The day of surgery

Darrell had thyroid surgery on Thursday, January 17th. He was originally scheduled for surgery at 1:30, but they moved it up to 10:30. He was really glad of that cause he worried about "starving" before he could eat something. We arrived at the hospital at 8:30, and he finally got to go back to begin preparation at about 10:45 or 11:00. He was very nervous and I tried not to appear nervous, but most of you know that I'm such a crybaby and cry at sad movies and funerals of people I don't even know, so I found it very hard to even look Darrell in the eye. We had prayed together the night before with the boys and everyone was a little teary then, just "not knowing" what was going to happen.

We decided it was best for Jacob to go on to school. Matt doesn't have classes on Thursdays, so he came to the hospital with me. Our Missions Pastor, Robby James, came to sit with the family during the surgery (Pastor Wesson was sick with some version of the Tennessee Valley Crud). Our friend Zelda Lanza also came and visited with us for awhile before surgery.

Also, Darrell's Mom and soon-to-be husband, Dan Quinn, came also. They actually got to the hospital before we did. We just laughed! You have to know Darrell's mom the way we do. She's ALWAYS up early. If Darrells' dad ever got up early in the morning to go to the bathroom but intended to lay back down, she'd be up and make the bed up and be on her way that day. So, Darrell was able to visit with them for a while that morning.

Robby, Mom, Dan, Matt, & I went in the pre-op room and prayed with Darrell. He was visibly upset and nervous, just ready to get this thing over with. Finally at 12:50 they took him back to surgery (but not before the fire alarms went off 2 times and they couldn't wheel him into the hall before the all call--someone had caught something on fire in the cafeterial. They called us in the waiting area at about 1:20 and let us know that surgery had begun. Sis. Wesson came about the time of the beginning of the surgery and sat with us, along with Tammy James, Robby's wife.

Surgery lasted almost 2 hours and he was taken to the Recovery Room for about an hour and a half. Dr. Fernandez came out and talked to me, Mom, and Dan. He said that he had successfully removed the left lobe of the thyroid and that it was infected, scarred, and "angry" looking. He said that he had seen the nerve that controls the vocal chords and that he had stayed away from it (we breathed a sigh of relief at that bit of good news). He said he wouldn't know whether the thyroid was cancerous until the pathology report came back. We just thanked the Lord that Darrell had made it through the surgery successfully and it looked like everything was going to be OK.
~Vickey