Friday I had my procedure and once we got to Iowa City, I told Tim I did not feel too confident because not one single nurse from my team was working…all new people! With something so rare, I can’t help but get nervous when someone new climbs on board but they all did great (minus a few tries and issues with getting my IV in…but when isn’t that an issue!) and they all had fun personalities! So began another date day with my gorgeous hubby…yeah, best we can do with hospital selfies…we were both so thrilled to be there!😂

However, when I got back to the operating room, Ryan, one of the original techs from my team who has always prepped me, was there. Before I could say anything about being happy to see a familiar face, he went on to say that all of his coworkers are new so he was just talking about me and filling them in on how him and I have been having these little “rendezvous’s” ever since he started working at the hospital! Haha! 

He is quite the character and while his name wasn’t actually written…he was one of the techs described in my book who always made me feel comfortable and joked around to distract me from what was to come. This time, however, he took me off guard and said “I just want to thank you for writing your book”.

He went on to say that his wife read my book and finally got what his job was all about. He said because of my book she was able to get a better picture of what he does and how important his job really is. He thanked me again and I told him, no, I was the one who needs to thank him and all of the techs and nurses and doctors who put up with and help me!! But then the sedation meds kicked in and I don’t remember the rest of our conversation!🙃

Two of my stents were almost all the way closed so they did have to do angioplasty and ballooning to open them. I of course resulted in wearing an oxygen mask again and they said the procedure was a little more challenging this time so they weren’t able to open the stents all the way up. They  did get them back open up to about 75% so praying that is enough to relieve some of my symptoms! I crashed pretty hard though and recovered for an hour before I was released.


I am happy to say that I did not get sick on the way home and was even able to finish off the date night with Tim by swinging through the drive thru at Culver’s for a little something to eat. 

The weekend went pretty well although I am still pretty sore and tired so I have been laying low and doing bare minimum! I was able to take the bandages off and before I could get my incisions covered back up with regular bandaids, kids caught a glimpse of my arms and as Asher said, it “freaked” them out!😬 Actually, this doesn’t look too bad compared to other times…

Thank you for all of your help with the kids as well as blessing us with some meals and especially for the prayers! I am so grateful to be surrounded by such thoughtful, loving, caring and praying friends and family! And a special verse that brought me tremendous comfort throughout surgery day as well as the weekend😉💕💕💕