Update on Eva

Wed. April 29th. from Cheryl Morrison: Update on my granddaughter, Eva.

SITREP: My niece, Eva Jeffery

Wednesday April 29, 2020 1550 hrs.

C. Mo. - Morrison family PIO

Hello Family, friends and prayer warriors. Don't let up on prayer please. We tend to have a thing where when someone doesn't seem quite as critical anymore, to let up on the prayer. Please don't do that. I have some ups and downs and a phenomenal story to pass on from Eva. Here's today's update:

1) She had a pretty rough night last night and didn't sleep hardly at all. 0300 this morning she woke up with some pretty bad shortness of breath and a temperature. Blood cultures were done (to find out, if there is funk growing in her blood, what type it is which helps determine the best agent to fight it with). The also ran a CBC (for non medical peeps - its a blood test to look and see if your white blood cell count is up - which is a factor for determining infection). Cultures and other tests came back and unfortunately she has developed MRSA or Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, a sometimes very difficult to treat staph infection running around inside her. They have placed her on yet another antibiotic - Vancomycin, which has proven to be pretty successful in fighting MRSA. They said 48 hours ought to take care of this issue.

2) She has also developed pancreatitis. Pancreatitis is an inflammation of the pancreas (for my non medical peeps), which lies behind the lower part of the stomach. This is a fairly common ailment and is somewhat expected to surface in patients with injuries such as Eva's. Remember how back on Friday we talked about over the next several days injuries and complicating factors could and probably would arise? Yep - here we are. This is exactly what they were talking about. They are not overly concerned... they will be watching it right now, at this stage to see if it self resolves or needs other treatment regimens. They will be doing another ultrasound to determine the extent, later this afternoon.

Everything listed above is treat-able. Not to worry! it's just more bumps in the road as it were. Prayer will help, no doubt. This is why I say not to let up, folks.

3) Knee seems to be continuing to heal well. I hadn't gotten the actual injury for which the surgery was done. Her knee was lacerated so badly by car frame parts that it cut through tendons and ligaments. So... it was tendon and ligament types of repairs. THAT's gonna be a long healer! Good news? She's already walking on it with a walker. She continues to work hard with PT and OT for this issue and they are thrilled with her cooperation and effort.

4) They discovered that she may have a new small bleed in her liver. It's okay... it appears to be a small one. The plan right now is to watch it to self tamponade (quit bleeding on it's own for you non medicals), and if it doesn't they will do a minor surgical procedure to insert a draining tube so fluid doesn't start to build up in her abdominal cavity again and push that abdominal pressure back up. She currently still has what was described as "moderate" abdominal distention. She HAS, though, lost a liter of the edema fluid (fluid causing swelling in her belly) So that is a plus. So this is a new prayer request. Thanks.

5) ICU stay extension. Yup... With all this going on, previous injuries, momentary clinical death, multiple surgeries, and pleural effusion, perforated bowel, and now adding to that fever, thrush, MRSA, and Pancreatitis.... only makes sense that ICU is not letting go of her quite yet. They have suggested a 2-3 day long extension hoping for the former. Day by day we will see how things go. This is all day by day friends. If you've been following since day one, you've seen positive/negative, positive/negative, positive/negative... but the big picture positives outweigh the volume of negatives, so that is the answered prayer there.

And now... the story - People amaze me. Atheists. Agnostics. Non believers of all sorts. Eva said the other day "Mom... I talked to Jesus." Lauren of course was like "wait...what???" Eva than unfolded how while she was "asleep" (that was from cardiac arrest until two days after surgery) she had a period where she found herself in a very beautiful green field. The sky was REALLY bright, unlike anything she'd ever seen. She said while she was there in the field, her previously deceased cousin, Stevie (who died a few years ago of an accidental drug overdose) and she said that Stevie came up to her and said "Eva... What are you doing???"... then while she was there with Stevie, her previously deceased grandfather approached her and looked her right in the eye and said "Eva... What are you doing?"... Then her somewhat recently deceased dog whom she just adored to death appeared and came up and jump up on her and was acting super happy to see her. She said while she was there with all three of them she heard a voice from the light that called her name. The voice said "Im sending you back. I will be providing support for your family to help get you through the events to come. I love you and I forgive you for what you've done. Above all remember this - I've given you a second chance." WOW!!!! Don't tell me God isn't real. Somewhere down the road is a ministry for this young lady. We need to get her out of the woods and back home and healed up first.

