A Few Details

I thought it might be helpful for me to provide a few details regarding Suzie's surgery tomorrow. We have to be at the hospital at 5:45am to check in and take care of all the post-op business. She cannot eat anything after 10:00pm tonight, but she really doesn't enjoy eating all that much so that part shouldn't be too bad:) At 7:30am, they will put Suzie under anesthesia and begin the surgery shortly after. They will begin by going into Suzie's original incision in her skull. They will have to make it a little larger in order to have access to the valve. The hope is that they would find a little debris in the valve or tubing on the ventricle end, so that they can simply clean it out and sew her back up. If that is the case, she should be out of surgery around 9:00am. If there is nothing wrong with the valve or tubing, they will have to decide how to proceed from there. I'm not entirely sure what they would do, but I believe they would try to replace the tubing that goes into her abdomen or have to replace the entire shunt. This would put her in surgery a little longer.

She will have to be intubated while she is on anesthesia, but they will extubate her as soon as she wakes up and may or may not require supplemental oxygen (nasal cannula) for a few more hours. They expectation is that she will only have to remain in the hospital for one night and be able to come home some time on Saturday. We will be able to stay the night with her (praise God!), but she will be sharing a room with one or two other children so it will be a bit crowded:) Of course if they end up replacing the shunt entirely, she may have to stay in the hospital a little longer.

We are doing well here and trusting in God to get our baby girl through another surgery. I think the hardest part will be seeing her in pain:( Again I am reminded how amazing it is that God would crucify His only Son whom He so loved to pay for the sins of those who rejected Him. What a gracious God we serve! I cannot even imagine willingly putting my child through so much pain to save even someone that I love, let alone an enemy. It is such a great reminder of how gracious, loving, and merciful our sovereign God really is. We have a confident hope that He will get us through this next little bump in the road and bring our baby girl safely home with us soon.

We so appreciate your prayers for us! Here are some specific ways you can pray for us this weekend:
*That when the doctors do the surgery, they would simply have to clean the valve and not have to redo the entire shunt.
*That we would trust God and find joy in Him no matter what happens.
*For us to be a testimony to the doctors, nurses, families at the hospital, and unbelieving friends that we have.
*For us to have opportunities to proclaim the gospel and to be bold in our faith.
*For Suzie to recover quickly and be able to come home on Saturday.

Here are a few pictures of our very big girl!