Recovering from Surgery

Sometimes when the blog is quiet we start getting comments and emails asking if everything is okay. Usually we've just been quiet because life is happening and we haven't had a chance to write. This week has been a little different.

Let me say right up front that my mom is totally fine. We are praising God for that.

About six weeks ago it became apparent that Mom was headed for surgery. (I'm going to keep the details minimal at this time for her privacy.) Those six weeks were quite a journey for our family. Mom is a very strong woman and she lives life at a pace that makes my head spin. Seeing her physically weakened for the last six weeks by this health issue as well as by the back problems she's been having (the two are unrelated) has rocked me. It has definitely been an emotionally and spiritually challenging time.

Mom was admitted to the hospital for surgery early Monday morning. I was there with my dad, another couple who are my parents' closest friends, and two of my LPM sisters. Melissa, Colin and Curtis were in constant contact with us. Her surgery began at 8:30. We all sat in a waiting room and waited for news from the doctors on how she was doing. After several hours we finally got word that the surgery had gone well. There had been one complication that would require more time in the hospital than they'd originally thought, but otherwise she did beautifully.

Our friends went back to work and dad and I waited hours and hours and hours to finally be able to see Mom. When they finally let us into her room, Mom was in rough shape. She was having a reaction to either the anesthesia or the pain medicine and she was terribly nauseated. I've never seen anyone in my immediate family that sick in my life. Dad and I were shocked.

It was a very long first night in the hospital. We had hoped mom would wake up in better shape, but whatever was making her sick took a long time to leave her system. We had another long day battling nausea. By the next night, and especially by Wednesday morning, Mom was doing better.

She was very eager to eat something. Bless her heart, she hadn't eaten anything since Sunday at lunch and it was now Wednesday! She was allowed to try a liquid diet at first, then late in the afternoon she got to eat a baked potato. You would have thought she was eating the finest cuisine in all of Houston by the way her face lit up while she ate that little baked potato. It had nothing on it but salt and a tiny bit of butter.

That night we had some setbacks when the veins holding her IV's began collapsing. A specialist had to come in and help her out. We'd had a relatively great day and were hoping that she could go home on Thursday morning, so this setback was very discouraging. Some other weird issues happened simultaneously and we started wondering if a spiritual battle was taking place in our room. I started praying outloud, mom called on our LPM Village to pray, and we turned on worship music in our room. At that point I had no shame. If I made everyone think we were weirder than they originally thought, I did not care one bit! The Lord did bring us peace. Everything that had gone wrong was brought back under control.

The next morning Mom woke up with nausea again, but thankfully it was not so bad that it hindered her release from the hospital. The doctor came in at 5:30 a.m. and gave us the great news that she was going home! God bless doctors and their families for the crazy hours they have to work. We were in the car and heading home by 11:00 a.m. Praise His name!

After three nights in the hospital with mom, I was barely fit to drive the car, but we made it home. I'm sure I had an angel holding my eyelids open. My Aunt Sandra arrived soon after to stay at my parents' house and help Mom recover. At that point I went home to my babies and to my amazing husband who had been holding down the fort.

Annabeth was so sweet when I got her up from her nap that afternoon. She smiled so big and held onto me tightly when I walked her downstairs. It hadn't been very long since I'd seen her, but she already seemed bigger and her hair looked longer. Jackson played it cool with me until this morning. I woke up to his sweet little self giggling and climbing into my bed. He pulled the covers over him and snuggled up to me. I said, "Jacks, are you glad your mommy is here this morning?" He said, "Yeah." And that was that. He's such a little man.

I'm really attached to my mom right now and couldn't bear to stay away long. Annabeth and I took a few groceries over to her house this morning. It made her happy to see the baby for a few minutes, and vice versa. Mom's very tired and still having some pain and slight nausea, but she's on the mend. She's forbidden to turn on her computer for the next week and she's keeping her ringer off. Our LPM sisters are taking care of meals, which is a great blessing. There was a huge bowl of banana pudding in her fridge and I immediately recognized it as Kimberly Meyer's. Kimberly's banana pudding is famous around these parts. Let's just say it's a ministry in itself.

For those of you who attended the Deeper Still event in Oklahoma City, I want you to know how much it meant to my mom that you all prayed for her health. During the question and answer segment someone asked what Kay, Priscilla and Beth wanted for Christmas. My mom said she'd been dealing with back pain and would love to wake up on Christmas morning and realize the pain is gone. Kay and Priscilla suggested they stop right then and pray for her. None of you knew that my mom would fly home from that event and immediately have surgery, but Mom was greatly encouraged to have your prayers for her healing. She trusted that God knew what else she needed them for.

I "randomly" heard from a number of my friends over the last six weeks who had no idea what was going on. (We'd kept this very quiet.) They simply said they were thinking about our family and praying for us. I love how our Father works. It's such a reminder that when we can't get someone off our minds, we should pray for them!

I'm sure Bethie will want to write or talk about this in the future, but she asked me to go ahead and let you all know what was going on. The thought of writing in complete sentences is currently overwhelming to her.

Finally, if any of the amazing nurses and doctors who ministered to us happen to be reading this right now, I'd like to say thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We were blown away by your compassion, kindness and excellence. God bless each one of you.