My Mom: The Guide

9.27.08

This past weekend Mom guided a disabled hunter as part of the Special Youth Challenge hunt near Webb. She did an awesome job and her hunter Ty was able to get his deer on Saturday night! Ty had meningitis when he was only 9 days old, leaving him with both physical and mental disabilities including being legally blind. Congratulations Ty!! There were 19 hunters from various states there, and there were 11 deer shot!!! That is pretty amazing when you think about the challenges that some of the hunters face!

This is a picture of all of the hunters and guides.

Here is Ty with his deer. He made a great shot!

Check out this cool setup. Since Ty can't see well, his gun had this awesome camera and viewer mounted to the scope. This is Ty, his mom and the other guy who helped guide.

I had to show everyone how to butcher deer. Dad kept telling me to get out of the way, but I was really good help.

I also used Dad's headlight to check out the specs on this Polaris. Too bad it wasn't an Arctic Cat :-)

Here is a picture of Ty's Mom, Matt (the other guide) Ty, and Mom. We had a fun and rewarding weekend and I am proud of mom and Ty!

PRAY

A message from mom:

This entry is not like the others, & I know I am way behind on the blog - SORRY!! Between trying to have fun w/ Conner, working on the new house, & the old house - oh & harvest is approaching rather quickly - (as Matt would say) I am slipping :)

The reason for this entry - my nephew Nate (Conner's cousin) is having major surgery in the morning. He was diagnosed with Hirschsprung disease or total intestinal aganglionosis shortly after he was born - he is 8 now. If you saw Nate you would never know anything was wrong.

Here is a note my sister sent out to the church prayer team.

GUMPRAYER TEAM:
We would like to thank all of our GUMC Family and Friends for your prayers and support for Nathaniel (“Nate”) and our family over the past 8 years. His health remains a medical miracle and he continues to amaze all of his doctors. Next Wednesday (9/24), Nate will be having a major surgery in Iowa City to remove all of his large and the majority of his small intestines. The reason for the surgery is for the pain and distention he lives with daily. His wonderful GI doctor believes this should alleviate these issues and improve his quality of life. Overall, his daily care “should” not change. He will still have the central line to receive iv nutrition and fluids every night and will still have 2 stomas to care for.

As far as our GI doc knows, Nate will be the first child to have this procedure done at U of I for his condition (total intestinal aganglionosis- for those who like to Google). We are working with new surgeons who are very different from our incredible past surgeon who treated both Nate and Brenna as if they were his own. We pray their techniques and care will surpass our current expectations. The other great issue is that the surgery could jeopardize his current health status and minimal intestine function, so we will try to be patient and give his body time to heal again. We told Nate about the surgery Thursday night and his anxieties are much better than expected, though it is definitely running through his mind constantly….ours too.

This surgery is our only step between his current status and moving into a small bowel transplant. We are all hoping the procedure will help postpone the transplant for several more years until he is older and the medicines and techniques are further refined.

Thank you for your kindness and understanding as we work to meet his needs when in public and away from our home routines. If you ever have questions about Nate, please don’t hesitate to ask Brian or I, as we would rather have people learn more about the miracles around them and be as amazed by HIS GREATNESS as we are.

Blessings,
Brian and Kristi Fisher

Please keep Nate (& his folks) in your thoughts & prayers
John Deere green - his favorite color :)