Praises to God!

Mama had her first follow-up appointment with Dr. Ogan yesterday morning since being released from Emory last Tuesday. He was AMAZED at how well she is doing and how strong she is!!!! We, on the other hand, aren't surprised at all... we know that the Lord is moving in her and is continuing to heal her! We are still waiting on lab results to determine how well her kidneys are working on their own (no dialysis in over a week).... she seems to be producing urine perfectly, but there is concern that the kidneys may not be "cleansing" the blood the way they should and that her body may not be producing as many red blood cells as she needs (she had to recieve 2 more units of blood before leaving the hospital last week)... but, regardless of how the tests turn out... she is HERE, she is HEALING, and she is our MIRACLE!

Christmas Morning

Santa was so good to us this year! (Our living room is a disaster to prove it!) We had so much fun watching Lucas play with his gifts. He was really excited! David and I also got some really great presents, but the best one of all of it was knowing that Mama is home and healing!

Christmas Eve Party with the Brays'

We look forward to this party all year long! I'm sad that I didn't get any pictures during the annual bingo, but I did manage to get a few of Mama and the kiddos.. enjoy!

Christmas Eve

I didn't touch the tree, mommy.... promise!

Lucas was anxiously awaiting a visit from Santa!

Christmas with the Fitchs'

We enjoyed our day with the Fitchs' today so much. With everything that we have been through in the last 3 weeks, we needed some time together as a family. Lucas was blessed with way too many toys, as usual.. he is one spoiled boy!

Christmas Party at Mrs. Penny's

We had lots of fun at Mrs. Penny's Christmas Party on Saturday! Lucas just loves his friends there. It was fun to get to stay and watch them all interact. Santa even stopped by!

Update on Mama

Thank you everyone for the continued prayers... keep them coming! I am happy to report that Mama is doing much better. God has blessed us with a true Christmas miracle this year.

Mama is breathing much better now. Her lungs still have a lot of fluid, but they are clearing more each day. She only needs a small amount of oxygen to support her own breathing now. Her blood pressure is still on the high side, but is looking more stable each day. We continue to be dependent on dialysis to cleanse her body of toxins and waste, but her kidneys seem to be hopefully beginning to wake up. We may even get to move out of ICU tonight or tomorrow! Yay!

Please continue to pray and thank God for saving my Mama. These are some of our specific prayers...
1. Her kidneys to become fully functional and have no further need for dialysis.
2. Her physical strength to return to her so that we do not have to spend any more time in the hospital than we have to, or a rehabilitation facility.
3. Continued positive attitude! She is so motivated to get up and at 'em!

Mama

Thank you so much for the prayers.. it means the world to us to know that so many people love and care for us and Mama... they and our complete faith in the Lord are the only reasons we have gotten through the last 2 hardest weeks of our lives.

For those of you who may not know... Mama's surgery went fine... the tumor (it was malignant) was removed from her right kidney and Dr. Ogan was even able to save 2/3 of her kidney. It was after that.. on last Friday to be exact that things took an ugly turn. Mama was moved to the ICU on Saturday afternoon for breathing trouble and the beginnings of pneumonia. That was only the awful beginning. By that night she was totally unable to breathe on her own and put on a ventilator. The next day, we had to make gut-wrenching decisions... we found out she was septic (blood infection all over her body), she had to have multiple (I'm talking seriously at least 10) IVs, a central line put in the left side of her neck, a dialysis port in the right side of her neck, a drainage tube put in her nose down into her stomach, an arterial line to constantly monitor blood pressure and heartrate (plus some other stuff that is way over my head)... and that is all in addition to the 6-8 inch incision on her right side and drainage tube/bag from it. Her kidneys failed on Sunday. Her heart was out of rhythm on Monday morning, causing doctors to have to "shock" her with paddles 2 times over the course of only 3 hours. She ended up having 3 more episodes with her heart that day, but thankfully the others were controlled with a new medication... that the nurse had to adjust almost constantly for about 12 hours... Mama's heartrate/ blood pressure would shoot sky high and then just plummet the next second.

As I sent here now, on Friday afternoon, I am looking through the window at my sweet mother... tubes everywhere, her blood circulating through a machine and then back to her body, her chest pumping up and down as the ventilator pushes air into her... it is excruciating. My heart has already broken. Daddy's heart has broken. David's heart has broken. But, we have hope. We haven't gotten really bad news now in over 36 hours. Mama opened her eyes and looked at me for a few seconds today. She will shake her head or wiggle her toes to answer questions at times... but she grimaces in pain and fear... you can see the confusion and fear in her expression and it hurts so bad that all I can do is hold her swollen hand and stroke her hair... little comfort for her I know.

She is fighting hard... so hard. We can only hope that she is now on the right track.. the long road to recovery. I want my best friend back.