A Day of Appointments

First, I want thank everyone who has been praying for Samuel over the last nine months.  I have no doubt that God has answered our prayers over and over again.  If He hadn't, Samuel would not be here anymore. The Lord has a plan for him, and I hope that one day we see His plan in all of this. 

It was raining when we woke up this morning. Today it snowed, sleeted and rained, sometimes all at the same time. None of the snow stuck to anything. It is slushy and cold. Tonight it will be in the mid 20's. We are praying we can safely get to the airport in the morning.  

We are still at Johns Hopkins Hospital.  Samuel is having a CT scan right now.  The appointments went well. I think all the doctors are excellent and they seem to have a good understanding of what is going on with Samuel.  We discussed his current condition and what options he may have.  There's complications and side effects to any of the surgical choices. One of the surgery options causes cancer down the road, so for a 60 year old it might be a good option, but for a 20 year old, it's not such a great option.  It is a battle of "quality of life vs. quantity of life."  After some discussion, we basically decided that wasn't an option we should even consider at this time.  

The ultimate goal would be for Samuel to be able to return to his life as it was before his accident, but if that is not possible, we will settle for as close to that as possible. The CT scan will give the doctors more information about what can be done, but the final decision on what procedures they will do will have to be made in the operating room when they can physically see what they have to work with.  

The first surgery will be about 12 hours long, maybe longer depending on what they decide to do. They will be working on scheduling it, but it may be hard to fit it into all their schedules. They are going to try to schedule it for March if possible.  We want to do it as soon as possible.  He will need to stay in the hospital for about 2-3 weeks depending on what all is done. They said that plastic surgery may have to follow up with a series of surgeries to close his abdominal wall, but we won't know how many until the first surgery.  

I feel at peace about our decision to come to Hopkins. I feel like we are in the right place for the complications he has. I have to say that being here has also really given me more of an appreciation for the beautiful country lifestyle we sometimes take for granted. Two days in the inner city is more than enough for me.  I am looking forward to heading home tomorrow. I think Samuel is ready to be home too.