The saga

Hello friends and family. Thank you for all of your concern and prayers and messages. It has been so encouraging to know that so many people are thinking of us and praying for us. I think our saga is just about over. It looks like I will be going home tomorrow.

I will attempt to do some sort of a concise re-cap of the last three weeks. Once I got home from the first surgery I began recovering, but about mid week we noticed I was turning yellow. The Dr. had us come in on Thursday 11th for some tests. The tests showed that the bile from my liver was not flowing into my intestines as it should. He did surgery that afternoon to find out what was causing the problem. During surgery he didn't find any problems, so he put in a drain and finished my surgery. The next day tests showed that there were no blockages in the bile duct (he thought), so he sent me home again. I still had a drain in my side to let the built up bile out so I didn't get jaundiced again.

Tuesday I went in for another test that was to confirm that all was well, but instead it showed that there was no flow. The surgeon prescribed an endoscopic exam to find what was blocking that flow and put in a stint to keep the duct open.

The exam was scheduled at Highland Hospital in the city. The procedure showed that the duct was completely blocked by clamps that had been put on during the surgery. They were also suspicious that the duct had been cut during surgery as well. We opted to change to a specialist surgeon at Highland instead of returning to our original surgeon.

Further tests showed that surgery was necessary to either open or bypass the section of duct that was blocked. That was on Friday. The surgeon opted to keep me at the hospital over the weekend so it was easier for him to fit me into the surgical schedule at the beginning of the week. I pretty much had free range. I could walk around and go off the floor if I was with family. Jeremiah brought the kids in over the weekend and we all got to eat together and hang out in the cafeteria.

Surgery was on Tuesday and it lasted 4 hours. In the end they had to do a bypass because the duct had been cut and clamped. It went well and my recovery has gone well also. I am now on the verge of returning home to recover and get back to normal life. I hope this all is informative but not TMI:)

I thank you once again for all of your prayers. I really appreciate it. Jeremiah and the kids are doing great, My mom is coming up for the next couple of days to help us through the first few days of recovering. The surgeon says there should be about a 3 week recovery period. I now have an incision from my belly button to sternum in addition to the other holes. The long incision "connects" the dots of 3 of the previous smaller incisions!

surgery

Surgery is now over and I can recover. Once I was there and all prepped for surgery the surgeon came in, felt my belly and said,

" Did I tell you you have a hernia?"

NO!!

"Well, I will check it out once I am inside."

Later, once they had begun the surgery they called Jeremiah in the waiting room (momentary heart attack for Jeremiah, until the nurse explained) to ask if it was ok to do both procedures since they were already inside. Um, yeah, ok.

So, now instead of having 3 incisions, I have 7 and a bit more restrictions during recovery. I am not supposed to bend or lift more than 2 lbs in each hand. What?!? So, we have some figuring to do. It looks like we will need some help here for a season.

For now I am drugged up and tired and a bit woozy, but thankful it is over and I am home and the recovery process has begun.

Thanks for all of your prayers.

the museum!!

Happy March!! This is a spring month. Yeah!! Ignore the fact that there is still snow on the ground and we can still get major snow storms. Spring IS on its way!!

Big news!! Anya is sleeping thru the night!! 12 hours straight!! HURRAY!! We are so grateful. Sometime here we will actually catch up on our sleep. 8 hours of sleep in one night is a beautiful thing:)

This Friday I have my gall bladder surgery, boo! But, it must be done and so I am ready to get it over with and move on. Prayer for peace and a quick and smooth recovery is definitely appreciated. I went in this morning for all of the pre-op stuff. So now I must just wait. yeah.

This weekend we took the boys to the National Museum of Play. They have been asking to go for a while and we had planned on this weekend. so, In spite of snow and recovering from colds, we went and everyone had a great time. Becky and Earon joined us which made go oh so well. Thank you heaps and bunches!!

Hans shopping

Ethan deliberating

riding the train

Earon, Becky and Anya

Hans and Becky

Hans and his "hat" :)

the bunny ears are not attached, they are on the other side of the wall on a bunny