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Hey friends!  I finally get to say hello from the other side of this whole ordeal!!!!!  I’m soooo thankful that surgery is behind me!  I can’t even come close to expressing how good it feels!  And the fact that I feel Jesus has given me a second chance at life….wow, the things I dream about, the people I have a burden for, the things I want to be able to accomplish here on Earth…all those things I now see as realities….in God’s timing and in God’s way I believe those things will be fulfilled.  No more do I wonder…will this ever happen?  Or I’ll do this in a few years when I have time….  Or I can always tell that person about Jesus tomorrow…  nope, like I said before I see life so differently now.  I can only tell Christ thank you for allowing this to happen so I can see Him so much more clearly!  Our God is amazing!  

I will say that I don’t see life as my “comfort” anymore….I know that may sound weird, but I guess I mean that I see life for what it is now….it’s our training for our real life one day in Heaven.  I feel so much more a responsibility now to live life on purpose……please pray that I will always have this feeling…..I guess I just see it as what it is…it’s not about me…it’s all about God and His plan!  So….if you ever ask yourself…”who’s reaching out to my neighbors about Christ?” or “who’s going to get involved in that ministry that’s so close to my heart?” or “who’s told that family member about our incredible God?” and you don’t have an answer to your question then I would definitely think that you might be the very person God wants to use!!!!  We can say no to Him, but what joy what peace what excitement and adventure we’ll be missing out on.  Serving Christ….doing life with Him is the ONLY way for the best life we could ever have on this Earth! 

Thank you all for your many prayers…..again I have to say that I can’t express just how much I’ve appreciated every prayer….we are humbled by them and we have felt very loved through them.  Thank you for doing your part in this adventure that God’s put in our lives.  Honestly one of the most thrilling parts of this whole adventure has been watching the Body of Christ come together and carry us in so many ways.   It’s been humbling and we’ve had to swallow pride several times as we’ve admitted stuff about us that is not the first thing we want everyone to see.  I have realized though that we need to be transparent with each other….we need to be real…..we need to show others that we’re hurting at times, because if we don’t we are closing the opportunity for someone to be Jesus with skin on in our lives.  To be a Christian…to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ..it’s not about being perfect…why do so many of us try to pursue that?  It’s about seeking God in all areas above anything or anyone else and worshipping Him through life no matter the good or bad. 

Thanks for your continued prayers guys….recovery time is already proving to be stretching for me (although I’m so thankful that I get to go through recovery!!)  I can’t really do ANYTHING until four weeks after surgery and then after that I still have to wait another two weeks before I can drive and stuff like that.  So in the meantime I will try to enjoy my silver headband made of staples and continue to be so thankful that God brought me to the other side of this!!! 

Your thoughts, prayers, encouragement, and support has been amazing!  Thank you for being such a blessing to us!  We cannot thank you enough!

We could not have done it without the God that we all serve!  Thank you for going to Him on our behalf!

Martha Marie has had severe leg pain the past few days.  Something is going on with her hamstring.  It may have been pulled during surgery or may have happened from being in the bed for Tuesday-Saturday with little moving around?

She seems to be doing very well with everything else.  She is moving around very well.  The severe spasms in her leg have made it difficult however.  Please pray for these spasms and pain to relieve.

Yesterday was day three after the surgery.  We have been told that day three is the worst day usually after a major surgery.  Yesterday’s physical therapy session wasn’t all we hoped to be mixed with pain and crazy medicine combinations didn’t make yesterday encouraging at all.  The doctor said that the medicine mix yesterday is totally what caused Martha Marie to say crazy things.  Martha Marie told me in the car today on the way home that she remembered saying all those things and as soon as she said them she thought to her self that it didn’t sound right.

She blew through her physical therapy session today and was feeling much better.  The hospital let her go and we were happy to be on our way.

