Liza the VIP

Sorry, I haven't been able to connect to internet this morning until now. I've been trying for hours.

Liza had a pretty good night. That is, until about 4:00 when her meds were a little late and the pain came in full force. Since then the pain has been muted again. Doogie Howser came in and removed her dressings and inspected her incision sites (he was a nuerosurgeon that looked no older than 17, honestly). The incision site on her neck is beautiful, if stitches on someone's head can be beautiful. It was perfectly staight, clean, tight, and the stitches were perfect. When I commented he said that it's perfect because Liza had the VIP treatment. She was operated on by the chief of neurosurgery and the head resident. Doogie was on another surgery that day. He was very nice but I'm glad for that. The incision on her leg is clean too, with only internal stitches that will dissolve on their own.

She's actually been eating a bit today; some toast, crackers, and such but it is still very hard to swallow, probably because of the intubation tube. Her neck is extremely stiff, a little swollen, and causing most of the pain. It starts in her neck and then moves in behind her eyes, which are covered most of the time now with a wet cloth. It's hard to talk and look around because it tends to make the pain worse.

Dr. Comair, the chief, and Shirley Sebastian, the nurse practitioner, were just by to check on her. The doc said, "why don't we keep you another day." I almost laughed. They're not getting rid of us too soon, at least until we have a great handle on the pain and an adequate management plan when we get home.

Overall, I think Liza is encouraged. She still wants prayer for the pain and pressure. She is required to get up a lot more today and even take a walk down the hall. That will be rough, but only afterwards when she sits back down and the trobbing starts. She also is desperate to wash her hair. Oh, we also found some screw holes in her head, which were used to fasten a halo that kept her head stationary during surgery. Those have been helping cause some of the pain too. Right now she's back up to a 7 or 8.

But thanks again. I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post. Keep praying and we look forward to being home with our babies and family relatively soon.