'Time to turn my logs back into legs!'

   So far today, Dr. Taetle and Dr. Leon put their heads together to come up with a plan to fix Kim's legs.  "I keep throwing everyone curve balls", said Kim apologetically.  Dr. Leon's associate, Dr. Namanny, was brought in with the idea of performing a bilateral lower extremity percutaneous venus thrombectomy (say that three times fast!).  He will go into the upper legs and clean out clots from the thighs up to the IVC...if all goes well, Kim should be able to come home Saturday.  Dr. Namanny said he will perform this procedure tomorrow afternoon.  Please pray for a successful surgery for Kimmy.  She is feeling somewhat anxious, for the first time, regarding this procedure.  Some of it is, that she had wanted Dr. Leon to perform the surgery, but he will be out of town until Tuesday.  Some of it is, the cumulative affect of the experiences she has been through are becoming a little overwhelming - remember I told you how high Kim's pain tolerance is?  When she says she has pain that is a 5 on a scale of 10, for the mere mortal, that would equate to a 7 or 8.  So, when I say the cumulative experiences are becoming a little overwhelming, most of us would have already been put in a rubber room by now!  Her nurse, Heidi, quickly consoled Kim and gave her strength.  These nurses have been there for Kim so many times.  Last night, around 3 a.m., her tech came in to take her vitals and Kim told her what angels they all were...her tech told her that the nurses and techs at St. Joseph's say that Kim is the angel of the hospital right now - that no matter what she goes through, she keeps on glowing!
     Kim's mom and Jim flew out today, which was a difficult depature for both.  They gave Kim a nice morale boost and really helped the bambini's (not to mention being white tornados around our home!!).  They will be back on the 20th and Kim and the kids are already counting down the days...
      Speaking of the bambini's...they did a great job this morning getting ready on time for school and helping out with the dishes, wash, etc. They took their math benchmarks today - none of them were too excited to be taking those today! After school, our friend, Andrea picked them up, helped them through homework, got them some food and took them to the Reid Park Zoo for their Festival of Lights...we typically take them there each Christmas season - they were excited to be going!
       Special thanks to Mrs. Lofgren, from Cottonwood, for the wonderful potato soup, salad, bread, dessert, etc, etc!! And to Andrea and Angie for feeding me today in the hospital.
      Today, we were thankful for the ongoing support of Kim's school, Rincon Vista, as we found out she was approved to use some sick time, typically not available since she was a 15 hr/week employee.  This was great news and may open the door to have her approved for a sick time borrowing program the district has!
      For now, Kim is pain free - and, she is off of oxygen!!  These were some of the big wins of the day.  Tomorrow, we pray that the surgery relieves the pressure of her blood clots and, in her words, 'turn my logs back into legs!'.  Please pray for Kim's confidence, as well.  We were talking about a book I read by Max Lucado called 'Fearless', in which he says that the Bible has more than 50 verses that tell us to have courage or strength or to have no fear.  Sometimes it is a challenge to quiet the subconscious in these situations - but if anyone can do it, it will be Kim, with all of your support and prayers!!
     Love,
              Dave