Prayer Request

To all my faithful blogger prayer warriors...

My dad fell on Sunday off a ladder at home and shattered his left elbow. You may be thinking, well broken arm (although painful) will heal with time. In most cases, yes, that would be the case. However, the doctors have said that this is the worst bone you can break (other than your back and being paralyzed). The elbow is the most complicated joint in the body. He went today to Texas Orthopedic Hospital in Houston and the doctors said that it was not good at all. He will more than likely have to have an artificial elbow put in. My mom initially told the doctors that she was really glad that he didn't break a hip or knee. The doctor said that actually, that would be better and they wish he had. They said that they only like to do this surgery on 75 year old women who sit in the rocking chair and knit all day. Not a 61 year old healthy man like my dad. The medical field has made great strides in artificial hips and knees, but not so much when it comes to the elbow because of it's complicity. They said that there is a small chance that they can rebuild the broken bones, but they could see at least 7 broken pieces and that it was unlikely. The most devastating thing with this type of break is that dad will no longer be able to lift more than 5 lbs with his left arm ever again. The doctor said that the only thing he will be able to do basically is button his pants and eat with his left arm for the rest of his life. This is a very disheartening thing to hear at 61 for my dad. It will affect everything he does. He loves to work in the yard, landscaping, transplanting plants, raking, etc. all the time - this is his hobby, and he will not be able to do this anymore the way he is used to. The bigger heartbreaker is that he will never be able to just pick up his grandchildren anymore. Don't get me wrong, we are very glad that it wasn't worse and that it wasn't his dominate arm, but it's a life changing injury. It will affect his professional and personal life - forever. This is a hard pill to swallow for him. He will not be able to travel until January, which is also hard on his job as he pretty much travels on a weekly basis to train sales force in his company nationwide. His surgery is scheduled for next Wednesday.

Please pray for my dad...
-for healing in his arm
-for peace and comfort
-for his pain level (he is in a lot of pain as you can imagine!)
-for the surgery next week
-for job security
-for his continued faith and trust in God to take care of him.

Thank you in advance for reading this long post and for your prayers. They mean so much. God bless you!