Day After Surgery Update

I am Kerri's mom doing the update for her while she is at the hospital. Overnight, they had difficulty managing Jason's pain. This morning, the doctor ordered some medication given through a pump. Jason is able to control the amount and give himself a dose every twenty minutes. We have been told that today should be the worst as far as pain goes and are anticipating some improvement over the next day or two. Jason can tell that the area of inflamation and infection is better and that the pain is just from surgery. Continue to pray for the children as they still have signs of a stomach virus.

After Surgery Update

I am Kerri's mom doing an update for her, since she is spending the night at the hospital. The surgery went better than expected. They removed 18 inches of his intestines. There was no need for a nose tube. However, they are having trouble controlling his pain since he is allergic to morphine. Their most immediate prayer needs are for pain management and quick healing. His pain level is staying at a 9 on a scale of 1-10. One major blessing that happened today is that some men from their church replaced their old hot water heater. The new one was donated anonymously.

Surgery Morning Update

We will be leaving for surgery in the next thirty minutes or so. As of this morning, Jason has no signs of stomach virus and I think I am over it (or mostly over it), as well. The kids are still having a few problems, but seem to be feeling much better. Please continue to pray for their healing and for my mother's protection from this virus as she watches them today.

The surgery will be at 1pm. Please cover both Jason and the doctor in prayer during the procedure. It is expected to last two to three hours or so. I will update when I can. Thank you for your prayers.

Stomach Virus Update

Now all three of the dc and mommy have the stomach virus. "Meanie" and mommy seem to have a lighter case, and we pray that it stays that way. "Eenie" is the sickest, and "Miney" seems to have only a small amount of trouble remaining. Thank you for your prayers. At this point, Jason is quarantined back in the bedroom and doesn't seem to be showing any signs of trouble. He is still in quite a bit of pain with his diverticulitis, but the virus seems to have stayed away. I am feeling better this evening than I did earlier today. Praise God for my mother in law who came to my house today and scrubbed carpets and disinfected everything she could get her hands on, plus did laundry and other miscellaneous household tasks while I rested and attended to the children. My mother in law is awesome :-)

Please Pray!!

Please pray for our entire family. My oldest and youngest are in the throes of a full blown stomach virus and my middle is complaining his tummy hurts too. Pray for *Jason's protection* from this virus both before and after the procedure. Also, it would be nice if I could avoid it, as well, so that I can be with him during his surgery and recovery. Now back to scrubbing carpets :-0

I also would like to ask your continued prayers for our surgeon, Dr. Hemric. We have appreciated his approach more than other doctor since Jason became sick. Pray for his strength and healing and for God's divine wisdom and grace to rest upon him in the days ahead.

Housekeeping

We are cautiously optimistic about Jason's surgery on Monday. We hate to be too excited after what happened last time ;-) I am going to touch up my house and catch up my laundry over the weekend. Fortunately, the meals that were prepped last week (when the surgery was Jan 30th) are still available. Jason hasn't felt much like eating big meals--just soups and light things, and the kids and I have been eating sandwiches and Ramen noodles. I'm glad that we don't have to do the meals over again. That would have been a big chore :-0 I reconfirmed our babysitters last night and bought a few grocery items yesterday, so it appears that even though the surgery is two days away, that I won't have to overdo it this weekend. I'm glad :-) I'm so tired. We are still basking in God's love that He Himself went before us to get this surgery scheduled. I talked to our surgeon's nurse assistant yesterday, and she said that when Dr. Hemric told her that he would reschedule surgeries for Monday afternoon, she thought about Jason immediately. She really promoted Jason's case to the doctor, and thankfully, he agreed.

Surgery Monday, Lord Willing

Our day started off not so well--Miney spent all night throwing up and we had a mountain of nasty bedding to wash :-0 I loaded up and went to the laundry mat this morning, because our large comforter doesn't even fit in our washing machine. I hate laundry mats, but took the opportunity to write some thank you notes and read a little. After that I went grocery shopping and came home.

This afternoon, we received the news that the surgeon we really like (Dr. Hemric) has rescheduled Jason's surgery for Monday at 1pm. He will spend the weekend prepping again. Our surgeon will not have his own procedure on his heart until next Friday, so he is working a light schedule. Jason's surgery is the only surgery he is doing Monday. He will be working with an assistant surgeon (for those of you who may be concerned), but at the same time, we would appreciate you covering him in prayer.

Hopefully, things will go smoothly this time. Please pray for our family to be protected from the tummy bug that Miney might have had--especially for Jason's protection. We are praising God for fighting this battle for us, and Lord willing, we hope that the surgery is the beginning of Jason feeling much better.