Welcome to China

Just a quick post to share that we have received our formal welcome to China in the form of an all-expenses-paid visit to the hospital for an appendectomy! Not exactly the welcome we hoped for. Unfortunately, it wasn't me (been there, done that), it was my firstborn. It's so hard to watch a child go through a painful struggle and I'm sure this isn't the only one we'll face in our lives.

The good news is we had a very good surgeon and the operation was minimally invasive. The appendix did not rupture, but it was about the size of my thumb and very red. It contained a stone almost 1cm in diameter. Pretty scary stuff, but the surgery was successful & we are now working toward a similar status in the recovery phase.

Please keep our family in your prayers. I am continually reminded to put my trust in God. He has blessed us so much already through our new friends and neighbors who have been looking after us here.

As a side note, one of the peculiarities about Chinese hospitals (at least to westerners like me) is that the families tend to do most of the patient care such as changing clothes, washing, bringing food, and feeding. The section of the hospital we are in is more western-style than most, however I can see that I am expected to do a lot of these things for my son. It is also a bit more challenging to get pain meds here, although the surgeon has given us a get-out-of-pain-free card to make sure Carson is comfortable. I just have to strongly remind the nurses of that every so often.

Right now he's resting and I should be too. Sleep when the baby sleeps, they say. Who are "they" anyway? And did they every actually have a baby? I guess that's irrelevant to my current decision to blog while the baby sleeps. Maybe I should re-evaluate & get some rest. Good night!