February 17!!!

Minnesota had a cancellation, so they got me in for the TP-IAT on Feb 17! I've never been so excited about a surgery in my life! You know, as we were up in MN, I had asked friends and family for their prayers for an early date. Then when they gave me April 13, I got very discouraged - so much for prayer. But everyone kept praying for me, and this cancellation came through. Nobody ever cancels this surgery, so it was amazing that something opened up!

Lew and I are flying out on Tuesday, and I have some pre-op tests on Wed and Thurs, then the big surgery on Friday. Mom is going to come out on Wed and stay the entire time. Lew will stay until the next Mon or Tues so he can get back to work and be with the kiddos. We are trying to get an apartment through the hospital housing folks, but you can't reserve them ahead of time - you just have to call once you're up there and have your social worker arrange it. Hopefully we'll get one, because they're much cheaper than the going rate around there, but if they're full I'm sure something will work out.

They tell me to plan for 10-14 days in the hospital - some of that time in ICU. Then they want me to stay for up to a month there in Minneapolis so I'm close to the doctors if anything goes wrong. I'm really trying to be optimistic, but I usually have complications with surgery. With my appendix, I caught meningitis. With my gallbladder, I had a weird connection, so he had to run a bunch of extra tests to see what was going on, and I think that surgery is what set off my pancreatis. With my splenectomy, it was supposed to be laparoscopic but he had to slice my entire abdomen open because I was bleeding so much. And then I got an infection in the hospital where I had a 106 fever and then basically died - they had to call a code blue to revive me. So, I truly hope things go smoothly but I'm preparing my mind to expect something to go wrong. Then I'll be pleased when everything goes great. I AM going to the experts now and not those honky-tonk witch doctors who did my previous surgeries! Keep up those prayers, folks! Oh, and while I'm thinking of it - the ICU does not allow any plants or flowers, so don't waste any of your money there! I would love to get emails from folks, though. Mom and Lew can read them to me when I'm conscious (which hopefully will be not at all for the first few days!), then once I'm feeling better I'll be able to respond. :-)