Dear Wonderful Family, Friends and Colleagues,

Much has happened since I last wrote.  Things were going well with my physical rehab when I learned two weeks ago (the Friday before Good Friday), that I had double collapsed lungs.  The surgical options were limited due to my right lung being completely collapsed with a large tumor encapsulated in it, but thanks to my amazing rockstar team of surgeons and doctors, another critical condition has been diverted.  On Saturday April 16, I underwent lung surgery.  Somehow, my thoracic surgeon, Dr. Ascioti, was able to find a space to create an airway from my lung to my bronchus, which had been closed over by the tumor.  That same Saturday, Dr. Ascioti also performed a plueredis on each side of my lung, which is a talc flurry procedure designed to keep my lungs open.  I went on a ventilator at that time and without ever fully coming to, I had a second surgery on Tuesday, April 19, whereby Dr. Ascioti built and placed a stint in the bronchus to leave an airway going open forward.  My lung is now approximately two-thirds inflated and it looks really good.  The passage way to my bronchus is open and the lungs are nearly fully inflated.  The doctors are calling it a miracle.  I remain in intensive care, having just woken up on Easter Sunday.  I unfortunately missed that day as well as the proceeding week with the boys, which was excruciatingly difficult. I have been on a ventilator and feeding tube and was unconscious for several days, so I remain extremely weak presently but I am getting stronger daily. I am expecting to be moved to another unit soon, which means I will be able to see the boys, about which I could not be more thrilled.

Thank goodness for wonderful doctors and grandmas and grandpas and family. Bryce’s dad even came from Atlanta to stay for several days, which was not only a great help but also a real treat for Bryce.  Special gratitude to my unbelievably amazing sister, Angie, who has been here more than she has been with her own family in the past month.  Thank you for my sweetheart, Kurt, who along with my family, made sure I was never alone for a minute during this latest ordeal.  Thanks to my unfailing crew at JHDJ, including especially Lollie, my left arm at work, who has managed to ensure a pre-planned seminar this week will continue as planned, aside from simply keeping things running at the office day to day in my absence.  I am so grateful to the many who have sent meals, gifts, flowers, Easter treats, etc.   I hope you will forgive my faux pas this one time in not being able to personally thank each of you for the birthday gifts for Kye and the Easter and birthday gifts and treats for the boys.  Thank you also for the nearly three hundred emails and text messages I have received during my brief lapse from reality.  Thank you for allowing me to reply via blog, and for your continued love and support of me and my family, which continues to awestruck me. I am very grateful to all of them and hopeful that I will become stronger everyday so that I can soon come home to my family and start working on rehabbing again.  As you can imagine, over a week on the ventilator and unconscious has left me very weak and in need of starting all over with my rehab.  My left side arm and leg do have movement, though, and I am committed to doing all I can to resume getting stronger and more mobile as soon as I can. 

Most of all, thanks be to God for each new day and for the continued privilege of being able to fight this battle with small victories along the way.

John 3:8  The wind blows wherever it wants.  Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can explain how people are born of the Spirit.

Ephesians 3:16  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit. 

Hugs and prayers to all of you until I have the energy to update again.

Love,

Stephenie