Small Scare. God is in Control.He>I & My Plans.

Yesterday was not an ordinary day in my life. That is for sure. It started out fine but then my plans started to change. Last Night I was planned to teach at the Herd(the junior high group I work with). About 5:00pm, just a couple of hours before I had to teach, the headache that I had got progressively worse. Now I'm going to talk in "doctor terms" or if your my mom, "Mommy terms." At 11 am when the head ache started my pain scale was at about a 3 when I hadn't had any pain since the surgery. Now it wasn't pain from my incision it was a very similar head ache to what I had before I went into the ER the first time and had my surgry. By 5pm my pain scale was at about a 7. Now when it comes to head aches I have learned to deal with them, but since I did have my surgery I needed to take every precaution. At 5pm I called the nurse's hotline and she told me I need to go into the ER in LA where I had the surgery.

I honestly didn't want to go. I remembered being in the hospital before and it wasn't great. I hate needles and them waking me up every hour not that I was sleeping anyway. I just didn't want to go. One of the guys on staff, Stephen was sitting by me when I found out and he told me I had to tell my Boss/Pastor/Friend, Jon. I did and he told me that I needed to go and it was going to be okay. God had a plan in this. We prayed with other staff and some of our students and then I was headed on my way out to LA. Jon wanted to send someone with me but I refused because I knew I was going to be okay. As freaked out as I seemed, I just knew God was in control. As I was talking with some of the staff before I left Jon even said well maybe God needs you in the emergency room to tell someone else about Jesus. All I can say is it is funny how God works.

I arrived at the Sunset Kaiser LA at about 7:30ish. As I was checking I just knew everything was going to be fine when the first man who checked me in had a LA Dodger lanyard on. (For those of you who do not know I am a Dodger fan. It's in my blood.) The nurse who checked me in was this cute little old women who's name was GINA! (Again for those of you who don't know that's my little car's name.) These may sound like dumb things for you but for me they were just the things I needed to just laugh. I know God put them in my path to help calm my already crazed heart. I was blessed to be seen pretty much right away. They checked me out then they put me in a wheel chair to wait. This was my view.

If you don't know this I am a very visual person so I like to take pictures. It was a great place to sit because whenever someone would turn the corner I would sort of freak them out cause they weren't expecting a person to be there. At this point my head ache was pretty bad so I'm sure my faces were pretty weird and so I'm pretty sure I freaked some people out as they turned the corner.

Once I got into my ER room the nurse had to take my blood. If you don't know this I HATE needles. I don't know why I just do. I'm a big baby about it. This time I was all alone so I had to grow up and deal. I had to take a picture to show how good I did. Look at all my blood.

As the nurse was taking my precious blood I had to laugh as I realized I was wearing a pair of my Christmas socks. What's even funnier I think about this is that I have more than one pair and I wear them all the time. They just make me happy. These ones helped with the pain and scare of the needle.

I had to stay in the ER till about 1:30 am. Not so great. It was no quiet place for sure. Sleeping was out of the question but I did have a little TV with some cable. The new show I found while I was in the ER was Extreme Couponing. Let me tell you people this show is ridiculous. Basically it is about people who clip coupons and save money. For example on one of the episodes I watched a women and her family got 4 FULL carts of food that would have cost over 1200 dollars and the only spent 52 dollars. It is ridiculous. It makes me want to clip coupons.

Once they got a CT scan they told me that they needed to keep me over night for observation. My main man Eddy transported me from the ER to the neurosurgery area where I would be staying for the night. My room was basically the same as the last one I was in except I wasn't in the ICU and I had a real bathroom with walls and everything in my room. When I got all settled my new nurse came in to start poking at me. I don't know what it is about hospitals but when ever I am in them people just seem to want to poke me. I was pretty popular cause my nurse came in EVERY hour to flash a bright light in my face. So as you can guess I did not get much sleep. Fortunately for me I had come prepared with my bible and ipod in case the TV got old which it did.

