Many Thanks!

 Thank you to everyone for your prayers. 💜💜💜 My surgery did go smoothly. I wasn't even in the surgery center for 4 hours, and that includes more than an hour of pre-op waiting! The nurse commented that she'd never seen a patient come out of anesthesia so quickly without confusion and grogginess, and she didn't see any reason to keep me longer when I was responding so favorably. When we got home, the nausea hit (likely a side-effect of the anesthetic), but it only lasted a couple hours and it wasn't too severe. The worst part of recovery was the referred shoulder pain from the excess gas they had pumped into my abdomen during surgery. Any time I was in a vertical position, the pain was pretty awful. But having a few days of mostly bed rest was good for me, and I was able to push through and still get in some walking to help prevent blood clots. By the time my two-week follow-up rolled around, I was back to sleeping on my stomach and doing all normal activities. The doctor said the biopsy of my gallbladder showed chronic inflammation and the beginnings of gallstones forming, but thankfully no signs of cancer! (I'm a little paranoid about cancer, after having thyroid cancer in my early 20's.) I'm so grateful that recovery went as well as it did! I was able to stay on top of my chemistry assignments, and help from kind neighbors made all the difference. 💜💜💜 God is good!

Nicole made a flower arrangement for me, and created and printed these cute get-well cards. :) She also made these minuscule paper cranes (though they were unrelated to my surgery, just a fun past time for her). 😊

My first semester of school is now over, and I managed to get my brain back into gear so that I could learn and do well on exams. I don't know how things would have gone if I had taken more than one class, though! 😂 School is hard work! I only have one week until the next semester starts. My next class will be microbiology, and I'm a little more nervous because the lab for this class will be in-person (instead of online like my chemistry lab was). I'll just continue praying and doing my best! Nicole is very jealous that I get to take microbiology (she's a science nerd 😄, and proud of it!). She's been begging me to just take her along to my lab classes. ;)

Becca's toe has now healed, and she received the go-ahead from her doctor to resume all activities with no further restrictions. She was most excited to be able to go to ballet class without the walking boot on her foot. :) She's also continued her passion for cake decorating -- she's obsessed with sprinkles, in case you couldn't tell. 😉

Becca was able to perform a song with her grandpa at a Cowboy Poetry Gathering this past weekend. She was a little nervous, but also very excited. After she was done, she told me, "That was easy!" 😂😂😂 This girl was born to be a performer, I think! Nicole said that she felt more nervous for Becca than Becca felt for herself. 💕 I'm so grateful for her grandpa for giving her this awesome experience! (I haven't had the greatest luck with posting videos in the past, but I'll give it another shot. I had to chop it short in order to make the files small enough to upload...)

Ryan began a new treatment for his depression last month called TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation). You can Google it for more details, but basically he sits in a chair with a big magnet firing magnetic pulses through a specific part of his brain. He has been receiving these treatments for about 20 minutes/day, five days a week, for the last 5 weeks. During these treatments, they monitor his heart rate, and they discovered that his resting heart rate is frequently in the low 40's... That might be good for an athlete, but Ryan is not an athlete, so they're worried about his heart. We added a cardiologist to his team of doctors, and he could tell right away that Ryan's blood volume is low. He encouraged him to drink lots more water, and walk daily for exercise. He also ordered a bunch of tests. Ryan is currently wearing a Zio heart monitor, and after two weeks with that he will get an echo bubble test, along with more blood tests. This could be a big piece of the puzzle to find out what happened almost three years ago to send Ryan into a coma. (I want to point out again that we originally thought he'd had a stroke, but that was ruled out. We still don't know exactly why he had very low oxygen reaching his brain for 15+ hours.)

We've been loving the occasional warm weather we've been having. This morning we woke up to a skiff of snow on the ground, and Becca chose to be very grumpy about it. She's more than ready for school to be over and summer break to begin! (It's going to be a long two months...) ;) 

Keep praying for peace. Our world sorely needs it... 💜💜💜