Thank you again for covering our family in prayer through this journey. We are thankful for the your support through this challenge. Here are a few more details about God at work and how today is going so far.
We seem to have gained a few close ties in the surgery department already. Two wonderful pre-op nurses, whom we fondly call the “kitty nurses” because they sing a little song about a fluffy kitty while they are placing the IV (they say it’s their ‘good luck’ song to make the IV placement work), were all smiles when they saw us again. We were able to tell them a bit about our journey with Abby last week and they referred to it when they came in this week. We believe strongly that God uses all the experiences in our lives for His great purpose and continue to pray that this addition to our faith journey will be no different. We were not assigned to the same recovery nurse as last week (he told us we could call him ‘Captain Kirk’), but he saw my name on the chart and came by to chat twice. We mostly enjoyed small talk, but it was nice to know that his experience with us last week was pleasant enough that he would want to seek us out to visit! We also had many great conversations with our recovery nurse and nurse assistant yesterday. Here’s a neat way that C. R., being the servant-leader he is, was able to shine Jesus’ light to our nursing team. C. R. went down to pull the car around as I was being discharged and one nurse was getting me all set to transport downstairs. Her co-worker came by to see if we needed help and the nurse’s response was, “No, her husband is amazing-he helps with everything!” They both agreed enthusiastically and so did I. :-)
My surgery time was significantly delayed. I was due to go in at noon (having arrived at 10:30) and ended up going in at 3 instead. We had a peace about it, though we were both getting a bit hungry by 1:30. :-) Hearing that the surgery holding me up was a neurosurgery made us instantly empathetic. We were able to recall the unpredictability of those surgeries from our experience with Abby, so it was easy to put aside our hunger and wish to be moving forward and just pray for the patient and their family.
Today, I have a lot of time to sit and appreciate my busy family bustling around taking care of things on my behalf. I’ve been taking more of the narcotic pain medication…mostly for my “road rash” on my thigh where my skin “donation” came from. I’m moving to just Tylenol to see how that goes. Learning to balance on crutches without bearing any weight at all on my right foot, while hauling around the wound vac pump has been my biggest adventure. Negotiating the stairs to go to bed last night was a real workout!
Praises:
- Successful surgery yesterday. Dr. Kwok sounded pleased when he reported to C. R.
- Continued great care from all our providers.
- Support from so many people loving on us and serving us. We feel so cared for!
- A peaceful night’s rest last night. I did have a time in the middle of the night when I was awake for a bit. There have been plenty of times in the past when I have had the experience when waking up at night caused me to feel anxious about something going on. Well, last night was the opposite for me. I had such a sense of peace and God brought many people to mind I could pray for! It was so comforting to feel God’s presence in a big way and I’m sure that was due to your prayers!
Prayer requests:
- Clear lymph node results on Wednesday.
- Peace for all of us while we wait and when we receive the results.
- That the skin graft would “take” and that they would be able to remove the wound drain on Wednesday to make me a little less restricted.
- Patience for my wonderful family while they pick up the slack for me and wait on me hand & foot.
- Good pain control with as little medication as possible.
- Most importantly, that God would be glorified in everything through us. We are willing for Him to use us and want to have our eyes open to opportunities to do that.
