Blessed

My husband is such a blessing to me. I could not imagine life without him. We will celebrate ten years of marriage in a few weeks. About six months ago, we received news that devastated us. News that had me hyperventilating and crying so hard that my mom could not understand a word I was saying when I called her to help me calm down before Jeff came home. A few days after Christmas, Jeff got a blinding headache. He could not see for awhile it was so bad. Sounds like a migraine right? I get migraines all of the time, I knew what it was, but still it was kind of scary for him to get one at the age of (almost) 33 when he never really got headaches before. Our doctor told us Jeff needed to have an MRI done, just to be sure that nothing serious was causing this. On New Year's Eve I got a call from our doctor. There were no brain tumors, no aneurysm....but there was something called a Chiari Malformation. What was that?!?! We were so sure that the MRI was going to reveal nothing, that we were in absolute shock. The doctor asked to talk to Jeff & I gave her his work number. I waited for him to call me. I waited for maybe ten minutes, but it felt like an eternity. When he did call, I asked what the doctor had told him. He said he was coming home and would tell me when he got there. WHAT?!?! That's when the hyperventilating started. (My mom was able to calm me down...THANK YOU!!!) When he got home Jeff told me that his brain extends down too far. About 8 mm. OK....what does that mean? Basically he could have been born with it and he would never have any problems, or it would grow and he would lose all feeling in his arms and legs. We would have to wait six months to have another MRI done to see if it was going to grow. SIX. WHOLE. MONTHS. It was the scariest moment of my life. We sat there and just cried and tried to comfort each other. Then we did the only thing we could do at that time. We ignored it....for about a month. Then the worry started to eat away at both of us. We called the doctor and asked if we could see a neurologist to get a second opinion. (WHY didn't the doctor think of this???) They made an appointment, but we would have to wait a little over four months. Apparently there is a shortage of neurologists in Wichita. In the mean time we waited, and prayed and asked family members to pray. I was still worried about it, it was always in the back of my mind, but as the months went by and Jeff had no symptoms, I felt better about it. I had realized, after I had come out of my fog of denial, that the only thing I could do was pray that God knew what He was doing and that He would take care of us....in whatever way that was. It made the waiting more bearable. In May, Jeff had his second MRI. The radiologist told us news that we had been praying for. There was no change at all. It looked like he was born with it. Our doctor still wanted us to go to the neurologist though so that a specialist could look at all of the MRI's. We agreed that this was a good idea. We went to the neurologist this morning and we were told that Jeff was born with the malformation and that he should never have any trouble at all. His brain looks healthy and there is plenty of room for fluid to flow (which was a worry) and that everything looked fine. I think I said "Thank you God" about a hundred times in my head. And, I guess that's why I am writing this post. I am so thankful for all of the prayers that our family and friends prayed for Jeff. I am so thankful that he is healthy. I am so thankful that God gave me (and Jeff I think) some peace throughout all of this waiting. I am so blessed to have Jeff in my life. I couldn't have asked for a better husband or father to our children. I just wanted to share our happy news today.