The fog lifted this morning.

First off, I appreciate the way so many of you have reached out to Lewis thru Elizabeth & me.

This morning at 7 AM, the nurses came to pick Lewis up to take him down 8 flights to the operating room. He was so thirsty, all the whole time brave. They cut his water intake off at 10 the previous night. The OR prep team explained the procedure and Lewis said, “lets get this done”.

Both his grandmothers, Liz and I waited as we watched the monitor identifying “prepping, in “surgery” and “recovering”. As all people waiting for a love ones to get out of surgery, we anxiously waited for the OR waiting room phone to ring. I hurried over to answer and they ask for someone in the Swicegood family; I said “speaking” . The nurse said "the surgery went well, and his first words were I want my mom”. Only one person could go back. Twenty four years old or 10, a boy wants his mom when he's in a pickle.

The doctor said that he accomplished his goal by cleaning the infection surrounding his left lung and inserting two new larger tubes. Currently, the tubes are secreting blood like fluid from his chest. They have given him a button for the pain, and like Lewis, he is trying not to use it. When he heard me talking in the room, with his eyes closed, he slowly reached out with his hand and squeezed my hand. That felt like a waterfall!

I showed up this morning at the hospital around 5:45AM. Liz had spent the night. It was foggy, but as the sun breached the horizon, the fog began to lift. I took a picture of the sun rising near his room. The scripture in Lamentations came to my mind “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
‭‭Lamentations‬ ‭3:22-23‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The surgeon said the tubes will probably come out towards the end of the week. We see that as good news.

On a not so happy note, my dad is doing no better. I am seeing no progress. We continue to ask for your prayers!