Mass today!

Hi Everyone! I forgot to mention that there will be a Mass for Makenzie today at St. Paul's Catholic Church, Nassau Bay. It will be at 12:00. Thanks to Dawn for setting this up!

Day 21- Three weeks....

Can you believe it's been three weeks? I have lost a sense of time. When we first went to the STICU at Hermann Hospital three weeks ago today, there were people in the waiting room who were family members of others who were already there. You get to know some of your waiting room buddies after a couple of days. A couple of moms had been there with their teenage sons for three weeks. I couldn't believe that when I heard it! I was pretty much in disbelief about a lot of things at that point. Surely we can't be up here for 3 weeks....

Those moms moved on eventually (actually they moved out to rehab). They were the lucky ones. Some never get the opportunity to leave. Such as the case of a family my sister got to know. They had been in the waiting room with us for about seven days. Their mom had fallen and broken an arm, and thus started having compications. We saw this family in the elevator, in the Hermann Cafe, in the hall. We got daily reports about their mom, and they always asked how Kenzy was doing. A very nice family. Yesterday morning their mom passed away. Yet in their grief, one of the guys handed my sister his business card with his email address. He wanted to stay in touch and know how Makenzie was doing.....

I am amazed at the compassion that people have even in difficult times. I am awed by the compassion and love so so many have felt for my family. Many of you have showered my sister and brother in law with acts of kindness and love. I can hardly comprehend it at times...

Makenzie is in a private room (and a big one for the time being! yeah!). Tomorrow the foot plastic guy will take the dressings off her left foot and check the grafts. Pray this is going well. She will begin physical therapy soon. We are just glad it's Friday honestly! Yeah! Rest, family, friends, weekend. We are so lucky to have made it off of that STICU floor. Praise God for that!

Makenzie has been playing around with her computer when she is not tired, so if you have her email address you can write her! I suspect she will be making an appearance on this blog before too long! She's even been reading it! So, you can post comments for her to read here!

Thanks for waiting tonight for me my friends!
Peace to you all...
Mary

Day 20- The best day....

Today was the best day so far for Makenzie. She was actually getting a little sleep and was comfortable. The pain guys finally got something to work for her! She is glad there isn't more surgery scheduled and looks forward to getting on with recovery. She also has an excellent attitude....what a trooper she is! She is supposed to move out of the IMU to a regular room sometime today as well. Pam and Makenzie both were looking forward to this as it is next to impossible to get any sleep in the IMU. You pretty much have to be unconcious......

One of the things Makenzie did today was look at this blog! She read a couple of days worth of entries and read the additional comments posted. Then she got really sleepy. At any rate, she is reading the postings. I look forward to writing on this blog herself very soon! She is extremely grateful for your prayers.....as am I.

Looking forward to tomorrow! Looking forward to Makenzie getting stronger! Looking forward to the day she can check out of there and go home! Glad we're looking forward to these things. Never take anything for granted.....
Good night my brothers and sisters,
Mary

Day 19-

James 5:16 says "the effective fervant prayer of a righteous man avails much". I have so been thinking about this verse today. Yesterday was a difficult day. The surgery went well, but afterward there were some serious pain issues and complications. It is times like this that you count on your family and friends to lift you up. Today I was so grateful to you all for your fervent and continued prayers. Hopefully the surgeries are over for now. Lots of healing to begin. Hopefully there will be a little more rest for everyone. It has been hard.

During the past two weeks I have been thinking a lot about scriptures. Most of the ones I know I learned as a child. Some of them I have not thought about in a very long time, like the one I listed above. Funny that I remember it now. Admittedly I have not done a very good job in the learning and memorization of verses for my own children. I think I will try to do a better job in this department, since it has been these verses that has pulled my mind and my heart out of the cellar....Better to have some reinforcements in scripture so to be ready when the stuff hits the fan.

Some specifics to pray for:
-relief of pain, a big one!
-for complete healing and recovery
-for healing of wounds and grafts
-for rest for my sister and brother in law

Thank you my friends....
Mary

Day 18- Long freaking day...

Today was a long, long day. Surgery began around 7:30am and got out around 4pm. A very long and somewhat painful surgery. This evening they have returned her to IMU. Hopefully this will be the last surgery for a while. Hopefully now we can get on with the recovery process.
It's been an exhausting day my friends. Thank you for being there in prayer for Makenzie. I will have more to report tomorrow. Sorry for being late and short, but my power went out for about 2 hours this evening!
Mary

Day 17-Monday again....

I have a different view of Mondays after hanging around the STICU and IMU at Hermann Hospital. Normally I'm pretty indifferent to Mondays, actually being one of the few people who actually like Mondays in general. Mondays on a trauma floor are a whole differnt mantra. They are hard days for the staff and patients, and the families especially. We are spending our third Monday here tomorrow.

That being said, this Monday brings with it the last surgery we expect for now. We are looking forward to getting this one done and getting on with Makenzie's recovery. It's kind of hard to recover from anything when you're going into surgery of some sort every two or three days. Tomorrow the best foot plastic vascular guy in the known universe will be repairing the left foot we've all been praying about. We are confident in his abilities, and we are confident of what God can do as well. We will be praying throughout this surgery tomorrow. Thank you all for staying with us! It has made a huge difference in what this guy has to work with.

Makenzie did have a hard last night in dealing with an excrutiating amount of pain. It was very difficult for her to rest. Today the ICU team tried a new pain management plan that has started to help her with this. She did get a little more rest with this new medication. Pray about this as well. The next few days of initial recovery will more than most likely bring more pain than ever. Pray for some relief and rest for her and Pam and Chuck.

So my friends, here comes Monday. Whatever your Monday brings, let us boldly go before our Father and ask for help. He already knows what we need before we ask......
Mary

Day 16-

This past week seemed to crawl by. There were a couple of setbacks, a lot of waiting around and a bit of frustration. We knew yesterday that there would be probably two more surgeries to go. When they were going to happen was the big mystery. A lot of discussions between surgeon teams was going on, but nothing was really moving forward. At any rate, this morning they took Makenzie in to do surgery on her right ankle. It was also broken and needed some attention. This surgery didn't look like it was going to happen til the end of next week or later. The family really wanted to get this one going ahead of the left foot surgery since that one is much more complicated. The docs repaired the broken ankle and will check on it tomorrow via CAT scan. So, this was good news today. Again, you really never know what's going to happen til it happens. The docs made this decision overnight around 2am. Why 2am? Who knows!

Tomorrow is Sunday and a day of rest for Makenzie. Monday is the really long surgery day. Please keep this in your prayers as well as the following days of immobility for her for healing. It's going to be kinda hard.

Finally my friends, please know that prayers are being answered. She is getting better each day. I look forward to the day she can see you all and tell you her story.
Have a great Sunday!
Mary