I woke up from my little nap or whatever you want to call the minimal amount of sleep I got. I decided to have my time with God. I opened my bible and started to read over James. By the way, James is such an encouraging book if you haven't read it I would suggest you do! Anyway as I was reading a man came into my room and he explained that he was the on call neurosurgeon. He started to tell me that my CT scan showed improvement since my surgery. Praise the Lord! He then told me that Dr.Chen who preformed the surgery would be in at about 8 am to check in with me.

My day nurses name was Chris. He was a very interesting fellow. After he asked me all the annoying questions I got to ask him a few. My first one that when ever I have a male nurse I ask is 'How the heck did you get into nursing?' Now I fully support male nurses I just wonder why don't you become a doctor. But anyway he did it because he was a medic in the navy and a friend told him that he could get into nursing and make good money. I mean sounds like a good plan to me right? If only I didn't hate needles. I then asked him his age because he looked really young and he had already been in the navy. He is 30. After that I figured that he would be okay to be my nurse but I had one more test. I asked him if he could score me some coffee from the nurses station. It took him a while but my man Chris came through big! Here is the view from my room and my beautiful but small cup of coffee.

Once he got me the coffee I knew he was a quality person.

After I got the coffee Dr.Chen and Arnie stopped by to check in on me. I had to apologize for standing them up before and that I didn't mean too. Dr. Chen actually laughed at me. I call that a success people. If you met this man you would understand. I don't think he laughs a lot. Through this process I'm helping to change that in him! haha. Anyway they told me that there were probably two reasons to my head ache. One being that my brain ventricles were shrinking to a normal size that fits around my brain. Me not being used to this was why I had a head ache. The second reason was because I was stressing myself out and not letting myself recover properly. This is something that is rather hard for me to do but I knew I had to do it. Dr.Chen also added that I am FREE TO FLY!! YAYA Aye Bay Bay here I come!!

Anyway, I'm doing good so no worries for now! Thanks for your prayers and sweet thoughts!

Chloe Siena Krake

It's official! Chloe Siena Krake has made her grand arrival! She is my...Cousin? Now this is a weird one. She is the new born daughter of my cousins, David an Lauren. I'm just going to call her my cousin! Anyway this beautiful bundle of Joy made her arrival at 3:21 am this morning weighing 8lbs 8oz and being 20 1/2 inches long!

Happy Birthday Chloe!

Recovery Doctors Appointment #2: Wound Check.

Yesterday I took the great adventure back to Sunset Kaiser Los Angeles. Now I since I'm giving you an update I'm going to tell you that it was a rough day. My appointment went well but everything around it seemed to just go wrong.

My day started out great by waking up, straightening my hair for the first time since surgery and getting out the door by 9:30 to make sure I made it to my 10:45 appointment on time. My Yahoo directions told me it would take 44 minutes to get there. So of course I give myself 5 minutes to get my free starbucks and that still leaves me 26 minutes early to my appointment. 11 minutes earlier than my Vince Lombari rule, which is if you are on time you are 15 minutes late and if you are 15 minutes early you are on time. Now I try to live by this rule but let's be real. Sometimes I just like to be late. It's like a street cred thing. Anyway back to yesterday, yesterday was not one of those days that I was looking to show up my street cred. I wanted to be early. Unfortunately due to the fact that I had to go into LA traffic was not on my side. Even in the middle of the morning. Plus let's add in the fact that the exit I was suppose to get off at was closed due to a community service cleaning. Lame. I know. After an hour and a half of what was suppose to be a 44 minutes drive I made it to where I was suppose to be.

When I finally got to where I was suppose to be and figured out where to park I basically booked it to get to my appointment 15 minutes late. Not so good. When I got there I went to check in and the women told me my appointment was on Monday NOT Wednesday. Perfect, I missed my appointment. Fortunately the women was able to get me checked out. Even though it wasn't Arnie I was ok with that. She told me to sit and I would be helped soon. 30 minutes into my wait I realized I parked in the parking structure and I was going to need cash to pay for it. I didn't have any on me. I asked the women at the desk if she knew where there was an ATM and she told me. My thoughts were, 'great I have to go to some sketch mexican food place to use the ATM. I love adventures.' about 10 minutes after that a women and her husband who had been waiting too were called in. As she passed me she handed me 4 dollars and she told me this was for parking. What a blessing! After an hour and 45 minutes of watching "all my children", coloring with some kids and reading they were ready to see me.

