Update #6: 9Sep 9:50pm

We continue to reap the fruit sown in prayer.

The ophthamologist came by this afternoon and evaluated her vision.  They’ve been waiting for the extubation so they can talk to her and hear her read various lines of numbers.  

The Good News: she is 20/20 in the right eye (that’s VERY GOOD NEWS AND CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION!)

The Not-so-Good News: the muscles of ocular motion and lid lifting are not working correctly —and she has double vision.  He hopes that as the brain heals and the blood around the brain is cleared and the third cranial nerve is freed up or less irritated that this might resolve.  If not, there are options that include patching and surgery which could help the situation.  This is likely to require months to sort out.  We will be following up closely as outpatients in the University Eye Center.

From Jennifer’s perspective, the other big win of the day is getting rid of the stiff and uncomfortable cervical spine collar.  She feels so much better without it.

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I want to step back and make a couple of comments about the situation in which we find ourselves.

Many of you might know that my father had a similar accident (over-the-handlebars traumatic brain injury) while in his 70s.  He was riding at high speed on the coastal trail in Northern California.  He never fully recovered.  He, too, had a brain bleed (different type) and his injury ultimately snowballed into other complications.  So the brain bleed from a bicycle injury…I’m having a little PTSD experience.

The other memory which has been stirred up is from two years ago when Jennifer’s best friend from childhood, Robin Ida, died from a subarachnoid hemorrhage at age 59.  That hits pretty close to home too. 

Two horrible outcomes from brain bleeds among those we have loved dearly.  These memories have made it difficult to process Jennifer’s accident for me.  After reading a note from Robin’s brother, Matthew, today, I went back to read the blog about Robin and her death.

From the late 60's to the 80's Robin gave me her grit and her smile; from the 80's to now it has been Scott. Losing Robin makes every birthday a wonder. Objectively, Scott has nearly died multiple times but here we are. This year has been one of the hardest ever, wresting Christ School from the brink of demise, moving away from the slightly more do-able comforts of near-Nairobi to the decidedly more tiring life of the Uganda-Congo border. I know Robin's family needs her just as much as our family and community need Scott. It's not fair. God's mercy is an inscrutable tangle that I cannot justify and explain.

While we cannot see ahead far enough to know that Jennifer is going to achieve a restoration to full health, I think we can say that she is not going to die from her injury.  That is an answer to the prayers of an army of family, friends, and colleagues.  But it again begs the question of why some die and others don’t.  Jennifer’s reflection so poetically prods here.  Inscrutable.  Mysterious. Inexplicable. Tangled.  God’s mercy.

My father’s final years were a muddle of confusion.  Robin was snatched away from her family without warning or lenience. We live in a broken world riddled with injustice, loss, and suffering.  What sense can we make of this inscrutable tangle? We need only this..

Be still and know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth.

The Lord of hosts is with us, 

The God of Jacob is our fortress.

-Psalm 46