Update on Dad

Yesterday had to have been the longest day ever!! We arrived at he hospital at 10 am and got my dad all checked in for surgery. They took him back into a temporary room and started to get him preped for surgery. They ran a EKG because he hasn't had one in the last 6 months and they wanted to make sure his heart was ok. Once he was preped we waited for the go ahead. One of the nurses came back and said that the doctor is running behind and it would be another hour, so we waited...
After about an hour, the nurse came back and said it would be about another hour - hour and a half. My poor dad..had not had anything to eat or drink since midnight sunday night, and could not have anything. So we waited some more...
{cue the nurse} Says she is so sorry, but it will be another 1/2 hour-45 min. We now realize that our day is going to be full of the word...waiting...
Finally about 3pm they came and took him to surgery. They talked to him about his heart and the risk and asked if he still wanted to go ahead with it. Of course his reply was, YES!

It was about 4pm when we knew that they had started the surgery. What we didn' t realize was the surgery was going to take longer than we thought. All went well during the surgery and abou 31/2 hours later( 7:30 pm) he was done and on his way to recovery. Whew!

The doctor came and talked to us and told us that everything went well. There was alot of work involved in fixing the 2 collapsed discs in his back. He said they had to go in and pry the 2 discs apart so that they could get the spacers in there. Not only had the discs collapsed but they had slipped as well and were sitting sort of on an angle. They had to also do some work with his phsyatic nerve because there was damage to that because of the collapsed/slipped discs. He couldn't believe that dad had gone so long like this and that he handled the pain really well.

We didn't stay too long last night(monday) because he was still quite groggy. But this morning he was doing well. When we got there they had him sitting in a chair, practicing putting on his socks and pants. :) What a great sight that was. The pain meds they had him on was kind of making him a little loopy..haha! He has been eating a little so that is good too. It was really good to see him doing so well.

He has some weakness in his left leg due to the phsyatic nerve and the damage done to it. The doctor said that it happens and that it should get better. After I left the hospital today, my mom called and said that the physical therapist was there and that they had him up and walking around, but he was struggling to walk because of the weakness in that left leg. Other than that, he is doing quite well and we are glad it is all over and that his heart was strong enough for the surgery. They said that he would be there until at least tomorrow if all goes well. We all love him so much and hope he is home soon so he can recover at his own pace.

Sorry for such the long post, but I know there are people out there that wanted to know his condition. Thank you so much to all of you that called or texted to find out how he is. And thank you for keeping him in your prayers, they were truly answered! :)