Surgery Update

My Mother' surgery went very well yesterday and I appreciate all of your prayers so much. She was in surgery for about 3 hours --the doctor was able to move her stomach back down where it should be and close the hole in the esophagus. When he went to move the spleen down, it was attached to the stomach and it began to bleed profusely and he had to remove her spleen. He said that many people survive fine without a spleen, but it does lower your resistance to infection. She had to be given vaccines for "everything" to help her be able to fight off infections.

I left her around 10:30 last night and she had just been moved to a private room and was still feeling pretty well. She was not having very much pain at that time because prior to the surgery they had given her an epidural to help with about 80% of the pain following surgery. She was also well-equiped with her "lifeline", as the nurse called it --the button for the morphine drip.

My Mother had the most wonderful doctor. He came into her room right before taking her to surgery and prayed the sweetest prayer, calling on the name of Jesus to guide his hands and his mind. After he finished I told him how refreshing that was to hear him pray for her and how rare that is anymore to find a doctor willing to do that and he said, "Well, I can't do anything unless HE helps me!" WOW! I wanted to shout!

Faith and I are headed back to NC after lunch today and will be home later this evening.

Thank you all again for your prayers thus far and please continue to pray for my Mother as I am sure she will have some difficult days ahead of her.