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July 2007
Surgery Update
(no pictures--too gruesome to show!)
As we had planned, the bilateral knee joint replacement did take place the
morning of June 18th at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis. I can tell you
very little about anything that happened except that I went to surgery with no
cuts on my legs and came out with one on each. The results of the surgery were
simply taken by faith until my first post-hospital doctor’s appointment when I
was shown an x-ray. I was so pleased to be able to see a space between the bones
of the femur and the tibia which indicated that there is no longer the rubbing
of bone against bone, the thing that made the surgeries necessary.
So first there was surgery. Next, there were three days in a post surgical
recovery area where I took my first steps on the new knees and spent most of my
time waking up from the anesthesia and being put back asleep by the medicine
that was given on a regular timed schedule in order to keep me out of severe
pain. Thirdly, came the transfer to the post surgical therapy floor where they
let me wake up well and took me to physical therapy a couple times each day.
There I came into contact with those professionals known as Physical Therapists.
Strangely enough, in my 32 years as a registered nurse I don’t recall working
with or even knowing much about what these people did for their patients. They
are the wonderful persons who encourage you to make your body do what it needs
to do in order to someday have a normal lifestyle. Without them most of us who
have gone through these types of surgeries would choose to simply lie down and
sleep afterwards, and end up not even being able to walk on our new legs. Don’t
get me wrong, this takes putting your body through pain, but I am so thankful
for these people who are encouraging me through this time. On June 27th I was
released from the hospital and since then have been going to outpatient therapy
at Saint. John’s Hospital in Anderson three days a week.
Since returning to Anderson, we are living in a small house that we are
enjoying. It is located by the Anderson University campus, which puts us in
close proximity to most of the things we need.
 I
kept putting off updating the website to tell you about the outcome of my
surgeries, hoping that by some miraculous occurrence I would all of a sudden
begin to live with no pain, come and go wherever I please, meet the expectations
of the physical therapist, sleep through the night, and just begin to feel well.
None of these goals of mine are yet accomplished, but hopefully they will begin
to come to pass soon. I’m tired and I want to feel better.
We anticipate returning to Haiti on August 8th and covet your prayers as I
continue to recover from surgery and try to get back to a normal life style. I
plan to start the clinics again on August 16.
Update on Eden (picture to the right)
See a update at To the Least of These
Sadly we have not been able to communicate with Eden, the nurse that works
with me at the clinic. The three phone numbers that we had for her prior to our
leaving are now not working. Please pray for her that when we return to Haiti we
will find her well on her way to complete healing from the tuberculosis that she
had in May.
  Project
Update
I finally received a couple pictures of the waiting area for the clinic. We
are so happy with how it turned out.
Thanks for all you do for us,
John
  
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