Hi everyone! This is Kathy's daughter Kristin, some of you might remember me from my posts when we first started this looong journey.
In the wee hours of the morning, my family and I packed up our belongings, checked out of the hotel that we stayed last night, and came to the hospital. My mom was prepped for surgery, stuck with iv's (one in her arterie, one in the vein which really hurt her because her veins are so tiny) then wheeled her into the OR, of course not without or hugs and kisses first!
We were given a buzzer (like the kind you get at restaurants that buzz when your table is ready) to notify us when we will be receiving an update. The first update came from Dr. Tew himself. At 8:30am he came out to the waiting area and introduced himself to the family, and told us she went under anesthesia just fine and everything is going swimmingly. Then we received a phone call from the front desk at around 10:45am to let us know that the surgery is going just as anticipated and again everything is going well.
We are probably going to go grab some lunch at the deli downstairs now. We have been playing cards and talking and laughing the whole time! Of course we are all a little anxious and awaiting our next update, but mostly we are all in high spirits. My dads two brothers and sister are here as our support group, and the pastor of our church even showed up! We are surrounded by so much love it is hard to be upset.
Fun little surprise: it turns out my dads cousin works at the hospital, and requested that a particular anesthesiologist be the one to put my mom "under"! He is extremely talented and we all feel so good that he is the one to be doing the job!
Also, when we got to the hotel, the principal of the school that my dad teaches at had already paid for our room
All of these gestures have made us all feel so blessed and fortunate that we have such a great support group.
And just for the record, I wanted to sincerely thank you all for your love and support throughout this entire thing. My mom has been talking about everyone non stop! You all have given her so much comfort knowing that she is not alone in this, that she is not the only one that has been diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma, and most importantly, that there is life after surgery.
I get teary thinking of how much you all mean to her, you are our family now, and I've always loved a big family, so what's one or two more members??
I will be keeping you updated, and I'm sorry if this post has been choppy and I've been rambling...I'm running on empty as far as sleep is concerned and there is so much that I want to tell you I just don't know where to start!
Keep praying, it's working!
More Later and lots of love,
Kristin
