Eight days until surgery

Wes and I leave with Cori next Sunday. She will be admitted on Monday, May 28th for the NG tube. She will be cleaned out in 4 hour segments. Her surgery is May 29th.....all day. Total reconstruction of the urinary, vaginal, and rectal tracts. We have talked to her about it as much as we are able. She wants to wear big girl panties and go potty like her sisters do. This past Sunday her Sunday School teacher, Mr. Vince, and we would not be surprised to find that he is actually an angel, brought her a cake and had a birthday party for her. She will turn 5 years old 4 days before her surgery. Last week we were on vacation at the beach. She kept saying that she was SO EXCITED! And this year she really took it all in! What a great set of memories!! She glows with life and humor. She is a huge bright star in the galaxy, pounding out light in our lives. Wes will drive us up on Sunday and stay until Wednesday. Then he has to come back and work. Precious families from Biltmore Baptist Church are lining up meals and an irreplaceable friend is planning to drive up for a few days to sit with me. I have the itinerary. I guess that is supposed to be the syllabus, but I feel like I am walking into a final exam that counts for the whole 4 years of college, and the professor never showed up and there was no text book. I still have that nightmare on occasion. It is finals and I never went to class and I never read the materials. But this is so different. This is real life. This is a real person with a future riding on this surgery. And her confidence in all that will happen from May 28th through June 18th and beyond will test me beyond my imagination. And I am flying without a license. No matter the research I have done on the procedure. No one talks about the after care.No one tells you how to explain no fluids for 5 days and no solids for many after that. Where will the tubes come from? How long will they be there? How much help will I get from nurses? Where will I be staying? ( Ronald McDonald House does not let you call until the day before you are to be in the hospital). How do my daughters at home manage? Isn't this too much to put on the shoulders of a 17 year old? Too much for a 15 year old? How abandoned will they feel? What emotional needs will go unfulfilled in minimum of 23 days?

Cori and Mr. Vince.

Cori with her grandmother at her brother's graduation. What a face....what a child...what a challenge.... Thank you for following this rocket ride! I will update as I am able.