Surgery & An Angel?

July 3, 2015
Friends and Families,
It has been a long 3 days, but I just wanted to let everyone know that Allison has had her surgery and it appears that everything went very well.  We had to be up at the hospital at 6:00 (after Allison got up early and ran several miles) on Wednesday.  The first surgeon started in at 8AM and worked on her about 4 hours.  He said it went smoothly and no problems.  The initial report on the lymph nodes, which is about 95% accurate, is that they were negative for cancer—which would confirm that it has not spread elsewhere in her body.  That was definitely a relief and answered prayer.  The plastic surgeon came in next and took around 3.5 hours and then she went into about an hour in postop/recovery before they took her up to her room.   Afterwards, she looked and felt great and all the nurses and doctors were talking about how well she was doing.  Within an hour of being in her room, amazingly she ate a full meal and was walking around the ward, with assistance and had nearly a full range of motion in her arms.  The doctors, physical therapist and everyone who say her before discharge this morning all said she was doing fantastic.  Each new person who came to her room told us that they had already heard about her from other doctors and nurses on the case.
Before the surgery, one of Allison’s nurses that would be in the room for the procedure told Allison that she had just found out that she might have breast cancer as well.  Allison asked if she wanted her to pray with/for her in the room and she did and then when the surgeon came in, she prayed with the surgeon as well.  Dr. Ajkay told us afterwards that she had half the OR in tears before they even started and how much they respected her strength, courage and testimony.
Another odd, yet strangely comforting incident happened yesterday afternoon.  While Allison’s nurse (who “happened” to be a Christian and a pastor’s wife) was taking her vitals, a stranger just walked in to our room and said, “You don’t know me, but I live across the river in Indiana and God told me to come to your room and pray with you and tell you that you would be alright.  Would it be okay if I pray with you?”  We said sure and then she asked Allison what procedure she had had done.  Then she held Allison’s hand, prayed a short, nice but very scripturally strong prayer, and kind of said “Okay” and left the room.  I asked our nurse if the lady was a “regular”—someone who always comes in and goes room to room and prays with patients but none of the nurses on the floor had ever seen her before.  We were the very last room in the corner of the ward, so to come to our room you had to intentional come.  Our nurse kind of chased her down to see what her deal really was and she told her same thing—“God told me to come to this room and pray with the patient in the room.”  She had done it and apparently was heading back home.  Sometimes God tells you to do seemingly strange things, but it’s nice when someone is willing to listen and actually do it.  We said at first that maybe she was an angel serving as a messenger from God, but then thought why she’s probably just an obedient Christian serving as a messenger from God.
Allison is home now and recovering.  She is and will be sore and still has tubes and drains which will remain for 10-14 days.   I can already tell that it will be a challenge to get her to relax and heal—having the kids at camp next week should help.  The pathology report should be back in about 7-10 days and the oncological surgeon will review those results with us when they come in.  Allison will be also seeing the plastic surgeon about once a week for the next 4-6 weeks to finish up the reconstruction.
Thanks as always for all the nice thoughts, card, meals, favors, watching kids, and visits.  Thanks especially for the prayers.  I think our whole family has felt the love and prayer from people we know and from people we don’t know.   I’m sure we still have a long, hard road ahead of us, but we have part of this now behind us, which is nice, and a relief.  Each day that passes should bring more healing.
For those of you who are local and want to visit, I think she is up for visitors, I would just text or call first to make sure the time as right.
Jamie and Allison