Clarification

I feel that I need to clarify something that I misunderstood in an early post while Jennie was in the hospital and that has become somewhat of an issue.

So Jennie has been having some pain similar to the pain she was having prior to the surgery for more than a week now. The pain is not after every meal, but it has been getting more frequent so she e-mailed Dr. Sutherland about it.

He explained that the pain is most likely from her Colon, which has been damaged by the frequent narcotics use over the last several years. Basically her Colon is not working properly at this point, but Dr. Sutherland felt after seeing it in the surgery that there was a good chance it would heal itself as she is able to reduce and hopefully eliminate the narcotics use of the next year. I didn't understand this before, but it does make a lot of sense.

In the e-mail Dr. Sutherland did mention that there was a chance an additional surgery might be required to remove a portion of the colon if it didn't begin to heal itself, so we are praying that won't be necessary.

Little changes

As I returned yesterday I found that not much had changed since I left last week.
Jennie is not sleeping as much this week, and seems to be moving a little bit better, but she still says her pain is at about the same level as last week. I am sure she will begin to show more progress as her body continues to heal over the next few weeks. Her incision also looks much better this week than last week, although her abdomen is still very swollen and sore.

We are still here!

I know it has been several days since I posted last, but we are still here and Jennie is still doing fairly well. She is still very sore and the recovery is not going as quickly as any of us hoped, but there haven't been any big setbacks either. She is still sleeping about 12 hours a day (yesterday was 15 hours), and the incision still hurts when she is awake.

Today I will be going back to Louisville to work this weekend, but will be returning next week on my off days. Hopefully Jennie will have made some more progress by then, but we now see why Dr. Sutherland said it would probably be 6-8 weeks before she was able to do much. We will be at week 4 tomorrow, and I think we are easily 2 weeks away from Jennie being able to walk normally and to reduce the pain medicine much.

We made it!

We made it back into Owensboro late on Wednesday after a long car ride over some pretty rough roads. Needless to say, Jennie was pretty wiped out and we spent much of yesterday just resting and recuperating.

We appreciate all the thoughts and prayers over the last few weeks, but we ask that everyone understand Jennie still has a lot of recovery to do. This was a very major operation and her entire stomach is still trying to heal, so it will likely be several days or even weeks before she feels up to seeing people in great numbers. She will be staying here in Philpot for a while, although I plan to return to Louisville and begin working again probably late next week.

Halfway There!!

So we managed to make it to Rockford, IL yesterday, although Jennie was very sore afterwards. The roads were less than desirable and the bumps made Jennie very uncomfortable. I think that we should be able to make it in 5 or 6 hours today, so we most likely will finish the trip today.

On the road!

Jennie continues to show progress, and her appointment yesterday went well. Dr. Sutherland is pleased with her progress and will be following her progress at home with her doctors in Owensboro and Louisville. He would like to see her back within a year just for a general follow-up, which he likes to do with all his islet cell transplants.

Now that we have that done, we will be hitting the road today. It will be somewhere between 12 and 14 hours, so it will take at least 2 days to make the trip. We will just have to see how well Jennie does with the long hours in the car before we decide about taking a third day. She is still very sore and gets worn out easily, so we will see.

Day 1 out of hospital

Jennie continues to do well today, and got her first good night of sleep since the surgery. We only had to get up for pain medicine 1 time last night, and she was able to sleep for about 10 hours, which I was very impressed to see.

Her blood sugar has been in the low normal range, and she has only had to give herself one unit of short-acting insulin (this is in addition to the long-acting they want her to take every night regardless of where her levels are). I am sure her blood sugar will begin to rise as she eats larger portions and more regularly, but that is why we have to insulin. At this point are more worried about her blood sugar dropping too much overnight than about it getting too high.

We are considering making the trip back three days instead of the two it took to come up here. We are just worried that 7 hours will be too long in the car for Jennie, but we will most likely wait until we start back and see how it goes.

Sayonara Hospital !!

