Bleeding and Bandages

A Quick Update from the last few days:

Last night (Sunday), signs of internal bleeding were found at my mom's surgery site and so Dr. Gorbahni most kindly rushed into his office to meet with them and decide what needed to be done and how urgent the situation was. Before going to the office, her blood pressure was well below normal and her eyes had gone pretty white (both signs of anemia, possibly showing blood loss). A few people had been alerted to pray and upon arriving at the office, her blood pressure was normal and some blood vessels could be seen in her eyes again. Certainly an answer prayer. The doctor looked at the surgery site and said that it was not an emergency for that evening, but that blood tests would certainly need to be taken in the morning. So this morning, my dad took my mom to the hospital agian and the proper tests were done, results pending until tomorrow. Unfortunately, nothing can be done until those test results get back in.

Please pray for healing of whatever is causing the bleeding, and that clear answers can be found from the results of the tests. Also, please pray for Leslyn as this process has discouraging and also for physical strength as she battles with potential blood loss. Thank you all so very much, Leslyn sends you her love and the whole family thanks you for your prayers. You are carrying us through this!

~Karyn

Back Home :)

My mom is back home after being at the hospital for two days after her surgery. Her blood levels evened out and the pain was manageable enough that the doctors discharged her. I talked with her a bit this evening on the phone, and she said that she was able to handle the pain and that given that she just had surgery a few days ago, she is feeling alright. She is still a bit nauseous, so continued prayer for that would be appreciated. She is going back in a few days so the surgeon can make sure everything is healing properly, so also please pray for that appointment and that her body will receive the reconstructive work well and will heal as it should.

She thanks all of you for joining her in prayer, as do I. God bless you all.

~Karyn

Hey everyone,

Leslyn is recovering well, hooray! She was able to sit in a chair for about an hour and walked a little bit. The doctors are pleased with her progress and according to my dad (Ron) he says that her color is good and she has been up to talking. There are still some concerns though, her blood levels are low and the nausea is still hanging on to her. Please pray that these issues are resolved quickly so she can go home tomorrow and be in her own bed.

Thank you all for your care and prayer, this recovery would not be happening so smoothly without them.

~Karyn

Out of Surgery and Into Recovery

Hello everyone,

Thank you all so much for praying through today. I am Leslyn's daughter, Karyn, and will be updating you all for a while since she, obviously, cannot type at the moment. Leslyn went into surgery early this afternoon and was in for about 4 1/2 hours. The Lord was very gracious, this was about an hour less than what was expected. The surgery went very well, due, I am sure, to all of your prayer and support. Also, some good news (if I understood my Dad correctly), the surgeon was apparently able to do more work than he had planned, so it is likely that a second surgery will not be necessary. Please pray that would be the case!

Tonight, when she woke up from surgery she was nauseous, but the nurses have been working on settling her stomach so she would be more comfortable. My dad and some others have been able to visit her in recovery. Please keep praying for her recovery process as she has a lot of healing to do. I will give more specific details as they come up, but after her last surgery the nausea was a significant concern, so specific prayer on that would be so appreciated.
My dad has said how much he appreciates all the concern and prayer from everyone, he and the people who were at the hospital today could all feel it, it has been a blessing already.

I will hopefully have another update tomorrow to let you all know how the recovery is going. If you have any specific questions please post them as comments and I will try to address them in the next post.

God Bless!
Karyn

It is time...surgery is here

Well, I thought I would be asleep by now, but alas I am still awake. I suppose I can catch up on my sleep during the surgery. Since it is after midnight now, I am having surgery today, Feb. 2.

I just wanted to thank you once again for praying for me during the surgery today and through the recovery journey. I check in at 10:45AM and the surgery will begin at 1:00PM. It should last around 5 1/2 hours. I had a great day today. Spent most of it with my sister, which was very sweet. Now that everything is done and it is quiet I am feeling a little nervous so I have just put on my new favorite worship CD that I have been using lately in my personal time with the Lord as well as during ministry. It is called, "Take Me Away" by Grace Williams. (I downloaded it from iTunes.) It has a beautiful anointing for healing and miracles. I know I just need to keep focused on my Jesus. I always do well as long as I keep my focus on His beautiful face. It is when I start looking at circumstances that fear finds a place in me. Like Peter walking on the water, I just can't look around at the waves. Jesus is my Love and my peace.

My daughter, Karyn, has graciously agreed to update my blog for me daily while I am in the hospital. She will update it as soon as I am out of recovery from the surgery so please check back here for updates and prayer requests.

Already I feel His peace filling me and I am grateful. It has gotten late so I had better close and sleep. I wish I had words to convey my gratitude for you! I will trust the Lord to communicate it to you for me.

With a thankful heart, Leslyn

All work and no play...

One more thought: I realized getting ready for major surgery is like doing all of the work that it takes to go out of town for a long vacation, but without the fun vacation part! That sort of sucks...oh well.

Hospital pre-op down, just the surgery to go...

I went in for my hospital pre-op yesterday. It went well. I found out that I am scheduled for 51/2 hours of surgery. It is an hour longer than I was expecting. I am hoping that is cushion in case it goes long. They took some blood so they could get my blood type just in case I need a transfusion. I am praying and trusting that I will not. They told me that any surgery over 4 hours requires the availability of blood...just in case. They also did an EKG, which looked perfect. So I am good to go.

My surgeon is pre-medicating me with anti-nausea medicine. I would really appreciate your prayer that I don't feel nauseated or vomit when I come out of the surgery or from the pain medication that they give me. I have had a very difficult time with that in the past. It is terribly painful to throw up right after surgery...trust me!

I am feeling much better. As I mentioned, I had been fighting some fear about the surgery, the pain and being down again just when I am finally feeling great. I know many of you have been praying. I woke up this morning and felt so much better. The fear was gone and a heaviness that I have been feeling had lifted. God is so faithful and prayer is so very effective!

I am heading to bed. I am trying to excercise and get lots of sleep heading into surgery. Please pray that I will stay healthy and strong. Thank you!!