2017 had quite an incredible ending for my family and me. As we continue on and find out more and more as the years go on, I am learning just how incredible it really was.
On December 15, 2017 my wife and children had just found out that I had suffered a life-threatening stroke and needed lifesaving brain surgery. The next day after surgery, no one knew what was going to happen. Even the neurosurgeons and nurses at the hospital were unsure of what was about to happen. I think they were just glad I was still alive. So, as I laid in the neuro ICU in a comatose state, hooked up to a respirator for my breathing, no one knew if I would be in a vegetative state for the rest of my days. On Saturday, December 16, 2017 they began “stroke checks” every hour, on the hour. I was heavily sedated but would be woken up every hour by a nurse agitating my mouth in an attempt to wake me up.
It all felt like a dream to me and, in all honesty, I was unsure at the time what was going on. Had I been kidnapped and brought somewhere to be tortured? Then I heard my wife’s voice and finally saw her face. That gave me much comfort and peace. Little did I know what had just happened to me. That morning, a doctor had not only sawed my skull open but then removed the part of my brain that had been killed by the stroke. Part of it was supposed to impact my balance and speech. Would I ever walk again? Would I ever speak on the radio or preach again? These are things that crossed not only my wife’s mind but my children’s minds as well.
Upon hearing that I had a life-threatening stroke and was having brain surgery, my mother, who is a retired nurse, packed funeral clothes as her and my father made their way to where we live. Being a parent myself, I can only imagine what it must have been like for my parents as they made the long drive out to Ohio from where they live in Minnesota, not knowing what might become of their oldest son.
In the neuro ICU, my wife was being patient and loving to me. At one point I motioned to her with my index finger that I wanted to write and she quickly got me some paper and a pen. The first thing I wrote was illegible. At the time, I had no idea that what I was asking to do, writing just a little note to my wife, held the interest of so many around me. While I was told that I had had a stroke, I still had no idea that I had just come out of brain surgery and that part of my brain was literally missing. It felt like I had just awoken from an evening’s rest. So, by me trying to write and communicate, many people were intrigued by me. Would I know how to write? Would I know how to use punctuation? These are things my wife and others wondered.
Well, I was able to communicate, and later to my delight the nursing staff removed my breathing tube. I don’t remember the following very well but my wife tells me that once the breathing tube was removed I just started talking and talking. She even said one of the nurses asked, “Is he always like this?” to which she said, yes, that’s him. Over the next few days I had so many visitors that my wife had to tell people to stop coming so I could rest. I am still so thankful for all of that. I am still so appreciative to all of the people that came and helped out our family and even bought our children Christmas gifts that year.
In the ICU, I was hooked up to monitors and had a tube draining fluid off of my brain, yet I was still asking to go home. Now, I see how silly that request really was. The next few days were critical as, according to the doctors, my brain could still swell. They were concerned as I wasn’t “out of the woods” yet. After being moved down to a step-down unit, later the next week I finally was able to leave and go home – not to a nursing home, but to our family’s home. I went to physical therapy two times and they told me that I could keep coming back but there was nothing more they could do to help me. I took a test with the occupational therapist also. At the beginning of the test she told me she would need to send out the results of the test to know what to do for later therapy sessions, but after the test was done she already knew I was beyond needing the help they could give.
About one month after the stroke and brain surgery, my wife and I went to go see the neurosurgeon. My wife and I were in the waiting room to be called into his office. “Jason DeZurik, Jason DeZurik,” the nurse called out. I grabbed the armrests on my chair to help me stand up and started walking over to the nurse to go to his office. She was visibly startled. She looked down at her chart not once, but twice and said, “I thought you’d be in a wheelchair. What nursing home are you rehabbing in?” I said, “Home.” She said, “Your home?”
Friends, our God is still a God of miracles. And even though all the doctors we saw would not say the word “miracle,” they would use words like, “remarkable,” “incredible,” and “above average” to explain my recovery. As I was being discharged from the hospital, one nurse leaned over and whispered in my ear, “You know you’re miracle, right?”
There is so much more I could share with you but I think you are getting the picture. God is God and we are not! I am still in awe of the technology we have in this day and age and I am absolutely in awe of Almighty God, that He would allow me to not only keep living on this planet but would allow me to live pretty much a normal life after that ordeal. Oh sure, I have some residual effects from this event, but I am so blessed to not only be alive but it’s good to know that I have the friends and family that I have in my life as well. It’s good to be alive!
If you’d like Jason and his wife to come and share their story with you and your group or congregation, please contact us at Worldview Warriors.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
0 comments:
Post a Comment