Ruthie update: 4/14, 11:30 pm

Ruthie is home!!!! It is so wonderful to have her and Will back in Nashville. Strange to think that this time last week was the day of her surgery. What a tremendous blessing that so much progress has been made in the last 7 days and that Ruthie is able to be through it and on to the rest of the healing process. God has been gracious.

I'll briefly catch you up on what's been happening since the last blog post yesterday morning. Ruthie was finally discharged from the hospital midday and she and Will walked (yes, walked!) to their hotel across the street from the hospital. About an hour later, they noticed blood coming out through her neck brace onto the hotel pillows and sheets. Needless to say, Ruthie got a bit freaked out and a call was put in to their doctors at Mayo. The bleeding persisted, and, in order to find out what exactly was causing it, the doctor actually came over to their hotel room to check it out. Thankfully, it turned out to be nothing serious. The doctor believes that Ruthie either had a blister near her incision that popped or that the incision was rubbed a certain way to cause the bleeding. He doctor ended up putting 4 strips of tape across the incision to help it stay closed as much as possible (he didn't want to put a bandage over the whole incision so that it could air out and heal more effectively). The bleeding has continued somewhat, even tonight.

This morning, their friend Kelly picked them up from the hotel and drove them to Minneapolis which is about 1 hour away. From there, they got on a 2 hour flight to take them back to Nashville. The travel was pretty rough on Ruthie in terms of pain and discomfort. They were stuck in the back of a small plane with little room to move around...and to top it off, they were right next to the bathroom. Thankfully, the flight was nonstop and, in spite of the negative aspects of the travel, Ruthie was extremely excited to be coming home.

One of Ruthie's best friends, Leslie, picked them up at the airport with precious Ellie in the car (see previous post with photo of Ellie to see exactly how precious). What a perfect way to welcome them back! Leslie then drove them home and Ruthie was thrilled to walk into a house that had been freshly cleaned, spruced up, and decorated with flowers by some of Ruthie's girlfriends the night before. Ruthie expressed that she was so thankful for that...Lauren and Megan, thank you for spearheading that effort!

Ruthie is now resting at home and obviously just beginning to readjust to life here again. She is so happy to be able to be outside again after developing cabin fever in the hospital day after day. She is happy to be around her community and to be in her own bed with her sweet puppy and comforting home. She is going to try to walk a little more each day, especially if the weather continues to be as glorious as it has been. She will be wearing her neck brace for the next 3 months and is not supposed to be lifting more than 5 pounds for a while. When the 3 month period is up, she will get x-rays done and sent back up to Mayo. At that point, the doctors will decide whether or not to begin transitioning her out of the brace. If they decide to transition her out of the brace, she will at first take it off for 1 hour a day for a week, then 2 hours a day for the next week, and so on. So that process will be extremely gradual and slow, but will ensure that Ruthie's body is effectively building its strength along the way.

Ruthie and Will are excited to see people and are welcoming visitors! However, they requested that everyone send a text ahead of time to either of them just to make sure that Ruthie isn't sleeping and that it's a good time to stop by. They will be honest about whether it is or not.

Some prayers that Ruthie wanted me to pass along:

*Please pray that the bleeding would stop. Since the doctors want the incision to air out, this is especially difficult when Ruthie has to go places and is unable to cover it up.

*Ruthie's pain level is still pretty high, or "severe" as Ruthie called it. Please pray that with Ruthie now resting at home and not traveling, that the pain would lessen with each day.

*Pray against any infections or other things that would hinder the recovery process.

*Tomorrow (Thursday) is the 1 year anniversary of the passing of Ruthie's dad, Lloyd Lindsey. This is going to be an emotionally difficult day for her, and she is somewhat dreading it. Ruthie was extremely close with her daddy (hence the title of her blog) and she misses him dearly...the loss of him in her life is an ache that never ever goes away. Ruthie shared that even though her heart was breaking that her daddy couldn't be with her while she was going through the surgery and in the hospital this last week, she was so thankful that he didn't have to see her in this much pain. She said that it absolutely tore him up to see her like that. The last time Ruthie was in the hospital, there were times he had to leave the room because he became overwhelmed seeing her hurt so much. He loved his little girl to pieces.
Ruthie said that her mom recently received an email from a friend expressing that even though this particular date each year will bring mourning and sadness, it will now, with Ruthie's successful surgery, be an opportunity to celebrate new life and redemption and renewal. What a beautiful perspective. Pray that Ruthie would cling to that.
Even though tomorrow may be filled with many tears, pray that God would give her hope through those tears, that the sadness would not turn to despair, and that she would be comforted knowing that she is radically loved by One who understands her pain and enters into her suffering with her...all the while pointing her to a greater hope that someday everything sad will come untrue.
How we long for that day.