To God be the glory, this entire experience was for the Father to bring glory to himself and blessing to our family. To say I was fearful going into this surgery would be a woefully inadequate description of the inner turmoil I was experiencing. Jumping out of the boat, I sank to my neck calling out, “Lord save me!” At least Peter took a few steps before his faith quailed. I don’t say this to beat myself up, it is just the ugly truth.
When I woke from my fitful night’s sleep, to face surgery day for Eden, my stomach was in knots. I felt sick. Loading up the car, I was prepared to stay the night if Eden needed me, but I was dreading her post-operative state. We reached the parking deck and God blessed us with “princess parking”. Aw, thanks God. Gary, our elder, whom we love, from our new church, met us in the waiting area to pray with us. Such a gift. As we sat waiting in the lobby at Children’s, a nurse called for us to come and get Eden’s “vitals,” blood pressure, temperature, et cetera. We were shocked to find out she had a fever of 100.1! What? Jumping onto Facebook, I sent out a prayer request that surgery would still continue safely.
Once we were back in our room at one day surgery the anesthesia nurse assured us that the low grade fever posed no problem at all. Since there were no cold symptoms, they chalk it up to the infection in her ear. Prayer Request 1: Surgery to proceed: check. While we met several other incredible healthcare professionals associated with Eden’s care, she enjoyed playing Minecraft on Daddy’s computer. Perhaps one of my greatest fears was what I like to call, “the separation.” Greatly I feared our parting at the famous bubble wall. When she left us I didn’t want her to be terrified and crying. Which actually translates to, “I didn’t want BOTH of us to be terrified and crying.” Rolling down the hallway on her bed, Eden simply snuggled down into her blankie with her lovies. Once at the bubble wall she stood up to touch it and marvel at it…we all did. Then she snuggled down again, hugged and kissed us goodbye, and they rolled her away. Perfectly calm. Prayer Request #2: No hysterical separation: check. I can’t lie, I was totally unprepared and blown away with how this unfolded. Then we waited. For two hours. On the couch. Around an hour later the nurse called from the operating room to let us know how things were progressing. She told me that Eden was such a sweet little girl and did great. With only a little nervousness she went to sleep fine, no tears or panicking. This nurse was totally taken with Eden. Prayer Request #3: Eden would not be frightened once in the ER: check.
Once the surgery was completed we met with Dr. Smith. The first words out of his mouth were this, “Well, it wasn’t a cholesteatoma.” Jaw dropping silence.
My response was, “Excuse me, what?!”
“Yeah, when I got in there I was surprised to find that there was only terrible infection. The infection had gotten into the mastoid bone and filled it. There was no way it would clear up without surgery and the procedure was the same. I had to drill out the mastoid bone. Her middle ear bones look great, we tapped on them and they worked fine. (I winced.) Her hearing should be restored after all this is done. I just cleaned everything out for her and if you feel like it I can release her today if you want to go home.”
At this point I have to pause and quote my mother, “Sometimes our prayers just aren’t big enough.” Agreed. Never had I thought the terrible ear disease might not actually be there. I didn’t even think to pray it gone. I just prayed for a total and easy recovery. Which is what happened. However, not having this disease makes things that much more wonderful. Now there is no fear of it “coming back.” Now there is no fear of having to repair her ear bones, or of her losing her hearing. How great is our God?! Prayer request #4: Successful surgery: check, check, check, and check!! Needless to say there was joy all up in that little conference room as we shook hands with Dr. Smith and told him we’d love to take her home as soon as possible. Prayer Request #5: Miraculously go home the same day: check.
We waited for quite a while for Eden to come out of recovery. When we got the call that she had woken up, the nurse gushed over the phone about how precious Eden was and that she was the delight of the recovery room this day. All the nurses apparently wanted to wait on Eden. We were told she would be arriving in 30 minutes or so and that she felt fine and had not thrown up. Prayer Request #6: Don’t let Eden be horribly sick from surgery: check. About an hour later, they rolled her into the room. The sweet nurse who talked to me previously apologized for the delay and informed us that as soon as she hung up the phone Eden threw up. But prayer request #6 holds because she only threw up that one time. They kept her longer to watch for more sickness, but it never came. She looked so small and pitiful with all the cords coming out of her and her head all bandaged up. However, she woke up saying, “I want water and a granola bar.” Since we were supposed to keep her on a soft bland diet, I went with the softer, yet still hard, chocolate teddy grahams. I’m up for mother of the year.
After another hour everyone decided it was safe to head home. So, we loaded up in the van, gave Eden the iPad and took off at 5:13 pm, in Birmingham traffic. We prayed as we entered the streets that we would somehow dodge all the crazy traffic and get home swiftly. Prayer Request #7: Dodge traffic: check. Once we arrived home, Eden wanted copious amounts of food…we gave it to her. Once sated, she requested a Minecraft server with her siblings. Request granted. They played Minecraft while my parents, Eric, and I marveled over the day’s events. A late bedtime finally came, along with pain meds (just in case), and we put Eden on a palate at the foot of our bed. At 9:45 pm she dropped off to sleep and didn’t wake up until 7:30 am the next morning! Prayer Request #8: Let Eden sleep through the night: check.
Eden’s recovery has been unbelievable. While she did NOT go to C.C. the next day, her Mama did. Eden was feeling so well that she wanted to play with Grandma and Grandpa and could have cared less that I went to C.C.
On October 1, 2015, we went in for our post-op check-up and she was given a clean bill of health and permission to go upside down and jump as much as she wanted. There is still packing in her middle ear behind the eardrum and that is expected to dissolve over the next 6 weeks. At that time we will go get another hearing test to see if her hearing has improved and where she stands with that. The scar behind her ear that runs from the top of her ear all the way around to the bottom of her ear, is healing nicely and will fade in time and hardly be noticeable. Of course, you can’t see it if you don’t move her hair and peek behind her ear, so it isn’t technically visible anyway.
I am speechless at the feet of the Master as to how He chose to handle this surgery. I confess my sin that I was a total wreck going into the surgery, fearing the worst and believing it would come to pass. Our God is so good and He is so patient with my unbelief. “Lord, I believe, just help me overcome my unbelief.” Thank you for all your prayers friends. They were heard and answered just like we desired. It’s cool when the outcome we desire is the outcome that God had in mind.