While Martha Marie was in the hospital, she slept 95% of the time.  The waking hours were going to the bathroom, taking medicine, checking vitals, and eating (very little).  Since she has been home, she has been awake most of the time, sitting up, walking around, talking, and has eaten much better.  She has to take it easy for 6 weeks now.

Martha Marie and I got home today around 2 p.m.  The kids were in the bed from their nap, but we got to see them around 2:30.  Mimaw and Nana were watching them while we were away.

It’s good to be home.  Thanks for praying us home!

The doctor released us!  We’re going home!

Will update more once we get home!

Thank you for praying!

Things were starting to look up after the physical therapy session today.  Around 4:00p.m. Martha Marie started to experience her set back.

She was given her pain medicine at 4:00 p.m.  She had slept an extra long nap which made her 2 hours late on her pain medicine.  When she woke up, her head was killing her.  It took a while for the medicine to set in.  It finally set in and then she was given a new medicine by IV.  As soon as the medicine was injected by syringe her arm started to burn and the burn did not go away for a while.

It wasn’t too long after she was given the new medicine she started saying crazy things like:

• Asking her sister if she wore her swim suit today
• Asking the nurse if she wear her own hat that is nowhere around
• Telling me that she liked my sweatshirt when I was wearing a t-shirt
• Telling us that she was talking to someone that wasn’t there

The doctor immediately stopped all of her narcotics since that seemed to be the problem.  She is still saying some things, but is more coherent now.

This really concerned us today and we are unable to talk with a doctor until tomorrow morning.  Please pray for wisdom for us, the nurses, and the doctor and physical therapist tomorrow morning.

The physical therapist just came in to do some exercises with Martha Marie.  Martha Marie is wably and is not ready to go home today.  She took just a few steps outside the room and was ready to go back and lay down.

The physical therapist did not have any hesitation about us going home tomorrow, but did not feel that today was the day.  Martha Marie will need to eat more and gain more balance before she can go home.  The physical therapist said that the factors keeping her from walking well are from her head swelling (which is normal after brain surgery), medication, lack of circulation, dizziness, lack of balance, and lack of food are all working together against her.

The physical therapist gave her some exercises she can do to get her circulation going and other instructions to help get her back on her feet.  We will have another physical therapy session tomorrow morning.

They have changed pain medicines to Phenergen.  We are praying that her headache will go away so she won’t have to take as much medicine.

The physical therapist also mentioned that we may need to do some outpatient physical therapy once we get home.

Pray she can come home tomorrow.

Martha Marie still needs to eat more and have some physical therapy before she can go home.  The chances of coming home today are very slim.

She is still feeling nausious.  We found out that she needs more food on her stomach when she takes the medicine than what she has had.

Please pray for her appetite to increase and for her physical therapy walking sessions to go well so she can go home.

The doctors have said that it is possible for Martha Marie to go home tomorrow.  It just depends on how she is feeling and her progress.  We just do not want to go home too soon when it would be best to stay in the hospital rather than leaving too prematurely.

Martha Marie has eaten a banana and a few crackers.  She needs to eat much more before she can have enough strength to leave the hospital to be able to move around.  This is hard for her since she does not have an apetite.  Once she eats enough she will be able to have the IV taken off.  She is drinking very well.

The doctor will come back around tomorrow to let us know what he thinks about whether she can go home or not.

Please pray that her apetite will increase and pray for wisdom for us and the doctors on the proper release time for Martha Marie to go home.

Martha Marie had a great night of rest last night.  She slept well and has had little pain.  She ate some jello this morning and said that made her feel queasy.  She is walking great.   Her left eye is swollen almost completely shut, but the swelling should start to go down today.  A doctor came in this morning and said that she could probably go home tomorrow depending on how she is feeling.

I forgot to mention that the size of the aneurysm they found was between 10-12 mm.  It was originally estimated to be 7 mm from the MRI, CT Scan, and angiogram.  Dr. Barrow said that you really can’t tell sometimes by those imaging tests compared to actually being inside the body no matter how good our technology is.