Rescued!

It has been a good day. Thanks for your prayers and encouraging notes!

This morning we were able to have a 'homemade' breakfast at the Ronald McDonald house. They have an incredible kitchen set up, which gives us a lot of flexibility. What a huge blessing!

After breakfast, we headed over to the hospital. We decided to drive since we had things we would need to unload from the car. Tomorrow, I'm hoping to walk! We registered right away and visited radiology. The radiologist thought James' colon looked like it had grown some in the last several months, but the rest of his intestines 'looked pretty small'. I forgot to ask if there were any signs of blockage. Quietly I called out to the Lord, that He would rescue James and make a way for surgery... and that it would work.

Getting admitted to the hospital and getting to our room all worked pretty simply. Unfortunately, the emergency room here was very overloaded and the surgery resident and intern didn't have the order for James' bowel prep in by 6 p.m.! About 5:30 (I hadn't realized how time had passed), the nurse commented that if we didn't get the order soon, surgery might have to be moved from Wednesday! Well, that lit a fire under me and I started to make phone calls. Then I realized the surgeon's office was closed for the day! Yikes! I called the Nurse Practitioner we have worked with and left a voice mail. I started to call the answering service for the surgeon and then realized that if I answered the questions wrong, or the wrong surgeon was on call, I would get no help at all... "Oh Lord, here I am in my day of trouble! You promised if I called out to you, you would rescue me!" Just as I finished praying, my faith for this was so small, I had no idea how the Lord would work this one out. Just long enough to see my ugly doubt, and there was a knock at the door. Dr. Parker popped in... looking like he was fresh from vacation (he did just have an almost 4-day weekend!). Just in time, he got the orders in place, answered my main questions and chastised the intern and resident for not calling him and getting the orders in place. Thankfully, no harm was done to James and hopefully someone learned a valuable lesson!

Just another hour and a half of go-lytlely (they'll turn it off at midnight) and then he just needs to sleep for the night. They had hoped to be done by 9 p.m., but this gives James a little longer for drinking clears (he's eating homemade chicken broth as I type).

This afternoon, we met with one of the doctor's that run the pain team... All I can say is, "Why didn't they have a pain team for the last surgery!"... No... I'm so grateful they have come up with this idea! It's essentially an anesthesiology team that work to keep the children comfortable, especially after a painful surgery or procedure. The plan is, believe it or not, to use an epidural. The epidural enables the them to block the pain without slowing the gut. Dr. Li said that morphine will be available for breakthrough pain and that if the epidural works (there is a chance that it won't), James shouldn't need much morphine. This will allow him to get up and around. He won't be groggy and when his bowel sounds indicate he is ready, he will be able to drink and then eat. Please call upon the Lord with us and ask Him to bless this plan for His glory and James' sake.

So, tomorrow is the big day, some three years and 5 weeks after James got his ileostomy, he should get his take down.

Before then, we are hoping to get a good night's sleep. And I need to finish washing diapers!

"Call upon Me in the day of trouble. I will rescue you and you will glorify Me."