So it is official, Jennie is being released today!! The paperwork has yet to be completed, but we will be going to a different hotel this evening that has a suite for some extra room. The plan is to stay until we can see Dr. Sutherland again in his office on Monday afternoon. This appointment was optional, but I think it will be better to give Jennie a few more days of rest before we make the long trip back to Owensboro. It will also keep us close to the doctors here already familiar with her case if something were to happen in the next few days, but I am sure it won't.

Also for those of you that are following, Charlotte is doing better and from what I understand they are talking about moving her out of ICU soon. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get hold of her husband since right after the surgery, so I don't have a whole lot of additional info.

Please continue to keep Charlotte in your prayers, hopefully in a few weeks she will be to the point that Jennie is.

Big News!!

So this morning the doctors talked about possibly discharging Jennie tomorrow!!! While we are very excited about this possibility, we are somewhat upset because she has yet to receive the training and education she is supposed to have received. Before the surgery we were told that she would nutrition education and diabetes training, and so far we have only had a very quick crash course in "poking" your self, no real education. We addressed that today with the doctors, so hopefully someone will kick it into high gear and get the ball rolling on that.

Other than that, Jennie is doing much better and is starting to eat a little more each day. She is still having a lot of pain, but she describes it as being from her incision and not related to her eating, which is much different than before. Hopefully as the incision heals her pain will begin to diminish more.

Day 12 evening update

So Jennie still continues to do well and they will be discontinuing her TPN when the current bag finishes in an hour or two. This will mean that the only thing the IV is being used for is the antibiotics, and I think those will be stopped within the next day or two. Hopefully she will begin to get an appetite and we can actually try something other than cheerios and apple juice tomorrow.

I also have an update on Charlotte, she has been out of surgery since about 7pm. They were able to get a good islet cell harvest, so hopefully that part of the surgery will be very productive. Unfortunately she had a lot of damage to her intestines and colon, and they had to remove a portion of both. She will be going down to the ICU floor tonight, although they haven't said exactly where at. John said that they had anticipated some type of problem like this due to several surgeries she had previously, and every other aspect of the surgery did go pretty well. Needless to say though, Charlotte could use a lot of prayer as the surgery is now over and she will begin the recovery process.

Recovery Day 12

Again today Jennie is doing pretty well. We have gone on several walks and they have Physical Therapy came in today and Jennie tried stairs for the first time. She did very well, and I am sure will improve even more with a little practice. I really feel like Jennie will be able to get around without any assistance when she is released, she will just have to be careful not to over do it for a while.

And just a brief update on Charlotte. I talked to her husband a few minutes ago and her surgery is going pretty well. The doctors came out about 2:30 and told them they had completed the main portion of the surgery (Jennie's surgery started somewhat earlier, so it is difficult to compare the times) and are just waiting on the islet cells to be harvested. He felt that they would be able to get a good harvest with her also, so that is very good news. She did have some previous damage from some other surgeries, so the doctors felt that they may still have to do some more repairs to her colon and intestines, but they haven't decided exactly to what extent yet. All in all her surgery is also going very well, they anticipated some additional issues do to the prior damage, and I hope to be able to post a good final update on her surgery late tonight.

Continue to keep Jennie as well as Charlotte and her family in your prayers, they still have many hours of waiting before they will know the final results, although it sounds very promising so far.

Update day 11 and Prayer Request

So Jennie's pain meds aren't working as well as the IV was, but she is trying to tolerate it to try and get it down quickly. They also adjusted her insulin somewhat trying to better prepare her for when she really starts eating again. Although she was allowed to eat today, she didn't have much appetite and only at a bite or two of mashed potatoes and a few bites of rice krispies. We don't know if this is because she is still getting nutrition through the TPN in the IV or if there is something else, but tomorrow they will be stopping the TPN so we should know more then.


I also wanted to briefly ask for a prayers as I have a distant cousin (I believe a third cousin if I did the math right) that is actually up here and will be having the exact same surgery tomorrow. I went and met with her tonight and I think was able to provide some insight into the surgery and the recovery, so hopefully they feel a little more at ease now. Her name is Charlotte Ryan, and I know that she would appreciate all the extra prayers as tomorrow will be a very tough day for them (if anyone understands, we do).

