Dear Friends & Family,
May 25
Dear Friends & Family,
Karen again had a great night last night, and a good day today. Using the icepack at onset does more good than any painkiller, seeming to "short-circuit" the pain cycle and reducing both the severity and length of the attack. Severity is reduced to perhaps 20% of what had been obtained, and length seems to be cut roughly in half, and this is without any painkillers at all.
We had our GYN appointment today, and I got to read the actual CAT scan report. Quite different from the very reassuring news that the ER Dr. had given us on Sunday. The mass is 0.3 cm larger than at last sono, but since the imaging method is different, this may not be significant. More concerning, there IS evidence of subseptation, meaning something like the membranes between the bites of your morning grapefruit. Septation is a concern because it means, not a simple fluid cyst, and so all the old worries come crashing back down, including the need to remove it SOON, and the need to make a LARGE incision to get the cantaloupe-sized thing out without spilling it. The thing also is indeed mobile, being at the time of the CAT scan out of the pelvic area and up near the mid-abdomen, and low in the pelvic area today. No torsions or results of torsions noted on the scan -- about the only good news that came out of the scan, besides lymph nodes not being involved.
"Soon" means Thursday, 12 noon, taking about an hour and a half. Dr. G will cut w/ Dr. W assisting, w/ Dr. M on standby in case they find complicated involvement beyond the ovary or uterus.
This leads to a lot of action at home, preparing Paul's stuff for a short stay w/ Rachel, who is the only ad hoc source for food for him, since he absolutely refuses a bottle even though it contains Karen's good milk. Rachel he does not turn down, however, and she has enough for LaRue and Paul, and is good enough to offer that essential service. THANKS, Rachel - truly we don't know where we'd be without you!!!
Karen, whose mood had been pretty good, is cast into a strange miasma of conflicting emotions, expressed as feeling "out of sorts". On the one hand, she's been saying all along she doesn't want this "thing", she wants it gone, but OTOH she is patently very upset about the surgery. Family friends have gone in for simple procedures and come out paralyzed due to hot stapha & hospital pneumonia, or had to stay for long periods in ICU due to staph, and other such hazards.
So, we need your prayers, AGAIN...Karen needs to have courage and trust the Lord's provision, just as we have (increasingly!) for all our married life. Obviously we need for things to go smoothly Thursday, with no staph or any other biologicals to be introduced into her during the cutting. And although they are going forward without consideration of the finances (at this point, anyway), we DO need for the process for application and approval for financial assistance to not hit any (more) bumps.
Tomorrow we get up early for pre-surgery lab work.
Love,
--Steve
Rachel's Notes:
I talked to Karen a bit ago. Esther especially was missing her and a bit blue, so I let all of them say hello and good night to their Moma and they were all smiling afterwards. Karen seemed in slightly better spirits after chatting with all her kiddos. She has enjoyed the peace and quiet and getting lots of sleep - but really misses the kids. I've had Bethie since Paul was born (except weekends), and I started keeping Katie and Matthew a couple of extra days to work on schoolwork, a month or so ago.
Katie seems to be taking things in stride. She's enjoying being up here with the animals and having more help to keep track of her siblings. While she is here, she is assigned to Esther and Marriana. Since we usually have left Esther with Karen, usually she just has Marriana. We've been working on finishing up school, which fell by the wayside back at Thanksgiving after our big accident. She has a lot riding on those 12 year old shoulders though when she is at home.
Bethie enjoys being outside and the animals, so she loves it up here. She hangs out with Vannan and has become Vannan's permanent shadow. As a tall 7 year old, she is capable of getting into a lot of things. We aren't sure just what she understands or thinks of everything going on. Vannan says she has had nighmares several nights - we don't know if it's related or not.
Matthew doesn't say much. He enjoys Joel's toys and hanging out with the boys. He's thrown up several different times. Wondering if it's stress as Katie use to throw up every time she got too stressed out or had a really long day. Overall, he's doing pretty good for a little 5 year old.
Esther is working through feeling displaced by Paul. She's 2 and rapidly approaching 3. She seems a bit lost in the woodwork at times - but mostly, she's doing pretty good. We're working on finishing up her potty training, which has mostly been hit and miss. She's been doing pretty good. She's a sweet girl and doing much better than I thought she would.
If all goes well, I'll only have Paul the one day, and he'll be back with Karen that evening. We assume the best.
I'll be keeping the little ones right through the weekend - Karen will be just home from surgery, and Daddy, Tim, and I agree that she needs to rest and not have the little ones to care for so quickly. Then the following Friday, we will take the kids home, if Karen is doing ok, and they can have some Mommy and Daddy family time. We'll pick them back up sometime between Saturday morning and Sunday after evening church - depending on how Karen is doing at that time.
I do plan to bring all 4 of them back up here that week, and again they will go home for the weekend. After that, we'll see. My thoughts at this time is to give Karen 4 - 6 weeks like this to get back on her feet and be able to sort through neglected chores.
She says that if anybody wants to help out - what they NEED is housework - vacuuming, sweeping, mopping the kitchen, quick tidy up of the bathrooms. Karen isn't able to do much of it at all and hasn't for weeks. Katie has done her best, but with 3 little ones to also watch, she just hasn't been able to do everything that Karen can do.
Our church has been great helping out with helping us keep the kids fed up here this week. This has relieved Steve of trying to buy and send up extra groceries as he has been doing, and he can focus on Karen and her needs. What a blessing the pizza, lunch foods, and fruits, and a big ham have been. It takes a lot of food to feed 9 growing children!
My Dad has been wonderful too - as he has 5 little girls sleeping at his house. He's gotten up with them a few times too, Bethie has been known to wander around at night. I've got 4 here with me - it's all the beds I've got!
Thanks to all who have been praying for us all.
No comments:
Post a Comment