Tuesday morning came all too soon. Sweet Gideon was scheduled for a 7:30 surgery, which meant being up at the UVA Children’s Hospital at 6am. Since we live about 2 hours from there, we found ourselves crawling out of bed at 2:45am – talk about rough! We were blessed to have our soon to be nanny, Annie, with us that night to be there to watch the girls in the morning. She was then replaced with our good friend, Brenda, who watched the girls for the rest of the day. So thankful for the body of Christ who cares so well for us!
We arrived at the hospital a little early, which is just how Chandler likes it to be 🙂 We got Gideon all registered and then we waited. That’s always the tough part. Gideon was rockin’ a Steph Curry jersey that he got from his uncles, as a reminder that he is our mighty little warrior.
When Gideon’s name was called we followed the nurse back to the pre-op room where he was dressed in the cutest little tiger gown. We took some pictures and did our best to pass the time as we waited for the anesthesiologist and surgeon to come and give us a rundown of the procedure.
As we were talking to the anesthesiologist we had a surprise visitor – G-Mama (Chandler’s mom)! We were shocked, but delightfully so! It was so very thoughtful for her to be there for us.
After we got all the details of the procedure, the nurse gave Gideon some medicine that would start making him a little drowsy. Once the meds began kicking in Gideon was whisked off with his passy and little lion blankie. It’s the strangest feeling watching your child walk away with someone you don’t know, trusting that they are going to be okay.
After just about 2 hours, the anticipated length of the surgery, Gideon’s doctor walked out to tell us how everything went. As we were walking to the consultation room, the first words from his mouth were “He did great!” Those are definitely the words every parent and grandparent wants to here after surgery. He went on to show us a picture of Gideon’s testicle. First he explained how there were some abnormalities surrounding it, but that was more than likely related to everything else on the right side of his urinary tract being a little off and that this was nothing we needed to worry about. But when he went on to talk about the testicle itself, the major area of concern, he said it was PERFECT! What?!?
He went on to say that the shadowy area on 3 previous ultrasounds (which he had been very concerned about two weeks ago thinking it could be the early stages of a tumor) could have been the way that the sound waves showed up from the abnormalities surrounding it. He explained how with us going to Tanzania in just a few months he wanted to rule out any concerns with Gideon. They did 2 biopsies, one in which they got the results in after 20 minutes…NOTHING. We are still waiting on the second biopsy results which should be available tomorrow.
SO, one of two things happened.
1. The ultrasound sound waves did not properly portray what was really in there.
OR
2. GOD chose to heal our son in order that HIS Son may be glorified.
Chandler and I talked about this a lot on our way home from the hospital. We asked ourselves, “What really happened here?”
The conclusion is, we may never know!
However, I DO believe that a miracle of another kind is happening here and that God IS being glorified, just as we prayed.
Gideon’s precious pediatrician is of a different faith and I believe her life is changing because of Gideon’s story.
I want to be very careful to protect the privacy of this sweet woman, so I will not share the story here. However if you would like to know more, please feel free to ask.
Please be praying that she would continue to seek after truth and that God would use me over these next few months to be a light to her.
Although we wish that our son never had to have this type of surgery, we praise God that He doesn’t waste any circumstances.
Gideon is healing well. His wound is looking really good and he has more energy than we know what to do with. We are thankful to have the green light from his doctor to go to Tanzania without any worries. Thank you for your prayers, texts, Facebook messages, and phone calls. We are privileged to walk this journey with you!
Together Making Him Known,
Jamie (for the Sharpes)