29 February 2004

Hello dear friends and family,

I arrived back from the hospital yesterday (Saturday) afternoon and just wanted to say how supported and encouraged I have been all week by your prayers, messages and notes. I realized when I was in hospital just how many people I have in my life who truly care. Some on the US side of the Atlantic were even up in the night praying at the time of my surgery! I feel very very blessed to have you.

I certainly felt an incredible peace and security through this whole process. As you are probably aware from Erik, there were several obstacles to having the surgery. At each moment however, when I would normally have panicked, I sensed God say it would be alright. So from the cold I started to get after arriving in England which would have postponed surgery, to the sudden shortage of beds on the day I was due to go in, to the surgeon’s subsequent doubts about doing surgery with my current thyroid levels, I had peace and was able to leave it in God’s hands. When all of the above were finally behind me, I was settled into a ward with 5 other women. We had a really good time connecting with each other that evening and talking about our upcoming surgeries. The following morning, instead of taking the offered pre-med sedative, I listened to music and prayed. It was far more effective! I was able to be wheeled down to surgery totally conscious and calm, chatting with the theatre nurses and anesthetist, who were all marvelous. They at some point put me to sleep, in mid-sentence for all I know. I have no recollection of it happening. The next thing I knew my name was being called and I felt like I had been hit by an articulated lorry (that’s semi-truck for Americans!). That was the worst part of the whole experience. I seemed to react really badly to the anesthetic or maybe the pain killers and I had to spend about 3 hours in recovery before I was well enough to be taken back to the ward.

Throughout all of this it seems as if the baby has done well. There have been no signs of any problems and my surgeon says that this almost certainly means everything is OK. All the doctors involved in my surgery as well as the nurses were very conscientious about protecting the pregnancy and giving me the right care and medication at every step. Whatever problems the NHS may have, it isn’t in the people who work for it. They are amazing. I would have any future surgeries here if I could. My surgeon was definitely the right choice. It was apparently a little tricky at times to extract my thyroid, due to it’s depth of growth in my chest cavity and proximity to other organs such as my trachea. It had actually been pressing on my trachea, which is why I had felt my breathing was somewhat restricted before. She however did it perfectly and left me only a very small scar, smaller than what I understand is normal. After the op, my surgeon told me it was really good it came out when it did, which made me even more thankful to have had it done.

I still have 10 days left in England before returning home. I miss Erik terribly, but hopefully this last half of the trip will go quickly. I plan to spend a few more days in Plymouth being with family and perhaps helping my brother with his new business, then I plan to go to Bristol for a few days to see friends and church family there. At some point I am expecting to be called for a follow-up clinic at the hospital, which will hopefully happen before my flight on 10^th! I have started taking thyroxin and so far have done fine on it.

Thank you again everyone for your concern, prayers and love. I deeply appreciate you all.

Jo