It was the final Sunday of the "Quest," and to make sure of this, the set was absolutely demolished post-service. Seriously, it's like a demolition team comes in - all the volunteers and older kids come in to work together to help take down everything, and move it off to the moving truck, where it is taken to the storage warehouse or in some cases, the dumpster.
Madison enjoyed the service, taking the usual large quantity of notes. In this service, we were following the "Path of God," as shown in the movie "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." Each one of the three tests at the end of that movie parallel three points in the message today, all leading to an evangelistic sort of point about delivering salvation and healing to others. It was a new message, one we came up with on a Wednesday night during our "Excalibur" series, but it fit so well here that we tacked in on at the end.
It's Labor Day weekend, and while we would usually be out and about with adventures to museums or apple orchards or wherever, today we stayed at home to rest and recover. Mommy is doing better, although still in considerable pain. Taking into account it was less than a week ago that such a huge incision was made in her abdomen, it is not unreasonable to assume this may take another week or so to heal up to a point that she's more functional. Presently, she's doing a lot of resting and sleeping, this mostly because of the medication she takes to offset the pain. But her spirits are up. One one hand, you would be tempted to be disheartened by the frequent fatigue and so forth. But she knows it takes time, and she knows she'll be okay, and she knows there is no colostomy bag in the future.
This was such a certainty at one point. It is difficult to describe just what an amazing moment it was when Dr. Lewis came out to explain what was going on. Here's a letter I sent out to a few of the guys a bit ago, thanking them, and trying to explain as well:
Hey there,
First, thanks for your thoughts, prayers and positive vibes concerning my wife and her recent surgery. And although the two of us are still discussing what a positive vibe actually IS, the fact is that we're currently resting at home now in a state of gratitude.
We had somewhat of a miracle in the hospital. It's not quite one of those 'doctors scratching their heads looking at where a large tumor used to be' moments, but it's fairly close to that, at least in our eyes. There was a pre-cancerous polyp with signs of dysplasia (which honestly would be an incredible rock band name). This was formerly located towards the end of her colon, which had already been re-sectioned once in 2006 (to remove the colon cancer tumor).
As there was nothing much left there to re-section, our prospect was life with a colostomy bag. Which, of course, is better than a short life with cancer. But still, it isn't something one aspires to have intentionally.
ANYWAY, the day of surgery arrives, and I really have to say our prayers were answered. The polyp wasn't where it was thought to be. This was one of those things that was stuck to the side wall of the intestine, its location marked from the colonoscopy visit a few weeks ago. And somehow, the polyp was found geographically the farthest place away it could be away from there: her left elbow.
No, actually, it was found at the START of her large intestine, where the small intestine ends. The polyp was still pre-cancerous and still with dysplasia (which is still a great rock band name). And therefore, we still had to do the re-sectioning of the intestines. I say 'we' as if I were there as an advisor or something. But here's the point: it was in such a different place that we don't have to have a colostomy bag.
The bottom line is this: she is healing. She has a huge scar across her stomach, as there was a big incision and a few smaller incisions. And while she has a frankentummy, she does NOT have a colostomy bag. And for that, we're grateful. Grateful to God, grateful for our friends and their prayers - and yes, I suppose even grateful for all the positive vibes too.
-d
The 'positive vibe' reference was something we were having fun with quite a bit during our hospital stay. Perhaps that terminology is used to so that it will seem different. It seems as if one is going WAY out of their way to express the simple 'thoughts and prayers' comments that you typically would get.
Anyway, the point is, Mommy is recovering. Daddy reads to her from this historical book about Washington Irving and the region of Sleepy Hollow. But we also have started to watch our October-themed movies as well. And why not? We have so many, almost like Christmas movies, actually. Daddy has ordered one from Disney that should be here soon - Madison will like that a lot.
