Please Pray!

Last night I found out that a friend of mine is in the hospital. I had known she had a flare up with her Crohn's disease so I figured it was related to that....well, it was, but I was SHOCKED to find out she had had a stroke! What?! I did a double take when I heard it. Here is the email from her mother explaining it.

It's 3:00 am ,I just got home, and have to be back @ work in 3 hours, so this will be somewhat brief...please pass this email to the prayer chain and our Sunday School class...

Please pray for Lauren, our 17 year old. She had a seizure this afternoon which we learned this evening was the result of a stroke which the doctors believe was related to her Crohn's flare up last month. There is almost no blood flow going to the entire left side of her brain due to the very large clot that is forming. It is imperative to treat the clot before severe damage is done. The standard treatment for this is a "blood thinner". Making the situation even more critical is the fact that "blood thinners" and Crohn's disease are not a good mix...especially when the person is still recovering from a flare up as Lauren is. They will have to monitor her digestive system just as closely as her brain.

She will have a blood transfusion early in the morning due to her hemoglobin being 6.5 (a lingering and worsening result of her flare up). There are risks associated with giving blood as well since they are trying to "thin" the blood. So she is somewhat trapped in a very dangerous cycle right now, and she is being very closely monitored (they will be waking her up every hour to assess her).

The upside to all of this is that she is considerably stable. After her seizure she was very disoriented and confused for a couple hours. However, by the time I left her side tonight, she was "appropriate" (as we refer to it in the medical field). She looks and acts "normal" for the most part. She still looks puny as she recovers from her flare up, but otherwise she seems fine. The neurologist is amazed at the fact that she is so normal neurologically given the significant size of the clot...we know Who gets the credit for that! I never thought I'd be thankful for a seizure, but I have foudn that the Lord was gracious enough to send us one to give us a heads up!

Thank you in advance for your prayers for Lauren and her family!