Day 11 - Surprise Visitors from MN

Good Evening (or morning for most of you reading this)!

Jimmy had surprise visitors from Minnesota this morning. Our dear friends, Dan Hill and Pastor Peter flew in just for the day to come visit our boy. As you can probably figure out from the first picture, they helped to entertain and cheer him up quite a bit. Pastor Peter even gave us communion. I still can't believe they took the time and expense to come all the way out for a visit. They probably spent the same amount of time flying as they did chatting with us -- pretty special guys! As you can see from the second picture, we got to take Jimmy outside for the first time. It was a little chilly, but the rain has subsided for now and the sun was shining. The picture is taken in the hospital healing garden. The change of scenery was so nice -- I hope the weather cooperates enough to try it again tomorrow.

The boys also got to meet Dr. Spetzler. They were very impressed! They both agree that he has an amazing presence and feel confident that we are in great hands. So, here's the scoop! Surgery is scheduled for this Friday morning at 9:00am (remember, we are one hour behind those of you back in Minnesota!). He is planning on going in on the left side of Jim's head as the tissue has been less disturbed there. He will take an artery from either his left forehead or one of his wrists -- he will make that decision when he takes a look at them. It sounded like he would prefer the forehead, so we'll have to see what he chooses. He then plans to use this artery to create a bypass that will redirect the blood flow to all the necessary parts of his brain stem and apply a clip to totally occlude (clog) the aneurysm in the basilar artery. He told us that he will need to be absolutely sure that Jimmy is getting adequate flow and that the bypass is going to hold before doing this. If he is the least bit hesitant, he will close him up and give the bypass more time to stabalize; if he thinks that everything is working correctly, he will then plan to go back later and have Dr. Fiorella insert a coil into the artery through his groin. This could be done a few days to a week after this surgery. We are hopeful that he will be able to do the clip right away so that poor Jimmy doesn't have to endure another procedure/surgery. Dr. Spetzler also likes the clip better than the coil because sometimes you can get thrombosing (clotting) above or below the coil -- and we definitely don't want anymore thrombosing! He also informed us that he might want to go back in on the right side (where he just had the last surgery) and remove more of the thrombosing (and cotton) to give him more immediate results. This surgery would be much less risky this time around because of the artery being clipped/coiled off and, therefore, having no more bleeding issues to deal with. If he decides that Jim is not strong enough to withstand yet another surgery, and I do worry about that, then we will just have to wait for the thrombosis around his aneurysm to dissolve on its own over time. I have mixed feelings about this, but I will defer to Dr. Spetzler to not take any unnecessary risks. I know how hard he is working to come up with a way to fix my Jimmy and send him home feeling better and able to enjoy life again. So, we continue to watch the game as Dr. Spetzler calls out audibles while Jimmy does his best to run for a touchdown in the biggest game of his life. This one is going to be the Super Bowl of the century! Sorry ... I guess I'm still in football season.

All in all, we could be out here for a very long time yet. It's all very scary as none of these procedures are easy or without great risk. Dr. Spetzler just feels that we have no other choice, and I am in agreement. He feels that Jim is on the cusp of someplace we really don't want to go and where there's no coming back -- death or worse. All the risks of stroke, hemorraging, paralysis continue to stare us in the face, but we have the faith that Jim will work his way around and continue to avoid all these issues. He just HAS to!!! We know that God is with us, and feel without a doubt that he has maneuvered us back around to this time and place once again for a reason. And I just won't believe that it was for anything less than another opportunity to show us and all of you a miracle!

Quoting again from Jim's Bible study book by David Armistead, "Those who have heart have hope. Those who have hope have everything." Well, Jimmy has the heart and I have the hope, and together we have EVERYTHING! So please stay with us, and keep giving us the strength to endure this very long journey with your prayers and words of encouragement and support. We are so incredibly blessed to have you all in our lives, and you have touched our hearts forever. God bless you all, and God bless our Jimmy!

Love always,
Krissy

P.S. On a lighter note, I hope you have noticed and are able to enjoy the audio portion that has been added to our blog. Jerrett Praske figured out how to do this for me, and I think it's a really nice touch. So turn up your speakers and enjoy! Thanks, Jerrett!