ALWAYS THERE: August 2013

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog! It has been a very crazy week and I apologize for my long overdue update. I am just now beginning to think clearly as I am weaning off of my pain meds, so I am now able to share with everyone what I have been up to this week. Sunday afternoon my mom and I boarded our flight and arrived in Houston to start our little adventure known as "surgery week". I did not have appointments on Sunday, so my mom and I were able to spend some time in the city. We had a really nice and relaxing girls night which was wonderful and helped distract us from everything. Monday afternoon whole clan flew in; the "clan" consists of my dad, brother, sister, grandmother, and Luis. I've always been treated locally so I never had to experience the difficulty of being away from home; I love these people so much and I am so incredibly grateful that they were able to come and visit me. Their presence and support eased my mind and I quickly forgot that I was not in my city or in the care of my St. Jude. On Monday, I met with my surgeon and my anesthelogist and we reviewed the game plan for Tuesday morning. I really appreciate my doctors and I left their office with such a peace knowing that they were going to take great care of me. That night we went to the original Carrabbas with our friends the Karams and some of our family for our celebration! We have so many things to celebrate and be thankful for! We all enjoyed each other's presence and celebrated another day of life and the opportunity for me to be able to come to Houston. After dinner when we got back to the hotel room my mom and Luis surprised me with the best gift that I have ever received. We were sitting in the room and my mom suggested that we all watch a movie together. Luis said that he brought a movie that we could all watch and when he put in the disk, it was a movie that he made. In the first part of the video he recorded himself singing some of my favorite songs in the recording studio at St. Jude. Luis is extremely talented in the music department and I love it when he sings. It makes me so happy and it is so wonderful because now I can watch the video whenever I want. Luis, with the help of my dearest friend Emma, video-taped of all of my friends and family with their messages of encouragement and love. I would like to thank every single person who participated in my video. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to make sure that I was ready to face my surgery and to make sure that I was aware of all of the people that were praying over me. I cannot even explain the feeling that I had while watching this beautiful video. It made me happy, content, and helped me realize that I was ready and capable of facing this surgery. I am so thankful for Luis who made it his priority to make sure that I was ready for my surgery and I am so thankful for all of the wonderful people that helped him achieve his wish. So after this incredible gift, I was able to get a good rest and prepare for the early morning I had the next day. At 5:30 the whole Walker crew barreled into the surgery check-in room and I was soon transported into the pre-op room. They asked me to change into my gown and once I was dressed and ready to go, I said goodbye to everyone and they whisked me away into the surgery room. Next thing I remember was waking up in the recovery room with some new accessories attached to my neck. These lovely drains were put in place to make sure to that the fluid in my neck would not build up and cause a hematoma, thus taking me back into surgery. The surgeon was able to remove all three of my tumors without any problems, praise God! Soon after I woke up my family came in to see me and we waited there together until my room on the inpatient floor was ready. Once I got into my room I didn't want to do a lot but sleep and take pain medicine. Out of my other two surgeries this has been by far the most painful. For the first day I did not walk except to get up and go to the bathroom. I did not really have an appetite because if you have ever been hospitalized you know that the IV is notorious for putting a pretty bad taste in your mouth. But not having eaten anything all day and by the time dinner rolled around, a Chick-fil-a cookies and cream milkshake sounded very appitizing. If you have ever been to Houston, you know that the medical downtown area is made up of only hospitals; I've never seen so many hospitals in my life! So, bless my poor dad for having to go on a scavenger hunt to find my milkshake. The anesthesia always makes me sick so whenever I have surgery I am usually sick for about a week. Sad to say, the milkshake didn't stay down and it really upset my stomach. I apologize Emma for throwing up on our Skype call. I didn't sleep too well that night simply because the nurses would come in every couple of hours to take vitals and draw labs. We had to closely monitor my magnesium and calcium levels because since I only have two pair-of-thyroids and they were in shock from the surgery, we had to give my body these