#prayforbobbyray

:) Easter 2009

For those of you who don't know, Bobby Ray is my dad...just a little term of endearment :).

And for others of you who are kind of confused, he's sick. Like really sick.

If you know my father, you know that he never quits. EVER. Even when he feels bad or not 100 percent - which is unfortunately more often than not (and he would ABSOLUTELY DIE if he knew I just said that) - he just refuses to slow down.

But the weekend before last (September 2-4), he started feeling pretty bad. Finally on Sunday, after church, he finally admitted to my mom that he thought he was getting sick, maybe coming down with the flu. That afternoon, he went to bed.

He hasn't been up much since.

By Wednesday, he was finally willing to go to the doctor. He had essentially been in bed for over 48 hours straight, and was suffering from an excruciating headache that would not let up, a high fever that could not be broken, body ache and stiffness, and nausea among a few other things. He had even told my mom he felt like his body had been poisoned. Unfortunately, the doctor couldn't really tell him anything and only prescribed him some amoxicillin. We knew that wasn't going to cut it.

Thursday rolled around, and he was only getting worse. Unable to sleep, he was past miserable. He finally said to my mom, "We're going to have to do something." Around 1:00 PM, my mom got him up enough to get him ready and drove him down to Vandy, to the ER.

Thankfully though, my mom had been doing a little research, trying to figure out what might be going on with him. Her conclusion: LEPTOSPIROSIS.

You're probably wondering, "What the crap is that?!"...naturally. Leptospirosis is a "rare and severe bacterial infection" that can be passed from animals to humans.

About 2 weeks prior to my dad starting to feel like death, he had to go under our house and tear out our insulation and duct work. Skunks...yes, skunks, had gotten under our house and reeked havoc. We have had skunk problems over the past couple of years, but we didn't realize how bad the damage was underneath our house. It took him 2 days -16 hours - to clean it all out, and while under there he encountered and had to clean up some pretty NASTY stuff.

We were certain my dad had leptospirosis and had gotten it from cleaning out under our house.

At the ER, they did a head scan because of some other issues he had been having, and a spinal tap to make sure he did not have meningitis (leptospirosis, if left untreated can turn into meningitis, liver failure, kidney failure, etc). Thankfully the head scan came back clear, and his spinal tap did not show that he had meningitis! So after 11 hours, 4 shots, 1 IV of antibiotics, some pain medication, and a fairly sure diagnosis of leptospirosis, Mom and Dad were able to come home.

Dad was right when he said he felt like his body had been poisoned. It had. Thankfully, he had been diagnosed and was given medicine to treat the infection. Unfortunately, this kind of illness does not just go away in a couple days.

The doctors told him that it would be 2 weeks until he would be able to really see any sort of improvement, and I'm thinking at least a couple more than that until he really starts to feel himself again. So until then, he is still in bed fighting a high fever, a horrible headache, body ache, the chills, nausea, etc. He still is unable to really sleep at night because he feels so bad. He's miserable, and it breaks my heart.

So pray. Pray that the medicine they're giving him is working. Pray for a relief from his pain, fever, and sleeplessness. Just pray for healing and wellness...that maybe it will not take as long as the doctors are saying.

He says he has never been this sick in his life, and we all hate seeing him like this.

Thank you for your prayers thus far, your words of encouragement, and just the love that you have shown and communicated to him, and to all of us. I know he, and we, appreciate it! #prayforbobbyray