Big Steps

So Jennie was switched to oral pain meds last night, although they left the Duladid PCA pump hooked up so she could push the button for additional pain relief if needed. So far she has needed to push the button occasionally, but I think her pain level is somewhat below where we were afraid it was.

Today seems to be a good day again, and we will be trying a low-fat diabetic diet today (solid food for the first time!!) They just brought the tray in, so hopefully we can get Jennie to try several things. I am sure her blood sugar levels will go a little crazy with this change, but hopefully it will go pretty well.

Unfortunately Jennie was up a lot last night, the nurse was new and woke her several times. She is tired today, but at least she was up for some reason other than being in pain.

Thank You

I just wanted to put a quick update on here to let everyone know that we got our first group of cards and gifts today. I didn't count but I would guess that there were more than 30 cards, which is very humbling. Jennie and I both really enjoyed reading the cards and wanted to thank you all for sending them. Knowing that there are so many people out there praying and thinking about Jennie gives us a lot of comfort, Thank You!!

Another day of Progress

So again Jennie has made some good progress today. It is now about 4 pm and she has already gone for 3 walks, and I am sure we will get one more in today. Her blood sugar has been better today, and she has been up out of bed most of the day so far.
Unfortunately we did find out that they found MRSA in one of her samples, but we really aren't too concerned about it, that culture was from early in the week and she has been on Vancomycin since then that should have taken care of it. They will check it again, but we think that may have been the coughing she was having.

The doctors also talked about trying to get Jennie off of the IV pain med and back onto oral meds within the next few days. The only problem is that she hasn't really experimented with anything other than water, so we have tried some Jello and Apple Juice today to see how that goes.

Now let me explain real quick why the blog hasn't been updated all day. Yesterday afternoon some wonderful little thug broke into Rita's Van and stole the GPS, leaving the drivers side window shattered all over the place. We were really very lucky that there was nothing else taken, her camera and several other valuables were in the back seat. So this morning Rita was having to deal with getting that taken care of and I was by myself here at the hospital (go figure I ran out without the laptop). All is taken care of now, but it just made one more thing for us to have to deal with.

Day 9 Recovery

Let me begin by saying that today has been better than yesterday, thank goodness. Jennie is still hurting, but her pain level is back down to the 6 or 7 range it was two days ago. We went for a long walk today around almost the entire 6th floor of the hospital, all of which Jennie did without any assistance (other than me helping keep the IV pole going).

We got to see Dr. Sutherland today, and he thinks that her fluctuation in the blood sugar is due to her not being on constant TPN (an IV feeding), so he wrote orders changing her TPN to a lower but constant dose. He also is going to have an Endocrinologist come in and talk to us about the blood sugar and how to regulate it when we leave the hospital.

Unfortunately Jennie didn't sleep very well last night so she is pretty tired, but I think she if feeling much better. Hopefully we can get some more walking in today and let her get some more rest.

I Spoke too soon . . .

So I am sad to say that I may have spoken too soon earlier when I said that today seemed to be going well. Jennie has been out of it most of the day just generally not feeling good. She will be freezing cold one minute, then burning up the next, or her arms will be hot and her legs freezing, etc., etc.

She only managed to get out of the bed for one walk early this morning and to sit in the chair for a short while this evening, which was much less activity than we were hoping for, but she has been very tired and in pain all afternoon and evening.

Even though she has been able to have clear liquids all day, she has only felt like drinking small amounts of water, and in fact was unable to keep that down. The nurse gave her some compazine shortly afterwards, and her nausea has been better since. Jennie also has been in more pain all day, and is in fact moaning in her sleep now which she hasn't done since the first night or two.

The doctors and nurses had warned us that there would be some bad days mixed in with the good, so hopefully today was the worst of it. I know as sore as Jennie's abdomen is vomiting must have been very painful, and I hope that this was the last time for a while.

Please pray that tomorrow will be a new day fresh with progress and less pain.

Day 8 of Recovery

Again today Jennie is doing pretty well. The doctors came in this morning and told us they are pleased with her progress. While some have recovered quicker, she also has had no real complications aside from the mystery infection that she is on antibiotics for.

