Hospital Update - 9

Surgeon just came in to meet with us. He's done. He said everything went very well except for the trouble getting through the sternum, and that was resolved by getting Mag on the heart-lung machine right away. He said her heart started up perfectly when they took her off bypass, and it's beating great. They're starting to wake her up now.

Matt asked the doctor about how the heart-lung machine worked. Rather than answering, the surgeon just invited him to come by "anytime" and see it and have it explained with the machine right there. Matt's got the phone number and is looking forward to the demonstration.

Erin, just wanted to let you know the boys said the "brussels sprouts with peanut butter and mayo sauce" was awesome! For those of you who are tossing your cookies at the very thought of this dish, be assured that it was interestingly labeled due to a birthday-dinner joke, and was actually delicious stuffed pasta-shells.

Don't think we're going to make dinner at the Ronald McDonald House tonight. It starts in 15 minutes, and that's just when Maggie is due out to see us. But on the other hand, maybe we'll see her, run over and grab supper, and come back just in time to get into ICU. Boy, oh boy, that RMH sure is a humongous blessing to families who are busy taking care of sick kids!

Anybody want to sing the LCMS theme song with me? "It's a small world, after all. It's a small, small world." Just after I left for Didache last night, a couple sat down at the RMH dining room table that Gary and Maggie were at. They said the table prayer that is common to northern-Wisc Lutherans. So Gary asked about where they were from. A few moments of conversation, and the mom says, "So you're Pastor G!" Oy! There's a surprise for ya! Turns out that she was a junior councilor at Camp LuWiSoMo when Gary was Pastor of the Week once. She is also a friend of one of our friends. This family's baby was born the same day as Gerhardt Stuckwisch, but he had to be medi-flighted to a big city hospital. Her friend mentioned that we'd be here this week for Mag's surgery. So that's how she put all the pieces together. They're just around the corner from us at the RMH, and their son is in ICU with Mag. They could use prayers too, with munchkins staying with grandparents, and baby recuperating from heart surgery.

Maggie got mail here today from David Daniel and the APT company. Wow! Thanks, Maria and David!

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Just took a break to go see Mag as they wheeled her down the hall. They told us she was waking up. Their version of "awake" is a little different than mine. But the anethesiologist is happy. And when we started talking to her and holding her hand and giving a kiss or two (and when Rachel mentioned mail from APT -- LOL), Maggie started trying to sit up. No no... too much too fast. She had to relax. So, she's doing well. :-)