Surgeries for both of us

Tue 11/13/07
Susan will receive her antibiotic and antifungal treatment for a full ten days (through Saturday), after which the infectious disease team may release her to have her shunts implanted. We hope she'll be home for Thanksgiving. She continued to make good progress, was moved to a semi-private room on the neuro ward, and began doing some physical therapy and taking a walk or two. It pleases me greatly to hear her speak of "achieving my goals for the day."
Here's a fine new term for me: "laparoscopic cholecystectomy," the name of the surgery I'll have on Friday to remove my gall bladder. (Perhaps I'm destined to write a medical encyclopedia from experience. Go ahead – ask me about the common bile duct.) I met with the man behind the knife today, Kent Azaren MD, a kind and experienced general surgeon who took time to educate me about the procedure and why I need it. It's an outpatient affair that will send me home after post-op to lay low for a week. Bring it on.

Mon 11/19/07
After making continued progress through the weekend against infection, Susan underwent surgery today to have a shunt implanted. Rather than draining from her brain (a ventricular shunt), her neurosurgeon opted to drain from her lower spine into her abdomen (a lumbo-peritoneal shunt). The effect is the same – allowing her body to have the proper amount of fluid flowing around the brain and spine, and preventing the harmful pressure of fluid build-up. The procedure took about 3-4 hours under general anesthesia, and thankfully was successful and lacked complications. See the "Selected Links" page for more info about CSF shunts. She is resting this evening with treatment for moderate pain. Her UCLA medical team will evaluate her progress tomorrow for possible discharge on Wednesday – we're hoping for that.
Meanwhile, I had successful outpatient surgery on Friday to remove my gallbladder. Someone asked where I was going to have the operation done. I said "near my liver." When I say "outpatient," it was more like "drive-thru." You know, show your insurance card at the first window and make sure you ask for ketchup and check your order at the second window before you pull away. "You want anesthesia with that?" I now have four holes in my belly, I think the target kept squishing out of the way so he kept poking. Actually, Dr Kent Azaren and the pros at the Surgery Center of Long Beach did a phenomenal job with an extremely high level of care. It was altogether such a pleasant experience, I'm trying to think of something else I can have cut out just so I can go back. They even have warm blankets. I've had a typical amount of post-op pain that is nothing like a gall bladder attack and has diminished each day. I'm thankful to put this chapter to rest.

As Susan's latest hospitalization grinds on and I recover from gallbladder surgery at home, we miss each other greatly. I'm resigned to the idea that she'll need to stay at UCLA over the Thanksgiving holiday – and if she's released earlier, it will be a gift. It's more important that she comes home when she's ready, when she's well enough. Meanwhile, the Sovereign God is ever faithful and is bigger than all our problems and every situation. He has all of us in his hands and will work out his good plans for us in his time.