the details....

Maddie & dad get a few last snuggles before surgery.

A few more prayers for my sweet girl after a sleepless night

up in the room with all her "freinds" trying to recover !

Wow...what a day. Madison is in bed and resting now which is all that really matters.

This morning Madison was taking down to surgery at 7:45. we talked with Dr about what was best for her pain management and it was decided that we would do basic general anesthetic if the surgery was able to be done trans-rectally( all incisions through rectum and not belly). If it was decided that she would need to be opened though the belly as well an epidural would be put in place for her pain management post op. After signing all of the consents and talking with Dr. levitt she was rolled away. We were able to go all the way to the operating room with her and say our goodbyes there. They gave her some meds to relax her about 10 minutes before the goodbyes so that that would not be scary. It worked (for her anyway!).....she was giggling as they rolled her in....Jed and I were crying!



Surgery lasted almost 5 hours. It was a long wait! I am so thankful that we had two great surprises during our wait:

1- Jed's Friend, Scott Walker from Cedarville University informed his dad, Dick Walker that we were going to be here. Dick is the activities director at Cedarville which is just a few hours away from here. He happened to know a pastor who is now the Chaplain at a hospital right down the street...after all of the connections were made he stopped up to encourage us mid way through our wait. It was a great surprise.



2- in a moment of pacing the waiting room I turned the corner and my aunt Madeline and uncle Glenn from Akron where standing there. They had driven the 4 hours to be with us. i saw Madeline and just started crying....It was great to have them there for the final 2 hours as it made it go MUCH faster! Thanks Hansen's for your thoughtfulness!!! Jed is out with them right now eating a good dinner!



Dr Levitt sat with us and talked for quite awhile after surgery. He ended up taking about 25%-30% of her colon if Jed and my calculations are correct. He took lots of picture and will bring those around for us tomorrow to see. He said that it is "quite impressive". They also removed the entire rectum. He was able to do everything trans rectal.



Recovery is going to be rough. NO FOOD,ICE, WATER, or even a good ol' tooth brushing for at least 7 days. At day 6 an x-ray will be taken to see if gas is moving through the colon, if so liquids will be started on day 7. If not we will wait a few more days. Madison is already asking for food tonight and it is KILLING me. The unfortunate thing is that she has already been on a liquid diet for 3 days but was so sick and throwing up that she did not want anything. They will not start her TPN & Lipids until tomorrow. I am trying to get them to start those tonight so that she may not be so hungry tomorrow. the nurse said they probably will not allow it until tomorrow. They say that she will probably feel hungry for at least another day after it is started.......... pray that this sweet girl is not miserable!



Thanks so much for all of your prayers! It is so appreciated. I will blog more in the next days the details of the road ahead for us the next few months as Dr. Levitt explained today...still a ways to go to get to the end results that we need but the BIGGIE is finally behind us! Thanks for your prayers....you have no idea what it means to me and Jed!



love ya,

nikki