Just One Day At A Time.....By the Inch It's A Cinch!

The date is set for Mason's back surgery..... April 11. It is just right around the corner!! I am nervous, but at peace knowing it is the right thing to do. The surgery should take about 2 hours. The recovery time.....well that's another story! An otherwise healthy child going in for this back surgery would probably have one day recovery in the PICU, 2 or 3 days on the 3rd floor surgical unit, and then home. But, with Mason things will be different. The orthopedic surgeon and the cardiac transplant team are guesstimating several days to a week in the PICU and 10 to 14 days total in the hospital. So I am planning on at least two weeks at the Hotel on Hill. An earlier release would be fantastic, but I won't be overly hopeful for that.....just pleasantly surprised if it does happen!

Mason's transplant doctor at Stanford has had a couple of his patients also go in for this same back surgery and his words were, "the recovery wasn't easy but definitely worth the outcome." I completely appreciate his honest words to help us prepare for what lay ahead (and we all know Mason takes his own recovery route anyways....nothing by the book for him)! I am praying and hoping for the best recovery possible. I also am praying the outcome will be very worth it so that my little Miracle Mason will be running around this summer with the rest of our kiddos. 

(Mason is hoping for some good luck 

 and lots of prayers on April 11 !!)

This Monday, April 2, Mason has a check up at transplant clinic to make sure everything looks good before his surgery. Praying for no obstacles!!!

April 4 is Mason's 2nd Angel Heart Birthday! Wow! Has it really been 2 years since his transplant?!! I will try to do a post that day to help us celebrate and remember Mason's special day, as well as honor our donor who I never go a day without thinking about.

Kaitlin and I had the opportunity to go to the annual Young Women's Broadcast at the Conference Center in Salt Lake last Saturday night from which I have a new favorite quote to share:

"'Seek heavenly guidance one day at a time. Life by the yard is hard; by the inch it's a cinch. Each of us can be true for just one day — and then one more, and then one more after that, until we've lived a lifetime guided by the Spirit, a lifetime close to the Lord, a lifetime of good deeds and righteousness. The Savior promised: 'Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life' (3 Nephi 15:9). ~Thomas S. Monson