Update on the Gram

Last week I posted about my Gram having open heart surgery.  Thank you to the many who prayed her through it.  She is doing quite well, now in a rehab facility, and daily regaining her strength.  I spoke with her last night and she commented that the care is attentive & good, the food is delicious, and physical therapy can really "take it out of you."  She's already walking the full length of the hallway, which she reports is quite long.  But her greatest testimony is how God has really seen her through the whole process in amazing ways.

You can read the beginning of the story on the other post.  Below is an account of how the surgery went, from an email from my Aunt Linda, Gram's oldest daughter, who is one of the Omaha-dwellers:

Gram and Elizabeth, 2008

Mom said that if this was God's way of providing for her health so be it.  So it has been. 

Surgery started about an hour late, because the surgeon was late - however, we could not have asked for a more calm and supportive staff or for the provision of being altogether  up to the time when they wheeled her into the operating room.  She was filled with peace and told everyone of the sermon she had heard on Jeremiah 29:10-14, which she knew was just for her. 

We had been told that she would not have the by-pass, but in addition to the valve - she did have one by-pass.  We were told the surgery would be about 4 hours - maybe 20 minutes more for the by-pass.  She was done in a little over three hours.  She came off-the heart lung machine "nicely" and they took out the breathing tube earlier than usual becuase her oxygen numbers were so good.

We are praising God for His faithfulness to Gram: hearing and answering her prayers in concrete ways, giving her peace about the surgery that really ministered to all who were with her just before she went in (she was playing Scrabble with my cousin on his iPad at 5:30am as if that were just the right thing for the time!), "speeding up" the procedure, strengthening her body so quickly, providing such good care, and so on and so forth.  Clearly, He's got more work for her to do.

Now every night, Elizabeth prays that God will heal Gram up quickly enough that she can come to Pittsburgh for Christmas.  I wouldn't put it past Him....

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!