Urgent Prayer Request

{Note: Something happened to my last post, so I had to take it off.}

Please pray for my 84 year old grandmother, Virginia Hastings. Here's the story as best I know:

For the past couple of weeks her feet and legs have been swelling. Since then she's been going to the doctor often, and has been wearing knee highs and has kept her legs elevated much of the time at home. The heart specialist said she has congestive heart failure.

Last Tues., she went to the doctor, and nothing seemed different. Then on Thursday evening she took a shower, and just happened to decide to weigh herself on the bathroom scales. Normally she weighs 95-100 pounds, but on Thurs. she weighed 120 pounds! And all of the extra stuff was in her legs and feet. My dad immediately took her to the Austin Heart Hospital that night (about an hour from our house and Granny lives right across the street from us). After doing tests they realized that her oxygen was extremely low. People are supposed to have an oxygen level at 92 or above. When she entered the hospital, she was at 57.

She was immediately hooked up to oxygen. Her blood was also very thin so they gave her blood products. It has the same danger that a blood transfusion does (such as transferring diseases like AID's) though nothing is too likely. The doctor did a cat scan, and found out that she has fluid in her lungs, partially collapsing them. That was the biggest danger because she could get pneumonia, and at her age...

On Sunday, the doctor said she wasn't receiving enough oxygen, so they moved her to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where they put a sealed face mask on her so she would receive more oxygen. Also, they gave her a bunch of laxatives so she would lose more fluid. At one point, she was losing fluid at a rate of 1 quart every 2 hours. Since then they've significantly slowed it down because she needs it to be more gradual.

Then this morning, the oxygen in her blood still was not increasing so they put her on a ventilator.

As far as the rest of the family, all I can say is that his promise stands true, "And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."~Phil. 4:19

One of my parents has to stay with her 24 hours a day, so please pray for them (and especially my dad) as they're under a lot of stress, worry, and just complete exhaustion because of the lack of sleep. Pat IV drove to Austin yesterday evening. Seeing the willingness of friends to help in whatever way needed makes me feel awestruck and extremely grateful.

At church yesterday, a friend of mine gave me a note with a verse on it. I know that it was a God send because I got it right when I needed it:

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4

~Christy