Marge's "Procedure"

I'm sitting in the food court at Bronson Methodist Hospital, Kalamazoo, MI. I've spent the morning with my wife Marge as she is prepared for a surgical procedure to remove fibrous tissue from her left breast. It is not cancerous, but it is also not considered benign.

So, this morning she put on all of the hospital gown stuff, filled out paper work, and then had an xray so that they could exactly locate the tissue to be removed. Now she is in surgery. They are using a local anesthetic along with something to make her very sleepy.

Surgery should be done soon, and the doctor will give me her assessment.

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I'm very impressed with the folks here at Bronson. They show compassion and are meticulous in following safety procedure. I'm sitting next to Marge in out-patient post-op recovery. The surgeon said that the procedure whent well, and that the tissue looked good. They will do a full biopsy on the tissue to verify that it is not cancerous. They don't expect it to be, but it is good that they are making certain.

Marge is dozing while the sedative wears off. She doesn't remember a thing from the surgery. This is an odd sort of experience. Something that could have become cancerous was removed, so it's not as if Marge will feel better after she heals. Perhaps she will feel more at eases. Perhaps not. I'm sure that she will be even more vigilant now that she has had a breast cancer "scare".

From Marge: "Thank you for your prayers."

I was visited by a dear friend from Bethel, our home church. Edith Lepke. So, I had some company while I waited for Marge to come out of surgery. Marge's surgeon was a nursing student once upon a time and Edith was her teacher. So, they said hi to each other. I think that's what makes Marge's surgeon so exceptional: she was a nurse first, and then went back to school to become a surgeon.

Marge will have "light duty" the rest of the week. I'll be the house keeper, cook, and chofer along with working at Pfizer and continuing with our missionary pre-field work. The children are eager to help pick up the slack and do well at helping.

In fact, out of necessity, I've started Maryellen on a Microsoft Publisher tutorial so that she can learn to do the design and layout of our quarterly print newsletter. I'm hoping this summer the kids can learn web design too. It's great learning for them, and it takes a load off of me.

Adam