Surgeries

Jon found out last week that he will need surgery on his hand. He has a hereditary condition which is unique to older men of northern European ancestry. I guess that Dutch blood has come back to haunt him. No one else in his family has had this thing, so I have been teasing Jon about being switched in the hospital. It is the second hereditary disease he has which no one else has had, so if he didn't look so much like his parents, he might just wonder if it were true. :-) Yes, I am bad! This condition causes a growth on his tendons or ligaments in his hand. It is most often found on the last two fingers of the hand, but also the thumb, which is where Jon's is growing. As this thing grows, it contracts and pulls the digits inward toward the palm. Jon's was diagnosed about eight years ago, but the doctor did not recommend treatment at that time. The only treatment is surgery and it is not a cure. Because of the risks of losing the use of his thumb, if there should be a problem in surgery, it was not recommended as long as he had the use of his thumb. Jon can barely extend his thumb now and so surgery is scheduled for Wednesday, October 29th. (This is a photo of the condition, but not of Jon's actual hand. But you can see what it does.) It will be done outpatient in a surgical clinic and he will not be put under general anesthesia which is a good thing for Jon who gets quite nauseous from general anesthesia, but kind of weird to him to think about being awake while they are operating on him. We will keep you posted. As to my major surgery, I have found, with the help of my brother-in-law, Martin, a doctor who can perform the procedure laparoscopically. Normally this cannot be done in this manner, but there is now a robotic assistant which will enable me to be a candidate for this far less severe and invasive procedure. Rather than making a large incision to open up the abdomen for the surgery, this method only requires a few small holes to be made for the insertion of instruments. Therefore the muscles are not cut wide open and retracted for a length of time with its ensuing pain and long recovery time. With this method the recovery time is considerably shorter. In fact I will go home by the next morning or even the same evening if I am feeling up to it. This is a huge answer to prayer and I am so glad for modern technology that makes this possible for me! My surgery is scheduled for November 25th, the day before Thanksgiving, but I should be home in time for turkey and dressing. Hooray for modern medical care! We'll keep you posted on this as well.

Furlough

I don't know why they call it furlough any more. The original idea was that a missionary would come back to their home country for a year of rest after every 7 to 10 years on the field. We now come home for a shorter length of time, but more often, but their t'aint a lot of rest in furlough. (You can see I just finished a few days in Ken-tuck-y.) In our first two weeks of furlough we worked for 130 hours and visited three different states. We only had one day off in that time. We also had to deal with our things in storage, sorting and organizing them then in their new space since my sister, the keeper of our stuff, had moved herself. We visited dentists and optometrists and doctors. Jon is now scheduled for hand surgery the middle of next week. He still has some follow-up appointments with specialists as well and we are heading out this morning to our home office in Cary for the remainder of this week. This has literally been the first time in about a month that I have had the time to update my blog. So our schedule for now is to fly out this morning to Cary. Fly back on Saturday. Speak in a church on Sunday. Monday and Tuesday have doctors appointments for Jon and meeting with supporters for Susan. Wednesday Jon has his hand surgery and we will hang out here a day or two until he can travel, then we drive to Michigan to visit supporters there and hopefully arrange for my surgery in November. Good news there I will be able to have a type of laparoscopic surgery assisted by a robot which should save me considerable pain and recovery time. I am really happy about that. After a week or so in Michigan I will head to Fort Wayne for a few days, then back to Kentucky for a few days and then back north again, trying to see supporters along the way then heading into my surgery that week if we can get it scheduled for then. That would give me time to recover a few days before Thanksgiving which would be nice for me. So that is our general schedule for the next few weeks. I am kinda looking forward to surgery since it will mean that I will have to take at least a couple of weeks of rest all in the same place! Now that is just sad.