Whew!

The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

On the morning of my surgery Adam got the call from Mom saying that the surgery was more than successful, it was "Beautiful", according to the Dr... At that point Adam said that he just looked at his imaginary watch, figuring that it was only a matter of time before he got a second call saying that somehow things went awry.

I have not found, and I suppose Adam has not found, the line between pessimism and realism. I do, always, hope for the best... but expect the worst. Now some may argue that the reason for my being living proof of Murphy's Law (If something bad can happen, it will) is precisely because I expect the worst. I would argue that I'm just being wise in preparing myself.

I did not go into surgery glum and morose thinking, "Why are you smiling Dr. Brown? In several hours we'll be back in here so you can do exploratory surgery to find out what caused me to bleed profusely enough to send me into congestive heart failure. You'll be giving me several units of blood and EKG's.. and x-rays of my lungs... you'll be telling me that I need to see a hematologist because "It's just not normal for this to happen three times.. when everything looked so normal to begin with." Then you'll have to prescribe antibiotics for the UTI I'll get... and the nausea and headache meds you'll prescribe at my discharge from the hospital? My family (including Mom) will desperately want those b/c they're still dealing with the stomach flu I had before coming in here today... for my surgery."

No, in fact, I was kind of hoping that I'd get some writing done and be able to take advantage of the couple/few days in the hospital. I also hoped that I would recover much faster than I did with c-section... At the same time, I was prepared for the complications of the last few surgeries/deliveries... and sure enough, my preparation was not in vain. I could have used a little more more prep, in fact, but all's well that ends well... right?

Alas! I'm home now, on the mend, all horror-moned up, and *hoping* for the swift thawing of the 21" of snow that's covering our city... leading us into a magnificent spring filled with the celebration of the beauty of God's creation and the life He has gifted us with here on Earth.

Thank you all for your prayers and meals and sweet comfort gifts... we're a blessed bunch of nuts, us Phillips-es! Much to catch up on here, but hope to post soon.  Peace and Blessings.