Surgery

With all said and done (maybe not all said, I guess) we're calling the surgery a tentative success.

Findings: two bone spurs (rather than just the one we knew about), tendonosis which was relieved by very slightly reducing the bone to give the tendon some more wiggle room, and a frayed rotator cuff. There was another area of pain on the posterior part of his shoulder where the surgeon did some spelunking but couldn't find anything wrong at all, which has us a bit bummed. Mostly, we're just grateful that it's over with and we're looking forward to some reduced pain.

Man had a very difficult time coming out of the anesthesia and made a really cute drugged guy. He didn't say much except "sorry for not waking up quickly" and "thank you for your patience" over and over again. Other than that he stayed pretty quiet and would just randomly snore about every 2-3 mins. He managed a smile when I called him my little narcolept. He's in a lot of pain but we're making sure to give him meds on a timely basis, he's on some heavy duty anti-inflammatories, and we have some sacrificial bags of peas to keep that thing iced. He still has his original dressings on (they come off today) and it makes him look a bit like Quasimodo. He's learning how and how not to hold his arm, and he's in a sling part of the time.

This week has been a bit surreal for me. All four kids have been sick for a week or two now (with an entire spectrum of symptoms, so I'm sure that they've had a variety of illnesses), but Man's cough has been keeping me up at night. Combine that with preparing that meal planning class some more, keeping the house up and all that entails, and Frieda depeloping flu-like symptoms the day after surgery, and I'm SOOOO grateful for the following:

1. Fast food. It's what we ate for dinner the day of the surgery. From wake up that morning at a little after 6, until we all piled into the house at 7:30 that night, it was full throttle.

2. Pain meds. How bad would he feel without them?

3. Heat. It's been cold lately and I'm glad to have sick kids in a warm house.

4. That the kids all semi-willingly went to bed early enough last night that I could leave them all at the house while I taught and man convalesced. After Enrichment we all gather around some gooey sugar cookies and chatted for at least another hour and it was balm to my soul.

5. God. And family. And friends. Everyone who loves us and has prayed for us and reached out and been aware. We're doing alright in most respects and appreciate the moral support. I've been praying that I won't get sick since we're hosting Thanksgiving next weekend for some soldiers and we're looking forward to providing an environment of some refuge.

Anyway, we have grocery shopping done for at least the next 2-3 weeks, including Thanksgiving and all its leftovers. Other than that we just plan on holing up until Christmas with a couple of brief interludes of school and work.

And I'm not sure how to end this naturally. So, the end.