A Little More Info - Stitches

Mommy and Daddy were in the kitchen and the girls had just taken some tin cans to the recycling. They came in the front door and were walking across the living room pergo floor whenwe heard a horrible THUD! The kind that comes with a pit-of-your-stomach feeling that something is not right. The kind that immediately is followed by the most gruesome painful scream that only a child can make. Within minutes we were on our way to the hospital. A 45-55 minute trip that lasted something just less than 30 minutes.

Here is what Rebekah looked like when we got to the hospital. Daddy had cleaned up a lot but there was no way he was going to be able to "fix" this one:




And here is what it looked like about 2 hours later:




She pretty much screamed at the top of her lungs for about 3-4 hours. EVERYTHING set her off. We had a great nurse in the ED that had worked with us when we were in-treatment. She remembered Rebekah and Sarah and treated us well. The surgical doc that sewed her up was pretty cool. Rebekah kept screaming that she wanted to go "bye bye bed" (which means to have transport come take her in the hospital bed) to the 3rd floor (where we used to stay) so she could spend the night. She kept asking, nay demanding, for "tubes" (an IV) to be placed in her hand so she could stay. She threw an absolute fit when she found out we were not staying and had to come home. The nurses that didn't know her all got a kick out of this little girl who was screaming and crying to STAY in the hospital.

And now this morning she is looking forward to going to church to show off her stitches. What a trooper.

Blogging from the phone - a first! We are at the boo boo hospital emergency room. Rebekah fell and has a pretty serious cut on her forehead. More later.

Happy Anniversary

Mommy and I are celebrating our 18th anniversary today. I usually don't write from my perspective but I do just want to take the chance to thank mommy for being such a wonderful mother and a wonderful wife. After all we have been through I wouldn't change any of it for the world. I cannot imagine going through it with anyone but her.

Many couples do not survive some of the trials we have been through and I praise God and thank you all for all of your prayers that we are still so much in love and looking forward to many many more wonderful years.

-Scott (Rebekah's Daddy)

PS. YES - 2 posts in one day. I know that is a record for us lately. For those of you who are purists, the past couple of posts were not directly about Rebekah so I apologize for that...

Julia Update

Thank you Darlene for the very nice comment and verse. We have never really looked at that verse in that way. God is good.

Julia's initial surgery went well. They didn't take quite as long as they thought they would. The rough "wet smear" test during the surgery gave great hopes that the tumor was not cancerous but they won't know for sure until today. Prayers in this area would be great.

The best update is what came from Julia's mommy last night (Sunday) evening:

They discharged Julia from the hospital at 9pm tonight. Praise God!! Overall, she’s done really well. We were originally expecting a minimum of one week and were told to prepare for two weeks in the hospital. We’re very thankful that things went much better then expected. Some friends that have been through much more in the medical realm with their daughter helped us a great deal and even loaned us a mini tape recorder. I see now why this is so beneficial. It is amazing that we can sit with the doctors and afterwards are unsure of what they said. It’s helpful to be able to go back and re-listen to what was said directly after surgery or doctor’s visits.


Apparently, the surgeons thought (if they took part of the kidney) they would need to put a stint in that would have to be surgically removed at a later date. This stint would need to be monitored in the hospital. When they went to do the surgery, everything was lined up properly (position of the growth, position of veins, etc), that they did not need to put in the stint. This made the recovery and the overall procedure much easier then expected. Even after the surgery, we were continually given conflicting opinions from doctors and nurses on when she would go home from a couple of days to “oh, she’ll be here for a long time”. I think they really don’t know how long the recovery will last since each person is different.

Please continue to keep Julia in your prayers regarding the results and her continued recovery. She’s still in quite a bit of pain. We were also told by one of the surgeons that they made a really small incision. Apparently he often makes incisions twice as big. We thought that was good until we actually saw the incision. Wow!! I’d hate to see his “really big” incision. Her incision is at least 6 inches long. It’s a small price to pay under the circumstances though!


Thank you for all of your support and prayers. We feel tremendously blessed by all of you! We should find out the pathology results tomorrow. I’ll send out another update tomorrow or Tuesday.

Thank you very much for your continued prayers for us and for Julia. Yet again we have seen how prayers and God's will can change what appears to be a very bad situation into something far better.

Life Goes Full Circle

Oh the thoughts and memories that are flooding back. Some close friends of ours are driving their motorhome to the hospital right now. Their 11 year old daughter has a tumor that they believe to be cancerous and she is undergoing her first surgery tomorrow morning at 6am.

She (mom) first called us a few days and you could tell on the phone that something was wrong as her voice was empty - not her normal strong powerful self. We knew right away without her saying what it was. Don't know how, but we did.

In trying to help them through these first days/weeks we are experiencing a flood of memories and emotions. In many ways it is like we are going with them. Just trying to help them with some logistics of where they can park their motorhome at the hospital tonight brought daddy to speechless tears. Of course we wouldn't have it any other way and will be there for them throughout this event in their lives like so many of you were for us; nobody can do this alone.

PLEASE share a moment of prayer with your family and with God, asking that Julia, Linda and Ron (and all of their family) receive strength and the support that they need from God and His servants. Pray for a miracle to reveal itself in tomorrow's surgery.

And hug your little one's just a little bit longer because you never know what tomorrow will bring.