Flexing Her Courage Muscles

Jenica's surgery was yesterday and everything went really well. (blessing #905). She's so brave. The surgeon she had must be one of the best, based on the comments we heard from the nurses and the ICD specialist. After he left our room from our pre-surgery consultation, Jacob said "I think my IQ went up 7 points just by him walking into the room". There are a lot of really smart people around here. (#906)

 

One really cool thing Mayo's Child Life does is bring in a local ceramic shop on Tuesday afternoons for kids in the hospital to paint. It's called "Color Me Mine" and is a lot like "Paint Yourself Silly" in Lincoln. The kids can paint one of the ceramic pieces and then the gals take it back to Color Me Mine and fire it. When it's all done, Mayo Child Life will mail it to us. (#907).

 

It was a good distraction for a couple hours for both Jenica and Jacob.

 

See that chair Jenica is sitting in? That doubles as Chad's bed. Poor guy. But he insists because he knows how important it is for me to get a good nights sleep. He's always taking care of me. (#908)

Jenica's doing good, but getting her pain under control has been difficult. They are pleased with her progress, and I know that each day will get better for her. She just needs to be patient. I'm so proud of her. She's been showing a lot of courage these past couple weeks, and has been trusting God with this situation. (#909)

Oh, and she's been playing the "I just had surgery" card a lot.

I get to pick where we eat, because I'm having surgery..... when playing Farkle, we hear: I want to go first, 'cuz I just had surgery..... And her favorite: I need an iPhone (and an iPad, and a Macbook) cuz I had surgery..... On the way home we'll probably hear: I need to ride in front cuz I had surgery. Can we stop for a snack break since I had surgery?

Speaking of gadgets... When Dr Ackerman came in to see Jenica this afternoon, Jacob was listening to his iPod while playing a game on his computer and texting on his smart phone, while Chad sat at the desk doing lesson plans on his computer. Technology is a good thing. (#910) For example, Jenica's defibrilator has a Transmitter that sets on a dresser at home, which automatically captures the information stored on her ICD and transmits it to her doctor in Rochester so he can continue to monitor her heart and watch for problems. How cool is that?!

So many of the people we've met here are amazed to hear that we have 3 children, each with heart conditions. Some wonder how we do it? Hopefully, they can see the peace we have, which can only come from trusting God with every little detail. And because we trust Him, He gives us the strength we need to flex our courage muscles. (#911)