are now in Italy, lost his wife just hours after she gave birth to their second baby boy. I'm trying to make a deal with God where he doesn't give me any more bad news b/c while everything with my dad has been a complete blessing and miracle, I'm kinda spent. Within 2 weeks I think I've experienced just about every emotion humanly possible, but I know that someone always has it worse than me. I am truly blessed for God giving my dad not just one but TWO new lungs and he'll be around to chase my girls around some more. Hmm... maybe during Eric and I's 10 year anniversary trip we'll leave the girls with Gigi and G-Man now that we know he can handle it ;) I am so blessed to have 2 beautiful little girls, even though I had the hardest time finding the happiness emotion Saturday for Emily's 4th birthday. I am so blessed to have a husband that played an important role in the way things played out after the collision occurred and still walked in the door that night. I am blessed with so many things but I am blessed to know that I know a God who watches out for each and every one of us no matter where we are. He puts certain people in our lives and has them say certain things to know he's there with us at all times. That's what I feel he was doing with Leigh. We still have a long week ahead knowing there is a service for a young mother in Italy on Wednesday and the memorial service here Thursday for Captain Giglio but God is in control of all of it just as he was with my dad's transplant. I could go on and on all night, but I will stop now as my bit on here has gotten ridiculously long, so I apologize. Please just pray for these families as you continue to pray for my dad. They both have long roads ahead of them.

I hope this update finds all of you well. Just remember God Rocks and keep looking up!

The attached pictures are of Emily saying a special prayer for G-Man at lunch one day and the other is of my dad, Debbie and Debbie's parents just after a 30 minute walk on this past Saturday.





Zechariah 13:9,

Christy

http://rickhornsby.blogspot.com/