Last Post until after Surgery

Hey. Let me start by saying that at 6am this morning, my Mema saw Jesus. Yes. She passed into his arms just as we left our driveway for the hospital. Thank you Lord. She is in no more pain and I can tell you she doesn't want to come back here. So she will be there tomorrow and she will be watching over me as I get surgery. One of her neuro drs.. said to my mom that "as she (Mema) passes over to her new life, I (me) will be getting a new life as well. I would rather have her, but God sees it differently. This was her time. I loved her so much and always will. I have been wearing her shirt today and her pearl earrings. She is at her PARTY, at last. She will be cremated at her request and we are going to bury her ashes in the mountains at a family graveyard. This past year we went there with her. We stood on that mountain in the graveyard. It was so beautiful. She told us that was where she wanted to be. So in a few months we can all go and have a small family service to celebrate our love for her and her new life in Eternity.

Today is our anniversary and we are at a hotel a mile away from the hospital. Our day started early. I was in another MRI machine at 9am. Next we went for Pre-Op screening. They did everything you could possibly think of to me. Last year at the hospital I had a chest x-ray and the technicians went crazy over how big my lungs were:) I thought they were a little crazy and thought, "just how big could they be?" Today after my chest x-ray, one technician said to the other, "Good Lord, she has some huge lungs!" I overheard her and started laughing and said I have heard that before. She had to take another pic b/c she couldn't fit them both on one pic. So that is just hilarious to us today..... So I have a big brain so that I can use my big lungs to relate all of my knowledge using my big mouth! Anyway at last we saw my surgeon. He spoke with us for awhile. He will be taking a bone from the skull and a bone from my neck. He will not cut the bottom of the brain and he will not shrink it. He thinks it best to leave the brain alone for now and see how this other works. I asked him what would happen in the future if I didn't have this surgery and he basically said you can't get new nerves. If he doesn't make more room for my brain, so that it is not so compressed, then the CSF fluid will build up in my spinal cord and cause cists to form which could lead to paralysis. He doesn't know WHY I have tears along the dura (the tissue holding my spinal cord and fluid and nerves). He thinks they are what have caused it to drop so rapidly. So he couldn't guarantee that this will fix me, but he thinks it is definetly worth a shot, and only wants it to make me better. So I am hopeful. I know you are all praying. So pray this works. There will be MRI follow ups later to see the progress.

Surgery information.....
My surgery is at 5pm tomorrow, Wednesday March 12th. I have to be there at 2:30 for checkin. It will take 2 hrs to prep me and get me really out!!!! That was my biggest concern!! Make sure I am ASLEEP! Surgery 2-4 hrs depending on what going on in my head. The surgeon said you really don't know what details are until you open up . Sometimes an MRI doesn't show everything. Then I will spend the night in ICU. They will not update Nate during surgery unless something goes wrong. So he said, "No news is good news". Nate will not be able to spend the night in ICU so he will stay here at the hotel. We are about to go out and gorge ourselves because I can't eat anything after 12am.. You do the math... I will not eat anything for awhile.

I don't think I left anything out. This will be my last post until I am at home and able to get to the computer.
I love you all, with all my heart!!!!!