Day After Surgery

Tom here late at night reflecting and trying to get my mind around what has gone on here. I woke up this morning and went jogging in the sunlight to burn off some of the nervous energy that had accumulated....wow did that do the trick. With flowers and blooms everywhere, I couldn't help but have the Genesis story reverberate in my mind....it was so nicely told at the Easter Vigil Mass we attended with family and our parish last Saturday evening before flying out here the next day on Easter. Also called Bridget's sister Susie and put her on speaker phone in the midst of the run to lead a prayer of thanksgiving. It was very special and it is a special time to be going through all of this with the hopefulness we are reminded of at and during the continuing Easter season.

Upon arrival at the ICU, the nurses told me Bridget was doing laps around the halls, she had already eaten breakfast when I entered the room and there she was with that look of wonderment and thankfulness that has been on her face ever since I first saw her after surgery. Bottom line is that last night was no fluke...she is doing AMAZINGLY well. She doesn't even have a scratchy throat or voice from being intubated....kudos to to her anesthesiologist, Dr. Chang who took good care of her as she was being operated on yesterday. Two of my brothers have been here since the surgery and they have been an immense source of support during these last few days. Thank you Billy and Steve!

Later in the day Dr. Badie tracked us down in a waiting area overlooking the mountains (Yes, Bridget was on another walk about the place)....he wanted to go over the results of the postsurgery MRI that Bridget had done just an hour or two before. This new MRI confirms that the tumor was fully removed! Proof positive. This puts Bridget in a much better position for even better results with the rest of her treatment and is the BEST POSSIBLE result we could have hoped for from this surgery especially when combined with the fact that the surgery did not result in any sort of paralysis. She was given the okay to check out of the ICU after only one night and it appears she may be getting released from the hospital entirely Thursday after just having had major brain surgery on Tuesday! She will be back to our cool cottage on the grounds here.

We are so humbly thankful, words cannot express. We are in a place where lots of people come with hope in their hearts and resiliency of spirit. You see it on display everywhere here...from bald children pushing IV racks while they walk outside to get fresh air to people in ICU beds of all ages and sizes. There is a spirit of shared experience here that is holy. I walked down a long hallway before leaving the hospital tonight. A beautiful African-American woman was walking beside me...the small talk led to introductions (Jenna)...her telling me she was here for two months while her daughter (Carmen) recovered from a bone marrow transplant for which this wonderful mother was the donor. I hugged her and told her how awesome she is and told her I would pray for them. Please include them in your prayers as well. She asked what I was doing here and that led to her promising to pray for Bridget and family. She said something about how we are all connected here....again back to that shared experience that I can only describe as holy.

It made me think of something earlier in the morning when a dignified, quiet, oriental woman quietly cleaned the floor in Bridget's room. I had just asked Bridget if she was okay with seeing my two brothers who wanted to say hi to her. Her reply was a forceful "Of course! I'm not worried what I look like, I'm just so glad to be alive!" She continued, "I'm happy for this moment and I have no ego." To that the tiny, focused woman cleaning the floor quickly glanced up with a piercingly gleeful look in her eyes. She nodded her head over and over and with a heavy Chinese accent laughingly said in broken English, "yes, yes, live in moment, no ego" and then continued to clean and quietly laugh as though confirming that Bridget had said something quite profound......and she had.