Stephanie Jacobs

An update for everyone praying 🙏🏻💗 The surgery was successful! I had a full sternotomy (like open heart surgery) at Mayo on Thursday. They removed a large cyst that was filled with what looks infection (still waiting on the report), and it was pushing on all the major structures: trachea, lungs, esophagus, pulmonary artery, SVC, and other blood vessels. The surgeon was able to remove 95+% of the cyst and burned the rest, so it shouldn’t come back!

I’m so humbled and grateful for the number of people praying and checking in! Literally hundreds have been praying and have stuck with me in this journey over the last 2.5 months. I’m amazed at how many of you haven’t forgotten, keep praying and asking for updates! I’ve felt so supported and loved. It’s overwhelming. 🥰 All I can say is THANK YOU SO MUCH!

And these flowers! 😍My tray is half covered in flowers and everyone who comes into my room comments how beautiful they are! We’ve started to call it my flower garden, ha! Flowers really do brighten a room!! 💐✨

More than anything, I’ve felt so loved and cared for by God. 🙌 He made sure we had support from family to help with Liam and care for me when I couldn’t. He helped us find a medical consulting company (through a friend) who could help us advocate and find answers when we were lost. He brought us to Mayo where they’re number 1 in the world for these types of surgeries that are otherwise too high risk for comfort. He brought us close to friends too, that have brought us light and encouragement! He’s made sure we’ve had support from our nanny to take care of things back home in GA while we’re away and she’ll be there to help when we get back too. We’ve been covered every step of the way! God doesn’t give you more than you can handle, and we’ve really understood that through this journey. 🙏🏻

We packed for a 12 day visit for Christmas, and it will be exactly 3 months by the time we fly home. Sam’s been a trooper, continuing to work full time, take me to numerous appointments, keeping life moving, and taking care of Liam (amongst help from grandparents). Liam’s thoroughly enjoyed all this extra time with grandparents! 8+ weeks of recovery is next! 💪

🎙️Today on the podcast I’m welcoming Patty Perdomo. If you haven’t yet listened to episode 37 with Ryan and Sarah Gibson, you’ll want to do so, as this is a two-part series! Patty is Sarah’s mom! In the last episode we heard from Ryan and Sarah as they shared details of the tragic accident they endured almost a decade ago.

In this episode, we get to hear from Patty through her perspective of a mother, watching her son-in-law go through this accident that ultimately left him paralyzed. In this episode, Patty gives us a glimpse into how it affected their family, and how she discovered new massage therapy techniques that could actually help Ryan feel tremendously better and live with his paralysis! You’ll also hear how Patty is now working to teach these techniques to others, so they too can help others find the relief they need too!

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Hear what it was like to watch her daughter and son-in-law go through a terrible accident that left Ryan paralyzed.
- Hear how Patty discovered new massage therapy techniques that helped Ryan feel better.
- Understand the power of the mind-body connection and how Patty harnesses that power to treat her patients!
- Hear how you can learn more about these techniques to help others too!

As you’ll hear in the episode, Patty is my massage therapist and after getting to know the story of her family and the work she’s doing, I invited her to join me on the show! This episode in some ways is a little outside of the norm for the type of stories you usually hear, as we decided to do a two-part series. After having listened to both episodes, I think you’ll appreciate hearing the story from two different perspectives, and be inspired by how Ryan and Sarah moved through their traumatic accident and by how Patty found a way to help! Together their story is one of resilience, hope, creativity, and of loving familial support too! 💗

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