Getting back on my feet

Wow, it's almost the end of September.  What a busy month.   I've said goodbye to the heart monitor, goodbye to all medications, goodbye to a ten pound lifting limit, hello to driving my car again and prayerfully hello to some part time work back at the radio station.  I've also been able to get quite a bit of work done at my house getting prepared for fall.  With all your prayers and support, I feel God has me on a fast track to full recovery.  Thank you all.

With Love,
Aaron

More Progress

Here is the latest after another long (but better) month.  Went to the doctor yesterday and finally got the staples removed from the second surgery.  The second tumor I am told was a little more aggressive than the first, but was also benign, no cancer, praise the Lord!!!  I still have to wear the heart monitor for a few more days, but I'm off any steroids (boy has that made a difference) and have begun the process of weening myself off the anti-seizure medicine, another PTL!!!  I am really looking forward now to getting back into my house as well as moving onward in my life.  Thank you for all of your prayers and support. 

Love to all,
Aaron

Home recovering...with a heart monitor....

I brought Aaron home from the hospital today, and he is doing very well.  Can you believe he had 2 major brain surgeries, the 2nd one just 4 days ago (Thursday).  I am reminded of the words to the song, He ain't heavy, he's my brother..." the road is long with many a winding turn......"  My band of many years ago sang this song often.  Yes, the road is winding and long... BUT you don't have to be on that road all by yourself.  The Lord Jesus-Yeshua, King, Creator of heaven and earth is willing to walk right along side of you.  He alone will give us strength for the journey.  So as you pray for Aaron's continued recovery please also pray that his heart is OK.  While in the hospital Aaron's heart would periodically beat very fast, known as tachycardia.  He has to wear a heart monitor for 30 days.  This device records his heart rate and is transferred to the Dr..  We will make an appointment with the cardiologist in 6 weeks to see if it has returned to normal.  Of course as you can imagine he was a bit discouraged to have to be tethered to this device, but again it is part of the journey.  The Dr wanted Aaron to start on a beta blocker but Dr. "FRED" (his father) convinced the Dr. to forgo the blocker for now and just wait for the initial results.  Apparently my appeal made a lot of sense.  Why use a blocker to "mask" the problem and then record the results.  Scary isn't it!!! I have a feeling Dr. Jesus has something to do with this (isn't he amazing).  WOW!  I can't wait until the heavens introduce the ONLY Lord of Lords and King of Kings.  It will be awesome.  Thanks so much for your prayers.  Please pray that his healing continues without any issues such as infection, seizures, pain, swelling. I will keep you posted. 

Love to all,
Fred, Donna, Aaron and the entire family.

Thank you Jesus. Praise to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

It's 2:56PM and we just spoke to Dr Adamo about 10 minutes ago. EVERYTHING we prayed for has been granted. They were able to remove the entire tumor. Remarkably this operation was shorter than the previous operation.  This was not expected.  The Dr. initially anticipated that this operation was going to be an hour to two hours longer.  Also, the tumor was not vascular and preliminary reports are that it is benign. This is fantastic news!  Donna and I will get to see our son in about an hour. The next 36 hours are critical as his brain was quite compressed from the tumor.  Due to the compression from the tumor there is an increased chance for seizures.  Please continue to pray for complete and total healing, no bleeding, no seizures, pray for Aaron's body, mind, and spirit.  They do need to give him steroids to control swelling so we really need to pray they don't cause him to have any type of confusion or psych episodes.

Thanks to all our brothers and sisters for your prayer support and love during this time of trial.  You may never know how you have upheld and continue to uphold our arms.

Love, Fred, Donna, Elizabeth, Aaron, Jordan, Jennifer and Nathan

Believing and trusting for God's provision

Yesterday the family spent some time enjoying the day.  We went to Saratoga, walked the streets and enjoyed the sun.  The picture is at Mrs London's...mmmmmmmmmm   great food and desert!  Great friends too!  Thanks Kim.  Elizabeth is in today so we are all together.  The hospital called and we need to have Aaron in pre-op at 7AM tomorrow morning (Thursday).  As you can imagine we are very excited to get Aaron through this operation, but of course we are also very concerned as this is a very serious operation.  We continue to trust that God will bring Aaron through triumphantly.  It will be good to be together with all our kids as we pray, hug, support and ask God to do a great work in Aaron.  Please pray that they are able to get the entire tumor, that the tumor is benign and there is no bleeding.  Pray that the tumor is not vascular and there will be no trauma to Aaron's brain.  Thank you so much for your love and support for Aaron and our entire family. 

