Good Morning Sunshine

 Sunday 1/30

It was a good night. She was able to get some decent sleep. She was only up twice to use the bathroom and take some meds. Unfortunately, one of the meds needs to be taken at 1 am.

We are looking forward to watching service online and enjoying the presence of God!

The rest of her day will include her walks, resting, walking, resting, walking, resting some more. Resting and doing nothing is not one her strengths. But she has no choice in the matter. 

We pray everyone has a blessed time in service today!

Let's Get Outta This Joint

 Saturday 1/29

I was finally able to bust her loose from the Hospital! They took the IV out, some other monitoring things (less cables for her!), and gave her a shower. Things were a little bit of a challenge getting into and out of the vehicle. That was not fun. The rental place we have is a much better place to recuperate. 

As I was driving in last night, there was a mama deer with two babies that were just on the other side of the fence. 

There is a much more comfortable recliner for her to relax in. There is still some pain, but she is a trooper and just relaxing allowing God to heal her. Some of the swelling on her right side is a little better already. The doctor said that it is 95% common with this surgery to get some initial swelling because of the length of the surgery. It will normally absorb into your body and be removed when going to the bathroom.

We are both thankful for this place and how peaceful feeling it is. There is a nice stone walkway around it that she will be doing her laps tomorrow. Sunday temp is supposed be a high of 68 and sunny. For all our northern friends and family, we are not trying to rub it in at all. We are just thankful for the warmth to be able to walk around in. She needs to walk at least five times a day for 15 minutes each.

Day 3

Saturday 1/29

Tammy had a good night. She was able to get some sleep. She was up for a walk this morning already. Doctor will visit this morning and we should find out when she can be discharged.

Little baby steps of progress. She is excited to get discharged. They will help her take a shower, which should go a long way to help her feel better.

I am checking out of the hotel today and moving to the VRBO house. I think the change of location will be a big step for her.

Day 2

 Friday 1/28

Today was a good day. She was up doing three laps around the floor. Throughout the day. Her pain was a up a little bit, but they say that is normal as everything gets out of her system. The reconstructed area is doing great. 

Being in a hospital is just not a fun place to be. The staff here are awesome. 

Tammy of course thinks that she should be running the halls. I have to keep reminding her that she has been out of surgery for less than a day. 

Every day is a step closer to feeling better.

Doctor visit

 Friday 1/28 8:15 am

The doctor was just in doing a check-up. She said everything looks really good. This was a PA that was In the OR yesterday. She said that this was a common time for this specific type of surgery. There are monitors over the flaps that were transplanted from her legs. The readings are really good. 😁 

Most likely she will be discharged tomorrow. We have a VRBO in a quiet area, so that should be awesome for the next week to recover.

She is sitting and eating some breakfast, which should hopefully help her with strength and be able to walk some.

Please continue to pray for strength, swelling to go down, and pain to remain low.

Recovery day .5

 Friday 1/28

This morning they got her out of bed and into the chair. Praise God that her pain level is low. She has been taking Tylenol for pain. This is an amazing part of the pain protocol they use called ERAS. That was one reason we chose these doctors.

She is texting, drinking water, and waiting for breakfast.

Recovery Begins

Thursday 1/27 10:03 pm

She made it up to her room last night. Surgery turned into a total of almost 11 hours. Praise God for His protection.

In typical Tammy fashion she was saying “sorry” about everything. Part her and part the lingering affects of the anesthesia. I told the nurses to keep track of how many times she says “sorry” and she owes $.25 for each one.

Tammy of course was more concerned about how the surgeon was away from his family, the nurses, and me. She tried to kick me out right away. It was great to see her again last night.

Surgery Updates

 Thursday 1/27

8:37 am 

They wheeled Tammy off to surgery. The OR nurse wheeled her away. The nurse, Ashley, has been working there for over 9 years. She said all of the doctors in the practice are just amazing. The other intake nurse said if she had family or friends that needed this surgery, she would have them come here and go to these doctors. 

Now it is just time to wait. Surgery should be scheduled for around 8 hours. It could take longer or go shorter. We are just trusting God! As I drove out of the ramp, it was special as this is the first morning since we arrived that the sky was clear and the sun was shining.

