Post-op day 1

Today has been a really good day so far. Mom did't get much sleep last night, but it wasn't due to her status as much as it was dad's snoring. We knew we shouldn't have let him stay!! Haha ;) We should have given her something to throw at him! Needless to say, I'll probably be staying with her this time, ha. Her BP was a beautiful 118/80 and HR 98. She only received 1 unit of blood last night, so that seemed to help a lot. When we walked in to see her, she was already sitting up in the chair just hangin out. Other than being really exhausted, she said she was feeling fine. They have been draining the bilirubin from her blood (which was the cause of her jaundice and itchy skin), so she is very relieved of that! I kinda liked the "glow" that the jaundice caused...sort of looked like too much spray tan. We don't know for sure when she'll be transferred from ICU, but things are certainly progressing better today. Dr. King is very hopeful that she will continue on the same path to recovery as she was before the emergency surgery.

Things to pray for :

1) Her blood pressure continues to stay up and nothing else decides to start bleeding.

2) Her physical strength so she can progress faster.

3) Physical and emotional endurance for our family.

"In his favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Psalm 30:5

Update on surgery

Surgery Day updated:

Here is an update on the second surgery from today...sorry it has taken me so long to post this.

Around 7 PM tonight, she had to go back into surgery because her blood pressure was dropping dangerously low....in the 50's! For medical people, they put her on 20 of dopamine and nothing was happening. Her HR was in the 170's and BP was still in the 50's. Because of the low pressure, she wasn't getting ANY pain meds and they had stopped her epidural. So they took her to an emergency surgery and found a small leak in one of the vessels, which is why her BP was so low. Thankfully it was an easy fix and they were able to get in and get out in about an hour. When we went back to see her(for the second time), she was resting peacefully with minimal pain. Since visiting hours are so strict there, we were worried about leaving her all night (not because of the staff, but because she told us not to leave her by herself, haha). Her nurse for the night said she would let one of us stay, so dad is staying with her throughout the night. If they weren't going to let someone stay, Lanie Faulkner was going to hide in the cabinets until morning ;) Thanks so much for the continued prayers! I told mom how much everyone is praying and thinking about her, and she smiled! She really does draw her strength from everyone's prayers and notes of encouragement!!

Surgery Day

Because my mom is unable to update everyone on her journey right now, I (Bekah, the middle daughter) decided to start this blog for her so people could continue to pray in specific ways. I know how much everyone's prayers and encouragement meant to her the past 2 weeks, and how she drew so much strength and motivation from them. The Lord has used each and every one of yall as a vessel to show how much she is loved and cared about. Now I am not much of a blogger or an eloquent writter, so please excuse the random styles and transitions you will probably be reading ;)

Mom's surgery was scheduled for 7:30 this morning, but had to be here at 5 AM. I woke up early this morning after her and dad had already left, and felt such an unexplainable peace. I am not one to be all cliche and sappy, but God has been so good to our family through this whole process, and has completely surrounded us with more love and support then we could ever ask for. This morning right after they opened her up, one of the assistants came out and told us the tumor was in the best location it could possibly be and that it wasn't involving any of the surrounding vessels. This was one of the first times I felt completely relieved because it was now difinitive that the tumor was encapsulated and not involving any other organs. The surgery went so well and lasted under 5 hours. We haven't been able to see her yet, but apparently she is awake and talking...I can only imagine what she's saying! =) She will have an epidural for the next 3 days, so she'll be feeling pretty good. The doc said he wants her to stay in the ICU for at least 2 days then progress on out the door! Hopefully she will be out of here in 10 days, but we will be taking it one day at a time. So far everything has been on the "good" side, so we are hoping for that to be a continued theme through the recovery process.

Things to pray for:
1) a quick and speedy recovery, considering the type of surgery she had.
2) she will have minimal to no complications.
3) for our family and Memaw =)


"Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced.."
Psalm 105: 1-5