Surgery

Its Matt,

Is it lame that I start every one of my posts out that way?

So it is about ten pm and this has been a really long day. We finally got to bed last night just after midnight thanks to the Colon cleanse Ashley had to do in preparation for today's surgery. We got up just after 4 am and were out the door by about 5:30

I was shocked at how well she was doing this morning. We had run the gambit on possible scenarios for this morning, i.e., medicate her before leaving the home so she wouldn't know what was going on, force commit her with hand cuffs and hobble restraints, lie and say we were going back to California for another vacation then abruptly pull into the hospital before she realizes she had been tricked, and so on.....

Much to my amazement she was ready to go. She said she was happy the day had finally come and the waiting could be over. Check in was a breeze and as we come up to the second floor, the nurse was already waiting to take us straight back.

Once in Pre-Op prep, she continued to be her normal funny self. She made friends with all the nurses and joked about all the same things we have said for months. She makes friends so quickly and puts people at ease. Then the parade of doctors came through. First the OBGYN Dr, then his PA, her primary surgeon and his PA, the anesthesiologist and his assistant and a few nurses mixed in for good measure.

The anesthesiologist assistant could see Ashley was starting to get a little nervous so once all the needed paperwork was signed he gave her some Versed and the good times started to roll. There is no way for me to describe how hilarious Ashley was for the next 10 minutes. I wish I could have gotten in on video, but suffice it to say, She is a hilarious drunk!!!

Then she is off to sleepy land and into the OR and I get to sit for the next 8 hours. The staff here was amazing. They continuously kept me updated and the Dr's came out often to give me updates as to her condition. They kept saying she was doing amazingly well and things were looking good. An hour or so into it the Hysterectomy was complete with no issues. A few hours later they stated the tumor was gone and based on the pathology markers they were confident they had gotten it all. I was told they would finish within the next 3 hours or so.

About an hour later, the front desk receptionist, Dorothy, came and said Ashley's surgeon needed to see me in the consult room. My heart sank as I figured something was wrong. He shouldn't be done yet..... Why did he need to talk to me? Holy crap . . . . . please don't let it be something bad. . . . .

I sat in the consult room for what seemed like an hour, realistically it was about 3 minutes, but come on !!!!! Dr Gimble came into the room and quickly and confidently stated, "She's all done. Everything went exactly as we had hoped." He went on to explain all that he had done, but to be honest I didn't really hear a word of it. It took everything I had not to bear hug the life out of him... That would have been really awkward...

Dorothy later snuck me back into the recovery area so I could see Ashley, which is a BIG no no. It was the happiest two minutes of my life. There she was, happy, smiling, breathing!!!!

That all happened about 7 hours ago. Right now she calmly sleeps in her bed. Having been able to see her parents, and a small number of guests.

She is in really good spirits. She knows the next few days will be rough, but we have been given everything we have prayed for. Since her Pre-op treatment finished we have asked for the strength to get through this day. We asked for a fighting chance to get through this huge step. We were given so much more...... we were given everything we could have hoped for.

Dr Gimble stated the tumor was lower than he had hoped, but they were still able to save the needed bowel muscles. She has a temporary bag now in place, and her surgical scars are minimal. He told me if she had not undergone the Pre-op treatment there would have been no way he could have saved her normal bowel function. It was a huge pay off for months of hard work and pain.

As she went to bed tonight the nurse stated she could already hear bowel movement.... That is huge.. they said it could take several days for the bowels to "wake up" and it was unheard of that they were already starting to work this early after surgery...

We ended our night with prayers of thanksgiving... we didn't expect to receive this much, but are grateful for it. We had no other choice then to take a huge leap of faith this morning. Our reward was life changing....

It was a good day !!!

Thanks to everyone who reached out to us today in thought, action and prayer. We needed every ounce of it.