The Bushgang Blog

Stephanie's mom, Genevieve Ross, has been hospitalized. I have set up a separate blog for those of you interested in following her status. She has been struggling lately with her M.S. and has run into some complications that required her to be admitted. She really is not in good shape. I am asking everyone who is reading this to please stop what you are doing right now and say a prayer of healing for Stephanie's mom, my mother-in-law, and Levi's "Lollie". Thank you in advance for the blessings!

Stephanie saw the doctor yesterday and he removed the last two drains she had in. That is great news. If you have never seen them or heard someone talk about the drains, you can't imagine. Good riddance! The doctor doesn't want to see Steph for another three (3) weeks so things are going as he had hoped. I will update as things progress. For those of you not on Facebook , this is the new and preferred method of communication for many! If you were not aware, I update this much more frequently and Stephanie updates only on Facebook . Please consider signing up by clicking here . I would be glad to give anyone a training session of quick run-through on how to use this wonderful website! Not only do I provide updates but I post pictures of Levi all the time!

Sorry for not updating in a while! Stephanie had her first follow up appointment with her doctor this morning. He said everything was looking good. She needs to leave her two drains in for one more week and then she will at least be free from foreign things being attached to her body and only one thing foreign in her body, the port. Stephanie has been doing extremely well, walking every day and even getting out of the house a little to attend church and of course, you guess it, shopping! We felt strongly about adopting a child for Christmas and weren't sure if we could make it happen with everything going on. While at church on Sunday, they had some children and families left on the adoption list so we went ahead and got the list for a 5 year old girl. Stephanie is thinking the shopping is fun but I am struggling with the chore of finding the gifts. Anyhow, things are going well. Levi is in Houston with Stephanie's aunt this week and our wonderful neighbor Connie has meals

The doctor has called in Stephanie's release from the hospital as of this morning. While the paperwork is being processed, Stephanie is taking a shower and getting meds filled. She is not having a great morning. She is soar and fighting a little nausea again. Please continue to pray for her healing and for a good day today! Thanks!!

I just spoke with Stephanie and she is not feeling too great this morning. She didn't sleep well and is uncomfortable today. They gave her a unit of blood yesterday because her "counts" were low and it was assumed the infusion would help improve the way she felt. This has not occurred yet but we are hopeful that will change! The doctor also started her on iron supplements to help speed up the development of new blood. We will have to see what the doctor says today but we are not sure if Stephanie will be getting out of the hospital today or not. Please pray for continued healing and a quick release from the hospital! Thank you all!

Now that was a quick answer to prayer! Stephanie is now in room 705 and was able to take a shower and feel clean. She said she feels "a thousand time better." Dolly is on her way to pick up Levi from his grandparents and bring him up to see mom. This will be the first time Steph has seen him in 4 days! Dr. Lemmon stopped by today and said that she may be able to get out of the hospital Tuesday evening or Wednesday. That is great news! Please continue to pray for fast healing and a quick release from the hospital. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this e-mail and attached document(s) may contain confidential information that is intended only for the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby advised that any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action in reliance upon the information is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the sender and delete it from your system.

Sorry for not updating last night. I got wrapped up in other things and forgot. As of this morning, Stephanie is still in ICU. This is not because she is not progressing but because there are no regular rooms available. This is keeping Stephanie from being able to take a shower and see Levi. She is doing well otherwise, getting up and around and managing the pain. If someone is curious, you can go to YouTube.com and see a 9 minute version of the TRAM Flap surgery Stephanie had. It is a little gruesome for some but interesting none the less! :-) Please pray that Stephanie would get moved to a regular room as soon as possible and that in general, she is wrapped in God's favor.

