A Little Catch Up!

Well, my goodness, it’s been a minute since I’ve updated the blog here. We’ve had an eventful several weeks in the Rogers household! Last time I updated the blog we were waiting in anticipation for Jake to receive an epicardial ablation. He was told to start lowering his antiarrhythmia meds and that all went smoothly! He didn’t have any bouts of vtach pop up at all! 🙌🏽 He made it to surgery day in great spirits and came out of the 8 HOUR (😅) procedure stable and doing really well! Doc was able to cauterize the few main spots that had caused the original VT storms Jake had earlier this year! Big praise! He did say that there were actually some spots that he couldn’t reach that *could* still cause VT down the road, but he wasn’t too concerned with those at that time. Recovery was pretty rough for a few days following, mostly with pain in the chest, but once that settled, he did fairly well. I’d say it took close to a week to feel more back to normal. Not too shabby! Side note – we were not prepared for the massive bruising that occurred near the groin insertion sites – WOWZA! He’s STILL all purple and bruised from that, you know, in case anyone reading this has to get a VT ablation sometime 🤪 Hopefully not though! 

Ok! Now fast forward to today, we are back in the hospital, unfortunately. Two days ago Jake experienced another episode of VT and got shocked by his ICD. This came out of nowhere! He was feeling great the whole holiday weekend, he was doing a little walking (actually walked in and out of church instead of using the wheelchair!!), coloring was great, all the good things! So we agreed that it would be ok for the kids to stay with him without me for a short stent. Previously, we’ve had to have another adult with him all the time. So, I took our son to an eye appointment and our daughter stayed with Jake. Fortunately and unfortunately, we have prepped both our kids with what to do if there is an emergency (if you’re not doing this, highly recommend, just in case! It doesn’t need to be scary, but it’s important to do.) so when he felt his heart ramping up, he told Ellie to run and grab the neighbors and she jumped into action while he called 911. She 👏🏽 did 👏🏽 so 👏🏽 good!! 👏🏽 She didn’t hesitate, she got our neighbor (thank you, Emelye!!🥹) and got right back to her show she was watching 😂 And because of that, and as a sweet mercy from God, she didn’t see Jake get shocked. I just didn’t want her replaying that in her mind, ya know? Anyway, I was only 5 minutes away and got there shortly after the ambulance. 

He then went into VT 3 more times but those times, his ICD was able to pace him out of it and he didn’t need to get shocked. Good job, little pacemaker, or as the kids call it, “Thumper”!! Lol! 

Phew, what a whirlwind!! And as the wife watching from the outside, you just don’t know what you could be walking into when you finally get to the hospital. It’s a terrifying feeling. But isn’t the Lord so good that when we are scared out of our minds, we can turn to Him and He will comfort us. Maybe sometime I’ll share what that looks like for me, what I do to center my eyes on Christ and not the scary thoughts that can so easily consume me. 

Thankfully, he is stable and in good spirits! 🙌🏽 Next step (either transferred there now or scheduled outpatient in the next week or so) will be for Jake to meet the transplant team at the neighboring hospital where his surgery will be performed. We are getting conflicting info on if he’s been approved to be listed for the transplant or not, so we are waiting on some clarification on that. Chances are, unless he gets considerably more VT in the near future, he will be listed as a lower priority at first. We’ve been saying it since day 1  and will just keep saying it – we trust in God’s perfect timing! 

There you have it, the longest post so far 😅 Fist bump to you if you made it the whole way lol and, again, thank you for being here 🩵 For lifting us up in prayer, the calls, the texts, and the general encouragement. We appreciate it ALL more than you know! 

– Jake and Brie