Surgery, Finally

Sarah on left, sister Lindsay on right

Note:  Although I am finally sending this post in the evening, I wrote it this morning.  See the follow up at the end of the post.

I'm sitting here in The Toledo Hospital's surgery area waiting room worrying about every possible bad thing that could happen during daughter Sarah's surgery trying to distract myself from fears and worries.

Several minutes ago the transport people rolled Sarah's stretcher to the "Kissing Corner," as they call it. Her hubby Lance and I said our goodbyes, tried not to cry, and then they wheeled her off to surgery.

Now we wait, hoping and praying that the surgery goes smoothly and safely.  For friends and family who want to know the nature of the surgery, I will share a few details here.  Otherwise jump down a few paragraphs past the gory details.

After losing two pregnancies, many tests revealed that Sarah has a very large (16 centimeters) fibroid? / tumor? / mass of some sort? attached to the outside of her uterus.  What they do know is that whatever it is, it is very vascular and it is in an extremely dangerous position relative to other organs and vessels. To prepare for its removal, which hopefully happens today, eleven weeks ago Sarah was given a strong hormone shot that could possibly shrink this mass over time.  Unfortunately, recent tests show that it has not shrunk at all, and, in fact, it has grown.

Several possible complications during this surgery are of concern:  massive bleeding (Sarah stocked up her own blood bank in recent weeks), accidental knicking of nearby organs, and loss of her uterus.

Let me just say here that Lance and Sarah really, really, really want to have a baby.  Understandably then, none of us slept well last night.  We covet your prayers today and thank you in advance.

Now back to my thoughts as I try to distract myself from being a worry wart.

I got thinking about all the towns in our great country that have something-to-do-with-Christmas names.  Some of the more common ones I have heard of before are these:

Christmas, Florida

Noel, Missouri

North Pole, Alaska

Then I also found some new ones:

Evergreen, Alabama, where the downtown sidewalks are decorated with over 30 Christmas trees.

In Rudolph, Wisconsin, the red-nosed reindeer is remembered all year long with 40 street signs featuring a silhouette of the famous character.

Snowflake, Arizona serves up to 1000 cups of hot chocolate after the town's yearly Christmas parade.

The Christmas story nativity scene parts are well represented throughout the United States also:

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Star, Idaho

Shepherd, Michigan

Wisemen, Arkansas

Angel City, Texas

Joy, Illinois

Even Santa's transport crew is represented all around the country:

Rudolph, Ohio

Dasher, Georgia

Vixen, Louisiana

Comet, Montana

Cupid, Nebraska

Donner, California

Blitzen, Oregon


Well, that was fun.  I have succeeded in distracting myself for a few minutes from the worries of Sarah's surgery.  It's rough being a mom at times like this.

I'll keep you posted.

Surgery follow-up (learned after writing the above):  The 3 hour surgery successfully removed the tumor without any of the feared complications.  Although the surgeon suspects that it is benign, lab tests will hopefully confirm that in two days.  I spent the rest of the day with Sarah, as she begins her recovery.  The doctor believes that with this tumor gone,  Sarah and Lance will now be able to successfully have children.