ZACH'S
HEALING
Forwarded By: Ken & Nancy
Myers
The following is a praise report our daughter
Lynnae sent today after Zach's (her son's) surgery. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR
YOUR PRAYERS ON HIS BEHALF AND PRAISE GOD WITH US!
I feel like I am living in a dream. Tonight, I
am not supposed to be home sending you all an email. I am supposed to be at
Children's Hospital with my 13 year old boy that just had surgery. A
huge "thank you" from the Hicks family. Always remember--God is Faithful. God
does care. Whether we see it with these eyes or not......God is Faithful.
It's a book.....but, hey....hope you have time
to experience it for yourself......
In August 2006, when we learned of the
cholesteatoma (benign tumor) behind Zach's right ear drum, and the horrible
infection that it caused, we were pretty devastated. What a nightmare we
lived through. Zach was "closer to death than you probably knew" as Dr.
Dornhoffer stated today. (lol....no, we knew what we were facing. ) Zach
was in the hospital all week in August fighting the raging infection that
threatened to take him. Since then, we have been awaiting the day that we
would have to take Zach back to Children's Hospital (thank GOD for Children's
Hospital!) to have the second surgery to remove the cholesteatoma.
Zach had a hearing test done after his first
surgery had healed, and it showed a large amount of hearing loss, created by
the cholesteatoma's destruction of two of the inner ear bones (the anvil and
the hammer). Dr. Dornhoffer's plans were to go back in the ear today and
remove the cholesteatoma, and the two bones it had destroyed. He was going to
replace the bones with bones he had constructed out of cartilidge, which is a
procedure named after him. He does thousands of cholesteatoma surgeries.
Literally.
A month ago, we had an evangelist traveling
through that had a gift of healing, through the gift of knowledge. The second
illness he called out was a problem with someone's inner ear. I about jumped
off my seat. Zach quickly raised his hand high, with no prompting from
his parents! By the time I had the opportunity to look down the row to
say "raise your hand," it was up! The Brother came to the seat, asked Zach
what his problem was, and prayed for Zach. The word of knowledge came to him
of another problem Zach was having about having some periods of hot flashes;
Zach nodded a firm "yes!" Nothing was evident that evening that the Lord had
touched Zach with His Almighty healing hand.
The next morning, however, Zach woke up, and
stated that he could hear VERY well out of his right ear. This was the ear up
until now that he couldn't hear the alarm in the classroom go off for
breaktime (clock radio alarm at the front of the classroom--Zach sits in the
back). I stood behind him, had him plug his left ear, and whispered
as quietly as I could behind him, asking him several questions, and he
answered every one of them. We knew then that something had happened; we just
didn't know what.
This week came, and I spoke with Dr.
Dornhoffer's nurse to explain the difference in his hearing from the night of
the service at church. She explained that she understood this, however, this
could have been from the cholesteatoma growing into the earbones and therefore
conducting the vibration the ear needed to hear. This could actually be a
bad sign! She spoke with Dr. Dornhoffer, and they both agreed that the
surgery should proceed.
This morning we spoke with Dr. Dornhoffer before
surgery, and he explained the surgery. Because of the severity of the
infection that Zach had in August, 2 of the bones were visibly eroded on CT
scan. These two bones would need to be replaced. Because he expected a hard
time removing the cholesteatoma (remember, he has done thousands of these
surgeries), the surgery was expected to take at least two hours, including the
replacement of two of the bones. We would need to expect to stay overnight.
We would need to make a six week post-op appt. We would need to make a three
month, six month and 12 month appointment, as we would need to watch this
cholesteatoma closely, to see if it regrew, and surgically remove any
re-growth. We would have to get a CT scan again in a year to check for
re-growth. If any cholesteatoma cells are left in the ear, this thing regrows,
and causes more infections.
Once again, we talked to Dr. Dornhoffer
face-to-face about the service we had, and the fact that it was night and day
difference in the hearing from one day to the next. He was very kind, not
brutal, but reiterated the fact that the increased hearing could be due to the
growth of the cholesteatoma. However, if the bones didn't need to be
replaced, he would not be replacing them. We knew that he would do whatever
was right once he got in and looked around in there.
At 9:30, the surgery was begun. At 10:30, Dr.
Dornhoffer was at my side. I blinked a couple of times making sure it was
actually him sitting next to me. The first words out of his mouth were, "All
I can say is, you better not stop attending those revivals." He got into
the ear, and when he went to remove the chosteatoma, it just "popped right
out like a pea being shelled from the pod." The bones looked great--only one
small area that showed any erosion, but that was on the back side of the bone
and shouldn't be a problem. "This was my only procedure I scheduled for the
morning because I thought it was going to take me all morning. I had to
look at the OR staff and say, 'I don't know what to tell you.' " He went on
to say "I am a believer, but I am skeptical a lot of times when people talk
about healing." I'm sure lots of times he has seen opposite---that he does
need to go ahead and do the complete surgery. This time, however, things were
different.) Once again he said "just keep going to those revivals".
Ah, yes, the Lord's hand had, in fact,
touched Zach's ear as we had expected. The surgery time? One hour. From
start to finish. No two hour surgery. Furthermore, Dr. Dornhoffer said "I
don't need to do a CT scan in a year. Zach can go home tonight rather than
staying here, and he can go to school on Monday. To rate this surgery on a
scale of 1 -10, with 10 being the worst case scenario, 1 being the easiest ...
this case rated a "1". PTL!!! Isn't that amazing?!?!
So, in the end, only the cholesteatoma was
removed, no ear bones having to be replaced, hearing suspected to be perfect
when the ear is healed, and the cholesteatoma is not expected to regrow.
THANK YOU LORD FOR YOUR MIRACULOUS POWER! Why
did God heal the bones and the hearing, but not the cholesteatoma? Don't
know. Don't care.
Lynnae
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