The Big Day

I am so excited to tell you how Friday went down - Friday, as in two days ago.  You'll never believe it, or may be you will because you understand how God intervenes at certain times in our lives and shows His stuff.

Last week was a busy one for us at the hospital.  We went for blood work for Kylie on Tuesday, then an MRI for her on Wednesday and then surgery for Ethan on Friday.  In regards to the MRI, the doc wanted to take a look at Kylie's foot, since it has been over a year of antibiotics now.  She said that if it was (and I quote) "perfect, PERFECT" then they'd pull the PICC line and she'd be done.  I have to admit that I was pretty skeptical that we'd come anywhere near perfect, PERFECT.

Ethan's surgery was actually booked for next Friday, March 28th, which is also the day that Nate is flying out to return to Togo.  It would've been a crazy day, but I didn't want to post-pone Ethan's knee surgery at all.  Then last week, the doc's office called and asked if we'd be willing to bump it up a week and we jumped at it.  This is just the beginning of all the cool stuff that happened.

We arrived at the hospital at 8 am to get all checked in and signed everything for the surgery.  They took us into the children's day surgery ward and it was like a fun house!

Here's Ethan playing X-box:

A little pre-op foose-ball!

 Within an hour or so, our surgeon came in and said that she was hopeful that she could remove the chunk of bone in his knee by using a scope. If that wasn't going to work, she would open up his knee and take out the bone that way.  But either way it was coming out.  We were all hoping that she wouldn't have to open it up so that Eth's recovery could be much quicker.  She explained the procedure, signed his leg with a sharpie and then as she was about to leave, she stopped and said, "And we need to talk about Kylie!"

She proceeded to tell us the MRI was indeed excellent.  Can you say MIRACLE??

At those words, my eyes filled with tears. Then she told us that unfortunately when Kylie got her blood work done on Tuesday, they didn't draw enough for all the required tests, so if we could get more blood drawn and it looked good, then the doc could order the PICC line removal.

I jumped at that and asked her if Nate could go and get Kylie right now, could we have the blood work done and then maybe pull the PICC today.  She thought that was a pretty good idea!

Nate dashed off right then to go get Kylie.  Ethan and I just waited another hour or so, hanging out together on his gurney.

I told him to move over on his gurney so I could lie down too.

A few minutes later, the nurses took Ethan away and off he went to surgery.  I packed up our stuff and  left the ward to sit in the waiting room.  As I sat there, I figured that Nate and Kylie should be back soon, so I went down to the floor where she gets her blood drawn.  As I came around the corner from the elevators, Kylie and Nate were just walking in.  We went down the hall to the unit, and the nurse told us that we made it by the skin of our teeth - they were closing in three minutes.  Kylie got the blood work drawn and we headed back up to the surgical waiting area.

Just waiting for blood work....and forced to wear yucky masks.

The surgeon told us that it takes a few hours to get results, but that the lab would call her in the OR, she'd call her secretary to let her know if the blood work was good, the secretary would call the nursing unit (if results were good) and then she'd come find us in the hospital and take us to the unit and have the PICC removed.  It sounded rather impossible.

About two hours after Ethan went in, the surgeon came out and told us that everything had gone super in the OR.  She was able to remove the bone with the scope and it was bigger than she first thought.  It was over 3 cm long but almost just as wide and it was right at the front of his knee.  (No wonder the kid could never kneel without pain!) She also said that while she was in there she took a peek at the end of his femur to see how the rod was doing.  Turns out it was almost completely encased in bone, so there was/is no point in trying to remove it.  

(On a side note, this particular surgeon was just in Ecuador two weeks before and she worked along side a man who went around to the hospitals in the country teaching them the SIGN nail procedure, so she was able to ask him a bunch of questions about Ethan's particular case. Isn't that super cool?)

She also said that she was still waiting on blood test results but as soon as she heard, she'd find us and let us know.

About twenty minutes later, they came and got me to go into recovery to see Ethan. 

Somebody just woke up!

After a few minutes, I left so that Nate could come in and see him.

Which one is on more drugs??

Ethan woke up really well (he just kept repeating the word yippee, yippee) and they moved him out of recovery and into the day surgery unit.  Within a few minutes, our surgeon's secretary (one of the sweetest women I know) came to tell us that Kylie's blood work was perfect and that she had set up for PICC line removal in a unit on another floor.

Ethan was in good condition reading his Louis L'amour book, so we left him in the hands of the nurses on the surgical floor and took off downstairs to get Kylie taken care of!  

I don't know who is more excited!!

Prepping for the removal.

Kylie was so excited, as were Nate and I.  The nurses prepped her arm, and then with one quick pull, out it came! Kylie didn't even feel it.

Saying good bye.

And...it's out!! Hooray!

The ugly little beast.

The nurses had to put pressure on the site for about five minutes, so I left Kylie and Nate there and took off to the surgical floor to see Ethan. 

When I got there, he'd already been seen by the physiotherapist, was fully dressed, including socks and shoes and was just waiting for a wheel chair.  I loaded up all our bags, and helped him get into the wheel chair.  I was just turning him around to start heading out the door and Kylie and Nate appeared in the door way.  We left that surgical floor skipping down the halls!

I don't know if you can fully understand by reading this (and also not being there) how crazy this was.  We were with Ethan in surgery on the second floor, then down on the first floor with Kylie, then back up with Ethan on the second floor, then back down on the first floor with Kylie, then back up on the second - you get the point.  The entire day was so impossibly co-ordinated in it's timing that it could ONLY ONLY ONLY have been handed to us by our Father in Heaven.  No hospital this size could ever co-ordinate and plan and schedule the timing of all these things.  Neither Nate nor I missed a single important moment in the lives of our kids.  It was, honestly, so incredible.

And the fact that we have this sense of being finished with this is such a relief.  Even Kylie said that she felt a big weight lifted - and not just the weight on her back of a pump and a full bag of IV meds in her back pack, but a weight of, of a burden.  Always having to be aware of the line, of timing of meds, of changing the bags, of so many things.  And now it's just vanished.  The stress of it all is gone.  It's over.  

It brings tears to my eyes and the feeling of gratitude fills me when I think that God, in His wisdom, gave us this day.  A day that we had prayed for (as had many of you, hundreds of times) and received.   To finally arrive at a time when we feel that we are almost, if not fully, on the other side of all these health concerns.  To think that we may be able to close this chapter on our lives for real.  What a gift.

And to you who are reading and prayed - a thousand thank-you's for hanging in there with us over the last year and a bit.

One more thing:  the day of Ethan's surgery and Kylie's PICC line removal was exactly ONE year from the day of Kylie's surgery last year.  How's that for amazing timing?

Okay, okay, one more little other really important thing:  God is faithful.  He really is.