Medical Update #3

Sorry for the delay in updates, but I haven’t really been feeling hot the past few days and so it has really just slipped my mind about updating all of you.

First of all we are so thankful for all of you who have been praying for us and the doctors, those of you who have offered to bring us meals and offer rides, etc. You all are truly a blessing to us. We have truly felt and been blessed by your prayers!

So last Monday we headed back to the neurologist for my EEG test. This test was to last 48 hours and I would have about 25 electrodes attached to my head monitoring and recording brain waves, activity, etc. Apparently your brain can be firing and you can be having a seizure, but have no outward symptoms. I didn’t realize the wide spectrum of possibilities when it came to seizures, epilepsy, etc.

I sat in the chair for about an hour while he literally glued these things to my head, then they ran me through a short series of tests. They got baseline states of me resting, then I had to hyperventilate myself and then they flashed a strobe in my face for a couple of minutes which was pretty intense. After that we left with all the wires coming out of my head and a little pack which I had to wear around my neck for the next 48 hours. It wasn’t too bad, just mildly inconvenient. It’s hard to sleep with all that on!

 

 

On Wednesday morning, we went back and they took all of it off my head, except the glue…that was a present I got to keep and work out of my hair for a couple of days. They will either call if there is something significant or I will find the results at our follow up in June.

Then I moved to get ready for the MRI. The first time in all of this that I began to feel anxious. I don’t know why either, because I wasn’t anxious about what they would find…I have had an peace about all that, but more anxious about the test itself. I have only heard all the stories about MRIs…the banging loud noises, the fact that it’s so small in there. Then you read the disclaimer and that will make anyone want to opt out. But it was just a sweet time for me that morning to pray and comfort myself with Truth.

I went into the MRI machine and yes, it was tight (I am a big boy, but it would be tight or anyone), but I got to listen to praise & worship music while I was in there so that gave me something to listen to and think about the whole time I was in there. I was in there for about 40 minutes, but it went by really quickly. As of right now, unless something changes we have a follow up appointment with the nuero on June 15th. (I know…that’s a long time to wait)

After that I was pretty exhausted, we had been there since about 9:30 that morning and it was after 1-1:30. So we headed home.

One of my close friends was visiting this past week, so he was headed over to pick me up…I kind of like being chauffeured around. (I really don’t, I miss driving) Right before he got here I got an email from the neurologists office. I will admit, my stomach sank a little. I had to go through the annoying process of logging into the Patient website, trying to figure out/ remember my password. It took me about 20 minutes. When I finally logged in I saw some great news: “Mr. Jackett, your MRI results were normal!”

Praise God!

We are very thankful for this, but there is also the frustration that we know something is wrong and we just don’t know what it is.

I have an appt with a Cardiologist today, so we would appreciate your prayers there. I have the appointment first thing then they will do an echocardiogram (sonogram of my heart) to see if there is anything there that might be wrong.

Thanks for keeping up with us and I will try and keep everyone posted more often!

-David & Jen

Medical Update #2

Medical Update #1

Well, up until Thursday the past 3 months I have been feeling great, but I guess we spoke to soon!

Last Thursday I had just picked up a friend from work and we were headed to grab lunch. While we were driving I started feeling nauseous and hot. After a few seconds I started to feel like I might vomit so I pulled the car over, stopped it and laid back. My buddy asked me what was wrong and I told him I didn’t feel good. That was the last thing I remember until waking up a minute or so later. When I came to he was talking to me trying to get me to respond. When I finally became aware of what was going on, he told me I had a seizure. I couldn’t believe it.

He drove me back to his house where I was able to shower and change. I called Jen and told her what had happened and go a hold of some good friends of ours from church and they were able to come pick me up and take me to the ER to get checked out.

They did the typical tests: CT Scan and blood work and EKG and all those came back normal.

While I was waiting on the results Jen and her dad had shown up. Luckily he was able to drive her over.
I was at the hospital for about 5 hours before being released and encouraged to follow up with a neurologist.

We have a scheduled appointment with the neuro on Monday @ 10:30am. So we would appreciate your prayers for us and the doctors!

Thanks for all the emails, calls, texts, and more importantly the prayers!

2011: A Year of (Mega) Firsts

For anyone that knows us or has gotten to know us over the past year, they will certainly know that our lives have been consumed by “firsts” in 2011. Let me summarize:

1. Married 4-8 in Austin, Texas. Marriage is accompanied by many, many, firsts!
2. Our first trip as a married couple and David’s first trip to Napa Valley 4-10, followed by Denver (my first time to see U2) and Crested Butte
3. Our first home together – Archstone Park Cities in Dallas – late April
4. We began Apartment Life at our apartment complex (late April)
5. Jackett Photography gets off the ground
6. Learning my first “dead” language – Greek!
7. Start hosting Secret Church meetings at our apartment (monthly)
8. I quit my corporate job to become a full-time student at Redeemer Seminary (September)
9. David leads his first I Am Second: Firefighters Fort Worth meeting

Most newlyweds would have a ton of small firsts to fill up this list- i.e. Our first Christmas! Our first ice cream cone together! This is NOT that list Whew! I limited myself to 10 because I think it is unfair to go into the nitty gritty with you. But those are the biggies. This list definitely exposes our ambition! This is what happens when you put 2 highly ambitious people together in marriage. Ha.

