The past week or so, I've been running on caffeine, adrenaline, and the faithful prayers of friends and family for strength and energy.
We enjoyed a wonderful Mother's Day with both of our moms and my brother and his family. We invited everyone over to our house to celebrate. We had ham, cheese potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, rolls, fruit, and raspberry swirl cheesecake. Steve gave me the greatest gift of all - cleaning up the kitchen! (and beautiful white roses - my favorite!) After lunch, we played chicken foot with the kiddos and then went to a bell concert at my parent's church. AMAZING!
Steve's surgery on Monday went tremendously well - we got our miracle after all. Long story short, the surgeon was able to do the "take down" of his temporary ileostomy, resected 15cm of small intestine and fixed the leak. The greatest news of all was that the surgeon said that there was no active Crohn's disease present and if he had opened Steve up again, there would be no evidence that he even had Crohn's. We're absolutely amazed and in awe of the work his surgeon and the team of doctors, nurses, and anesthesiologists did - one of the senior residents said that it was, "one of the most difficult surgeries they had done in a long time."
Steve's recovery has been a challenge - difficulty keeping food down, gas pains, and nausea, but today he's feeling a little better. I'm proud of how hard he's working to fit in all his walks despite feeling crummy. His doctors are hoping he'll be able to be released in the next few days. We've been fundraising for the Crohn's and Colitis Walk, and we were hoping that Steve will be able to attend and wheel him around Silver Lake. Unfortunately, he's still not feeling the greatest today, but we'll still walk in his honor and for the hope of a cure! We've raised over 550 dollars to donate to the foundation to find a cure for Crohn's and Colitis! Thank you to everyone who has supported us financially and to those who are joining us on the walk! It means a great deal to our family!
Most of our evenings are spent with Steve at the hospital and during the day, Amaya and I have been at my parents house for my mom's garage sale. My sister and niece were able to come up from Nebraska, and my sister has been the perfect medicine to bring a little sunshine to my week away from Steve. We planned the garage sale a couple months ago, so although the timing of Steve's surgery wasn't ideal, I'm still thankful that I'm able to stretch my time between the two of them. The weather yesterday was amazing - beautiful sunshine, mid-seventies - today, we ditched our shorts and t-shirts and replaced them with jeans and coats - as long as it's not raining, we're not going to complain. We've gotten rid of a lot of things and have already made over 200 dollars!
I'll try to keep updates coming as we know more about Steve's release from the hospital. Thank you to everyone who has come up to visit him, sent cards and e-mails of encouragement to us this week. God has blessed us tremendously this week through our family and friends and we are so thankful for this miracle!