For those not on Facebook who want to know the full story of the last week, here is what I posted yesterday:

🕊️Calling all prayer warriors! 🕊️

Warning: LONG post ahead. 

Many of you know that Brett has an undiagnosed connective tissue disorder that causes him to cut and bleed extremely easily. His blood vessels are very fragile. We’ve had a good run without any major incidents for almost 2 years. And then a week ago, our world turned upside down.

Brett woke up in the middle of the night last Wednesday, started having pain and weakness in his left leg, and almost passed out. It worsened, so we went to the ER. The CT scan showed a complete blockage of his left iliac artery (main artery that takes blood into the leg). Blood clots had totally blocked the stint put in 2 years ago as a repair after the artery unexplainably tore. 

He was transferred and admitted to Grandview in Birmingham. Something had to be done to keep blood flowing to his left leg, so we had 2 options: blood thinners as an interim fix while we waited for a referral to UAB’s vascular program, or operate. Neither was a good option with his bleeding history, but we opted for the blood thinners. He improved, had decent blood flow to the leg, and he was discharged Saturday pending an outpatient referral to UAB. 

On Monday, Brett had increasing stiffness and pain in his left hip. It got worsened to where he couldn’t stand, so we went back to the ER. This time straight to UAB. They took CT scans, and during our wait the pain started to get a little better. His scans looked the same as a few days earlier, his vitals were good, and he still had a trickle of blood flow through his leg, so they sent us home with an outpatient appointment for Wednesday with UAB’s vascular team. They said what he experienced was called claudication. We got home early in the morning Tuesday.

A few hours later, the pain came back. Around noon, after standing up and trying to walk around, it became excruciating and his hip & thigh started to go numb - all signs of what we thought was no blood flow to his leg. 

Called 911; the ambulance came. They wouldn’t take us to UAB because it was “too far,” so they took him to a small hospital in Talladega. We followed in our car, and I contacted our surgeon from Grandview who was able to get in contact with UAB. They still had to admit him to Talladega 🙄 but we started the process to transfer him to UAB.

The pain continued to get worse and spread into his back. They started him on more blood thinners while we waited for the transfer, thinking this was all due to the blocked artery. 

Then things went sideways. The pain moved up his back and into his chest, and his vitals started to tank. It would be an hour ride via ambulance to UAB, so they decided to airlift him. He was taken by helicopter.

Pretty quickly, they realized he was showing signs of internal bleeding. Scans confirmed he had a major internal bleed called a retroperitoneal hematoma. After a super scary few hours, lots of doctors and meds, and a blood transfusion, he started to stabilize 🙌🏻

He’s currently in the ICU. Needless to say, blood thinners are not an option again. Yesterday was a good day for him; today is even better. Tomorrow afternoon they will operate to try to open the artery in his leg.

We need a miracle y’all with Brett’s blood vessels 🙏🏻🙌🏻🕊️ Please pray for the vessels to supernaturally strengthen, for a successful surgery tomorrow, for them to be able to remove the clots and reopen the artery, for FULL blood flow to the leg, and for wisdom for the doctors. 

I will post updates here as I’m able. We’ve been overwhelmed with all the support already. Keep the prayers coming - through all of this we know God is good and He is moving 🤍