So that was today. A lot of rest and recovery for Mommy. KidPak was wonderful this morning, a great ending to our series that literally featured a clip of our heroes riding off into the sunset. We're looking forward to the next series, which we still have quite a bit of work to get towards. But it will be pretty awesome too...
Madison enjoyed the service, taking the usual large quantity of notes. In this service, we were following the "Path of God," as shown in the movie "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." Each one of the three tests at the end of that movie parallel three points in the message today, all leading to an evangelistic sort of point about delivering salvation and healing to others. It was a new message, one we came up with on a Wednesday night during our "Excalibur" series, but it fit so well here that we tacked in on at the end.
It's Labor Day weekend, and while we would usually be out and about with adventures to museums or apple orchards or wherever, today we stayed at home to rest and recover. Mommy is doing better, although still in considerable pain. Taking into account it was less than a week ago that such a huge incision was made in her abdomen, it is not unreasonable to assume this may take another week or so to heal up to a point that she's more functional. Presently, she's doing a lot of resting and sleeping, this mostly because of the medication she takes to offset the pain. But her spirits are up. One one hand, you would be tempted to be disheartened by the frequent fatigue and so forth. But she knows it takes time, and she knows she'll be okay, and she knows there is no colostomy bag in the future.
This was such a certainty at one point. It is difficult to describe just what an amazing moment it was when Dr. Lewis came out to explain what was going on. Here's a letter I sent out to a few of the guys a bit ago, thanking them, and trying to explain as well:
Hey there,
First, thanks for your thoughts, prayers and positive vibes concerning my wife and her recent surgery. And although the two of us are still discussing what a positive vibe actually IS, the fact is that we're currently resting at home now in a state of gratitude.
We had somewhat of a miracle in the hospital. It's not quite one of those 'doctors scratching their heads looking at where a large tumor used to be' moments, but it's fairly close to that, at least in our eyes. There was a pre-cancerous polyp with signs of dysplasia (which honestly would be an incredible rock band name). This was formerly located towards the end of her colon, which had already been re-sectioned once in 2006 (to remove the colon cancer tumor).
As there was nothing much left there to re-section, our prospect was life with a colostomy bag. Which, of course, is better than a short life with cancer. But still, it isn't something one aspires to have intentionally.
ANYWAY, the day of surgery arrives, and I really have to say our prayers were answered. The polyp wasn't where it was thought to be. This was one of those things that was stuck to the side wall of the intestine, its location marked from the colonoscopy visit a few weeks ago. And somehow, the polyp was found geographically the farthest place away it could be away from there: her left elbow.
No, actually, it was found at the START of her large intestine, where the small intestine ends. The polyp was still pre-cancerous and still with dysplasia (which is still a great rock band name). And therefore, we still had to do the re-sectioning of the intestines. I say 'we' as if I were there as an advisor or something. But here's the point: it was in such a different place that we don't have to have a colostomy bag.
The bottom line is this: she is healing. She has a huge scar across her stomach, as there was a big incision and a few smaller incisions. And while she has a frankentummy, she does NOT have a colostomy bag. And for that, we're grateful. Grateful to God, grateful for our friends and their prayers - and yes, I suppose even grateful for all the positive vibes too.
-d
The 'positive vibe' reference was something we were having fun with quite a bit during our hospital stay. Perhaps that terminology is used to so that it will seem different. It seems as if one is going WAY out of their way to express the simple 'thoughts and prayers' comments that you typically would get.
Anyway, the point is, Mommy is recovering. Daddy reads to her from this historical book about Washington Irving and the region of Sleepy Hollow. But we also have started to watch our October-themed movies as well. And why not? We have so many, almost like Christmas movies, actually. Daddy has ordered one from Disney that should be here soon - Madison will like that a lot.
So that was today. A lot of rest and recovery for Mommy. KidPak was wonderful this morning, a great ending to our series that literally featured a clip of our heroes riding off into the sunset. We're looking forward to the next series, which we still have quite a bit of work to get towards. But it will be pretty awesome too...
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