Dr. Nam was the doctor who checked my wound. He said I was doing great. He said since I wasn't drooling or falling asleep that he said those were good signs. Then he looked at my CT scan from after my surgery. I asked him if I was able to travel yet on a plane. He had said he didn't think so because I still had air pockets in my ventricles. The pressure of being on a plane would be really bad for that I guessed. I told him I was going home for easter and I had already bought my flight. Luckily he told me that I could travel if I talked with my surgeon first. So I went and scheduled my appointment with my surgeon 2 days before I leave for the BAY!

So I leave you with this. Even though my day went a little bit differently then planned God put many small blessings in it to show me he still had it under control. Isn't it funny how when we doubt God or what he is doing that at those moments he totally comes through. He puts his little blessings in. It's almost like he looks at me and says, "Cheryl, Really? Are you for reals still doubting me?" I serve a great God and he still loves me even though I make mistakes. How freaking COOL is that!

The Story.

This last week I have been feeling convicted about sharing Christ with others. I'm not talking about just anyone. I'm not talking about that old man I see every morning or one of my doctors. I don't have a problem letting them know the only reason I'm alive now it because of Christ. I'm talking about sharing and introducing people to Jesus. And by "people" I mean my students. My beautiful wonderful Junior Highers. Not only them but all the other students I come in to contact with at Bethany Church.(the Church I work at)

Having grown up in the church, I find myself sometimes numb to the bible. I just think of it as another book. When really it is so much more than that! It is God's love letter he wrote to me for life! To show me how to live, to give me hope, to tell me His story. That's the part I think is the coolest. The bible is a story! For me I know that I don't always look at it as that. I just think of it as this long book that I have to read because people tell me to. I don't look at it as the precious letter that it is.

This past sunday night I attended a service at Rock Harbor church and Darrin McWatters was preaching. They are in the middle of a series called Witnesses-Encounters with Jesus. Leading up to easter they are looking into different people's encounter with Jesus. This past week Darrin spoke on Pilates encounter with Jesus. I tell you this because God used Darrin this past week to show me and remind me how the bible is HIS love letter, his story for me to come to know him! Darrin did such a good job of high lighting the interaction between Pilate and Jesus. He got me involved in thinking about the whole interaction and about who you say Christ is? Do we deny who he is or do we own up and take up our cross and follow him? I tell you this to share with you how by me seeing the whole story I better understood and walked away with something because I got the story. I don't tell you all this to encourage you to go to Rock Harbor or anything but just to show you how Darrin shared the story with me passionately and showed how important it was.

Now why the heck did I bring up my students? Well that is just it. I was reminded that I'm not just telling my small group, my students just anything. I'm sharing with them God's love letter to them. I think for me I don't share it as the great story it is. I don't think that I really ask God to use me to share his story. I just go about reading the things I'm given and guide the conversation. Not always letting God just use me to share his story. It doesn't just take telling them this story but also living it out, showing them. This is something that I want to do. I want to share Christ's love though his story and through my life. I want all my actions and reactions to lead others to Christ!

"Your life is testifying now who you say Christ is."

-Darrin McWatters

I would encourage you to watch this and think about Who Do you say Christ is? You are testifying who you think Christ is!

http://www.rockharbor.org/media/message/pilate-decisively-undecided/

Verse of the Week. Week 1.

Since I am not very good at keeping up on things I have found I just try and add more. It's a bad habit that I am trying to fix. For example I started the whole study song of the week. That was an epic fail when I ended up having brain surgery. But I fully intend to continue it this next week.

I tell you that I am bad a keeping up with things the same time I'm adding a new one. Now some of you may say why don't you just stick with one thing? Trust me I ask myself that too. I don't know why I keep adding but I guess it's more that I want you all to know what's been on my mind as well as my heart.

