No Pain No Gain

Saturday Ricki was excited to lose a couple more lines that were connected to her. Her medication pole that has become her constant companion is getting lighter and less awkward to pull around. The pain has increased and she has become more on edge.  However, her nurses have been very attentive in trying to keep her as comfortable as possible. Her heart still races when she gets up and moving but overall she continues to make great progress every day.she did 4 walking laps around the thoracic unit today.  Even though she is in more pain she is gaining more momentum for a full recovery. 

Day to Celebrate

We are celebrating today! Ricki keeps amazing us all. Today she went for a short walk out of her room. While we were gone to get some lunch Dr Yang's team came to remove her chest drain. She followed Dr Belzburgs advice and they gave her all the extra meds they could and had it removed before we got back. When we walked into the room she was all smiles! This has been amazing to see her healing so quickly. I think she has been living with the pain from these tumors for such a long time having them out is a huge relief. We continue to be humbled by the many prayers in her behalf and know God is listening. We are looking forward to more good days ahead.

A Peaceful Day

Ricki continues to make small improvements every day. Her pain and heart rate are under control.  They also took her off oxygen so we are minus one more attachment. She still looks forward to her breathing treatments.... They were going to take her chest drain out but it needs another day.  We were relieved..We are all exhausted and it is nice just to rest today and then hit some hard stuff again tomorrow :) 

It brings me to tears each day how sweet all of Ricki's doctors have been to her. We love Dr Belzburg, Ricki's NF2 Neurosurgeon. He stopped by today and told Ricki it was going to hurt when they took the chest drain out.  He told her if it were him he would need a bottle of Jack Daniels but since she couldn't have that she needed to make sure they gave her something for the pain before. He said if they came to take it out and hadn't given her anything to tell them to not come back until they had:) Ricki had fun joking around with him. 

Ricki has missed her dogs! It is so fun to see even the small little miracles in our life. We saw a therapy dog in the foyer this morning so we asked if she could visit. She said it very unlikely since it is such a big hospital but today it did. We were excited things fell into place and she got a special visit from Winnie. 

Today we are again grateful for many miracles in our lives  and look forward to more good days ahead! 

Better Days Ahead

I am sure Ricki will say one of her favorite parts of the day was her visit from Dr Blakeley. The visit this morning had a sweet calming effect on her. Ricki  was cute she said "Dr Blakeley told me just what I needed to hear" Dr Blakeley told her she was Wonder Woman and that she was 4 days ahead of her recovery than they had anticipated. She explained the pain Ricki is experiencing and what improvement she can anticipate over the coming week. It gave Ricki hope for better days ahead. 

They removed the arterial line in her arm, the central line in her neck, her catheter and  they shut off the suction to her chest drain.  Although she is still in a great deal of pain she is making progress towards recovery.

This is all of Ricki's pain management medicines in addition to the oral meds she is taking:) we counted and yesterday she had over 20 different things attached to her but now she has 4 less than yesterday but then added one more later today.. We are still headed in the right direction!

From Aching Heart to grateful Heart

After an hour and a half the gal from the front desk came and found us and told us we needed to go into the conference room because he wanted to speak with us. Our heart sank.. What was wrong? Then it sank even more when two of the surgeons came walking in. They didn't seem upset... Finally they said we are done! Dr Belzburg likes to joke so I know we looked at him funny unsure... We ask of he was really done? He assured us they were done. He proceeded to tell us that sometimes you get a miracle and things just go right. They were able to smoothly remove 3 tumors with ease. They were extremely happy with how well it was going. She still needed to be finished up but things were going well. Later the anesthesiologist came back and let us ow how well it went. I don't remember a time when the anesthesiologist came and updated us... Ricki has found a soft spot in each of their hearts.  Even the nurse came to find out how the surgery went. She was thrilled as well to know it had gone so well. 

We feel so blessed that our prayers re being heard and that the surgery went so well. The hardest part for Ricki will be the coming days. Please continue to keep her in your prayers. 

His Eye is on the Sparrow is the perfect theme for this surgery for Ricki.  There is no doubt she is being watched over and taken care of.

The aching heart of a Parent

Sending Ricki off for this surgery is the most difficult thing I have done. Yes, she has had quite a few surgeries -even her brain surgeries didn't feel this heavy....but maybe it is because of the previous surgeries that make me realize just how fragile life is and how much my little girl is going to have to fight.

The morning began I early at 4:45 a.m.  Starting with some imaging and then visits for all the different doctors involved in the surgery. At 6:30 they took her down to pre-op where we met with the anesthesiologist. As we were discussing the issues with her vocal chords I wanted to cry when they said she would probably lose some of her voice and have to have surgery to fix any damage they may do.. Because they are working with the lung they will need larger tubes down her throat which will likely affect her voice. I still pray that this will not be the case and that her voice will remain intact. Next they gave Ricki and epidural to help with her pain management after the surgery. Again, another prayer  that it is a good epidural. In having children I have had good epidural a that have been amazing and not so good epidural s that really aren't very helpful. After that was done they rolled her off to the operating room to continue her preparations for the surgery. 

There were tears shed... Bless our sweet daughters heart. She has been through so much I her lie... She handles it with such grace and faith in our Heavenly Father.  She was determined to have this surgery on hopes of feeling better and being able to begin beauty school in January. 

They called and said they had officially began the surgery at 9:15. As we sit and wait a church hymn came into my mind.  Fear Not I am with you oh be not afraid.  For I am thy God and will still give the aide. I'll strengthen thee help thee and cause the to stand. I am grateful for the comfort and strength from the Holy Ghost in times like this. 

Pre op pictures...

Successful Embolization!

We are back with Ricki. The procedure went much better this time! They were able to get some very good views of her arteries and also identify which ones are connected to her spinal cord. Those they will not embolize but the others they did. They also made precautions in preparing the ones in her ribs to try to decrease her chest pain. It boggles my mind the intricate details that are going into this surgery. She has to lie still for 2 hours and then we can go back to her room. She is still very sleepy but seems peaceful. I wonder if the challenges the past few days may have been a blessing.  I think they are understanding Ricki's pain a little better and will be better prepared for her surgery tomorrow. Thanks again for strengthening us though your prayers.