Home Again ... and Almost Famous

I'm home from Ann Arbor. Sis's surgery was a complete success. The surgeons said it went better than they had hoped. They were able to use her own muscle to completely close the hernia and just used a small bit of AlloDerm for reinforcement. So we're very thankful!! She's doing very well. There is a lot of pain, but they are managing to keep that under pretty good control. Her kidneys aren't working as well as they'd like to see, and with her history of kidney failure, they're monitoring that very closely, but are not overly concerned at this point.

The team that did her surgery are a general surgeon and a plastic surgeon who work together. The general surgeon does the work on the abdominal cavity and the muscle, and then the plastic surgeon takes over to close the skin. The two of them were at a conference in Rotterdam last week, and they discussed Sis's case at the conference. Out of the 400+ surgeries of this kind that they've done, they said hers is in the top 10 as far as being a difficult case, and while they were confident they could get a good result, they were also very clear about the fact that there was no guarantee. They were both thrilled with the outcome and almost giddy when I talked to them after the surgery was done.

Word had spread through the hospital about her case and I guess there was standing room only in the observation area during her surgery. I told her that her guts are almost famous!!

She'll be in the hospital for a week, and then will recuperate for two more weeks at the home of her good friend ... and family physician (don't you just love small towns!!)

Once again, God has answered our prayers and today we have much to be thankful for. A heartfelt thank you to all of you who kept us in your prayers the past couple of days.

Terri