Praying for Gigi

Jeanne Riley… Our mom & Gigi went to be with the One that loves most, our Lord God Almighty, the Prince of Peace, Beautiful Father, Jehovah Jireh, Yahweh, Savior around 1:45 am - July 17th, 2023

The battle is over! She has humbly & beautifully claimed her Eternal VICTORY in Jesus for ALL eternity!

“Her body is at rest but she is ROARING around up there now!!!!!” Debby Newsome

Good Evening Everyone!

Happy New Year!

I have been working on setting up an account for mom with Helping Hands. As many of you know, Julie has taken a leave of absence from work to be with and take care of mom 24 hours a day and Jennifer is now the sole provider of 5. Several of you have expressed interest in helping with the astronomical medical bills. Thank you so much! I am trying to provide a way that will make it really easy for you and hopefully tax deductible. I will share that information as soon as possible.

For now, I want to ask that you keep praying. Prayer is so powerful and such a gift. To think that we have access to the ear of the Father is, at times, too much to fathom.

I am attaching a screenshot of mom's text with me so that you can read an update in her words about how things are going.

This is the first time in a month that I've sent her a text and received a response directly from her. It was incredibly encouraging!

Thank you all so much for your faithfulness. We are grateful beyond words.

~Joy

Good Evening Everyone,

I will provide a much more detailed update tomorrow.

For now, the main prayer we are praying is that Gigi will eat.

She has lost an additional 20 pounds over the last 3 weeks bring her weight down to just over 100 lbs.

The doctors prescribed a medication to help spark her appetite, but it is $200 and not affordable at this time.

Please pray that she will start absorbing nutrients. This would help her gain some strength back.

The pneumonia has cleared from her lung, but not before wreaking havoc on mom's heart, speech, and nervous system. There is permanent damage and only time will tell what will be restored.

Thank you so much for your prayers. I will post more tomorrow.

Gratitude and Light,
Joy

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL🎄
Tomorrow starts in home speech therapy, physical rehab and breathing treatments but today it's Christmas and all is peaceful and happy!!!! Except Santa didn't get here till 12:30- mommy says he's really tired from working so hard and knew we would want him to have breakfast and a quick rest with mrs clause🎅🏼?!? Have a beautiful day- thank you for all your prayers... Christmas miracle for gigi🎁🎁🎁

"A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life" - coco chanel
Thank you Allen Jackson for coming to the hospital Saturday and working your magic on mom's hair - so cute and it really helped lift her spirits!!!! You are THE BEST!!!💖

Good Evening All,

Here is the latest update from Julie...

"We just saw Dr. Shaw, mom's blood pressure dropped last night, but he thinks she can still go home tomorrow (Christmas Eve).

He said she was doing great, but the pneumonia has caused permanent damage to her heart. The damage to her nervous system and musculoskeletal system can be repaired with physical therapy and speech therapy.

When we go home we will have Alacare provide nursing service, health service, PT, pulmonology and speech therapy.

Baptist has ordered a walker that will go home with us tomorrow. I (Julie) will be administering her shots every day, the nurse will teach me how to do it today.

God has saved her life again, so he has a big job for her and she needs a whole heart! Our prayer now is that God will repair her heart!"

We are truly amazed how mom has gone from fighting for her life to going home in time for Christmas. Prayer works. There isn't anyone on this earth who will ever convince me otherwise, because friends, this recovery is the result of all of you approaching the throne of grace with petitions for healing and restoration and we are forever grateful to each of you.

As Julie said in her message, our big time prayer now is that God will repair Gigi's heart. We know that He is the great physician and nothing is outside of His ability and perfect plan.

Gratitude and Light,
Joy

We took the advice of the wise and beautiful Julie Richard and celebrated Christmas on a day other than Christmas.

We took Christmas to mom.
It was my first experience celebrating Christmas in a hospital.
Harper brought light into the room.
Bella opened Gigi's presents for her so she could look at them.
We laughed...A LOT.
We cried, a little.
All in all, it was a good day.

An update;
~ Gigi walked 100 steps with the help of PT. This is a huge accomplishment. Thank you so much for praying specifically for this.
~ She still has no voice and the doctors are still baffled as to why.
~ Her core body temperature dipped to 94.8 It was the lowest the nurse had ever seen and though she tried to hide her concern, she wasn't very good at it. The doctors have ordered mom to remain in her warming tent 24/7 until further notice. Again, they are unsure of what is causing her body temp to fall and why it won't come up.
~ She enjoyed a piece of chocolate.
~ She was definitely moving much better than she has been. Jennifer said it felt like she was looking at a completely different person.

Specific Prayer Requests;
- For her body temperature to return to normal and stay there.
- The return of her appetite so that she can get stronger.
- Wisdom for the doctors.

Thank you all so much for your continued prayers!
Joy

It was another picnic dinner on a hospital mat beside our precious Gigi's bed tonight...
All eyes (even the littlest grandchild) were on the nurse as she came in to give us news from the day:
The DR's are afraid there may be another infection, so more tests will be run tomorrow. Her arthritis in her hands is starting to cause a problem and great pain due to the lack of movement. They continue to hydrate her with IV fluids, she is covered with the warming tent (to try to keep her temp at 97 or ideally above) and they are striving to keep her comfortable.
While I was visiting mom tonight one of her closest friends called and said to tell mom how beautiful her smile is- she said, even with all of this - she greeted them with a smile today as they came to visit!
Smiling with kindness and grace while greatly suffering is because mom gets the bigger picture, she knows the Great Physician and she trusts His plan!!!! I strive to know Him, trust Him and love Him as she does!
SHE IS A WARRIOR!!

My specific prayer requests would be:
1) that if a new infection is brewing God would stop it tonight and remove it!!!
2) that she would miraculously be given the strength to walk and talk again... My Jesus healed the lame, the deaf, the blind- I know He can heal my mom!!!
3) that mom would be encouraged from the inside out- that our Father in His sweet quiet precious way would remind her of His magnificent never ending love for her (I know she knows it but this is wearing on her and I feel a reminder would be a boost)

Thank you all for your time (reading this), continually praying for my mom and loving each of us!!!

With peace and creativity- sleep sweet,
Jennifer

Update from Joy...

The emotional roller coaster continues.

Gigi was able to speak softly for about 2 hours before her voice was gone again.

She has been off of the antibiotics for 24 hours and there have been significant (negative) changes in her skin. It looks much like it did when Jennifer brought her into the ER on Sunday. The medical team has decided to keep her off of the meds for another 24 hours to see what develops.

Despite receiving IV fluids for the last 12 days, labs are showing that she is still severely dehydrated and there is now blood in her urine.

Regardless of their best efforts, they cannot raise her core temperature and are expressing concern over the harm from that alone if not controlled.

Specific requests for prayer;
A rise in her core body temp.
Wisdom and heavenly guidance for all involved.
Rest.

After sleeping from 5 pm yesterday till 7 am this am- Mom has alittle spark! She would love to see some people if you were planning on visiting today!
Visitors- 11:00am until 6:00pm

REJOICE- REJOICE- GIGI HAS A VOICE!!!!! Just a few moments ago as the infectious disease Dr asked "how are you today?" - much to everyone's surprise mom spoke "I'm ok"!!! With joy in her eyes- she softly spoke for the first time in 18 days!!!!! Miracle One✅(Jennifer)