11:35 am

OR nurse called and said things are going good. She will call again in three hours with the next update.

2:39 pm

Ashley called again with the same message. Things are going good. No estimated time when they will be completed.

4:38 pm

Ashley just called again. They are still going, things are going well, but still no time for when they will be finished. I asked her when the next call would be. She said by 6:30 pm. Ugh. Not exactly what I thought she was going to say. Of course after I hung up the phone, the devil hopped on my shoulder and started to whisper away in my ear. I was driving and had to pull over to pray. Felt much better after that.

A very special friend was once dealing with a difficult time. God gave me some simple words that totally helper them (because it was from God). The toothless lion is just roaring in the bushes. Those words have ministered to me so many times since then, even though they were for someone else. I always have a vision from Lion King cartoon of Scar. This sickly, old lion but with out teeth. While he can roar, that is all he can do. It is such a comfort knowing that God is in control.

Let’s Get This Party Started

Thursday 1/27

In true Tammy fashion, she showed her funny side this morning. Her words before we left the hotel when I asked her how she was doing: “Let’s get this party started.”

We both did not sleep well last night. We were able to pray this morning. Nothing better than starting the day off talking with Jesus. 

We made it to the hospital, checked in, and are now in preop.

The Day Before

 Wednesday 1/26

Today was an off day for us. No appointments, just a day together before surgery tomorrow. We were able to sleep in, which was nice. After breakfast we enjoyed an amazing time in prayer talking to our amazing Jesus. We were both so thankful for this time.

So what do you do if you have a full day in San Antonio (or any place for that matter)? Well you go visit your friendly Ikea of course. Well at least Tammy and Bryan did. We were looking for a low cost pillow case for Tammy's pillow for use at the hospital. While we did not find one, we enjoyed a slow, leisurely stroll through the store. It is fun to see the different layouts and displays. Of course there were a number of babies with their mom's that we could make faces at as they walked by. 

A quick trip to Target to get a couple of last items, lunch at Chick-Fil-A, and then we headed off to take a nice hike at a local park. This was in the Hill Country of San Antonio. We ended up on a nice 3.5 mile hike. About 1.5 miles of this was on some very step and interesting trails. Once we went up, then down, then way back up, things kind of leveled out. Needless to say we realized how out of shape we are. Weather was a perfect temp with clouds to take a hike. We enjoyed the time in outdoors alone. While we were walking at a normal pace, there were of course two different people that were in great shape running up trail. We both agreed that there is definitely wisdom with age. At least it made us feel better!

Tammy got stuff packed for the hospital, we made final document checks, face-timed with Sarah and then off to bed.

Tomorrow calls very early. We will be at the hospital at 6:30 am. Surgery is scheduled to start at 8:30 am and lasts around eight hours. It could go a little less or longer. 

We both felt such peace today. We know it is from all the prayers. Thank you every one who is lifting us up in prayer.

       For the record, we did NOT plan to match.

                        

                        Very different types of trees in TX

Cleared for take-off

Tuesday 1/25 

We had a final visit with the surgeon to review the surgery, answer any final questions or concerns, and final documents. Next she had to take a final Covid test. A double swap in the nose. The lady taking the sample said it would really tickle and as you drive away people normally have to sneeze. Sure enough, it tickled bad and she sneezed as we drove away. Results will not be ready until after 10 pm. Ugh, waiting can be such a hard thing to do. Patience is a virtue, but it never says it is easy.

We decided to go play tourist for the rest of the day. We headed down to the San Antonio River Walk. Weather was sunny and in the 60's. Well, in typical Bryan and Tammy fashion, we show up the one week of the year it was closed for cleaning. They had the river drained and large sections of the walk closed for repairs. Many of the restaurants were closed, so we went for a nice walk. We ended up by the Alamo for a quick picture. 

Later that afternoon we found a cool park that is on the hillside of some small mountains on the west side of San Antonio. While a large part of Texas is flat (a lot like large parts of Minnesota), we found the area that was not. It was fun to get out on a nature hike while we had the trail mostly to ourselves.

Around 10:15 last night, Tammy was able to see the Covid test results through the app for the health system. What a blessing for modern technology. She was very relieved. A positive result could have been the one thing to cause a cancellation of the surgery. 

