Valerie

Hi gang.

My dear wife Valerie had a dull pain bother her for several days. It takes a lot to get her in to a doctor, so when she was ready to go to Urgent Care Saturday morning, it was obviously serious.

God was good: good parking, got right in, got a great doctor who sent her right to the emergency room. Again, God was good: got right in, got a good doctor, got a cat scan scheduled; long wait there, but at 5pm the doctor told us she had appendicitis and they were working on contacting the surgeon.

Again, God was good. Surgery was scheduled for 6pm, a simple laparoscopic surgery, do it all the time, wouldn't take long, she might be out of the hospital Monday or Tuesday. I followed her to the recovery room, kissed her, and went to wait.

After a half-hour or so the doctor summoned me in, during the surgery. My heart sank. He was supposed to be coming to me in the waiting room, telling me everything had gone fine and I could come see her. This wasn't that. Prayed, steeled myself, walked in to the recovery room.

No Valerie, just the surgeon. It was complicated, I learned. The appendix was misshapen and large, and the colon was involved. The surgeon would have to use a standard incision and remove a small section of her colon to get the appendix and all. I asked the best questions I could think of, and OKed the procedure.

Miserable years later, after much praying and worrying and clinging to God, I got the waiting-room visit from the surgeon. Now he could tell me, though in a new context, that it had gone well. I was relieved and grateful to God; but I knew Valerie would not love to find she would have a longer hospital stay and longer recovery.

That was Saturday, it's now... what is it? Oh, Tuesday. Been mostly with my dear wife, spent a couple of nights in her room with her, have been with her basically all day each day. Valerie is doing terrifically well, considering, praise God. She's working through her painful recovery, in which progress seems glacially slow, but I know (and the nurses confirm) that she's really doing well, given the major surgery she had.

We've been blessed with terrific nurses, our dear family has been loving and caring and helpful as they could, or great pastor and church have been supportive and caring. Now we just need to get the heck out of Dodge and back home.

So, not much blogging, or much more from me.

I trust you'll understand.

UPDATE here.