THIS POST WAS MEANT FOR THE MIDDLE OF OCTOBER.
To say that the last few weeks have been a little crazy is to say it lightly. You may have kept up one or another, and I wanted to say thank you to so many of you who have prayed for us. It has been a trying few weeks.
We were putting lotion on the babies when Jeanne-Ann noticed a lump on Nyah's chest. We called the doctor and got in the next morning. He sent us to Portland to Doernbecher Children's Hospital.
They did surgery on her to remove the benign tumor. It had some technical term that basically meant she was OK. We were told there would be some swelling, but the swelling grew and grew and got to be the size of her previous tumor. We brought her back in and she had another surgery to remove that.
Instead of sewing her up they decided to let it heal from the inside out. Warning: the next part is nasty, so feel free to skip to the next paragraph. They put gauze inside of her wound and sent us home for a few days. Turns out that when we returned she was not ready and they told us we would need to change out the gauze in 2 days. That meant we would have to take off the bandage, pull out the gauze from inside her, take a Qtip and jam more gauze inside her gaping wound! Neither Jeanne-Ann nor I could handle even the thought of that. I inadvertently saw her wide open wound and almost lost my dinner. Just writing about it now is making me sick. Thankfully our neighbor is a paramedic and he came over and did it for us. (thanx Ben!)
In the middle of these procedures I went and saw my doctor about my shoulder. You may recall That I tore my rotator cuff and went through 4+ months of physical therapy and got a cortisone shot before I left for Ethiopia this summer. I only progressed to about 65% or so. I knew Jeanne-Ann's insurance was running out at the end of September and if I was going to have surgery it would be wonderful to be double covered.
So my doctor looked at me and said we needed to do surgery. This was a Thursday. I told him about the insurance, which was a week and a day away. I also told him that I was leading a youth pastor retreat that next Thursday. He laughed and said, "You don't have to be at that retreat do you?" haha. Yes! I was leading it. So we set up surgery for the Wednesday before.
My dear friend Michelle took me to the surgery center and picked me up too, as Jeanne-Ann had 4 children to take care of. She was there when they pulled out the clippers. I said, "I don't really have any hair on my shoulder. What do you need that for?" They shaved half my chest (not a massive difference...haha) and then they lifted up my arm and shaved my armpit. As soon as they lifted my arm I began to giggle. I couldn't stop laughing. Then when they shaved I laughed even harder. The whole time Michelle is laughing along with me. She may have some video evidence of that, I am not 100% sure.
What I do have video evidence of is right after surgery in the recovery room. Meesh thought it would be fun to video that experience. I don't remember any of this, except for having watched it several times.
Next thing I know, I am sort of awake and being walked to the car.
There is so much that happened after that I honestly don't want to bore you with a super long post, so I will just hit a few highlights (or lowlights).
* On the way home I semi-recall asking Michelle to hold my hand because it was so cold and her hand was so warm. (she is a good friend...haha)
* I had a nerve block on my arm so I could have cut my finger off and wouldn't have felt it. In the middle of the night I threw up from the drugs and my arm fell out of the sling and scared me. I screamed because I didn't know whose arm it was.
* On the way to the retreat I had to puke. Brian pulled over and I said, "I don't remember having pineapple."
* I fell asleep leading worship (standing up)
* I fell asleep at dinner and Byron took a picture of me with my phone and set it as my background
* My friend Brian bailed me out at the retreat by playing guitar (I thought I would be able to) and sooooo much more!
* I puked many times on the last day when my nausea pills ran out (sorry, no pics for that...haha)
* On the way home I could not lift my head up with out feeling like I was going to puke
* I got home and slept for a few hours and my friend Steve came and picked me up to take me to Fox Island where I would preach 2 times the next morning. (more on that in another post, perhaps)
* I spoke at an event the following weekend
* We prepared for saying good-bye to some of our dearest friends in the world, Josh, Bex and Mercy, as they made their move to Fox Island. (this was very difficult)
There is so much more, but this may be one of my longest posts and I just need to post it. Thanx for bearing with me. I am a blogger, and I love to blog. This being said, I will continue to strive to post more.
Again, thank you for praying for us during this time. How can I pray for you?
