Post Surgery Update on Evie: I

As far as I can tell, yesterday went as well as can be expected.

Evie was scheduled to go into surgery at 12:30. My experience has been that, by that point in the day, someone using your OR will have run late and 12:30 becomes 1:00, 2:00 or later. Evie actually went into surgery almost 30 minutes early.

I was allowed to visit after she was prepped for surgery and, when I entered the room, the young women prepping her and Evie were chatting and giggling. The actual OR nurse looked at me and said, "You are so lucky. We love her. We're her groupies."

You would have thought they were doing her nails and a facial and that they were all going out to a party together.

No doubt, Evie overcomes all the adversity she faces with the love for life that she brings to every moment she lives.

The person who did Evie's admission told us that she was scheduled to be in the operating and recovery rooms for five hours and twenty minutes for the two procedures. By the time the second doctor talked to me and she was moved to a room  it was a little more than four and a half.

Both doctors said their procedures went well, but the doctor who reversed the colostomy talked about issues with scar tissue and left open the possibility that there might be the need for another "little operation" to fix some things in the future,  things he couldn't do yesterday because she'd been opened up to have the other procedure as done. We've heard that this guy is a very highly skilled surgeon, and I believe it.

I visited Evie for about two minutes in her room and she looked totally run down, as you'd expect. I said one thing to her that made her smile...she's so amazing!

The nursing staff at Penn Medicine is incredible. Evie's nurse told me three different ways I could be in contact with the staff about Evie and she offered to let me stay longer. But, I knew Evie likes to be alone during those times. So, I left.

I woke up this morning at my normal time, about 5:00 and saw that Evie sent me a text at 3:28, saying that she slept and telling me that she loves me.

I have her land line number for her room and, of course, her cell number but she has always hated talking on the phone. If her recovery proceeds normally, we'll probably talk once a day but text a couple dozen times.

Having said all that, her health is not good. She's been through cancer and open heart surgery. She now has issues with her colon and needed to have the hysterectomy done by a cancer doctor.

She's been very weak and fatigued since the emergency surgery in March. My guess is that she'll push herself through the recovery from surgery and be home as early as they'll allow, though I won't be shock if there are complications.

In order to be released, she have to demonstrate that her bowels are working normally again. Who knows how well that will go. Everyone says that, in the best case, it will be three days, but may take longer...and it may be that she may need to have another colostomy, which would be permanent.

Either way, I'm hoping to have her home soon.

There's no chance that I'll go back to my ambassadorial job until she's well on her feet.

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Thanks for your prayers. Please continue to pray.