All of this change has brought a lot of joy into my life. I love being married; it is fun to dream together (and these 2 can dream!). It is fun to travel together, serve alongside one another, go on shoots together, talk about theological things together, encourage one another when as individuals, we cannot see the light. Joy has also been found in unexpected places in marriage – the way God uses David to expose my selfishness, my fear, misplaced idols assures me that He knows me and wants to purify me. This will hurt. He sees the evil in my heart, even when I am blind to it, and He is desperate to help me to see it too. I have experienced this sanctification prior to marriage through deep, godly friendships, but you experience it on a new level altogether in marriage. I am thankful. God has given me a godly, self-sacrificing husband that loves me deeply, provides for me substantially, serves me day in and day out and wants the best for me. I am blown away by God’s grace to me in this way.

It has been a joy to serve as a CARES team at our complex. We have developed many deep friendships with people here and we love having the opportunities to serve our neighbors. If you want to hear more about our time here, please ask!

It has been a joy for my husband to allow me to quit my corporate job and pursue Seminary as a full time student. My heart has been filled with gratitude day after day as I think about God’s grace in my life to allow this change to happen. This is something I have dreamed about for many years, but honestly, did not think it would ever become a reality. Thankfully, we serve a God that does far beyond what we expect or imagine (Ephesians 3:20)! Seminary has been challenging on many spiritual and intellectual levels, but I believe wholeheartedly that studying the Word of God will produce much fruit in this season and the seasons to come.

Now, on to 2012…

There is a part of me that longs for more stability in 2012. Phew, I said it out loud. I voiced this desire to a pastor at our church, and he said “Jen, you will be waiting until you die for stability. You will only experience the stability you want when you get to heaven.” Ultimately, that is rooted in a desire to know as God knows and therefore, be able to live without full dependence on God. This is the very sin that led Eve astray in the garden, and it is the sin that continues to knock at the door of my heart often. I have been encouraged by something that Paul Tripp said in one of my classes:

Rest is not found in knowing, rest is found in trust.

Even if I knew everything that the new year will bring, the knowledge would not bring rest to my soul. Only trusting the sovereign hand of a loving God will. This brings so much more comfort than knowing what is ahead! In fact, if I did know, I would probably be paralyzed by coming up with ways to prepare myself. How can there be joy in that?

One of my “new year’s resolutions” is to blog more about what I am learning in seminary…so hopefully you will hear more from me soon!

Cheers to 2012!

I Am Second Firefighters

Secret Church Meeting at our apartment!

Trip to Fort Walton Beach/Destin!

 

Denver trip for the U2 concert!

Dinner with some of our new friends at the apartment!

Newlyweds! Austin, Texas April 8, 2011

Happy New Year!!

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What is a vet?

By Father Dennis Edward O’Brien, USMC

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.  Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul’s ally forged in the refinery of adversity.  Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.  You can’t tell a vet just by looking.

So…what is a Vet?

He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the38th parallel.

She or he is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another or didn’t come back AT ALL.

He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat, but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other’s backs.

He is the parade riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb of the Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket-palsied now and aggravatingly slows who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being, a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say,“THANK YOU.”  That’s all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Two little words mean a lot, “THANK YOU.”

Just remember:

“It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. 

It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.”

My First Lesson in Seminary: Seeing the Giver Rightly

The first thing I have learned in seminary came in an unexpected form. I have not yet memorized the Greek alphabet (although it is my homework assignment for the weekend), but instead, God has reminded me of His free gift to me, His character and of my inability to understand those simple, yet lofty ideas.

Let me explain. While David and I were engaged, he approached me one night with the opportunity to leave my job and pursue seminary full time. Being the nerd that I am, going back to school for the purposes of knowing God more deeply has been a dream for me, a dream that I would not allow myself to dwell on too deeply, in fear that it would remain that, a dream. David went on and on about how it would be a joy for him to be able to do this for me, that he would love to see this dream realized, that he would not consider it a sacrifice to allow me the freedom to pursue this passion like I had never been able to before.

The initial response in my heart: “What’s the catch?” I don’t “need” seminary to do ministry, it will place us in a tighter spot financially, etc. Ultimately, my question was, how does he think the benefits of this will outweigh the potential costs? I reminded myself that his character is gracious, loving and sacrificial: wanting my best and always looking for ways to put me first. I rehearsed what he had said, how it would give him great joy to allow me to walk forward in this, how he wanted to do it for my good and my joy, that is was no sacrifice for him at all.

Fast forward to a few days ago. This week has been my first week in school and I have only had 1 class for 2 hours on Tuesday and Thursday. That has left Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday, Thursday afternoon and Friday free. Free time in the middle of the day for a newly ex-corporate person is…different.

I caught myself trying to justify earning David’s free gift by making sure I used my time to run our errands, pick up our house, call the doctors, clean the dishes. I caught myself believing that David had given the gift for his own sake, for me to have more free time to be a better non-corporate wife, for me to run errands so we wouldn’t have to when he gets home. That could not be further from the truth. He had to remind me that he has no expectations of any “return” on the gift, but that instead, his deepest desire is to see me enjoying it.

After the conversation, I immediately saw the parallel between this gift and the gift we have been given in Christ. I am easily deceived regarding the character and motive of the giver. Have I seen Christ as someone waiting on a return from His gift, waiting for me to pay the debt that I owe? Or have I seen Christ as one that is so full of joy and love, that the overflow of His love results in the free gift, and there is nothing to repay. His intention behind giving us this gift is not for it to be repaid or to prove myself worthy by doing great things in His name, but for it to be enjoyed and cherished, thought, sung and talked about. This worship results in what Christ is truly after, not our reluctant obedience or attempts to pay back our debt, but the glory of God in Christ. The fact that the gift of redemption cannot be paid points to the beauty of Christ’s loving motive.

He is gracious, loving, patient and full of joy in the sacrifice He made for us. Do we see the giver rightly?