Guardian angels abound!

Hello Everyone:

Today was filled with many blessings, but the biggest blessing happened before we ever arrived at the hospital. We were told to arrive at noon for a 2pm surgery. Unfortunately for Kat, that meant no food after midnight and no liquids after 10am. I managed to get a bottle of juice down her even though she's not a big fan. She was given the choice between gatorade and applejuice and chose the juice. At one point she worked intently on squeezing the juice out of her bottle...likely in an attempt to convince me to give her milk;-(

We headed out with a few quick errands: gas, an extra memory disc for the camera, and lunch 'to go'. YES, I felt horribly guilty that I was chowing down when she couldn't eat anything! But, I justified it b/c my next real meal probably wouldn't happen for 7 or 8 hours later. We were right on schedule for a noon arrival at the hospital, when the freeway came to a complete stop!! I didn't panic but certainly thought it couldn't be good b/c we were driving into town during a NON-peak traffic time...if there is such a thing in Houston. Well, it turns out we were behind a TEN car pile-up with a tanker truck and a full investigative scene.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/22658550/detail.html


I called the hospital and told them we were in route and prayed we would not get cancelled for surgery. Keep in mind, we had the first biopsy a month ago; which gave us NO results. So today was a long time coming! Long story longer, we managed through the re-routed traffic and arrived at 12:30. If I had been 5-10 minutes earlier in completing my errands or had skipped the stop for the memory card(which I almost did), we could have been involved in the accident. It was two exits before the exit we would have taken for the hospital on the exact route we took!! Thank you God and our special angels for protecting us and we ask that you bring peace and healing to everyone involved in the accident today!!!

Now back to the surgery. Kat's trachea appears to be normal and her ears were clear of fluid and did NOT warrant tubes. The GI surgeon conducted the rectal biopsy and all went PERFECTLY!! Kat came off the respirator just fine and was awake shortly after the procedure. She did so well that we headed out of the hospital just in time to enter 5pm traffic!!! Fortunately, no accidents on our way home...although we did witness some very close calls!

Kat is sleeping now and starts her day tomorrow with an upper GI. We hope to have biopsy results between Friday and Monday. Please pray that it is sooner rather than later!

And finally, we send thanks to the Child Life Specialist who made friends with Kat before the procedure and came to get her for surgery as she was asleep in my arms! She never woke to see who was holding her but she didn't need to b/c she was in the arms of an angel!! No tears for mom or Kat...to be continued.

Hugs and love,
Nicole

P.S. My evening ended with homemade lasagne and garlic bread prepared by Nana! YUM!