The doctors have also ok'ed her to try a clear liquid diet, which is the first step towards getting her back on regular food, and one of the biggest hurdles left. She continues to walk several times a day and is spending a good portion of the day out of the bed and in the chair. She is very tired today, but we wore her out pretty good yesterday and the doctors said energy will very greatly until we get her insulin shots more stable.

That is probably the other difficulty we have had, is that her blood sugar has been high much of the last day and a half since we started the long-acting shot instead of the IV. Again though the doctors say that it will take several days to get it regulated, and when she starts on solid food it will begin to vary again, all of which is normal.

Keep Jennie in your prayers, hopefully recovery will continue to go well and we can get her onto solid food in the next few days.

She's doing well

This morning the Doctors came in and removed Jennie's NG tube from her nose as well as the drain from her abdomen, which I know will make her much more comfortable.

Her blood sugar levels are still fluctuating quite a bit, but they said that is to be expected now that she is off the insulin drip and only taking shots to regulate it. They also said that they will be increasing the dose of the long acting insulin some to try and reduce the variances some.

Other than that, they started her on an extra antibiotic for pneumonia, they saw some fluid in an ultrasound they did yesterday and want to stop it before she gets full pneumonia. Her liver function has come back to the normal range, so they aren't as worried about infection but they will still be monitoring it.

Yesterday was the first day that Jennie has actually been awake most of the day, and we got her out of bed several times, including a walk with Physical Therapy around the entire floor of the hospital. Other than that we watched a lot of TV and movies, which she really seemed to enjoy. If fact when we got here this morning, Jennie was already up and watching Finding Nemo with Stitch at her side :-)

Recovery Day 6

We made it in today early enough to see the doctors, which was a relief since we haven't had much contact the last few days. The plan for today is to get Jennie off of the Heparin IV and her Insulin IV and try to switch her to a subcutaneous shot daily. It will be somewhat of an experiment the first few days trying to get the levels right, but it has to happen at some point.

They also said they plan on raising her pain med a little since she is doing more movement and her pain has increased as a result. Our only concern with that is she is having a difficult time staying wake for any period of time that the increased meds will only make her grogginess worse.

She is supposed to be getting up at least 3 times a day, and they will be removing her catheter to try and motivate her more. They also mentioned that the X-ray showed nothing besides some fluid in her left abdominal cavity where they removed the pancreas from, which is normal.

It seems that things are still pretty well on course, although we feel like her progress is somewhat slower than some talking to the doctors and nurses who see these transplants regularly. We would like for her recovery to be very quick, but any progress is still progress and so far we haven't had any big setbacks, which is a blessing.

Recovery Day 5

Today Jennie again appears to be doing better. The swelling is down more than it has been in months, although she is still running a slight fever and the blood work indicates she still has an infection somewhere. The doctors that came in before we arrived said that they weren't too concerned about the infection and would be watching it for the next few days until they were able to get the cultures back to determine exactly where it is.

The only other real issue is that they have decreased her pain medicine quite a bit, which is causing her to hurt more than she has the last few days but they feel she isn't coming down quickly enough on her own.

Other than that there isn't much to report today, but hopefully Dr. Sutherland will be around lunchtime to give us some more information and to answer a few questions we have.

I thought I would post this drawing that we had done last Thursday at the Mall of America, we both thought it was very good.

Address to send Cards

Sorry, I just realized that I never posted the address you can send cards to for Jennie.

Fairview Medical Center
420 Delaware Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Floor 6B - Room 239

IMPORTANT - Due to the floor we are on, they won't accept flowers real or silk, and we ask only for cards due to the limited space.

Thanks, I know Jennie would really appreciate hearing from everyone!

Recovery Day 4

Again today Jennie seems to be doing well. Unfortunatley we got here after the doctors had already come by this morning, for some reason they seem to keep coming earlier and earlier everyday. Jennie says her pain is about the same as yesterday but there is a noticible reduction in her grogyness, so we can tell her medication has been lowered significantly.

On the agenda today is to try and get Jennie to walk a little, maybe even out into the hall. I don't know if this is a bit much, yesterday just getting to the chair really exahausted her.

The only other issue is that Jennie still has some swelling, although it appears to be mostly in her legs and feet. They don't want to give any more lasix because her fluid output has been fairly high, but getting up and moving some more should help it.