So here is to adding more to my life! Verse of the week! Woot Woot. I hope this brings you encouragement.

"You will keep in perfect peace him who's mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you."

Isaiah 26:3

Update. Pictures. Yippee.

Here are some of the pictures of my adventure know as brain surgery and recovery. Enjoy.
The SCAR. Kind of gross I know but some of you have been asking. This picture was taken Saturday morning. My surgery was on wednesday.
Sunset Kaiser L.A. was where it all happened. Here is the parking pass my parents got. Plus my wrist band telling everyone who I was just in case I forgot. It's like when I was a baby.
I got cards from all sorts of people. Some being from the students and staff at Bethany(The church I'm an intern at.) I also got flowers! I could feel the love!

This was one of the things on my bucket list. To NEED to drive and cart and to ACTUAlLY use one. Not as glorious as I had thought but I got to cross it off my list!

Mommy got to hang out with me for a couple of days! We went to lunch at Red Robin. So good.
Mommy and I before shopping day #2.

I also wanted to add in this post my thank yous! I have been so bless with tons of great people around me sending love and their prayers. It's great to know that I have so many people all around praying for me. I'm blessed!

Thanks everyone for loving me! God has blessed me with you all!

Brain Surgery.

Alright Everyone. If you haven't already heard I had brain surgery last Wednesday March 23, 2011. Since I'm sure you have heard different things from different people I gonna give you the inside scoop. The Real Deal. From the horses Mouth. Of course I'm not a horse but you know the saying. This is how the whole week went down.

On Sunday March 20 I got a pretty bad head ache. I would get head aches somewhat often so I just thought it was one of the many I didn't worry about it. Throughout that night I woke up throwing up and I still had the head ache. This continued until Tuesday March 22 when I finally called my dad and told him everything that was going on and I told him I couldn't get to the doctor. He then proceeded to call the Junior High pastor that I work under, Jon. Jon had his wife Ellie come and take me to the emergency room. Once I got there they hooked me up with the IV's and everything. I figured they were just going to give me medicine. I thought it was an extra treat that I got to take a joy ride though the emergency room to get a CT scan. I didn't really think anything was wrong. I guess I thought it was procedure. It wasn't until the doctor told me that they needed to transfer me that I knew something was wrong. At that point the ER doctor was waiting to hear from Kaiser Sunset in LA to see if there was a room for me to be moved to. At this point my phone had died so I got to use the nurses cool work phone to call my dad and let him know what was going on.

The ride to Kaiser Sunset was pretty legit cause I got to go in an ambulance. The only bummer was they didn't get to put the sirens on cause I wasn't in urgent need. I know, I was bummed too also because I had to sit in LA traffic. But my driver Ed turned up the music and played me some pretty goo tunes. I couldn't complain after they (Ed and the other guy, Mark) sang with me. You have to respect two pretty young guys who can sing Grenade by Bruno Mars. They weren't too bad either!

Note that ever since I got to the ER they had me on some pretty good pain killers and nausia medicine so I thought everything was great. When we arrived to Kaiser Sunset they put me into a room in the ICU. It was pretty big and it was all mine! I got a bed that I could control to move my legs up and down as well as my back up or down. I had control of the TV and I even had a button to call my nurse whenever I wanted! It was real fancy. After about an hour of watching Fresh Prince of Bel Heir my dad got there. I was so relieved to see him! Later that night My cousins David and Lauren as well as my roomies Michelle and Audrey came by to visit.

While everyone was there I met my surgeon and his PA. Dr. Chen and Arnie. They told us that I had Hydrocephalus. In doctor lingo, Hydrocephalus is a condition in which abnormally widened cerebral spaces in the brain ventricles inhibit the normal flow of cerebrospinal fluid. The cerebrospinal fluid accumulates in the skull and puts pressure on the brain tissue. Basically that means that there was too much fluid in my brain ventricles that put pressure on my brain tissue causing me to have a head ache. If this would have gone on much longer I could have died from all the intracranial pressure. The doctor told me that they needed me to get an MRI to see what my brain really looked like. They said there were two options. Both required brain surgery. The first one was to put a shunt in to help drain the fluid. The other one, which was the one that we ended up going with was to just widen the hole in my brain where the fluid normally drains. By widen the hole the fluids would be able to drain all by itself. I told my doctor let's do it. I went to sleep with a lot on my heart and my head.

