From a changed date, last minute cancelled flights and the costs of a damaged mercedes benz we lost quite a bit, financially. So to keep further costs as low as possible I was to go to Florida with Lydia and Tim was to stay in CA. This in itself was a nerve racking decision because unbeknownst to us, I was undiagnosed and suffering from Addison's disease and Hashimoto thyroiditis. My symptoms had left me with very little energy and strength and I was nauseous most of the time. But, I thank God that, for a few weeks my symptoms were lifted and I was able to go to Florida.
Foot Fusion- This is not a surgery Dr Paley chooses lightly. He will only do this if there is no range of motion lost in the process. Lydia had no range of motion in this joint because of her anatomy and the deformity her condition created. Pre-op done, papers signed, prayers sent, Lydia goes into surgery the next next morning. She always blows me away with her calmness before they wheel her into the operating room and I find it very contagious. I was so calm, in fact, that I went back to Quantum House to do my daily task of vacuuming the hall (shocking when I look back), then I went back to my room and prayed a few confident prayers. A couple of hours later I headed back to the hospital. Now I happened to be reading "Kneeling We Triumph" which I will come back to later. Dr Paley came out into the waiting room and told me that the foot fusion was a success but when they removed a suture in the hip/leg joint area the leg came out of joint and they were going to have to do a hip osteotomy. They required me to sign new papers giving permission to perform the surgery. A side note to this is that Lydia had often complained about her leg feeling like it was popping out of it's socket. I have been so used to her complaints that I have been guilty of switching them off- I guess that's the wrong thing to do. So there I am in the hospital waiting room feeling very much more anxious that Lydia may experience the same nerve damage issues as she did before when she had the other hip osteotomy. I sent texts to my christian sisters to pray for her and just about held it together because of my faith. Then the big blow came. Another doctor, I think it was Servando, came out to see me. They couldn't get her leg to go back in position because of her tight muscles and so they needed to do a Femoral Shortening and needed me to sign papers to allow them to do this. I was devastated. Taking away bone length from a bone Lydia had previously and painstakingly lengthened earlier was such a blow. My heart was broken for her and my calmness gone. I signed the new papers.
It just so happened that I had read in my book on prayer, only a few minutes before Servando came out, about honesty in prayer, God knows our heart after all. So this read, I got real real honest. My prayer changed from- please give us the strength to deal with this extra surgery etc to- Lord, this is too much, I don't want this for my daughter, you are pushing me too far.
Waiting…waiting hours later, Dr Paley came out. He was very happy with the Hip osteotomy and had a lot of confidence in the new joint and …..they didn't need to do a femoral reduction!!!!! Tears of sadness turned to tears of gratitude and joy and strengthened faith! And oh, what a blessing indeed that we did the U-turn in the first place and stopped ourselves from doing the lengthening at this time! And what a blessing too that the suture held her leg in place up until she was on the operating table when there was so much pressure on it with the tight muscle.
Tim managed to fly out when we realized just how much more Lydia had to deal with and all the extra lifting. It was very necessary especially with the journey home! Thanks Tim!
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