please pray

please pray for our friend JR. he was in an accident and needs surgery today. here's a post from his wife, Tricia.

Please Pray

Ok, I have a big prayer request. Sunday afternoon JR was helping change the brakes on his dad's van. He was using a pair of needle nose pliers to try and stretch a spring into place. He was using all his strength to try and do this. However, the pliers slipped off of the spring and ended up going into his eye. After a trip to the ER in an ambulance, the ER Docs sent us home saying it was just a bad scratch. We went to see the specialist today and he was very concerned. He said that the pliers actually went into his eye and left a hole. There was fluid leaking out of his eye, which obviously is not a good thing. To top that off, you can imagine how dirty the pliers were since they were working on a car. When he went into his eye, somehow it left his eye cut in layers and there is all kinds of dirt and junk in his eye.

The Dr. told us to immediately go to Ann Arbor to have surgery to fix his eye. We were shocked. We had no idea it was so bad. So, we called my parents and they picked the kids up from school early and brought them to our house so we could say goodbye to them while we packed up.

We made it to Ann Arbor and thankfully the leaking in JR's eye had slowed enough that the Dr. wanted to wait until tomorrow morning to do the surgery. If he would have done it tonight, he would have been working with people other than his normal staff, and in an operating room other than his. He felt comfortable enough to wait just so he could have his own room and people to do the surgery. So, we actually ended up coming home for the night so we could sleep well and because we don't have to be back to the hospital until 11:00am tomorrow morning.

So, if you could pray for JR tomorrow at noon, I would appreciate it! Here's the biggest scare. If he gets an infection in his eye, he will lose his sight. The problem is that the surgery itself is risky because it can cause infection. But leaving all the junk in his eye, and leaving the hole open is an even greater risk.

We do feel very fortunate though because all of this damage occured below his sight of vision. If it would have been higher even by a few millimeters, he would have lose his sight immediately. God has been so good! All the doctors kept saying to us was how lucky JR was that the puncture happened where it did. We are definitely praising God for that! JR actually has a very good attitude about the whole thing. He knows the risk of the surgery tomorrow, but he isn't worried. He knows that it is out of his hands and that he can't control what happens. His words tonight were, "even if I still lose sight in my one eye, I still have Jesus. That's all that matters." I am so thankful for his attitude and I am trying to have the same attitude. This could have been so much worse. We are just thankful the pliers went in where they did.

I hope this post makes sense. My mind is completely a blur right now and I don't even know if I am putting two complete thoughts together. I will try and post tomorrow night and let everyone know how the surgery went.

Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Tricia