I knew that I was going to be ok. God has a plan for me. I have no doubt of that. I knew that he had me in his hands and his will was going to be done. The next morning after a rough night of sleep I woke up and got to watch a lot more telemundo. It was real great. That after I had a visitor the great and Miss Amy Green. Of course right when she got there I got all drugged up so I was a little loopy. During the time she was there they wisked me off to get my MRI. If you don't know what an MRI is I'll explain. Basically they stick you in this huge long donut shaped machine for like 45 minutes and you have to be still. The only reason that happen for me was because they had drugged me up and I was real tired. They put ear plugs in your ears cause it makes all these loud noises at you. After it was all done they had a pretty picture of my messed up brain so that they could figure out how to fix it.

At about 6 pm that night I was going to have my surgery. They rolled me down with my dad to the surgery room. Before my dad went to the waiting room he prayed over me and I knew I was going to be ok. With God on my side I knew on body was gonna do anything to me. I'm God's girl. He's got back. Right after I left my dad I met the other doctor who would be working along side Dr. Chen. He asked me how I was doing. I thought it was a trick question but I told him, I'm good. Just going to let you work on my brain. He laughed and then asked how I was feeling. I told him good, God watching over me. He smiled. After that they told me that they were putting the stuff to make me sleep and that's the last thing I remember until I was woken up. I was in the recovery room with everyone else. Then after I fully woke up they took me back to my room where my dad was eagerly waiting. I was so glad to see him. When I did he hugged me and we prayed.

That night I hardly slept at all. I spent most of my night watching Saved by the Bell and Telemundo. I dozed off and woke up to a new nurse. Her name was Mika. She was my fav. She had two daughters who were 5 and 6 years old. We became friends real quick. I made her laugh she gave me meds. Great friendship. Thursday morning came and Right after I woke up my Mom for here. It was so good to have her there. Mika said it best when she said, "Dads are great but sometimes you just need your mom, no matter how old you are." She was for sure right. I needed my Mommy! Thursday was a long day of figuring out what medicines worked for me and when. Jon and Ellie, my pastor and his wife came to visit me. They brought me cards that my junior highers and other staff had made me. They were so great! I thought I may be able to go home that day but they still needed a CT scan which they got that after noon. That night My friend Mallory and Debbie stopped by to visit me. It was so great to have visitors. I was glad to see people.

By Friday morning they had me standing and walking around the ICU with the physical therapist. By that afternoon I got to go home! I was so happy. I just wanted to sleep in my own bed. Arnie, the surgeons P.A. came and gave me all these notes and information on what happens next. I got notes out of school! Unfortunately when you are in college you can't really afford to miss but it was still exciting to get them. He told me about my upcoming appointments and what not and then Mika rolled me out of the hospital. I was ready to peace out of that place.

I arrived back to my apartment with my mom on Friday March 25 just two days after I had brain surgery. Friday and Saturday were days of much sleep for both my mom and I. It was great that she was also burned out from school that she slept just as much as I did. It worked out great. My recovery was a very fast paced. I was able to go out to Target on Saturday night and church on Sunday. At Target I got to drive one of carts. Let's just say I thought it would be a lot cooler than it actually was.

Over the time that I was given in the hospital I was given a lot of time to think and process. I think that was definitely one of those hidden gifts God through in the mix. I was able to look over the past couple of years and think about what I want and also seek out what God wants for me. What does he want from and for Cheryl Kay Krake? Well I can tell you that right now God is working in me a lot. He is showing me once again that I can't do it on my own, but only with HIS strength. When ever I seem to be straying onto my own path he finds a way to bring me right back to him. Isn't that cool?

Ok folks. You have just gotten the full story straight from the horses mouth. Pictures to come later this week!