An Update from Pastor Ted

Access Friends,

This is an update on how I've been doing and how to pray for me in the days ahead.

What happened?

Since the beginning of this year I've been suffering from something called "silent reflux" or LPR (laryngopharyngeal reflux). It's why I've been coughing a lot and why I moved to a handheld mic to speak on Sundays. I had no idea it was going on and thought that my allergies were simply getting worse.

This summer our family took a trip to Asia. During this trip my silent reflux went into an acute phase. I lost my voice. Any activity led to bad coughing. I saw a doctor who said some things about reflux and that led me down a path of discovery of what I had.

I was able to make it back from Asia but I was in bad shape. I was in a wheelchair and I had declined significantly. I was still in an acute phase coming back to Houston.

Back home I was able to go to a doctor, take a number of tests, and stabilize. But the damage to my body was quite bad.

Medical Leave

I am currently taking a medical leave of absence as I recover from what happened. I have had to make some major lifestyle and diet changes and these have helped me heal a lot.
My voice is back and I can talk, though not for a long time. And my energy and strength is also returning. I lost close to 20lbs so you can imagine being so drastically underweight I didn't have much energy for anything.
Thankfully, at this point, my reflux is largely under control. I am still on a very limited diet - low fat, low sugar, no caffeine, etc. But my energy and stamina is terrible since I've lost so much weight. It's been hard to gain weight without the option to eat whatever I want, which is one reason why recovery is taking so long.
Slowly, I am engaging in church emails and have been able to work this way in limited capacity.

Prayer

One of the most important things you can do for me and my family right now is to pray. There have been so many answered prayers while everything was crumbling. And though I wish God would have just stopped the decline, I still sensed He was with our family protecting us along the way.
Healing - Pray for my healing of course! I want to recover and get back to a more "normal" life. I also had to take some meds to survive this summer and some of them have had some side effects. Pray for me as I detox from that.
Strength - Pray for the recovery of strength and energy and weight for me. But also pray for strength for Amy and the girls who have had to help and care for me in so many ways.
Anxiety - As you can imagine, worry for self, family, Access and more has come up. But i'm surrounded by loving family and friends and a God who deeply loves me. I just need to remind myself of this regularly.

In Christ,
Ted