8/16/07
Local realtor gives credit for recovery to power of prayer
By Cathy Gilbert

CATHY GILBERT/Manning Times

Yana and John Mathis proudly (and gratefully) show off one of the more than150 cards they received during Yana’s illness. It was cards, visits and prayers (in addition to great medical care) that sustained the couple during Yana’s trying illness.

If you ever doubted the power of a body of people all praying for a single purpose, you need look no farther than local Clarendon realtor and respiratory therapist, Yana Mathis.

Mathis was admitted to Clarendon Memorial Hospital on May 12 with intense abdominal pain. She was quickly sent by ambulance to McLeod Hospital in Florence.

It would be 83 days before Mathis would again see her home, her pets and the town she has come to love.

A condition known as endometriosis caused part of her left colon to become strangled and eventually die. Following an emergency hysterectomy and colostomy or removal of a section of her colon, Mathis developed peritonitis, a massive infection of the abdomen. Survival of peritonitis is a 50/50 proposition.

“I really have no one to blame but myself and I am a health care professional,” Mathis said. “I had doctor’s orders from more than a year ago for a routine screening colonoscopy and I put it off. That would have probably found this problem. My gynecologist retired two years ago and I put off having an annual examination. That would have probably found this problem. I waited for days and days when I got so sick in May. Quicker intervention could have made this problem a lot less critical.”

Mathis said she hopes her story is a wake up call for all men and women about the importance of taking care of yourself and listening to doctors when they ask you to have routine screenings.

Mathis underwent more than a dozen surgical procedures in those 83 days, the most of which were attempts to clean out her abdomen and rid her body of the infection that could have been deadly. For weeks, she had an open wound, the portal to her abdomen and the clean outs that saved her life. It would eventually take a skin graft to close it. In about a year, Mathis will undergo another surgery to reverse her colostomy and completely close her abdominal wall.

“I was literally on my back for that whole time,” she said. “One of the happiest days was when I could gingerly turn on my side.”

Mathis’ husband, John, a local insurance professional, posted frequently to a website called Care Pages. Almost every day, anyone logging on to the site could find out how Yana was doing, what procedure was next and who had come to visit. McLeod Hospital reports that in the year-and-a-half they have offered the service, they have never had a patient who received so many hits.

“They told me my page had received over 100,000 visits,” Yana said.

With her community in constant vigilance and prayer, visits from friends from home and well over 150 cards bedecking her room, Mathis said she was strengthened and sustained knowing so many folks were praying for her.

“Of course, I give a lot of credit to my surgeon, Dr. Amy Murell, but I know a lot of it was the power of prayer and I am so very grateful,” Mathis said.

Yana Mathis has a long road to recovery but she is ready to do the work and face whatever it is that comes her way. And she won’t be doing it alone.

In addition to her many friends and prayer warriors, a friend from North Dakota was scheduled to arrive this Monday to help be part of Mathis’ care team.

“My friend Donna Olson is a traveling nurse and she is in between assignments right now,” Mathis said. “She is coming to spend almost a month with me and help take care of me.”

Mathis hopes to be back at her two jobs by the end of the year. She loves both her job as a realtor and her job as a respiratory therapist at Clarendon Memorial.

“I’m already trying to figure out how I can get back there,” she said with a sly smile. “Those people are my family and I just miss them so.”

To read more about Mathis’ medical adventure, log on to www.carepages.com/mcleodhealth and follow the prompts. A free registration is required but takes only minutes to complete.