To say that the last few weeks have been a little crazy is to say it lightly. You may have kept up one or another, and I wanted to say thank you to so many of you who have prayed for us. It has been a trying few weeks.
We were putting lotion on the babies when Jeanne-Ann noticed a lump on Nyah's chest. We called the doctor and got in the next morning. He sent us to Portland to Doernbecher Children's Hospital.
They did surgery on her to remove the benign tumor. It had some technical term that basically meant she was OK. We were told there would be some swelling, but the swelling grew and grew and got to be the size of her previous tumor. We brought her back in and she had another surgery to remove that.
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| She is soooo cute, I just want to eat her up! |
In the middle of these procedures I went and saw my doctor about my shoulder. You may recall That I tore my rotator cuff and went through 4+ months of physical therapy and got a cortisone shot before I left for Ethiopia this summer. I only progressed to about 65% or so. I knew Jeanne-Ann's insurance was running out at the end of September and if I was going to have surgery it would be wonderful to be double covered.
So my doctor looked at me and said we needed to do surgery. This was a Thursday. I told him about the insurance, which was a week and a day away. I also told him that I was leading a youth pastor retreat that next Thursday. He laughed and said, "You don't have to be at that retreat do you?" haha. Yes! I was leading it. So we set up surgery for the Wednesday before.
My dear friend Michelle took me to the surgery center and picked me up too, as Jeanne-Ann had 4 children to take care of. She was there when they pulled out the clippers. I said, "I don't really have any hair on my shoulder. What do you need that for?" They shaved half my chest (not a massive difference...haha) and then they lifted up my arm and shaved my armpit. As soon as they lifted my arm I began to giggle. I couldn't stop laughing. Then when they shaved I laughed even harder. The whole time Michelle is laughing along with me. She may have some video evidence of that, I am not 100% sure.
What I do have video evidence of is right after surgery in the recovery room. Meesh thought it would be fun to video that experience. I don't remember any of this, except for having watched it several times.
Next thing I know, I am sort of awake and being walked to the car.
There is so much that happened after that I honestly don't want to bore you with a super long post, so I will just hit a few highlights (or lowlights).
* On the way home I semi-recall asking Michelle to hold my hand because it was so cold and her hand was so warm. (she is a good friend...haha)
* I had a nerve block on my arm so I could have cut my finger off and wouldn't have felt it. In the middle of the night I threw up from the drugs and my arm fell out of the sling and scared me. I screamed because I didn't know whose arm it was.
* On the way to the retreat I had to puke. Brian pulled over and I said, "I don't remember having pineapple."
* I fell asleep leading worship (standing up)
* I fell asleep at dinner and Byron took a picture of me with my phone and set it as my background
* My friend Brian bailed me out at the retreat by playing guitar (I thought I would be able to) and sooooo much more!
 |
| I couldn't pull my socks or shoes on myself. |
* On the way home I could not lift my head up with out feeling like I was going to puke
* I got home and slept for a few hours and my friend Steve came and picked me up to take me to Fox Island where I would preach 2 times the next morning. (more on that in another post, perhaps)
 |
| Me sitting in Josh's future office |
* I spoke at an event the following weekend
* We prepared for saying good-bye to some of our dearest friends in the world, Josh, Bex and Mercy, as they made their move to Fox Island. (this was very difficult)
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| The moving truck |
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| Kynzi & Karston left a message inside their house. |
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| Our last "we live here" meal together. |
There is so much more, but this may be one of my longest posts and I just need to post it. Thanx for bearing with me. I am a blogger, and I love to blog. This being said, I will continue to strive to post more.
Again, thank you for praying for us during this time. How can I pray for you?
4 comments:
Ah this post made me extremely happy! Seeing my big brother all loopty loo was AWEsome! Michelle, you are my hero for getting that on video. Can't wait to see all of you for xmas. Can't get here soon enough! -Nina
I just died laughing reading about your screaming because you didn't know who's arm it was...seriously, still giggling.
I just died laughing reading about your screaming because you didn't know who's arm it was....seriously, still giggling about that.
I'm with Jen. I can't stop laughing . . the arm, the "pineapple," the sleeping while leading worship . . . ah, friend. Miss you!
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