my Nana...

Those of you who are also my facebook friends have probably seen my recent posts about my sweet Nana being sick. For those of you who do NOT follow me on FB, I want to update you on her and ask that you pray for her.

Nana is 84 years old, and has always had the mind and body of someone much younger. I've never really even known her to be sick (other than an occasional cold!). We've pretty much always lived in the same town, so I've always been extra close to her.

On December 9, she underwent surgery, and we all just thought she would have surgery, spend a couple of days in the hospital, come home, recover, and be back to "Nana"! Unfortunately, that was not the case.

After her surgery, it was quite apparent that her body was not responding well at all. (I'm no doctor, so don't expect me to get into specifics here!). Her kidneys weren't functioning properly, and there were complications with her procedure. She was placed in ICU where she stayed for at least a week. Doctors informed my family that there was a leak in her colon, and explained to my family that if things continued the way they were, she wouldn't make it much longer. We were completely devastated at this point (about a week and a half ago). The fantastic surgeon who operated on Nana told us (specifically my dad and his brother, Bobby) that they also had the option of allowing them to operate on sweet Nana AGAIN to correct the problem with her colon, but she gave us about a 20% chance that Nana would actually make it through surgery. Her body had already endured so much and the doctor just wasn't sure she was strong enough to handle it. After much prayer, my dad and uncle mutually agreed that they wanted to make sure they did everything they could to allow their sweet mother to live a little longer, so they gave the doctor permission to perform surgery on her. There was no time to waste, so the surgery was done immediately. My family spent that entire afternoon (quite possibly one of the worst days of my life!) just waiting for the surgery to end and for the doctor to come tell us whether or not Nana had even survived! After what seemed like years, the doctor came in the waiting room and told us that indeed, Nana had made it, but that obviously things were going to be critical for a while. (My dad now refers to this amazing doctor as his "hero"). This was about 10 days ago and she's obviously still in ICU and was immediately placed on the ventilator. Since then, there has been a slight improvement in her kidney funtion, but she's also developed pneumonia which has been a major set back in her recovery process. She's been sedated since immediately after her surgery, so it's been about a week and half since I've seen those pretty blue eyes of hers. At this point, she's still in critical condition and we understand that she's most definitely not out of the woods, but we are still hopeful that she's going to pull through this. She is most definitely one of the strongest and most amazing women I've ever known, and I KNOW that those of you who know her would agree with me! Christmas was so different without her there this year, but my family was so glad that we had each other!

I'm so glad to be able to visit her daily and I'm looking forward to the day when I walk in her hospital room to find her wide-eyed and ready to talk!

Please add my Nana and my family to your prayer list. Please pray for peace and comfort to Nana. The last thing I want is for her to be in any kind of pain. If God is ready for her to be with Him soon, please pray that our family will find comfort in knowing that this woman has lived an amazing life and that she's going to live happily ever in heaven with my Dada!

If you know Nana, I would LOVE for you to share something you love about her, a memory you have of her, etc. It would make her day for me to read these comments to her one day!

I hope you and your families had the merriest Christmas this year! PLEASE allow me to encourage you not to take advantage of your loved ones. Just a month ago, Nana was going to Bible study, shopping, attending Henry's birthday party, etc. and now she's in ICU on life support. Things can change in the blink of an eye.

Thanks in advance for your prayers.

LT