Happy Day!

I am so happy to report that Elizabeth will have her biliary stent placed TOMORROW, Thursday the 14th. She is scheduled for the morning and will be admitted to the hospital for observation immediately following. Actually, this procedure is an outpatient procedure, but radiology doesn't have enough recovery beds, so Elizabeth's doc is circumnavigating the system and having her admitted so that we can have the procedure as early as possible. It doesn't look like she'll be kept overnight, but even if she is, as long as there are no complications (which there shouldn't be any--it seems to be a pretty straightforward thing as opposed to most CT guided procedures) we anticipate being home by Friday morning.

Elizabeth's pain has gotten so intense that we've had to switch her pain meds from tylenol #3 to hydrocodone. Her pain is definitely attributable to the lack of bile to digest her food and the digestive issues it causes in her abdomen. We are looking forward to the stent being placed as it should relieve a lot (if not most) of her pain. If all goes well, we should have our happy Elizabeth back by Friday!

We want to thank Dr. Stein for seeing us so quickly to discuss Elizabeth's CT scan and what his surgical recommendations (or lack thereof) were. It made ME (mom) much more agreeable to a stent. And thank you Dr. Marcio for doing whatever magic he does to get Elizabeth in for the procedure so quickly. Even if Elizabeth's recovery is atypical (for her and the procedure itself) and it takes her a little longer to get back to herself again, we have enough time before Christmas to ensure a happy Christmas morning--which means a whole lot now that we are painfully aware of how precious each and every holiday (and every day) is.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying and thinking good thoughts for us. I can't help but believe that when so many are praying for the same thing, God can't help but listen. The last month has been really rough, but hopefully now there is a light at the end of this tunnel. Just another bump in this road until the next...

Elizabeth will make it to school later this afternoon. It is Mrs. Preis' birthday, and Elizabeth wouldn't miss it!! Also, it's the holiday performance, and even if she doesn't feel like singng on stage, she'll want to be there to see it. Matt will be performing, too, so it's important to be there to see him.

Take care and Merry Christmas! Please keep praying for Elizabeth's pain relief and for the radiologist doing the procedure to have an easy job of it.