In the Hospital

Pat had his level II spinal fusion surgery this week. He's made a ton of progress since Thursday.

Thursday...3.5 hours in actual surgery...arrive at the hospital at 6 am...in his room at 2 pm...sat up for a few minutes on the edge of the bed (after a front, back and hip incision, two rods and six screws are in his back).

Friday...walked to the door of his room and "around the block" on the hospital floor. Ice chips were his friend...no food. Moved to a private room - thankfully - roommate in the semi-private room would never stop talking. His roommate, "found the Lord." Switched from morphine drip to pain pills.

Saturday...slept most of the prior night...waited too long to take pain pills. Had a much better afternoon than morning...progressed from jello to half a grilled cheese. Walked several times and catheter removed...first trip to the bathroom post surgery for a shower! PT took him up the steps and back down again! Caught some college football and slept some more!

Each day...a little more progress.

Thankfully, the boys have been well kept! We are so blessed to have wonderful family and friends. The two younger boys are having a sleepover at Aunt Kara's and Uncle Tim's. Marcel's first sleepover that wasn't at a grandparents house - very exciting! Jonathon and Ryan are at Nana and PopPop's. Uncle Neal was on call today...taking the boys to Collin's soccer game, Jonathon to a birthday party and just having fun with the gang. Nana has been sleeping over our house taking care of lunch and bus stop duty! How very blessed we are.

To keep myself busy, I've been doing lots of crafting at the hospital in between helping Pat:

• Birthday invitations for the birthday times three party (Marcel, Shelby and Will are celebrating together.)
• Wedding invitations for mom and Hank are complete.
• Christmas cards are well on their way!
• Finishing up a stack of cards for my sister-in-law Laura's birthday.
• Looking at many, many scrapbooking and other blogs....
• Checking facebook entirely too many times.
• Wondering what the heck is wrong with my cell phone..can't hold a charge and it keeps randomly turning off and on.
• Finding a new blog template from LeeLouBlogs.

Time to wake Pat up before I leave for the night...make sure he takes pain pills on time! He's coming home late tomorrow or Monday.

Assembly Line

As this blog is being updated, we're on our way for Pat's back surgery. Needless to say, we're both a little bit edgy. Happy that the surgery date has arrived, but anxious hoping that everything will go okay. He's having a Level II Spinal Fusion and will be in the hospital for a few days. Post surgery, he'll have a hard brace to wear for several months. In the long run, he'll have significantly less pain and we're hoping no more surgeries. Three back surgeries in less than seven years....

So...to pass the time while he's in surgery, I'm bringing a few things to work on in the waiting room. Christmas cards and mom and Hank's wedding invitations. Attached are a few snap shots of the assembly line in progress!

My Guitar Hero

Pat has been staying home with the boys for almost 8 years now....since Jonathon was a year old. In that time, he has taught himself how to play the guitar. It is truly amazing. I really can't imagine having the discipline to teach myself to read music, learn the various chords, etc. It is his relaxation. He prints off music all the time from Tab Crawler and other websites. His guitar's "resting place" is in our dining room. The sheet music's home is on our side board. I often find him singing and strumming in the corner of the dining room. He has a beautiful voice.

I showed Collin this scrapbook page too. He said, "That's my daddy....he's a beary good singer. That's his special guitar. We don't touch it. He's a beary, beary good 'tar player."

The format of this layout is from the CPS challenge. Ingredients: SU Papers and Making Memories Just Chillin' embellishments.