Her blood sugar levels remain stable, which means that they have finally stopped checking it every hour (her poor fingers were getting butchered). The nurse is going to try and get the doctors to return, so hopefully we will know more later.

Recovery Day 3

I apologize for not getting this update posted earlier, but things are going pretty well again today.

This morning we got to see Dr. Sutherland who thought things were progressing well. Jennie began her Physical Therapy officially this morning, although we did get her to get out of bed and stand for a few minutes last night. Today she has moved to a recliner chair , and is supposed to do that 2 times a day for at least 30 minutes. Although she is still very sore when moving, she is handling it very well and is eager to do what is needed.

Today they also reduced her pain medicine some, as it was making her very sleepy and had lowered her breathing to where they had to put a full oxygen mask on last night to ensure she was getting enough oxygen. This should be helped both by the lower pain meds and also as she begins to move more and regains strength.

They started her on a antibiotic because her white blood cell levels are elevated, meaning she probably has an infection, although we don't yet know exactly what kind.

Another problem we have been having is that Jennie has been retaining a lot of fluid, which makes her swell, increasing her pain and restricting her mobility. Today Dr. Sutherland issued another round of lasix to help get rid of the excess fluid, and said he would like to get another round issued sooner if we start to notice it again.

The last issue we had to discuss we Dr. Sutherland was that Jennie's blood count dropped from a steady 9.2 most of the day yesterday to 8.7 this morning. He feels that this is most likely also due to the swelling and feels as her fluid retention goes down we should see this level out as well.

I am not sure that I have mentioned it yet, but we likely won't know much about how well the islet cells took for several days. Right now she is on insulin to give the islet cells time to rest and to get at home in her liver. When they feel her body has recovered enough to try clear liquids and eventually a limited diet, they will take her off the insulin IV and try to switch to oral medicine. This is when we will first be able to tell how the transplant of the cells took, and it will likely take some time to get the levels adjusted properly.

Jennie is very sleepy today, but I think her pain is somewhat lower except when we move her. Her spirits have also been very high, in fact we had her singing along with Finding Nemo this morning. I know that this positive attitude has helped her recovery immensely, and hopefully with prayer she can keep it up.

Recovery Day 2, mid-day

So we got the results from Jennie's noon blood work back, and her Hemoglobin levels have finally stopped dropping, meaning that the internal bleeding appears to have stopped! Her platelet count went up some too, meaning that her liver is functioning properly, which is also great news.

They did have to come in and assess her Central line IV because it appeared that it might not be delivering the medicine and fluids she needed, but they don't think that there is a problem right now and will be monitoring it closely the rest of the day.

We managed to get the sheets changed and to get Jennie moving a little, although she was hurting a lot the entire time. She did say afterwards that she was glad to be on some fresh linens and then proceeded to fall straight to sleep exahusted. Other than having to come and check her blood sugar every hour, she has been sleeping most of the morning and afternoon and appears to be in a little less pain than she was yesterday.

Today has been a great day so far with many of our concerns and prayers having been answered. Jennie is certainly going to have many rough days over the next few weeks, but it is nice to see some progress being made.

Recovery Day 2 update

So the Doctors just came in and said that they are pleased with the bloodwork and that they don't anticipate needing to go to surgery, although they are still going to monitor it closely. They said that they would rather have a small amount of blood loss than to risk taking her off of the heparin and having her liver not get the blood it needs to recover properly. From what I understand it is somewhat of a catch-22.

Other than that they removed the bandages, and we got to see Jennie's incision for the first time. It is still very sore and bruised, and her abdomen is swollen, but it actually looks much better than we were expecting having talked to other people who had been through this surgery.

There was also talk about trying to get Jennie to move some today and hopefully get her out of the bed at least long enough to change the sheets. They want to get her moving some to keep her from clotting or getting bed sores. They also said that they don't want to increase her pain medicine any because she is having so much difficulty staying awake.

Hopefully we will get her somewhat mobile today and by tonight things will be looking much better. Please keep the prayers coming, they help immensely.