So as we move into these next two to three days of ICU time, pray for Eva, for good attitude, hard work to recover, and healing. Pray for Lauren and Jim and the rest of the family. Pray for her staff, surgeons, attendings, nurses, therapists, etc. Pray that her meds work correctly and that she gains strength. Pray without ceasing. The Greek word for "without ceasing" used in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 is "adialeiptos". This word doesn't mean "NON Stop". It actually means "constantly recurring". So, in other words we can punctuate our moments with intervals of recurring prayer. This means you can incorporate your prayers into just about anything. Incorporate short prayers into your every day chores... Pray while you're standing in line waiting or sitting at a traffic light... When you break it down like this you aren't really in a long prayer from the moment you get up... but rather, a series LOTS of real small prayers at regularly irregular intervals. Pray without ceasing. The Jeffery and Morrison families are so grateful for your intercession and your specific prayers. We KNOW that God is hearing them. We were ALL praying for her life on Friday. God said "Eva, Im sending you back". He heard our prayers. He is listening. Pray without ceasing. 🙂 Thanks everyone. 🙃🙏🏼✝️♥️

Update on Eva 4-27-20

The update we have been waiting for from my son! Wow! The last paragraph!!! We stand in AWE!!!

SITREP: My niece, Eva Jeffery
Sunday April 26th, 2020
C. Mo - Family PIO

Hello all. I see my sister, Lauren, had a few minutes to post some thank you's. I too thank you all for your continued patience for these reports. I wait until everyone that needs to see Eva each day has been in. This allows me to do one daily report that is detailed, and keeps me from having to do a bunch of mini reports as each practitioner see's Eva and gives their update to Lauren. Here's the specifics of where we are today.

I was at the fire department this morning coming off duty when Lauren called and said that they were extubating Eva (removing the breathing tube from her airway and taking her off the vent). Shortly after, Eva wanted to FaceTime with her Uncle Chris. So I called her on FT and surprisingly she was in good spirits and was rather conversational. She said she was in a LOT of pain. Understandably. We spoke for just a few minutes and then I came home. Since then, all the practitioners have seen her.

1) Endotracheal tube has been removed. Ventilator has been removed. Nasogastric tube (feeding tube through her nose) has been removed.

2) A PICC line (a peripherally inserted central catheter, or... very large IV that goes into larger vessels in your body, frequently under your clavicle) was established this morning. This will mainly be for fluids, nutritional feeding, and maybe certain medications. PICC line may go home with her for a while. This remains to be decided upon. All other intravenous line except one have been removed. It was left specifically for pain control meds. They are considering putting her on a morphine (or other) pump to allow her to control micro doses on a more frequent basis on her own. The pump "caps" the amount you can give yourself into chronological increments.

3) Ortho came down and looked at her knee again. No signs of infection, everything looks pretty good. Even so, they are putting her on a five day antibiotic regimen to be safe.

4) She remains in a cervical collar. The attending examined her neck and pressed around and it is very bruised and sore. The X-rays have cleared her of any fractures, but they are choosing to leave the collar in place for a while yet to just help give her neck support since it is so bruised and sore.

5) Abdominal pressure has decreased from 17 mmHg to 13 mmHg. This is good but they want it down into lower single digits. They are continuing to watch her abdomen very carefully because for several more days, other hidden injuries can still surface. They remain cautiously optimistic regarding her belly.

6) Urinary catheter has been removed.

7) Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy came down to see her this morning and sat her up on the side of the bed and got her into a chair for a bit. This was very slow and very painful, but it is extremely common and been proven as a best practice because these patients tend to do better over all the faster you can get them up and moving. Less chances of developing other complicating factors like pneumonia.

8 ) She has been given the green light to orally take in 2 teaspoons an hour of ice chips. She was thrilled and said she never would have believed that ice chips could be such an amazing thing.

9) They are looking at possibly stepping her down to a different unit this evening which wouldn't require a nurse to be sitting beside her 24 hours a day. This unit would have a nurse in the room every 4 hours but she would have a call button.

Finally to all the prayer warriors... The surgeon during grand rounds this morning told his team that Eva is an extremely unique case. There is no reason she should be healing this quickly. He said she is DAYS ahead of schedule in her healing process. He doesn't know why. We do. This is Gods sovereignty over this situation. We have people and whole churches not only praying, some even FASTING, from all over the world: I have spoken to a number of people and pastors around the globe that have asked me through FB about Eva in the last couple days. Some I know, many others I do not. They have represented: USA, Israel, England, the Philippines, Liberia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and India. I am sure there are others. THIS is why she is so far ahead of schedule. Thank you for your continued prayer support. Please keep your prayers coming. God bless you each for interceding.