Day 1 of recovery

7/1/14

About 5:30 PM

Alexa has don't incredible today now that her pain is under control. She is on several different pain meds & also has 2 spine blocks in her back.  I feel so bad about not remembering that Dilaudid doesn't work on her as that is what caused her pain to get so bad.  She has been sleeping most of the day.  PT came in & had her sit up on the side of the bed & she did absolutely incredible!!  She said that is the hardest part, getting up for the 1st time.  Dr. C came in & they took the dressing off her incision & it looks remarkable.  I am so proud of her!!  She is such an inspiration to me!!  Hopefully she will be getting her tube out of her nose tomorrow.  They have added another pump to her pole, you know, the one the nurse said couldn't hold anymore.  She said they have to get a pole that has a double pole.  We will start really celebrating when those pumps & tubes start coming off!!!!  She is doing great though & we couldn't be happier!!  The Child Life came in & brought her a balloon & a gift which I didn't think to get a pic of before she opened it.  She wanted me to open it & it was a couple of gift cards, one to a make up store & one to Target & some socks.  She seems pretty interested in the socks & wanted to hold them & we told her that when she's feeling better we will take a trip to Mall of America for her to spend her gift cards.  She is one tough girl!!

This is a letter that Ty wrote to her:

As I was sitting here holding Alexa’s hand I thought about the other night, Sunday night, the night before the surgery. I had gotten up with her a couple of times. At around 2:00am I heard her moaning and went in to find her curled up having a severe attack and she said it was one of the worst she has had in a while. She asked for a priesthood blessing and afterward she almost immediately started to settle down. As I was sitting on the floor next to her bed holding her hand and waiting for her to go to sleep she asked me, “Dad, what if Heavenly Father heals me tonight, will they still take my pancreas out tomorrow?” I thought whow, this is what is really meant by “having faith to be healed”. She really is enduring to the end.

 I wasn’t sure what to say and I don’t think I could speak as it caused me to get choked up, but then I just told her that I think she was having these attacks, which she hadn’t had in a while, just to let her know that her pancreas was damaged and it needed to come out. That maybe these attacks were an answer to her prayer tonight.

As I went back to bed I thought about it for a while. I thought about how far she has come in the last 2 years and how she has learned to rely on her Father in Heaven. How she now knows that when nothing else works or when no one else can help, she knows Jesus is “always” there.  I know one day she will look back on this whole ordeal over the last few years and know without a doubt that this really has been but a small price to pay for her to become acquainted with her Father in Heaven and her Savior Jesus Christ.

I will forever be indebted to her for helping me get to know my Savior a little better.

Alexa, I love you,

Dad