Surgery Day is Over

from David ...

So it has been a very long and nail biting day for us out here in the waiting room but the day has finally come to an end. Currently I sit in the hospital waiting room as it is nearing midnight but our day started long ago...

Our day began at 4:30 am, we arrived at the hospital around 5:30 am where we meet the surgeons and their staff who reviewed our upcoming day in detail. Around 7:30 am Tati was taken into surgery, and her father followed shortly after. At this point we began the long foreseeable wait and everyone in attendance remained in good spirit throughout the day. The doctors emerged from their hiding place around 1pm to let us know Tati's surgery went extremely well - there was almost no bleeding, no blood transfusion was required, and they reported that they would be done buttoning her up within the next two hours. A few hours later the doctors again emerged from their cocoon to let us know her father, Jose, would be done shortly and that they encountered no major problems. This was excellent news and an enormous weight was lifted off all of our shoulders, we could breathe again! The next few hours consisted of moving Tati and her father into ICU and into the recovery stage.

When I first came upon Tati in the ICU her eyes were barely open and she was lying coldly still. All my fears and doubts had suddenly presented themselves to me when I laid eyes upon my fragile wife lying in that hospital bed. But Tati, being the lively strong loving character that she is, suddenly sprung to life and that smile that we all know and love was suddenly back in full force! I whispered to her not to talk, just rest, when all of a sudden, and with every ounce of energy she managed to find, she spurted out "but I want to talk!" and began gently laughing. This was one of the happiest and most comforting moments of my entire life. To know that my loving wife had conquered such a great feat and came out on top just can not be described with words. I can not tell you how much it means to us to know that we have had such loving, caring, family and friends supporting us this entire time. We could not have come this far without you and it really does mean the world to us.

Although our journey is not yet over we feel the hardest part is done and I hope you will keep us in your prayers as we enter the long slow recovery stages of our journey.