A Request for Prayers

Lorie Byrd's 5-year-old daughter was scheduled to undergo her fourth surgery in 13 months earlier this morning. Please take a moment out of your busy day to pray for Lorie's little girl and her whole family.

Thank you.

My daughter is undergoing her third surgery to treat cholesteatoma in her ear (and hopefully to replace a hearing bone, if all goes well) this morning at 7:15. This is actually her fourth surgery in 13 months (three for cholesteatoma and one for ear tubes) and is her ninth in her five-year-old life. We will need to leave the house at 5:30 to get to the hospital on time, so this will be the last post from me for a while. I should be home Thursday, but probably won’t be blogging again until Friday morning.

I am writing this not only to explain my absence, but to ask for your prayers and well wishes. I cannot tell you how much it has meant to me to know that so many of you were praying for my family over the past 13 months when this latest ordeal began. You would think that after so many times, this would get easier, but trust me, it doesn’t. Thank you for the support you have provided through your prayers and kind comments and emails.

UPDATE: Good news! Lorie found a spare moment to post a comment in her own thread from the hospital.

I won’t be blogging for a while, but am taking advantage of the free hospital internet to update. My daughter is sleeping now and has been most of the day. When she first awoke she was a bit sick and in some pain, but by early evening was her old self – groggy, but herself. Hopefully she will not be up all night since the IV will have to stay in until morning.

Her surgery was long, but was a great success. The cholesteatoma had not recurred – something that surprised us and the doctor, since it was so pervasive in the past two surgeries. That allowed the doctor to replace the hearing bone (I don’t remember the name of which one) with a prosthesis. There was some scar tissue present, but other than that this was the best outcome we could have imagined.

After the ear has healed from surgery, she should have regained much of her hearing and will be able to splash and swim with the other kids for the first time in two years.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and well wishes. It was very comforting to know that so many prayers were being offered on her behalf. I should be back Friday. Thanks again.

Never underestimate the power of prayer! Keep it up folks, let's pray that this little girl's troubles are finally behind her!