Stephanie is hanging in there this morning. Fighting some nausea and a change in the nurse. Hopefully things will smooth out a bit now that I am up here and can help out. The Physical Therapist came and helped move Steph to a chair and taught me how to assist her. The nurse will be removing the cath today and we will see how the afternoon goes. I have been told also that they will take her off the morphine drip today and begin to administer oral pain meds. The nurse said today will most likely be her worst day. Please pray that is goes better than anyone expects! I'll update this afternoon. Thanks! CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this e-mail and attached document(s) may contain confidential information that is intended only for the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby advised that any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action in reliance upon the information is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail

Stephanie has been doing very well today. She has been eating although that is a little challenging. When she raises up to a sitting position, she gets a little queezy and asks for something to help with it. That makes her really tired. She jokes that she feels like one of those little kids that falls asleep while eating their food. I can testify to that! I had to wake her up multiple times to get her to eat one bit of the baked potato! :-) She really is doing well though. The progression to a regular room (leaving ICU) is at the doctor's discretion however the nurse seems to think she will get a room on the 7th floor tomorrow. That will be quite nice! She sat in a chair today for about 3 hours. Tomorrow will be the first day for her to try walking. I will update everyone on the progress tomorrow. Please continue to pray for a fast healing and strong mental health as Stephanie fights her way back to the shopping machine we all know and love!

Stephanie is doing well this morning after her first night of recovery. She has a morphine drip and they are administering oral pain killers as well. I am at home this morning but will be up at the hospital by 10:30am and I will leave when they close it down this evening. I will update no later that 8:00 tonight and more often on Facebook if you are so inclined to check it out. Levi and I are doing well. Levi will be spending the morning with his good friend, Selah . I am pretty sure that will result is some sort of picture being posted on FB , as it usually does. As a reminder, please continue to pray for Steph's quick recovery! Thank you all! To end this transmission, I would just like to say that we have the most awesome God ever! Thank you Lord for wrapping us in your love and never leaving our side. I hope that others see the difficulties in our lives and how we handle them as a testimony to your never ending love and amazing grace that we rely on constantly. I am truly humb

Surgery is complete and Dr. Lemmon said it went very well! Stephanie is in ICU, awake and dealing with a little nausea. Please pray that this goes away quickly! She will be monitors closely for the next 48 hours to make sure the tissue is getting adequate blood flow and she is getting better. I will keep the blog updated but probably not as frequently as I have been today. I will shoot for 2-3 times per day. Thanks for the prayers! Please keep them coming!!!

Last call from the OR I received said that they were installing the mesh wall on her abdomen and working through the rest of the microsurgery. Stephanie is still doing very well, they said!

I received an update call from the OR. A different nurse, Amy, this time. Anyway, she stated that things were progressing well and they had started on the microsurgery portion of the procedure. Expect another update in a couple hours. Please keep up the good prayer warrior work!

I just received another call from Janice in the OR. She said Stephanie is doing fine and the surgery is still progressing. I don't expect to hear much beyond that for the next 7 hours or so. I will continue to provide any information I get! Please continue to pray! With the length of the surgery, fatigue has got to be an issue for the doctors and nurses. Please pray for them in this process!

I just got the call from Janice, one of the OR nurses. The surgery has started! Stephanie was in good spirits this morning. Everything has gone quite smoothly so far and I expect the same will continue. The staff here is amazing! They have booked a patient consulting room for me to camp in all day. It has a couch and a chair with electrical plugs for my laptop. I am comfortable and working. For those who are curious, Stephanie's surgery is being performed at Baylor Regional Medical Center of Plano. One note from my previous post, Stephanie will be in ICU for up to 48 hours post surgery. I will let everyone know when she can start receiving visitors. Keep those prayers coming! They have been working great this morning already!!!

Hi Friends and Family! I thought I would post a quick note to let everyone know that Stephanie will be having reconstruction surgery on Friday, December 4th. We have to be at the hospital between 5:30 and 6:00 am for check in. The surgery will take somewhere between 9 and 15 hours depending on many things. Please check our blog frequently for updates through out the day on Friday. What can we expect? Stephanie will be in ICU for 24 hours post surgery to make sure the reconstruction was successful. There is a lot of microsurgery that will occur and they need to monitor blood flow closely. The information we have been given puts Steph in the hospital for 4 to 7 days depending on her recovery progress. What do we need from you? Lots of prayer! Please pray today and tonight for Stephanie to be free from anxiety and that all people involved with the surgery are well prepared, well rested, and have clarity of mind for tomorrow's event. God is in control and there will be many reasons to