Final thoughts

We arrived home safely at around 6 p.m. New York time on Wednesday, after arriving at JFK at noon. Aside from one giant disappointment, the rest of the trip went very well. But oh how we wish the opposite were true!  As one final coda to a trip that was surreal at times, I was up all night in pain and spent Thursday morning in the emergency room, where a CT-scan revealed that I have three bladder stones. Perhaps Jerry's Surgery Blog is in order?

Final thoughts, Part1

Disappointment is a powerful emotion. It can make you philosophical and cause you to lose faith and hope. Why? Why Josh?  Dr. J has performed 82 of these procedures and the 83rd, Josh's, could not be done. That's about a 1% chance.

We have spent  the past four or five days traveling this beautiful country and trying to come to terms with our disappointment. We've been looking for "silver linings," trying to make the best of the situation, and looking for as muany positive things as we can. By we, I mean Robyn and I.  Josh is hard to read. So let me start with two things:

1) Josh is no worse off physically as a result of the aborted procedure (i.e. no damage was done).

 2) So many prayers were said, so many positive thoughts were sent, so many people wore purple! It's easy to think these prayers went unanswered, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't think this myself at one point.  But those prayers and kind thoughts have touched us deeply and sustained and nourished us half way around the world.  They were not in vain.

We're on our way home tomorrow morning. I will post some final thoughts again when we return.