Harvell Medical Aid and Assistance.

We know God is our provider, but we also know that we can "have not because we ask not," and so we begin our gofundme journey.

Since October of 2013, we have been living on one income - my job as a hostess at a quick-service restaurant. My husband has not been able to return to work due to his ongoing headaches, stroke-like symptoms and right-side weakness.  Medical bills, co-pays, prescriptions, and other expenses have built up, and we are struggling to figure out how to pay these. We are also hoping to be approved for a specialist visit, which will likely require one to two days of missed work for me, gas funds, and possibly a hotel stay, depending on how far away the specialist is from our home.

Here is our story, based on facebook updates during this journey.

October, 2013
My amazing husband has been in the hospital since Monday night. Tonight, we both need to be lifted up in prayer. We need peace for our minds. Jason needs SLEEP... peaceful, restful, healing sleep. We need a miraculous healing for his migraine, which is imitating stroke symptoms. We need protection for our minds - protection from fear and depression...

13 days in the hospital. No medical insurance. We applied for charity care and received a substantial discount on the bill, but the totals are still enough to take your breath away.

March 22
My husband is back in the hospital. He was admitted this past Wednesday.. Please pray for a miracle, a healing, a treatment or a cure. He desperately needs relief. And he wants to go home.


We are learning each day to truly TRUST God. We know God is able to keep us from pain and trials... yet the lion's den was Daniel's bedroom for a night. The heat of the furnace flame was so intense that it burnt the binding from the 3 Hebrews. Abraham assembled knife, wood and fire for the sacrifice of his only son. Joseph rode a roller coaster to the fulfillment of his dreams... highs... lows... times where no one could have imagined the hand of God was upon him, and his own father thought he was dead. And so we join the ranks of those who know that God has a purpose, a plan, and a method. HIS method, though. Not ours.

Because I know people will ask, here are the bare bones:
Tuesday afternoon when I left work, Jason told me that he had regained consciousness face down on the floor in our apartment. He had been by himself, so we don't know exactly what happened. Fast forward. Next day at the doctor's office they were preparing hospital admissions for him when he had an episode that imitated a seizure (the neurologist said the brain was basically short circuiting from the pain). The dr office called 911 for transportation to the hospital. I followed the ambulance to the hospital, carrying my own prescription and a note for two days off work due to a severe respiratory infection (I'm beginning to perk up, today, thank God!).

Jason has been battling a constant migraine (labeled an "atypical complex complicated migraine") since September 30 of last year, when he was hospitalized for 13 days. Since that time, his constant headache pain levels are on par with or worse than the levels he experienced when he had a kidney stone, with huge spikes in the pain due to cluster headaches that he describes as feeling like someone is holding a hot poker in his right eye socket. These clusters occur anywhere from 6 to 12 times a day and can last as long as 40 minutes, unless we get oxygen for him right away to shorten them to maybe 10 to 20 minutes. His blood pressures and blood sugar have been off the charts over the past few months, due to the pain. He has not been able to return to work since September, and he misses being constantly active and useful to others at his job.

Neurologists say that these headaches will eventually go away on their own... but this is a REALLY long time to be in that much pain. They appear to have ruled out many things, such as stroke, heart issues, aneurysm, cancer. But the pain persists. And so we trust. There is talk of a trip to UVA for a consult sometime, but it has not yet been scheduled.

Please pray for us in this battle. Pray for our trust to be strengthened each day. Pray for our finances, as my hostess income is being strained to meet our bills. God is faithful, and He is our Provider. Pray for our sanity. Pray for good, kind staff here at the hospital. Pray that we will be patient with all the doctors, realizing they are humans, too. Pray that in this "be still" moment that we will fnd, more than ever before, that He is God.


April 6, 2014
Several have requested an update on my husband's health, so here goes:
Jason was in the hospital for seven nights, and the doctor told us that the insurance would not allow him to stay any longer. His pain was still consistently ranking a 9 or 10 on the 1 to 10 pain scale when he left, and it is continuing to do so.


While in the hospital, they monitored his heart pretty much the entire time, and all was well on that front. I guess that is good news, but we didn't realize that he needed monitoring. The fainting/seizure-like episodes must have prompted them to do that. His heart always checks out fine every time they do any tests on it (I knew my man had a good heart when I met him!)


They are trying to wean him off several of his pain medications in order to be certain that none of the pain he is having is residual pain from the multitude of medications that he has been taking. Following the hospital stay, the doctor did an injection that was supposed to deaden (?) the occipital nerve and reduce the constant migraine. So far, that hasn't really helped him. He has a follow up appointment with the doctor this week.

Tonight in church there was a sweet healing presence of God there, and we know that God is able to heal. He will heal. We believe. And until He heals, we trust. Trusting in Him is not always simple. Trust is built in the difficult places. Trust is built through trials. Trust is learned in dungeons, in front of giants, in the lions' den, in the pit, and in various other scary places. And so we trust in the Lord with ALL of our hearts, because our own understanding is not strong enough to lean on.

6 days in the hospital. We have "affordable care" now, but apparently something went wrong and he was kn the hospital longer than the insurance allowed, and so they are asking us to pay for several days of the stay.

May 24, 2014
Driving by the hospital, I nearly cried as I realized how grateful I am that my husband is not in there. We continue to pray for his complete recovery. Nothing has really changed in his condition, but God is faithful. Praise is usually based on what God does. Worship is often birthed through pain. And so we worship.

-Elona

 We trust GOD. I don't like asking for a penny like this, but when you feel led to, you'd better.

Jason