March 6, 2008
Dear friends and family,
Trish is going to have surgery on Monday morning at 9am to remove a kidney stone, widen the tube that runs from the kidney, and take out a section of the tube. Since she is having surgery anyway, she will also have her gall bladder removed because a polyp was found. Hopefully this will all be done laparoscopically.
We just found out yesterday that all this would definitely need to be done and this morning about the date and time for the surgery. As many of you know, last July she had one of her kidneys removed, and so these things were found when she was having a now-routine checkup on her other kidney.
Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers,
Chris
March 10, 2008
Dear friends and family,
Trish's surgery was very successful. She went in at 8:30am and came out of surgery at 1:30pm. The doctor decided to not take the gall bladder out, and everything else went according to plan, including the laparascopy. She did need to go back under anaesthesia a few hours later because a tube running from the kidney to the bladder was not placed well and needed to be reinserted. She is currently in intensive care being closely monitored because there are questions about how well her kidney is functioning.
Amid the questions, at this point things look okay. Thank you for the outpouring of support, good wishes, thoughts, prayers, votive lightings, and the many ways that people have expressed care and solidarity with Trish (and the rest of the family). This has been so very gratefully received. If there are no significant changes, I will let you know how things progress in a few days.
Much peace,
Chris
March 12, 2008
Dear friends and family,
Yesterday, Trish moved from intensive care to her hospital room. The doctors have said that Trish's kidney is functioning well, and they are planning to release her tomorrow (Thursday). She will need to go back on Monday to have the drainage tube taken out and then again in four weeks to remove the tube from her kidney to bladder. Both should be outpatient procedures with local anaesthesia.
Unless there are significant changes, I will probably not write another mass email. But, I want to express again my, and our, gratitude for the outpouring of support, good wishes, thoughts, prayers. We are very grateful for the way that we have been accompanied in this.
Especially during times like this we remember how blessed we are to have such wonderful companions, and how fortunate we are to have adequate medical care and the health insurance to obtain it. These two things place us in the extreme minority globally and in a privileged group in the U.S. That we all might have what is necessary for our well-being both individually and communally.
Much peace,
Chris
March 31, 2008
Hi all,
I am now physically and emotionally ready to write you all and say THANK YOU, which really isn't enough, for all your thoughts, prayers, votives lit, and well wishes, individually and through being placed on church prayer lists, sent my way while I was in the hospital. After I returned home it took me a few days to go through all the e-mails, which I read through many, many tears. I was completely overwhelmed by all the love and concern that was shown me through this time. The day of the surgery and that night were the hardest times I've ever gone through, because of complications and a night in ICU, but you all helped me through it, as God's love was shown and demonstrated through you.
So after three weeks I continue on the road to recovery, still gathering strength and regaining the weight I lost, focusing on recovering especially now my breathing capacity. An indepth appointment with a nutritionist last week will help me prevent any recurrence of a kidney stone and maintain good kidney health, hopefully making this one last for the rest of my life. And in two weeks I'll have removed a catheter that leads from the kidney to the bladder, the last of my appointments for a while. And I'm emotionally recovering well, knowing I just need to take things as they come, and getting past the deep fear that I felt that things might go wrong and what would happen if they did. So please continue to pray for thorough, complete healing, physically and emotionally. Thank you for everything and for who you are.
Much peace,
Trish