minerals manually instead of depending on the pair-of-thyroids to do their job. So here's a little medical lesson: your thyroid regulates your energy, metabolism, and hormones while your parathyroids regulate your magnesium and calcium levels. I do not have my thyroid and I only have two parathyroids when a normal person has four. You can live without them but you have to depend on medicine to replace them. Many people who do not have a thyroid have all of their parathyroids which is nice because it can be a little dangerous lacking both. So, after Tuesday was over and Wednesday rolled around, I was just thankful for another day of waking up and continuing my battle. Tuesday had its challenges but so did Wednesday. Luis came to visit me in the afternoon and he told me that I had to get out of bed and start walking. I was not really a happy camper when he told me this, but I knew that he was right. The longer that I waited, the harder it would be to walk. He challenged and encouraged me to get out of bed and walk up and down the hallway. We walked up and down six times! He was so right and after walking I started to feel much better. Thank you Luis for helping me, I wouldn't have been able to do it without you. My scar is three times bigger than the old one and covers the whole front of my neck. This makes it very uncomfortable and painful to walk. Walking isn't an issue, but holding my head up straight and not slumping is very challenging. Right now I have improved a lot since Wednesday when I would just walk with my head down but each day I get better. The LORD is definitely teaching me patience because I easily find myself getting frustrated or disheartened. I just have to remember that each day he is healing me slowly but surely, I'm on His time, not my own. Wednesday I ate lunch and dinner and I did not get sick! I was so thankful because getting sick to your stomach is a horrible feeling and its amplified right after neck surgery. Around dinner time, my doctors came in to remove the drains that were in my neck. All day I was anxious and nervous about being them removed. My thought process: if they had to surgically put them in, shouldn't they surgically be removed? Anyone who came into my room would receive the question: does it hurt to get your drains pulled? They all replied with "no, it is just uncomfortable". I thought that they were all just lying to me because I could not quite comprehend how pulling a 12 inch tube out of one's neck would not cause pain. I got myself all worked up for nothing! The tube just felt strange but it was not painful...yet. After they pulled the drain it began to look like I was bleeding under my skin. The doctors were concerned that a hematoma was forming so they had to apply pressure to my fresh scar for roughly an hour. My mom is better at explaining this, so here is a copy of her post from Facebook: "Last night McKendree had a little bobble. They removed her drains and she began to bleed. The surgeons applied pressure and worked to stop the bleeding for close to an hour. The concern was a hematoma that would require us to go back to surgery. The big time of danger was over night. So far so good ! We will watch closely for the next few days. Praying she wont develop a bleed. Our prayers are also for her calcium and magnesium levels to come back to normal to show her parathyroids are functioning. She does have some low function now. We are grateful for that." So, for two nights in a row, sleep was not really an option due to the fact that the nurse would come in every hour to measure my neck. Thankfully I did not swell for the rest of the night and we didn't have any more complications like that! Like I said earlier, it has been a crazy week, but I am just thankful to be on the road to recovery. My God is an awesome God and he is the great Healer. He has protected me, saved me, and is working in me to produce full healing. I am so thankful to praise and serve Him. Through the good and the bad I will forever praise my Creator. So I think its safe to say, tumors you will NOT be missed and I prefer that y'all decide to never come back. Thank you everyone for showering me in your love and support. Having such wonderful people behind me and rooting for me made this week so much easier. We made it through the week and later today I will be boarding a plane to come back to Memphis! My God is GREAT. "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. o For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

I love the Karams!

Aunt Patsy and Luis!

I love my beautiful sister! Although this was taken at 5:30 in the morning, I'm very impressed to say that this is probably one of the best pictures we have ever taken together.

Dressed and ready to go!

Addios Lu, I'll see you in a few hours! God's Got This!

Ready for surgery! So overwhelmed by the love and support! Thank you everyone!

I am so thankful to have such a wonderful sister like you, Biz.

Once again my theory "it is impossible to take a good picture fresh out of surgery" is proven true. I think I have improved since my last one to say the least.