Wally Goes to Texas

Well friends, Wally and I have had a blast this summer! Since joining our family he has gone on many adventures with me. He’s gone to a couple of hair appointments, to the bank to open accounts for all the teenagers, to eat lunch with my cousin who I haven’t seen in 10 years, to kids’ doctor and dentist and orthodontist appointments, went through the CT machine with me for my yearly scans, met my Breast Cancer docs, open house for the kids’ school, went on a retreat for breast cancer survivors. He’s gone to church with me, a softball game, a SUPER FANCY DINNER (that deserves its own post….we will come back to that I promise). He sat in my lap while I spoke at a breast cancer survivorship meeting, hung on my shoulder while I took my oldest child’s SENIOR pictures, swung around while I dug in my garden, hung on my chair while I sewed some quilts, watched while I baked some yummy things, and more. BUT…..he is wearing out his welcome.

Over the past month I have gotten three infections. Wally also has apparently been having too much fun (probably distracted by the puppy we decided to get in a weak moment this summer) and hasn’t really done much. My wound is not healing and the plan we had for surgery was just not making me feel very confident that I’d be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel any time soon. Also, continuous infections just aren’t good. So I called a family friend last weekend. And now I’m going to Texas. It’s been a whirlwind of a week, but the gist of it is – I will be going to Dallas on Wednesday. I am going to be seen by a group of some of the best chest wall reconstruction surgeons in the country. If all goes well, I will have surgery there as well. I will likely be gone about a month.

While spending my birthday across the country from my guys (and possibly in the hospital) isn’t my first choice, I feel confident we are making the right choice – just the harder one. As usual, God has seemed to work out all the details ahead of time because this trip has come together smoothly and quickly. I have multiple friends I can stay with there – one of my best friends (my rock friend, the one who talks me down off all the crazy ledges), who is also a breast cancer survivor, is taking me in and taking care of me (and is even buying sparkling waters for my princess self). Our other friend will be tag-teaming her – he is a surgeon at the hospital and is helping coordinate all of this. The travel part is taken care of as well. One of my sweet nurses mentioned Angel Flight to me. I contacted them, filled out the paperwork, and a few days later they approved me! I will be flying a private plane there and back. If you don’t know about this organization (I didn’t!), check them out. They are certainly a group I will be supporting in the future!

The past couple of days I have been busy getting medical records together, typing my previous surgery and medicine lists, doing laundry, getting all my office work for the month done, deciding to put Gus in school while I’m gone……yeah……so then, making sure he actually has appropriate clothes for that, figuring out some easy lunch things for him to help Marsh out, and giving him a crash course on appropriate behavior for school – you know, things like, “raise your hand before you speak, don’t interrupt, be kind, if someone is mean to you this is what you do”, and most importantly, “don’t pee outside – only use the potty!”

So here we go again – sending me out of state for medical reasons – stepping out on faith (we are not sure insurance will cover this, but we are going anyway) – trusting God for SO many more things. Am I anxious? Yes. Am I worried? No. I know that God has me in the palm of His hand still and I trust He has this situation all worked out already. He has done it before. He can do it again.

I will do my best to keep everyone updated while I’m there. I don’t have an exact surgery date – several things have to happen before that. It will be a big surgery though – bigger than any I’ve had before. They may have to remove some ribs. We will be doing another larger flap procedure, and more. It’s a lot.

Here is our prayer list:
– Please be in prayer for the surgeons as they consult on what the best plan is.
– Please pray that my body holds up and responds well to all the things they do
– Please pray for NO MORE INFECTIONS!!!!!
– Please pray for Gus – he is much more aware this time and is very anxious about this
– Please pray for Marsh and the other boys as they shoulder all my responsibilities again

Thank you all – I’ll write to you next from the state where everything is bigger!