We Are Home

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your prayers... each and every one of them have been felt by us and answered by the Lord today!! We are home and Michelle is resting comfortably in her own bed as I type this, Praise the Lord! I cannot begin to tell you of all the little and big ways God answered yours and our prayers throughout this whole day, He is so faithful!

Ok, the particulars for those of you who want the facts and nothing but the facts: The surgery started at about 2:30 and actually lasted a little longer than expected. I think it was about 3:40 or so that I finally got word the surgeon was coming to see me to give me the news. He said that everything went terrific, just like he would have wanted it to. He was pretty aggressive in his approach, removing the tumor and taking 2cm of tissue around it, as well as an extra 1mm for testing to be sure all was good. The most difficult, and longest, part of the surgery was closing up. Michelle didn't have a lot of "extra" tissue there to begin with and he took a good amount out, so he had to do a little work to get things sutured up properly but he was able to do so just fine. He did, however, have to take some muscle tissue so that may cause a little extra discomfort for the first few days or so. Anyway, he is confident that all is good and he was amazed, based on the pathology of the tumor, that it actually seemed very localized... then he gave praise to Jesus for that! All in all, it went great...

The recovery has been a little slow but Michelle is doing fine. She was pretty swimy in the head initially but still was able to eat a little while in recovery at the hospital, which made her a little nauseous. But, hey, they have drugs for that and so in short order she was doing much better. Between the pain meds and the anti-nausea drug, she is pretty wiped out now though. Like I said, she is resting comfortably in bed which is far better than the last time around, for those of you who remember!

We experienced so many "touch points" by the Lord today; from incredible nurses and staff, to one of our pastors coming to be with us when I thought I might have to sit alone (thank you my brother, Trei!!!), to having a wonderful Filipina nurse in recovery who grew up in Davao (!!!), to having a meal when I got home prepared by our dearest friends! God is the God of details, what else can we do but exalt Him!!!

So, pray for Michelle's quick recovery now. She has a bit of a stiff neck, I think anesthesia for some reason settles in that region and causes discomfort when it comes to her, please pray that eases off. Pray that the discomfort at the surgery site will be minimal so she doesn't have to take too many pain meds, those things cause the room to spin for her. I keep telling her, people pay to feel that way but she would rather do without! Lastly, pray she sleeps well tonight.

I will write more later but, for now, I have my beautiful wife to minister to. Or, should I say it this way, as one of our long-time friends called her, I have my "Warrioress" to take care of! Grace and peace to each of you. As you close this day, I trust your faith has grown a little more as you have seen the Lord answer your prayers. We love you... - Steve and Michelle -