Payton Carey Rouse: It has been a while….

Well for those of you who don’t know, my life has been a roller coaster for the last 5 months. On February 16th my mom was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The day after that my dad got a really bad infection on his right hand. He was treated with sulfur antibiotics which he has never been allergic too before. After about a week on the drugs treating the infection, he had a SEVERE allergic reaction which lead us to carrying him to LMH because if we hadn’t the doctors told us he could have died. He has been formally diagnosed with Steven-Johnson’s Syndrome which in result caused him to lose eyesight to both eyes from the severe allergic reaction to the sulfur drugs. I know all this information may lose you but this has been what my family has been going through. My mom underwent brain surgery to remove the tumor which was benign (PRAISE THE LORD) and she stayed in Pitt Memorial Hospital for 16 long days. Whenever all this began with both of my parents I took the FMLA from work for 12 weeks and moved in with my parents to take care of them. My dad has had 3 amniotic membrane transplants to both of his eyes to help with healing and restoring his eyesight and countless eye drops around the clock. Both of my parents have been through more than I can still fathom. You just never know what life will throw at you and I am blessed to have been able to take care of them. I never knew that I had the strength I had until God put me in this situation. My walk with Christ has grown so much and I now realize just how blessed we are and how much one person can take if they have faith in GOD. During these 3 months I was separated from my husband and child only seeing them at night when Jamie would come to my parent’s house for a couple of hours. This was one of the hardest things besides my parents being sick for me to cope with. My husband and my son are my life and I felt like God was ripping me into a million pieces because of the situation we were going through. I never knew how tough I was until now. I give all the glory to God and I praise him for giving me the strength to have made it over the mountain that I climbed. My parents are doing some better but continue to fight each and every day. My mom has a bad headache everyday from the surgery and she also has 2 mechanical valves and a pacemaker and battles congestive heart failure daily. My dad is very blessed to have 20/30 vision back in his right eye. His left eye is in very bad shape and is sewed closed as of right now for a while. He will most likely have permanent scarring and damage to the left eye. He is hoping to have his right eye contact bandage removed the next time he goes to Duke Eye Center. Please continue to lift these two people up in your prayers. My dad also found out that he has to have his gall bladder removed next Thursday. My family and I had a benefit for my parents back at the end of June at Maynard's in Seven Springs with my brother’s band playing and we raised ALOT of money which my parents were so grateful for. I know I am rambling and jumping around but I just wanted to let each of you know what has been going on in my crazy life the last 5 months.

I was able to return to work which I hated to leave my parents. My life is semi-normal but I continue to go to my parents house each day when I get off of work and pick up Payton from daycare. I feel better going over there and laying my eyes on them to make sure that they are okay. I have the BEST two parents in the world. I know I am biased but I have 2 loving and good Christian parents. God has truly blessed me and my family and I am so grateful to him for all his many blessing upon me.

Here are some pictures of the last 5 months!