First post:
Dec 22, 2018 Latest post:
Apr 16, 2019
On Nov 11, Mathew had a freak accident with his aide Travis goofing around in his wheel chair. Matt hurt his jaw falling down and out of his wheel chair and hit his jaw on the tray that goes on his arm rests. On Nov 16, Dr, Hernandez, a maxillofacial surgeon operated on Matt and installed a titanium plate (in the shape of a short, high-tech popsicle stick) across the the cleft of his chin. He was supposed to heal up and be fine.
Unfortunately the plate got infected. Today, Matt was operated on to remove the plate with hopes that the infection was mild and the fracture healing had gone well anyway. We hoped for the best, but instead, when Dr. Hernandez operated today and could see the bone, the inside of the area around the fracture was badly infected. He had to remove the bone until he found bone that would bleed. Matt was left with a gapping space now between the two sides of the break. Matt’s jaw was wired shut, with the break now an open space (there is a medical term for it that sounds pretty horrible).
I’m writing this from Matt’s bedside in the post-op area. The anesthesiologist came by and explained that when Matt started waking from the anesthesia, not knowing any of the bad news and that his jaw is wired shut, he freaked. The medical term I just overheard the nurse say, was “extreme agitation trying to take out his IV and flailing at jaw”. That probably was not pretty. He has been sedated and will stay that way for a day or two in order to help with healing and adjusting to the shocking turn of events.
The administering of the sedatives and pain killers is again a bit tricky. Pastor Mendel was just praying with me and I thought that even though Matt is sedated I would put our beloved friend on speaker for Matt to hear in his sleep. As Mendel finished his beautiful prayer in his wonderful Jamaican accent, I noticed Matt giving a thumbs up. Until he started waking up and feeling the pain and freaking out, it felt like a heavenly twilight of consciousness. Shortly after it was “I hurt!” and “What the heck is up with my jaw being wired shut! No body told me about this!”
He is resting now. We are moving shortly from post-op to ICU shortly. The unexpected turn of events has been both physically and emotionally shocking for all of us but especially for Matt. Please pray for his transition from being sedated into a 24-48 hour sleep, to a waking state with understanding that he will be ok and we’ll figure it all out.
For now there is a feeding tube through the nose into the the stomach. Depending on how everything goes, he may need another stomach tube operation but we hope and pray avoiding this measure. Once things settle down, we hope Matt will be able to eat through a straw in the back of his mouth.
Although Paula and I were shocked to hear all this when Dr. Hernandez came out after 3+ hours of surgery, we cry out in grief but stand on the truth that God loves Matt more than anyone of us ever could. We know God is good and that we are saved by the greatest sacrificial love ever known in Jesus. We celebrate His upcoming birth with our hope manifest in His love.
