Like the blog title states: “Not as bad as I thought”

Thank you all for your prayers!  Your prayers were definitely felt and were a great encouragement as we faced what is new unchartered territory for us.  I’m feeling better than expected and we are praising the Lord for the initial report that shows no cancer in the lymph nodes!  We are still amazed and blessed how the Lord orchestrated every detail to bring everything together in a week’s time.  As one of the technicians told us, it was unusual that we were able to get everything done in a week.  It is quite obvious that our Father was working out the details!!

Friday ended up being a very long day; we were at the hospital at 9am and left around 8pm to head home.  Each procedure leading up to surgery went well.  It was around 2pm when they started prepping me for surgery and probably around 4pm when I was returned to my outpatient room to recover.

As Dan waited for me to come out of surgery my surgeon came and spoke with him.  He said that everything went well and that there was no cancer in the initial testing of the lymph nodes.  This is a huge answer to prayer and we trust the Lord that the pathology reports show this too.  As an interesting side note; you always wonder if you have been directed to a good doctor; you obviously trust the Lord to place you in the hands of the best doctor.  When my surgeon came to see Dan there was another man in the waiting room whom the surgeon interacted with on a professional level.  After he left the room this man told Dan that my surgeon is one of the nicest doctors and that doctors send their family members to this surgeon.  Just another confirmation among the many from this past week that we are in the right medical hands, although we already know we are in the greatest Physician’s hands of all, our Lord and Savior. 

It took me almost 4 hours to recover enough from the anesthetic to be allowed to go home.  I wasn’t fully awake but it was a blessing to finally get home to give hugs and kisses to the kids before they headed to bed. 

What I am experiencing from the surgery is more discomfort than pain.  I think all the tape that was stuck on me was more uncomfortable than the incisions and stitches themselves.  The discomfort I’m feeling is more like pulled muscles from trying to lift too much weight.  Like the surgeon said, this surgery would be nothing like my hip surgery and it wasn’t. 

We are praising the Lord for a successful surgery and a good report.  I am scheduled to meet with the surgeon on March 30 when we will discuss treatment and all that goes along with that.  I will keep you posted on what the next steps are.

Thanks again for your love and prayers!