Tomorrow is a day to go adventuring to see some other sites.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying. We greatly appreciate your prayers!

                                                Look at the empty river behind us.

                    

                                                Picture at the Alamo.

Let's Go

 Over the weekend, we had two nights of snow. Praise God it was the super light and fluffy stuff! We got to the airport without any issues. The roads were clear of both snow and other drivers! Not bad for a Monday morning. The airport was not super busy. In Normal times, Monday mornings there would be lines halfway down the terminal to get through security. We were through the security in under 15 minutes, grabbed some coffee and breakfast to go, then off to the gate. We arrived at the gate just as they were boarding so we were able to get onboard right away. We had the emergency exit row, so I had plenty of room to stretch my legs. The flight was smooth, minus a couple minutes of turbulence coming into Austin. That is never Tammy's favorite part of flying. Never! 

We went to pick up the rental car. As we opened the tailgate, the car smelled like smoke and it was just dirty inside. I talked with rental people at Avis about this. They were amazing and gave us different vehicle. They even upgraded us to fully loaded Ford Explorer. The weather was a non-sunny day here in normally sunny Texas. Light rain most of the day. The rest of the two weeks is supposed not have rain. The best part was it was 58 degrees. When we walked out of the terminal it felt so, so, so good. A far cry from the -8 degrees when we left MN.

On our way to hotel in San Antonio, we just had to stop at the Buc-ee's gas station. If you have never been to one before, it is an experience. Just image your typical Kwik Trip or Holiday station married a Costco or Sam's Club! Best way to describe these stores. There is a fresh beef jerky display about 20-30 feet long. They have some of the best BBQ brisket ready all day long. There are over 100 gas pumps!

We made it to the hotel, unloaded the car and promptly we both took a nice nap. That night we made a dry run to the hospital, doctors office and the VRBO we will move to on Saturday. 

Tomorrow is an appointment with the doctor, then a final Covid test. Thursday morning she needs to be at the hospital at 6:30 am with surgery scheduled for 8:30 am. 

Please join us in prayer that the Covid test is negative.

Get Ready

 Sunday morning it really hit that we would be leaving the next morning! It seemed like a long time coming, but then in January time seemed to just kick into top gear. We had a morning flight to account for for any possible weather delays. Unfortunately this meant we had to leave by 5 am for the airport. I guess there are always tradeoffs that you have to take. Peace of mind of not making to TX because of weather or getting up early. I will take getting up early every time. With our bags mostly packed we were able to actually get some sleep the night before. We were blessed to have Sarah home for the weekend, which is always an enjoyable time. It helped to keep our minds off of the next week.

Monty was dropped off at his pet boarding house. He immediately felt at home when the lady kneeled down and started to scratch his neck and chest. He melted into doggie heaven.

On Your Mark

So this is a little late for the update. Two weeks ago as we were getting closer to our departure, Tammy had her "pre-op" call with the nurse. This happened on Friday 1/7. We found out that she needed some tests and blood work completed. Normally this call takes place four weeks before you travel, not two weeks. With Christmas and New Years it did not happen at the right time. A brief moment of panic set in trying to set up a doctors appointment in MN for this testing. She called her normal doctor but could not get in until 1/18, which would have been too late. We called a different doctor in Blaine and praise God the had an opening early the following week. So after a moment of panic, calm was restored!

A week later, after Tammy started to get some flu symptoms. This was one of our biggest concerns leading up to travel was that she would test positive for Covid (regardless of the variant) or have strong flu symptoms. Since we were traveling, we did not want get there and have the surgery canceled the day before. But my God has an amazing way of doing things that are far beyond our puny little minds. Two weeks prior to the surgery date, Tammy had to stop taking all vitamins, supplements, and could not take most cold medicines either. We believe that her getting the flu allowed her body to naturally increase its God given natural healing features to kick into overdrive. After two different Covid tests, which both came back negative, the doctor did not have any concerns about this. Thank you Jesus!  

God has given such an amazing bubble of peace through this process. While our flesh wants to completely panic at times and take "charge" of things, Jesus just breathes peace into our souls. What a blessing to be able to walk with an amazing God that loves us so much. He truly is the Prince of Peace!