Trusting and waiting patiently.

It's been an extremely busy week and Aaron is doing very well.  Aaron has been keeping himself quite busy around the house here and also doing some cleaning up at his home in Mechanicville.  He has expressed that he is really looking forward to moving on with his life.  Living in his home, finding a new job.  Aaron is so grateful for those who have dropped a note in the mail, or stopped by to say hi.  Some have even sent financial support.  What a blessing!  We are now focused on August 4th for Aaron's 2nd operation.  On Monday, I will pick up Nathan at the Greyhound bus station in Albany and then shoot over to the Albany Airport to get Jennifer and Jordan who will be arriving from Rockford, IL.  Elizabeth will be arriving on Wednesday via bus from NYC.  Life is ironic.  This is the very week that we were all going to get together at my Sister-in-Law's beach house in beautiful Bethany Beach for a week of sun and pleasure. Grandma Fisher (Donna's mom) was going to be there as well.  Today is also our 34th wedding anniversary.  It's a stark reminder that our "tomorrows" are in God's hands.  Oh, how wonderful heaven will be when all sorrow, tears, fears and uncertainty will be no more.  Dear friend, neighbor, family member,  are you "assured" of that promise?  If you were to die today what assurance would you have that the Great GOD of heaven would say, "enter into the joy of the Lord".  If you have ANY answer other than, by the blood of Jesus and no more, than you may miss heaven.  "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and not of yourselves it is the gift of GOD, not of works less any man should boast".  Ephesians 2:7-9. 
Please continue to pray and ask our Great God to have this 2nd operation be a total success.  To remove the tumor completely, that it would be benign and that there would be no brain involvement.
Jennifer has been faithfully sending us a daily devotion.  I have included the one below. Enjoy,
Love, Fred, Donna, Elizabeth, Aaron, Jennifer, Jordan and Nathan

(Jennifer's devotion)

It's raining again.  We went from being dry, incredibly humid, grass browning, concerned farmers, a period of drought - to an overabundance of rain.  This whole time I was rejoicing in the downpour, until I realized that it was too much.  We've hit records in Chicago for July rainfall, the same month we were experiencing a drought.  Flash flood warnings are prominent across the region.  I am simply struck by it all.  When we had sunshine, we needed rain.  Now that we have rain, we need sunshine.  We can pray for sunshine, but do we really know how much we need?  We can pray for rain, but is it possible that we think we should receive so much that it actually does more harm than good?  Perhaps that's how it is in our prayer life.  We pray and pray and pray for something, but often times what we think we need really isn't what we need at all.  Or we think we need an abundance of something, but it would actually become an overabundance... a drought instead of sunshine or a flood instead of rainfall.  Really it comes down to this.  God knows exactly how much rainfall is needed to feed the grass, but will keep the rivers within their trenches.  He knows exactly how much sunshine is needed to nourish the gardens, but will keep their leaves from being scorched.  So we can only trust that his perfect will knows that the next steps from here on out will be dusted with just enough sunshine, and nurtured with just enough rain.  In other words, his way is perfect.  Though he is gracious to receive our specific requests, may our hearts be willing to pray for what he desires.  After all, he is God.

The LORD will guide you always;
   he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
   and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden, 

   like a spring whose waters never fail.

Isaiah 58:11 

   

The calm

What a beautiful evening as I sit on the back deck. The birds have quieted somewhat for the evening. They will begin their praises once again tomorrow morning. Aaron is in the workshop, working on one of his models. By God's unfailing grace and glorious hand Aaron is doing very well. Our initial expectation was that Aaron would return to a pre-op state. That is, he would be somewhat distant and not able to carry out fluid conversations. Surprisingly Aaron has returned closer to normal. What a pleasure to sit, pray, chat and interact with our boy. It so happens that all of our children will be in for the 2nd operation. This wil be a precious time for our family to be together and seek the Lord on Aaron's behalf. Please continue to pray, the family cannot express enough our many thanks for your continued support. A couple of folks stopped over with well wishing and special treats. How refreshing!

All our love,

Fred, Donna, Elizabeth, Aaron, Jennifer, Jordan and Nathan