Recovery Day 2

So Jennie had a bit of a rough night last night. They began giving her nutrients and lipids through the IV to try and help her body with the recovery, but it has thrown her sugar levels all over the place and they have started checking it every hour again.

She is also continuing to loose blood at a slow rate, so we think the Doctors may decide to send her back to surgery today, although we haven't seen them yet. Her color is still fairly good, and they are continuing to increase the pain medicine which is finally starting to cut into her pain enough she can rest, although it also keeps her from being alert enough to really talk.

We really don't know a whole lot at this point other than what the nurse can tell us about her bloodwork, but the next time they draw at 8 am should be a good indicator as to what the Doctors might decide to do today.

Please continue to keep Jennie in your prayers, hopefully last night was the last bad night she will have for a while.

Evening Update, Day 1 of Recovery

What a long day it has been! Jennie is still hurting quite a bit, although they did increase the medication enough that she is able to rest some, and they also gave her lasix to reduce the swelling. Her hands in particular have been very swollen all day, which typically happens when she gets fluids through an IV.

The doctors kept going back and forth, but they finally decided after testing some of Jennie's fluid discharge and discovering that there was a relatively small amount of blood in it, that they won't go back to surgery, at least for now. They do believe that she has some internal bleeding, but they think it is a fairly small amount. They decided instead to give her blood as needed and continue to monitor it in case the blood loss were to pick up, and hope that reducing the blood thinner will allow her body to stop the internal bleeding itself without surgery.

We are still hoping that Jennie will be able to make it through the next few days without any major complications or scares like we had today. They typically say the first three days are usually the hardest, and we hope that today was the worst of it.

On a side note I wanted to explain a little more about exactly what kind of condition Jennie is in right now. She has an NG tube coming out of her nose that pulls blood and other fluid from her digestive tract. It is uncomfortable, but it helps keep the swelling of her abdomen down which is supposed to be the most painful part. There is a drain coming straight from her abdomen that also helps pull the fluids out, and is suctioned be a bulb. She has a central line IV in through her neck that is the source of all her medication, fluids, and blood. And of course she has a catheter which takes care of the rest of her fluid retention issues.

I just took a short break from writing to move Jennie on her "air mattress" they use to make movement easier on her. We also sat her up a bit in the bed and she had to cough several times that were very productive but also painful.

We ask again that you keep Jennie in your prayers, we can certainly feel God's presence through all this.

Day 1 of Recovery

So today is the first day of recovery after yesterday's surgery, and things are still generally looking up.

Jennie's pain is still far from controlled, but they are trying to adjust it to find a happy balance. Duladid is a tricky medicine in that too much can lower your blood pressure dangerously low, while too little keeps her from getting the relief she needs in order to rest and recover like she needs to. Unfortunately she is allergic to morphine which is the other pain medicine they like to use for major surgeries like this.

The other problem with Duladid is that she appears to be building a tolerance to it since it has been the pain medicine of choice when she has been going into the hospital the last 9 months. The nurse just came in and she is going to check with the doctor to see about adding toradol to see if it can help a little.

The only other concern is that Jennie has lost some more blood since 3 am when they last checked. Her hemoglobin counts have dropped from 8.4 to 7.9. Again this is only a minor concern since she is still on Heparin that will keep her blood from clotting as quickly. Unlike many surgeries they are continuing her on this to keep the liver from rejecting the islet cells, so there isn't too much reason to be alarmed they just have to continue monitoring and possibly give her some more blood later.

Now on to the positive news. She looks better and has started regaining her color compared to last night when we saw her. She seems to be more responsive, which is kind of a mixed bag since she is in so much pain.

The nurse just came in again and they are going to give her 3 more units of blood to try and increase her levels and they are also going to lower the Heparin some. They won't be adding toradol right now. This is to prepare for the possibility of going back into surgery if the blood levels can't start to maintain a more normal level. They are worried that there could be some internal bleeding, particularly with the increased pain.

THIS IS ALL TENTATIVE AND THE DOCTORS WILL BE RETURNING SHORTLY TO DISCUSS IT WITH US MORE. DR. SUTHERLAND HAS NOT COME IN YET AND THE DOCTORS SO FAR HAVE BEEN RESIDENTS UNDER HIM. NO DECISION WILL BE MADE UNTIL HE ARRIVES.

