Another Day at Hopkins

I’m just sitting in the hospital room with Mom right now. She is sleeping on my bed and I’m just sitting in a chair with my feet propped up on another chair, piled with pillows to keep my feet elevated. Jonathan was able to spend the night here last night. It was so amazing to see him and hold his hand and laugh with him. Talking on the phone and texting is great, but there is nothing like a hug. He makes me so happy, I can’t even say how much!

Anyway, we are just sitting here. We have to pay for TV and only get about 30 channels…no HGTV and Food Network cuts out every 2 seconds…can you believe that?! Aarrrggg! Ok, I know that is a stupid thing to complain about, but when you are in the hospital, there isn’t really a lot to do. It has given me some reading time that I have missed so much in daily life.

The extra time has also given me more motivation to get out and walk. When I first had my surgery, I was restricted to the floor I was on. This time, I’m not attached to any tubes or IV’s, so I’m free to go down stairs and walk throughout the buildings. Tonight, Mom and I walked for 15 minutes and Jonathan and I walked for 15 minutes earlier today! I told Mom that there was no way I would have been able to do that before the surgery. Here we are, exactly 4 weeks later and I’m walking for 30 minutes a day! How great is our God that He can make our bodies work like that?! Every time I think about having someone else’s lungs inside of me, I am just speechless. It helps me to remember that even MY body must be fearfully and wonderfully made just like Psalm 139 says. I’ve always found that a hard verse to believe myself. But now, I know it to be true. Even though other parts of my body (like my kidneys) are having trouble right now, we are seeing miracles there too. My kidney level was pretty much the same today…hopefully they will start to go down, but at least they are holding their own! And we didn’t have to do dialysis today! Thank you, God!

Mary and Peter drove into town on Wednesday night. Sadly, we will not get to see each other. Things worked out so great with Jonathan spending the night and Mom going home. At least Mom was able to have dinner with Dad, Mary, and Peter and then spend some time with Mary last night. My Mom and my sister are great. They were both willing to sacrifice their time together for me. What incredible support I have from my whole family. I am so very thankful.

Today was pretty quiet in terms of doctors and tests and results. I think tomorrow will be similar. That is what I’m hoping for at least! Thank you for reading our blog and for keeping us in your prayers. It is like a big, warm hug to know that so many people, even people we’ve never met, love us and lift us up to our amazing God.

- Rachel

Just looking through our honeymoon pictures and found this one!