July 23
 
Hi again,
 
Well it certainly has been an eventful day but not what we had anticipated.  I arrived at the hospital this morning and Tami told me that Dr. Lambert had ordered a procedure to drain some residual fluid from her body that has been collecting inside her. Well, after waiting 5 or 6 nerve racking hours for a procedure that was supposed to be 5 minutes long, the nurse finally came in and told me that there had been a problem and that Tami wanted me to come in to be with her. 
 
 Apparently, they had tried to remove the fluid through a syringe but the fluid was too dense to retrieve so the procedure was unsuccessful. However, during the process they nicked an artery.  The Doctor in Radiology that did the procedure called Dr. Lambert and was quite concerned about what had happened.  He said this is the first time he has ever encountered this problem in the 25 years that he has been practicing.  Dr. Lambert said, "You wouldn't believe what this poor woman has been through".  He told Dr. Lambert that they were going to keep an eye on her for a while but she told him, "No, you're going to get in there NOW to see if you can plug the artery because if I have to do an emergency surgery, I don't want to start at midnight tonight".  So they did an angiogram to see what had happened, and they were able to insert a coil into the artery to stop the bleeding.  I guess that coil will be part of Tami for the rest of her life. 
 
Dr. Lambert came in to talk to me and said that tomorrow she is going to totally leave Tami alone and just let her recuperate.  She said that all the Doctors and nurses were very impressed with the way Tami handled the whole problem.  She was very kind and patient the entire time which must be unusual in that type of situation. 
 
When I got back to the Hope Lodge, Natalie was telling me that the Nurses had mentioned to Dr. Lambert how impressed they were with the two patients from Utah and how kind they were to all the staff.  That says a lot about Tami and Nate.  They are both wonderful people and it is very obvious.
 
Tami had not had any food or drink all day and was really in need of nourishment so I helped her eat a small portion of a sandwich, some peaches and some orange juice.  She had to lay flat in bed for 6 hours without bending her legs so she couldn't sit to eat.  They gave her something to tranquilize her because she was quite anxious after her ordeal.  They also gave her some pain meds in her IV, so she fell asleep very quickly after just a few bites of food.  I stayed with her for awhile after she nodded off to make sure she was okay.  I tucked her in and covered her up and enjoyed watching her totally relax for the first time today.  She has really earned a good nights sleep. 
 
Please keep her in your prayers.  Hopefully tomorrow will be much better. 
 
Thank you for all you do,
Marsha