Updates will be made when we know more.

Surgery is Done

So Jennie came out of surgery at 5:38 cst, but she is still not awake from the anesthesia. Dr. Sutherland seemed very pleased with the entire operation and in fact finished earlier than expected. He was able to harvest a large number of islet cells and thought they probably took well.

The only minor problem could be that they gave her Heparin, which could lead to bleeding and possibly having to go back to surgery to correct the problem. From what I understand though, this is fairly common and the chances or her bleeding again aren't very large.

Again it appears that Jennie may come out of this as well as we could expect, and much better than we had worried about. Only time will truly tell. Thanks again for all the Prayers and support!

Update

Just talked to Dr. Sutherland and they have completed the removal of the pancreas, appendix, and spleen. Fortunately he saw no indication that the colon had been damaged, which we were worried about, so he won't be removing any of the colon.

He also said that he was able to see a large obstruction in the main pancreatic duct (probably the whole root of the problem), and that the preliminary tests on her insulin production were promising.

Now we are waiting, and he anticipates beginning the second half of the procedure 2-3hours from now. The pancreas has been sent to the lab for a disection where they will remove the islet cells that produce insulin. They most likely won't be back and ready to be implanted until 4 or 5 pm.

When he begins the second portion of the procedure Dr. Sutherland will begin repairing the ducts and rerouting her digestive tract. Hopefully by the time he completes that the islet cells will be here and he can insert whatever cells they were able to harvest into the liver.

We won't know what level of insulin production she will be able to have afterwords until the end of the procedure, but particularly with the promising initial test results it will be high. If the islet cells do take and they were able to harvest enough cells, she would be a very mild diabetic or possibly still be on the low side of the normal range (the doctor wouldn't say what the odds of this actually are, but we are hoping and Praying).

In summary, the surgery has gone as well as we could ask for so far, and the fact that he isn't removing any of the colon is a major relief and should make recovery and possible complications somewhat better. We still ask for your Prayers and Support, hopefully God will continue to bless us and Heal Jennie quickly.

Surgery

So for those of you looking for an update, Jennie went into surgery at 8:10 cst. It took the anesthesiologist about 20 minutes and three Sticks to get her IV in, and she was very swollen from all the pain medicine she has been taking recently.

The doctor also talked briefly about the increased difficulty of keeping her under due to her allergies to so many medicines. The surgery is expected to take about 12 hours, but we are hoping for an update early this afternoon.

Needless to say no one in the family got much sleep last night. Jennie, Rita, Bonnie and Jim, and I all went to see a midnight showing of Wall-e, which was incredible. It also served as a good distraction to keep Jennie's mind off today. I think all told Jennie, Rita, and Myself got about 30 minutes of sleep last night.

It is really nerveracking as I sit here writing this and not having any idea where we will stand tonight. We are all of course hoping and praying for God to work a miracle and for Jennie to do incredibly well, but there is also the possiblity things might not go that smoothly.

This entire time I have managed to be so confident that this surgery would be the Miracle we have been praying for, but now as I sit here and wait anxiously the unknown is killing me.

I still have Great Faith that God will provide, but what that exactly means is so unclear.

I will try to post again whenever we get an update, and thank you to everyone for your Prayers and Thoughts. Jennie and I have both felt incredible relief these past few weeks as the Surgery approached. I just ask that you continue to Pray that God's Healing Hand work on Jennie today.

Fresh Beginnings

So I know that it has been over a year since my last post, and oh how a year can change things. On the upside we will be celebrating our one year anniversary next week, and both loving every minute of it. On the downside, Jennie's condition has gotten much worse and we will be going to Minneapolis on June 27th for a major surgery to try and get things better.

With that being said, for the time being I will be devoting this blog mostly to the surgery and our preparations for it. In the next week or two I will be going into detail about the surgery, and how we are getting ready for it. After the surgery I will be putting updates on here regularly, hopefully to keep everyone informed and to minimize the time I will be spending away from Jennie as she recovers.

For the time being we just ask for your Prayers during this very trying time for us.
Thank you and May God Bless!