Jake's update after surgery. Sunday November 22, 2009 8:26pm

I am very HAPPY THAT JAKE IS FINALLY SLEEPING for the first time today since 7am this morning so that I could tell everyone his great news. For everyone who has followed us since we have been in Philadelphia, here is the after surgery update.

I am very happy to write to everyone and let you all know that Jake's surgery was a success. We tried to keep everyone updated as the events unfolded Friday night into Saturday morning that lead to his emergency surgery.

We have spoken to the doctors and we were given this great news following the surgery:

*A large cholesteatoma was removed from within Jakes middle ear along with a great deal of infected material that had nowhere to drain because he doesn't have an opening to his ear canal. Jake has the opening of an ear canal that quickly comes to an end. This cholesteatoma lived in the middle of where a normally formed ear canal should be. Picture a tunnel that comes to an end. Immediately following the end of the tunnel, there is a huge boulder. On the opposite of the boulder there is more tunnel. This area referred to as more tunnel is the other side of Jake's ear canal that we didn't know existed. YAY! At the end of that little ear canal that we didn't know existed lies (thank you Jesus) an eardrum. He has an eardrum, I could do back flips. This is something we were told was at best unlikely and never happens. It's great news BECAUSE when his surgery is done in the near future to connect those two pieces of NATURALLY formed ear canal in the middle with very little skin grafting needed, he also won't need an artifical or constructed ear drum. He has his own. Less grafting means less possibility of rejection, means better result of a very successful canalplasty surgery with very little transplanted skin from other areas of his body, and ultimately, yes better hearing ability.

My apologies for this lump of an update that I am staring at. I am apalled to think that I am not correcting the paragraphs or even using spell check but I am dog-ass tired and The Philadelphia eagles are about to SQUASH the Chicago Bears....Love you Ray, but you're goin' down!

Those of you who know me to the core know that it's been a long 3 1/4 year road and I have said the whole time that everything happens for a reason. All of this medical frustration that we have been dealing with during this time has lead us into the hands of the gifted doctors that we have seen, who carry reasoning, compassion, empathy, a love for human life and a passion for healthy and happy children. We know that we were not lead here by chance.

I am learning some important stuff along this journey. I learned this week that when I DO feel like I can't take anymore I truly AM just about to be at my best and I don't realize it. I am just wishing that there could be a little smoother transition to getting to it :0) Thanks for all of you who glued me back together, you know who you are.

I am learning that when your inner voice tells you something is wrong, it is not usually, it is always.

I am learning that even though I have faith, I need to be more like Paul and have a lot more and not always look for logic because I keep being shown that when I am most insistantly searching for logic, I can never find any and something else takes over.

I am learning that there is way more good in people than I could have ever imagined after being conditioned as a hardened non emotional bank employee striving for the corporate dollar.

I am learning that in the worst of times you get the best of people and from our entire family I thank you all who have shown us and given us your best. We never forget. We always pay it forward.