SATURDAY MORNING - AFTER SURGERY

Good Morning, Molly's surgery went very very well. First and foremost, Molly's Dad & my Mom & Dad were able to make it in plenty of time before she left for surgery. We had prayer with Tommy the chaplain, and then again right prior to her going to surgery with everyone including Troy & Theresa and even the anesthesiologists and the techs. The main anesthesiologist said when we asked them to wait a minute while we prayed, "I pray with you", then Troy said we join hands when we pray and he said, "Great, thats the way we do it in our church." Molly was at peace and conformtable when she left for the OR. Dr. Wang was pleased with the results and was able to go a little lower on both legs than he thought he initially thought he could. Also, much of the muscle that he was unsure he could use to wrap the ends of the stumps with, he could use and feels really good about how well they will do. The surgery took about 31/2 hours as expected, however she did not go to surgery until around 6:30 pm. After we spoke to Dr. Wang, Molly's blood pressure dropped in recovery and her electrolytes got out of wack, so she was in recovery for a very long time. It was after midnight until she got back to her room. The worst part of all this is that in recovery their focus was on the BP, and did not want to give her anything to strong to help with the pain so she was in a lot of pain during recovery. When she finally got back to her room, her pain was on a definite 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. Jay, her nurse for the last two nights was awesome, he started working on her pain immediately and in about 30 minutes had it starting to feel a little better. within 2 hours it was very manageable and was able to maintain a constant 5-6 all night. I stayed in Molly's room last night and helped with changing her bed sheets and repositioning her. They also decided to restart the CVVH (continuous, mild form of dialysis) to get her fluids and electrolytes back in shape, and did not want to do regular Hemo as they weren't sure she would tolerate it well right after surgery. This was awesome to watch because the machine is very contrary and basically the whole TBC (trauma, burn center) team worked to get it up and running since no one from the dialysis department was available until later this morning. They got it running, but when they hooked it up, Molly's BP took a nose dive, so they rushed around getting it back where it needed to be, discontinued the CVVH and will start it again this morning. This has been a regular pattern since all this illness started, her BP drops significantly everytime they do anything with her. It is do to her being so ill, her body can not compensate for the fluid changes very well. However, I think this is something that is just Molly to a certain extent, in that I am sure the illness has made her more susceptible to quick fluctuations in BP, but when she is just ill at home she gets very light headed very quickly and has to lie down before she faints. Anyway, she is doing great, alert and awake with her pain managed pretty well. She and I have been up all night, so I am sure she will be sleeping quite a bit today, I know I will be. The game plan for the weekend is just regular dressing changes, CVVH, Occupational Therapy to re-evaluate her voice and swallowing to see how soon she can get off the tube feeds and eating and drinking on her own. Once those tubes are gone she will only have the arterial lines in for her dialysis, and one IV for her antibiotic and one for her pain meds. All the rest of the bags, pumps, tubes, machines, etc are gone. she is even off the nasal canula oxygen, she is just breathing room air and her oxygenation is great. Game plan for the upcoming week and weeks. Start getting a little Physical Therapy in bed to strengthen and tone upper body. Skin graft for stumps, and upper thigh on left leg. Continue skin care for other areas affected by the blood clots, which are already looking good. Surgery for her left thumb and index finger (she will loosing them as well). Then after about 2 weeks of wound, graft and skin care, she will be ready for some intense rehab. then a few weeks after that and her stumps are healed and not swollen, we will need to locate a prosthetist, a person who specializes in fitting prosthetics. Then it will be learning how to use them. Molly told me before surgery that she already has a goal. Of course due to her voice I thought she said she was cold and I started covering her up. She said NO, G - O - A - L! I said, OH, I get it, what? Troy is a runner and she said she is going to run with Troy sometime. I said that is a great GOAL, and I will help you get to that point so Theresa (Troy's wife) and I can sit on the porch and watch you guys run! On a serious note, when she said that, I had no doubts whatsoever that she and I will get through this just fine. SPECIFIC PRAYER NEEDS

• Complete healing of her stumps and other wounds with no infections
• Grafting to go well and to take
• Continued healing of her kidneys, lungs, skin, liver, eyes and throat
• Strength and perserverence to participate in therapy
• Mental health, the doctors indicated that she will go through post-traumatic stress syndrome, so prayers to help her through this when it comes.
• Raymond (her dad), it was good for Molly to see him and him to see her, but it was hard on him, and was a very very long day for him including the fact he is not usually a good "traveler" long distances. He did great and is doing great, but prayers for him. He is used to seeing Molly 2-3 times a week and talks with her almost everyday. Until he saw her yesterday, it had been over 3 weeks since he saw or spoke to her. The long times between visits will be hard on him.
• Molly & I's families and friends as they travel to and from Ann Arbor over the next several weeks to visit.

God Is Good, and continues to answer prayers in Molly & I's lives. Keep Praying and Pray Hard!