Day 3 - God is So Good

Today, around noon we were able to go back into the recovery room and see Rory.  He was awake and able to talk and soooo excited to see everyone!  He was in a little bit of pain/discomfort and very sleepy, but it was just so good to finally talk to him.  His first words out of his mouth to us was, "We did it!"  And yes we did!  All of us, together.  Whether you prayed for him, thought about him, performed surgery on him, whatever... everyone has been apart of this.  

We couldn't visit very long because the most important thing for him right now is his rest and this made it very hard to leave him.  He will spend one more night on the recovery floor per the surgeon's request to just give him more time and extra eyes watching him.  They continue to give him units of blood.  Besides the 8 units he had in surgery, he had 2 units right away post-op, 2 units last night, and another 2 units today.  Finally today his blood pressure started to come up.  They also had Rory sitting up in bed rather than laying down and hopefully tomorrow the next step is to walk a little.  You wouldn't believe his scar.  Right when we got back to where Rory was he showed us his scar.  He's very proud of it and it looks amazing.  They didn't use staples, they used some sort of medial glue and when it heals it's going to look like nothing more than a really long scratch.  His stomach is so flat and I am so excited to finally one day give him a hug and not have a huge belly in between us.  I know you all will be amazed when we return and you get to see how flat his stomach really is.      

One thing I forgot to mention (and I don't know how I could) was that when we had our meeting with the surgeon post-op, he informed us that the tumors he removed from Rory's abdomen were mostly fluid filled with very little cancerous activity!  Meaning the chemo was working :).  The nurses also told us today on our visit that during surgery the surgical team removed 3 LITERS of fluid from Rory's abdomen.  That is just crazy!!!  

I cannot begin to tell you how impressed I am with this hospital and the surgeon, Dr. LaQuaglia.  Not only is he an extremely smart man, but he is a man of God.  Every morning he has his hands blessed because he believes that they are instruments of God.  Today when Dr. LaQuaglia was making his rounds and met with Rory, Rory thanked him for a job well done, and you know what Dr. LaQuaglia's response was to him?  He told Rory, don't thank me, thank the Big Man upstairs!  Talk about goosebumps.  That just makes me cry every time I tell that story.  He is a perfect example of using your God given talents to do good!  WOW!        

But you want to know what the best part of my visit with Rory was today?  As I was leaving I said to Rory, I love you so much.  In return he said, I love you so much more.  As I shooked my head no, he said, "yes, and I have the scar to prove it."  I guess I can't compete with that!  :)  God is GREAT!  

Kristen

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.

—Philippians 4:4